These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly;
but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
He who was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the spirit,
Seen of angels,
Preached among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, as we continue in Thy presence, we do look to Thee to open Thy Word to us, that through Thy Word we may see Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And, seeing Him, be transformed according to His image, to the praise of Thy glory.
We do commit this time into Thy hands and trust Thy Holy Spirit to reveal Thy Son in us. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
We have mentioned many times that the Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Every book in the Bible speaks of the Lord Jesus, and it is the will of God that, as we approach His Word, we may receive a glimpse, a revelation, a seeing in our spirit of our Lord Jesus.
This is true in every book of the Bible. By God’s grace, we have been going through the New Testament, and this morning we are in 1 Timothy. We look to the Lord that, in this first letter to Timothy, we may see Him. We may see Christ.
First and Second Timothy, together with Titus, form a special group in the New Testament. They are the last letters written by the Apostle Paul.
These letters were written to individuals, unlike his other letters, which were written to the various churches. Yet these individuals—Timothy and Titus—were entrusted with the work of God upon the earth.
So, in these letters, Paul is writing to them personally, but they are very different from the one truly personal letter he wrote, the letter to Philemon. When he wrote to Philemon, it was concerned with a personal matter. But in writing to Timothy and Titus, though the letters were addressed to individuals, they deal with the matter of the church.
Here Paul writes to two young brothers who were engaged in God’s work, exhorting and helping them in setting the house of God in order. For this reason, these letters are often called the pastoral epistles.
Paul was used by God to write a number of letters, and a number of books in the New Testament were written through his instrumentality. His writings may be grouped into four groups according to the approximate time in which they were written.
One brother put it very beautifully. He said that the first group of letters was written in the morning of Paul’s ministry; therefore, we see the brightness of hope in those letters.
In the second group, we come to the noontime of Paul’s work, and there we find conflict with error. In the third group, Paul has come to the afternoon of his work, and there is a calm of reflection. Finally, in the last group, we come to the evening of Paul’s work, and there we find a call to duty. I think that is very beautiful.
Before we look into this letter to Timothy, we probably need to reconstruct a little of the history. Paul was in prison in Rome, and that is where the book of Acts ends. There we find the Apostle Paul in prison in Rome for two years.
During those two years, he was able to live in his own rented dwelling, and he was able to receive all those who came to visit him. He was given, comparatively, quite a measure of freedom.
The book of Acts does not really end, but that is where its written record ends. Most likely, the Apostle Paul was released from his first Roman imprisonment.
When he wrote the letter to the Philippians, he mentioned that he did not know what to choose. On the one hand, it was his desire to depart and be with Christ, which was very far better. Yet, on the other hand, he was burdened by the thought that his presence with the believers might be a help to them.
Finally, he concluded that he would remain. Therefore, in that prison letter, he said that he hoped to send Timothy to them shortly and then come himself. In other words, he was expecting to be released.
The same thing is found in his letter to Philemon. He asked Philemon to prepare a lodging for him, expecting that after his release he might visit them. So we believe that Paul was released after two years of imprisonment.
After he was released, he probably visited various places. Most likely, he passed through Crete. Nowhere in the book of Acts do we find that he stayed in Crete, but from the letter to Titus we learn that believers were already on the island.
As Paul passed through Crete, he saw the situation there. Since he did not have time to remain longer, he left Titus on the island of Crete and moved on to Asia Minor.
Most likely, Paul came to Ephesus. From there he may have gone to Colossae to see Philemon, and then returned to Ephesus. When he came back, he found that the situation in Ephesus needed attention, but he did not have time to remain there. So he left Timothy behind in Ephesus and moved on.
He hoped to return to Ephesus soon, but somehow he was delayed. Because of that delay, he wrote the first letter to Timothy from Macedonia. He said, in effect, “If I delay, then you may know how one ought to conduct oneself in the house of God.”
Probably during the same period, he wrote the letter to Titus, asking Titus to meet him in Nicopolis, where he intended to spend the winter.
We must use words such as “probably” because we do not have a complete record. Yet it seems reasonable to conclude that Paul went to Nicopolis for the winter, that Titus joined him there, and that together they may have gone to Spain.
In the letter to the Romans, Paul had expressed his hope to visit Spain. So, most likely, he visited Spain with Titus. After returning from Spain, he revisited Asia Minor.
