1) A Grim Prospect in a Great World (1 Timothy 4:1-5)
‘The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons’ (v. 1). ‘In later times’ is one of Paul’s expressions for the time in which he lived and the time in which we live, then and now, all of history since the death and resurrection of Jesus and the coming of His Spirit until He (Jesus) returns. (That’s why Paul changes from the future tense in verse 1 to the present tense in the rest of the passage). He is talking about his own times and our times, and he makes it clear that there is a battle about belief: ‘The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.’ There are spiritual forces working to oppose faith in God. That may be evident, probably, to all of us here this morning who are believing Christians. The world says belief is difficult because it’s improbable and unreasonable. The Christian knows that it is because there are spiritual forces that try to blind men and women to the existence of God and to the reality and the relevance of the gospel – that there is a free relationship with God offered to us. But those spiritual forces work by human means: ‘Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron’ (v. 2). It is a grim prospect. But it means we shouldn’t be surprised by the state of the Church as we experience it today. Paul used such strong language, ‘hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron’, because these teachers were inside the Church. The greatest threat to the Church, according to the New Testament, is not persecution from without: it is false teaching from within. That’s where these spiritual forces concentrate their attack on Christian faith. We can thank God that our British Government does not outlaw Christian belief. But that doesn’t make us safe. In fact, the Christian Church has often been much healthier in history when it has been outlawed, than when it has been accepted and respected (to some extent) by society – but has ceased to guard itself against false teaching.
Paul then goes into a little more detail, with an example of false teaching: ‘They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods ...’ (v. 3a). Sex and hunger are two of the most basic natural appetites known to humanity. And they are not bad urges within us. They are not to be regarded as evil as though they need to be defeated or that to get rid of them would make us better people in some way. God did a good job in creating the world, and it is a great world, for which we can constantly thank Him: ‘They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer’ (vv. 3, 4). I wish I had studied this passage before facing the cuisine of the Orient over the last couple of weeks when I’ve been in Singapore and Indonesia. At lunch on Monday I was presented with a lump of animal tissue (I think probably part of a cow’s lower intestine – although at first I thought it was a shark’s gills). It was something it would never have occurred to me to cook and eat. I had to use the old Missionary’s Grace: “Lord, if I can get it down, will you please keep it down.” I am glad to say we both did.
Now, the Chinese may eat things that I, as a culture-bound Englishman, might prefer not to; but I don’t have to worry that there is any taboo in eating dog, or snake or monkey (and the caramelised baby squid were simply delicious). God’s good creation is there to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. Look again at verses 4 and 5: ‘For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.’ It is declared good objectively by the word of God to us, and our own prayers of thanksgiving make our reception of it good – a grateful response to a generous Creator God.
Of course, this is much wider than just food: G. K. Chesterton wrote:
You say grace before meals.
All right.
But I say grace before the play and the opera,
And grace before the concert and the pantomime,
And grace before I open a book,
And grace before sketching, painting,
Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing;
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
That’s well said, isn’t it? You see, gratitude – learning to say “Thank You” to God (for food, for sex, for work and for play; for breath and for life, for everything in this great world) – that’s what helps us on spiritually: being grateful to God and recognising how much He gives to us moment by moment and day by day. Not self-imposed abstinence. Rigorous spiritual disciplines, like celibacy or strict food laws, are man-made. In fact, they are our attempt to be stricter than God, and that is very dangerous indeed: because man-made religion is the greatest threat to genuine faith. It brings God under my control, rather than putting me under His control. We must let God tell us what we can do and what we should not do; and we mustn’t allow human thinking to take over. Rigorous disciplines of this sort may be humanly impressive – who is not impressed by celibacy? or by the ascetic? – but they are spiritually extremely dangerous. Paul’s verdict is clear: ‘Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron’ (v. 2). And he will return to that theme in a verse or two, as we shall see.
But first there is a change of tack at verse 6. Having reminded Timothy of the background to the whole letter in these first five verses (remember chapter 1 verses 3-4? – ‘As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work – which is by faith.’ ) Paul is going to return to the main theme of the letter from verses 6 to 16 of chapter 4. Remember he was watching his life’s work under threat in Ephesus. He had planted a church there which seems to be being stolen away from the gospel – from faithful Christian belief and witness. He has tried writing to them (the Letter to the Ephesians), he’s tried visiting them and has spent a lot of time there. What can he still do? Paul’s answer is not a plan, but a man, the man Timothy to be a faithful minister of Christ Jesus in Ephesus.