In the second letter to Timothy, Paul mentioned a tearful departure between himself and Timothy. Probably this occurred when he revisited Ephesus. He separated from Timothy, went on to Troas, then to Corinth, and eventually returned to Rome.
We do not know for certain where Paul was rearrested—whether in Troas, Corinth, or somewhere else. We do know that the situation had changed greatly.
Paul was released probably around A.D. 63. In A.D. 64, according to history, there was the burning of the city of Rome. Nero gave orders to burn the city, and while it burned, he celebrated.
We do not know why he did it. Perhaps he wanted to rebuild Rome, or perhaps there were other reasons. But because of the burning, the people of Rome became angry, and there was an atmosphere of revolt.
In order to appease the people, Nero sought a scapegoat, and he made the Christians the scapegoats. He said that the Christians had burned the city. Because of this, hatred began to be poured out upon Christians, and this became the beginning of the great persecution of Christians in Rome.
Since Paul was a well-known Christian leader, evidently he was arrested. This arrest was not like the first one. Before, he was arrested in connection with the gospel; now he was treated as a criminal because anyone who was a Christian was considered a criminal.
Paul was taken back to Rome to be tried. This time it was not as comfortable as before. He was a true prisoner of Rome, probably put in a dungeon to await trial.
Of course, we know the result: he was finally beheaded. Because he was a Roman citizen, he could not be crucified. Before he was martyred, he wrote his last letter, Second Timothy.
That is probably a reconstruction of what happened. We know that 1 Timothy was written after Paul’s release from his first imprisonment and was written from Macedonia, instructing Timothy how to conduct himself in the house of God.
Another matter we need to mention as background is the history of the church in Ephesus. If you go back to Acts 19, you find that during the third missionary journey of the Apostle Paul, he came to Ephesus. There God began to raise up a church as a testimony.
Glorious things happened in Ephesus. Many came to the Lord, and those who came were quite absolute in their obedience to God.
Ephesus was a great city, full of magic and many evil practices. Yet the believers brought their magic books and burned them. They followed the Lord in a very absolute way, and the Lord greatly blessed that church.
Paul remained in Ephesus for three years. During those years, the whole Roman province of Asia heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church in Ephesus had a glorious beginning.
Before Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, he felt constrained in spirit to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost. Therefore, he tried to avoid entering Ephesus on his way there. If he had gone into the city and met with the brothers, probably he could not have gotten away from them.
So he called the elders of the church in Ephesus to meet him. In Acts 20, he shared with them how he had labored among them for three years, night and day, with tears; how he had instructed them publicly and from house to house; and how he had withheld nothing profitable from them.
He declared to them the whole counsel of God. He worked with his own hands to support himself and to be an example to them. He committed them to God and to the word of His grace, telling them that they might not see his face again.
But he also warned them that after his departure grievous wolves would enter among them. Even from among themselves men would arise, speaking perverse things in order to draw disciples after themselves.
That was Paul’s final parting word with the elders of the church in Ephesus. Then he went to Jerusalem, where he was arrested. He spent two years in prison in Caesarea and was then sent to Rome to be tried before Nero Caesar.
While he was in prison, he wrote the letter to the church in Ephesus. In that letter, we see that the believers in Ephesus loved the Lord very much. The Lord had opened their understanding greatly, so that they were able to receive the mystery of God.
The letter to the Ephesians reaches the height of Christian teaching, and Paul was able to share these truths with them.
Then Paul was released and came to Ephesus again. But after only a few years, things had changed. Perhaps only five years had passed since he wrote the Ephesian letter, yet when he revisited Ephesus, he found a very different situation.
The elders had passed away, and new elders had to be appointed. During that period, what Paul had warned them about had actually happened. Grievous wolves had come in to devour them, and even among themselves people had begun to speak perverse things in order to draw others away from Christ and after themselves.
The church was in disorder, and order had to be restored. But Paul was burdened to visit many places and could not remain there longer. So he left Timothy in Ephesus to set the house of God in order.
After Paul left, he was in Macedonia and remained concerned about the situation in Ephesus. Therefore, he wrote this letter to Timothy so that Timothy might know how to set the house in order.
Very likely Timothy was successful in doing this. How do we know? Because if we read Revelation 2, another generation has passed, and we find that there was outward order in the church at Ephesus.
They continued in their works and labor. They had discernment. They seemed to have everything. But something was missing.
The outward order was restored, but inwardly they had lost their first love. Because of this, the risen Lord reproved them. He said, in effect, “I have this against thee.” Even though there was order, He was against them because they had left their first love and had not continued in the works they had done at the beginning.
This is, roughly, the history of the church in Ephesus.
Now we return to this first letter to Timothy. We would like to see Christ in church order.
What is church order? What is order? We often think of order as something external. When we think of church order, we think of different things that need to be set in order. Mostly, we think church order is a matter of organization.
In other words, we think that if we are able to organize things properly, then the church is in order. Well, you can do that, and yet, so far as God is concerned, it may still be in disorder.
Why? Because order in Scripture is not merely a matter of outward appearance. Order in Scripture is the outgrowth of an inward life.
Look at our body. This body of ours is in perfect order, because when there is disorder, you are sick. But the order of the body is not organized from outside. It is the growth of life within.
The same is true with the church. The order of the church is not something people can organize. Many times we think, “Let us organize a church.” In order to organize a New Testament church, we choose some elders and some deacons. Then we say, “Now we have a New Testament church. We have perfect order.”
But you find that within a few months—or, if things go better, within a year—everything is in disorder again. Why? Because this is not true order.
Church order is actually the corporate expression of Christ. It is the life of Christ among God’s people, developed, manifested, and expressed in perfect divine order.
Church order is not merely something outward. It is true that it touches outward matters, but its origin is in Christ. Therefore, in church order, we have to see Christ.
If we do not see Christ, whatever order we may impose is counterfeit. It is not real. It has no value before God.
But real order, which comes from the growth and manifestation of Christ among God’s people, is something most beautiful, most edifying, and most powerful. That is what this first letter to Timothy is about.
This letter has six chapters. Of course, we know that chapters and verses are arbitrary divisions. When the Bible was written, there were no chapters and verses; it was one continuous letter.
But for convenience, this letter is divided into six chapters, and, fortunately, these six chapters seem to show us six matters related to church order.
First of all, in chapter 1, we find the first matter of church order. We might think that the first matter would be the appointment of elders, but that is found in chapter 3.
The first matter in church order is sound teaching.
In 1 Timothy 3, Paul says that Timothy is to know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house, which is the church or assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
What is the church? Paul says that the church is God’s house.
Our Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church upon this rock; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The Lord is the Builder. He is building His church, His house, upon Himself. He is the Rock.
And because it is built upon Christ, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Why? Because it is Christ.
This house that Christ builds is God’s house. That is to say, it is the habitation of God in the Spirit. God dwells in this house.
Brothers and sisters, this is what the church is. The church is not a physical building. The church is not something built by man. The church is built by Christ Himself: “I will build My church.”
If He is not building, then no matter how much you labor, you labor in vain. It is true that, in the building of the church, we are called to labor with Him. But when we labor with Him, actually He is laboring in us and through us.
Unless it is built by Christ, it is not God’s house, and God can never dwell in it because He is never at peace with it.
What is the church? It is the assembly of the living God. The word ecclesia means “called-out ones,” gathered together unto the name of the Lord Jesus.
Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” That is the church.
We who are redeemed by the Lord are the called-out ones. We are not only saved from eternal death, but we are called out.
Remember the children of Israel. God saved them from death through the Passover lamb, but they had to come out of Egypt. They were separated because they were called out. They could not merely celebrate the Passover in Egypt and remain there.
The church consists of the called-out ones. We are called out of the world—from every nation, every people, every tongue, and every tribe. God has called out a people unto Himself, and we are gathered together and assembled unto Him.
It is the assembly of the living God. God is living; therefore, that assembly is a living assembly. We are assembled before the living God as a living assembly.
The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. What is a pillar? In Scripture, a pillar always stands for testimony. It is something set up to be seen by everybody.
Something may be inscribed upon a pillar, or the pillar itself may represent something. When it stands up, it speaks of something and bears testimony to something.
What is the ground, or foundation? It is a reservoir. It is that which receives everything. Everything is based there, and out of that base everything comes forth.
So what is the church? The church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. What is the truth?