2) A Man not a Plan
Now there is a danger at this point that some of us may think that the rest of the passage doesn’t apply to us. You may want to say, “Well, I am not a minister. So I don’t need these instructions that Paul is giving to Timothy”. But remember Paul was writing long before there was any formal ordained full-time ministry. There were local churches; and the local church (now as then) is the arena in which the struggle between truth and error is fought out. And the ministry of the local church is the responsibility of every member of that church. It has been well said that churches get the clergy/ministers they deserve. One church member was telling her vicar, who was about to leave, how sorry she was that he was going. She was saying they would never get another vicar like him. “Nonsense!” replied the vicar. “You’ll probably get someone much better.” The parishioner thought for a moment and then said, “Not necessarily: because that’s just what your predecessor said.”
We all need to know what it is to be a good minister of Christ Jesus. There will be some of us here who are as yet unconvinced about the Christian faith. I can’t tell you that it’s your primary responsibility – it isn’t as yet. But the moment you put your faith in Christ and find yourself part of the body of Christ then the ministry of the local church is your responsibility. For the rest of us who are believers this morning it is our responsibility and we need to know what faithful Christian ministry looks like, so that we can play our part in guarding the life of the local church against false teaching – that is our responsibility: I know it’s mine, but it is also yours.
I’ve tried to summarise Paul’s instructions in the next three points.
(a) Pointing out error (vv. 6-8)
‘If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.’ Paul is harking back to what he’s just been saying in verse 3: the godless myths and old wives’ tales of verse 7 give rise to the regulations about celibacy and abstinence from foods of verse 3 – humanly impressive physical disciplines which carry no spiritual weight. They are of some value for this life, Paul concedes. They have no value in eternity. Giving up chocolate for Lent may be very good for my health and for my weight. It will not take me one step closer to heaven. So Paul is not so much talking about the contrast between sport and religion, between physical fitness and spirituality, he’s talking about the contrast between man-made religious rules (which would involve physical things like fasting in Lent and celibate clergy who are not allowed to marry) and true godliness, which is to accept Jesus as our Saviour.
In another of his letters, Paul had written: ‘Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence’ (Colossians 2:23). Man-made religion is of no more value than a keep-fit class for getting us to heaven.
And Timothy is to point this out to the Ephesian Christians, and to steer them instead towards the gospel, as we saw in verses 6-8: ‘If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.’ So, Paul says, Timothy is to point out error and to focus on the gospel.
(b) Focusing on the Gospel (vv. 9-10)
‘This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance ...’ (v. 9) – this is a little formula which comes a number of times in these pastoral letters. It is not quite clear if verse 9 is harking back to the end of verse 8 or on to the end of verse 10. But it doesn’t actually matter because both of them concern the gospel. In verse 8, ‘... godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.’ Godliness is to trust ourselves to God, or as verse 10 puts it: ‘... we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe.’ Notice at the beginning of verse 10, Paul again picks up the imagery of strict physical discipline: ‘... we labour and strive...’. I think again he’s on that same tack that he’s been on before, saying that we don’t labour and strive to abstain from sex (not marry), or abstain from certain foods (v. 3), but because we have trusted God and known His forgiveness and grace, so we now labour and strive for the gospel, to persuade others to trust Him also. That’s what’s worth striving for, that’s what’s worth taking discipline and time and training for, and we can do it because we our, ourselves, forgiven people. ‘This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labour and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe.’ All can be saved – only those who believe will be saved.
The gospel is about God, about what He has done for us. It’s not about what we must do for Him. Remember, if you’re not yet a Christian, it’s not because you’ve not yet done something for God (you may have that feeling, I’ve still got to do something for God and then I’ll become a Christian); it is because you’ve not yet accepted something God has done for you. It is a gift He’s offering you, a gift He offers all of us.
Don’t listen to man-made religion with it’s human ideas about how to impress God by human effort. Accept what God says He’s done for you: put your hope ‘in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe.’ So Timothy’s responsibilities are to point out error – godly ministry will always do that: faithful ministry won’t always be saying what is right, it will also be saying what is wrong – and to focus on the gospel. And it will be about being, not a man of the world, but a man of the word.
My final heading has five sub-headings (which I pinched from John Stott’s Commentary).
(c ) Being a Man of the Word (vv. 11-16)
‘Command and teach these things’ (v. 11). Paul stresses Timothy’s teaching: what he is to say, the ministry of his lips. He is to be a man of the Word. But in the remaining verses of the chapter Paul makes it clear that lip and life must go together. An effective spear has a sharp point at the end of a weighty shaft. The shaft is every bit as important as the point in making the spear effective. It is the weight of the shaft that takes the point home. Our lips are the spear point, but it is our lives that provide the weight to drive the point home.