Our Lord Jesus said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I am the way, and the truth, and the life:
no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
The Lord Jesus is the truth. Of course, there are many aspects of truth throughout the Bible, but all these aspects are summed up in a Person, and that Person is our Lord Jesus.
What is the church, brothers and sisters? The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. In other words, the church does not possess a truth of its own.
This is very important. The church does not have a dogma of its own, as if the church itself speaks independently. No. When the church speaks, it speaks Christ. Christ is the truth.
Christ has, as it were, deposited Himself in the church, because the church is the ground of the truth. The church is a reservoir that receives Christ and all His fullness.
If you cannot find Christ in the church, where can you find Him? If you cannot find the truth in the church, where can you find the truth? Christ has committed Himself to the church in a very potential way.
The church is the keeper of the truth. It is also the pillar of the truth—that is, it bears witness to the truth. The church is for Christ, that everybody may see Christ.
The church does not stand there so that people may see the church. No. The church stands there so that everybody may see Christ. That is the church.
Therefore, the first order in the church is sound teaching. In other words, the church teaches Christ. In the church, you should hear no other teaching but Christ.
Unfortunately, in the church at Ephesus, which had such a glorious beginning, something had happened. Some in the church had begun to teach other doctrines.
Others were speaking about fables and endless genealogies. We do not know for certain exactly what these were. Probably they were Jewish matters, or perhaps early Gnostic teachings.
In Judaism, as it gradually developed, people began to occupy themselves with genealogies, fables, myths, and little stories. Later in the first century, Gnostic teaching also began to arise.
What is Gnosticism? It is the claim that certain people are “in the know.” They say, “Other people do not know, but we know the secret. We know the mystery.”
They begin to talk about many things. They claim to know the origin of the universe and all kinds of mystical matters. They bring in philosophical and speculative teachings.
These things were being introduced into the church in Ephesus instead of Christ being taught. Sound teaching is the teaching of Christ—not merely teaching about Christ, but Christ Himself being imparted.
If Christ is taught, what will happen? The end result will be love.
Paul told Timothy to charge certain ones not to teach a different doctrine, nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s dispensation, which is in faith.
When you talk about other things in the church, confusion results. Some were saying that believers must keep the law of Moses. Paul said that the law has its proper use, but it is to be applied to the lawless and disobedient.
Christians are to live above the law—not without law, but beyond what the law requires—because we live under grace, which is a higher level than living under law.
Others spoke about speculative, imaginative, philosophical matters, making people feel clever, wise, and intelligent. But Paul said, “Look at the fruit, and you will know the tree.”
What is the result of such teaching? It produces questionings, doubting, strife, and all these things.
Dear brothers and sisters, is this not true even today? If we all preached Christ and nothing but Christ, there would be no questionings, no strife, and no divisions.
But because we speak about things other than Christ, we find confusion and strivings among God’s people.
When Christ is taught, what is the result? Paul says that it serves God’s dispensation, which is in faith. The end of the charge is love.
This love is not merely human love. It is agape, divine love. If Christ is taught and people receive Christ, the result is a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith.
Their heart will be purified. Their conscience will be cleansed by the blood. They will have unfeigned faith in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord. The result will be love toward God and love toward one another.
By the teaching, you know what the end result will be.
To set the house in order, you need sound teaching. Christ is the only teaching. If you learn Christ, your life will be transformed, and you will be conformed to His image, for He is love.
Paul illustrated this through his own experience. In the first chapter, he says, in effect, “Look at me. What was I before? I was arrogant, self-righteous, and a violent man, persecuting believers and thinking that I was serving God.”
But God, in His great mercy, brought Paul into an encounter with Christ. He saw the Righteous One. He heard Him. Because of that encounter, he was completely transformed and became an apostle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That is sound teaching. Dear brothers and sisters, if we want to set the house of God in order, we must have sound teaching, which is Christ. Let us teach nothing but Christ.
You may say that this will be monotonous. Never. In Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and you are complete in Him.
You can never exhaust the teaching of Christ. He is inexhaustible—the unsearchable riches of Christ. If only we know Him and experience Him, we will be changed, transformed, and conformed to His image, just as Paul was.
Now, number two. What is the church? The church is the assembly of the living God. The very word assembly tells us that we need to assemble.
You cannot be a Christian and shut yourself in a closet. There is no such Christian according to the Word of God.