i) Timothy must watch his example (v. 12). ‘Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.’ Particularly as we get older, there is a great temptation to look down on those younger than us who try to teach us. How can a young man teach his ‘elders and betters’? Paul’s answer is, by the good behaviour of his life. We can learn good behaviour from people of all ages, people much younger than ourselves. People would not despise Timothy’s youth if they admired his example. Look again at verse 12: ‘Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.’ Notice how the manner of Timothy’s speech, not just its content, mattered. How often I wonder of myself, Do I mar what I am trying to say in gospel ministry by the manner in which I say it? Too harsh, too aggressive, too challenging, too insistent, too barking, too loud, too exaggerated, too dramatic? Some of us here will have heard the preacher at the first service: I was saying to him afterwards, “I think sometimes your manner is a little too gentle”. And then I was thinking: I wonder if that fits the other way round: my manner is not nearly gentle enough? I fear I often betray the gospel message by the manner in which I try to pass it on as the messenger. ‘Set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.’ Timothy must watch his example.
ii) Timothy must identify his authority (v. 13). ‘Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.’ He was a young man and there were certainly those who opposed Timothy at Ephesus. But it was not his honour that was at stake, it wasn’t his reputation: it was the word of God. Timothy had got to make that absolutely clear all the time. I remember reading a newspaper report of a man who had been fined for robbing a dog. It appeared that a Labrador had been trained by its owner to go down the road to the local newsagent each morning and collect its owner’s newspaper, and bring it back in its mouth. But a neighbour had got into the habit of relieving the dog of its burden along the way and helping himself to a free newspaper each morning. Well, I have no doubt that the dog had no clue that it was being robbed. I suspect that it just wagged its tail and smiled in that vacuous way that Labradors smile. But behind the Labrador stood its owner, and behind the owner stood all the weight of British property law and British justice which punishes theft. And this light-fingered neighbour was duly brought to book and fined for pinching that newspaper each morning.
It’s a very banal illustration, but though we may have little sense of the spiritual forces involved, if we are faithful in passing on God’s word, it will do God’s work. If we teach the word of God, it will do the work of God. When the Bible is taught, God’s voice is heard. That’s what we passionately believe in this church. That’s why every single Sunday we open a passage of the Bible and take you through it. Your heart may drop; you may think, How boring! We’re just going to work through a few more verses of Scripture. But we believe passionately that listening to one of the preachers here is of no value whatsoever, but listening to the word of God will do the work of God in your heart and life, and in mine. And in this world in which we live – it will affect Cambridge, it will affect the world. ‘Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.’ That was Timothy’s authority, and he was to identify it by concentrating on it, on teaching the Bible.
(iii) Timothy must exercise his gift (v.14). ‘Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.’ It isn’t quite clear to us now what Paul was referring to here. But it was clearly very important to him and to Timothy. He keeps referring to it (chapter 1:8; and he’s going to again in 2 Timothy 1:6). It was clearly very important to both of them. Timothy seems to have received some gift of teaching and leading in the local congregation. But he was tempted to neglect it and he needed Paul’s constant encouragement to fan it into flame and to exercise it. So ministry gifts are to be exercised, when you and I will be tempted to neglect them. They are to be used.
(iv) Timothy must show his progress (v. 15). ‘Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.’ Not his achievement, notice, but his progress. Timothy was not to pose as a flawless super-saint. That only leads to pretence and hypocrisy. But people must see his growth. People will observe not just what we are, but what we are becoming. And the Christian is always changing. In the days when lapel badges used to be fashionable, there was a Christian one which just had these letters on it: PBPWM, GHNFWMY. Pretty cryptic! The idea was that you asked the person what it meant. What it meant was: Please Be Patient With Me, God Has Not Finished With Me Yet. It may have been a pretty naff way of expressing it, but the sentiment was right. It’s not where we’ve got to that matters (some of us start a long way down on the nice scale), it’s where we’re heading. ‘...so that everyone may see your progress.’
And finally:
v) Timothy had to mind his consistency (v. 16). ‘Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.’ Effective ministry calls for consistency. No gap opening up between life and doctrine. The preacher must preach to himself first. I can never be a teacher unless I am first myself a learner – a learner of the word of God, and that means a liver of the word of God. There was a church work party where one particular man kept very close to the vicar who was using a hammer. When he was asked why he wouldn’t leave the vicar’s side, he replied: “I want to hear what he says when he hits his thumb.”
The gospel is a life-changing commodity. Those who proclaim it must have lives that are being changed by it.
But it’s also life-saving; and that is why in this church and in every church it is under threat all the time.
So let’s glance back at the whole chapter. Look back at the beginning: ‘The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons’ (v.1). Christian faith will always be under attack. It may be hard to believe, but this is a great world, and it is all there to be received thankfully – not to be twisted into ways of trying to make ourselves right with God.
So, the faithful gospel minister must distinguish between true teaching and false teaching (vv. 6-8).
He must concentrate on the gospel, the good news of God’s free offer (vv. 9, 10).
All his life must back up his words (vv. 11-16).
‘Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers’ (4:16).