Believers are not to be merely individual believers. It is true that we are saved individually. No one can be saved for another person. Everyone must be saved personally and individually, through personal faith in Christ Jesus.
But after we are saved, we are assembled together to be the body of Christ, the assembly of the living God. Therefore, Scripture says that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, especially as we see the day drawing near.
We know that the coming of the Lord is near; therefore, we should assemble as much as possible. We should come together.
Why do we assemble together? Is it merely to have a good time or to have a social time together? If you want only social fellowship, you may go to society. But when you come to the church, the assembly of God’s people, what do you do?
We assemble as God’s people to worship.
God is seeking worshippers—true worshippers, those who worship Him in spirit and truth. God is tired of those who worship Him merely in body or in soul, only in a physical or artistic way.
He is seeking true worshippers, those who worship Him in spirit and in truth.
We come together to remember the Lord at His table: His love, His kindness, His mercy, His grace, His redemption, and His deliverance. We remember how much He is to us. We come together to remember Him and to praise Him.
We are a holy priesthood. Therefore, we need to come together and serve as priests. The priests in the old days did not serve separately. One did not say, “I serve here, and you serve there, each according to his own wish.”
No. However many priests there were, they served as a priesthood. They served together in the temple under the direction of the high priest. Of course, our Lord Jesus is the High Priest, and He is represented on earth by the Holy Spirit.
In the church, we as a holy priesthood need to gather together as the temple of God and serve together, offering spiritual sacrifices: praises, worship, prayer, and song.
We offer spiritual sacrifices of Christ back to God for His satisfaction. This is what the church is.
Therefore, the church must have what may be called public worship. In other words, the church has to gather. If it does not gather, then it is not the church in practice.
We come together to worship. We come together to sing praises to the Lord. We come together to remember the Lord at His table. We come together to pray.
Of course, we need to pray individually, but as the church, we also must come together and pray together. We come together to be taught, to fellowship, and to minister to one another.
In 1 Timothy 2, we find that setting the house in order concerns this matter of assembling together and public worship. Two matters are especially mentioned: prayer and conduct in the assembly.
The prayer mentioned here is not primarily private prayer. The principles apply to private prayer, certainly, but the emphasis is corporate. The church has a ministry.
It is true that each one of us has a ministry, and that ministry needs to be discovered and developed so that the church may be edified. But the church as a corporate body also has a ministry.
What is the ministry of the church? The ministry of the church is prayer.
Paul says:
I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men.
This concerns the church as a praying body. The church has a responsibility and a ministry to fulfill, and that ministry is to pray for all men.
We are not to pray only for our dear ones. We are to pray for all men. Why? Because it is the will of God that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. That is the heart’s desire of God our Father.
Therefore, when the church comes together to pray, we need to pray for all. We also need to pray for kings and all who are in authority.
Why? Not only that they may come to know the Lord, though that is primary, but because God has put them in authority. We are living upon the earth. Even though we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, we are still living under their authority.
We need to pray that they may fulfill what God has appointed them to be, that they may truly be God’s servants, carrying out the righteousness of God rather than acting perversely.
Another reason is that we may live a quiet and tranquil life, godly and dignified before God and before men. It is difficult for believers to live quietly under evil authority.
You may be persecuted, thrown into prison or labor camps, questioned, tested, and tempted. It is difficult to live a godly life under such conditions.
Therefore, we need to pray for those in authority so that we may live a godly life to the glory of God.
Do not be presumptuous and foolish, thinking, “If only we lived under wicked authority, then God might be glorified more greatly in us.” Do not wish for that.
If God puts you in that situation, His grace will be sufficient for you. But do not think that you can do it in your own strength. You never will.
The normal thing is that we should pray for all those in authority, that we may live a quiet, tranquil, and godly life. This is the corporate prayer of the church.
In the prayer of the church, further instructions are given. Paul says, “I desire therefore that the men pray in every place.” Here, “every place” means the public assembly. Wherever we come together, we should pray.
Men are to pray with holy hands, without wrath and disputing. When we come together to pray, we need to intercede, supplicate, and pray. But if our prayer is to be effective, then we who pray must be right before God.
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful. Not that we are righteous in ourselves, but He has made us righteous. Yet, since He has made us righteous, we are to live righteously.
Men are to pray without wrath or disputing. There is a great temptation, especially for men, to burst into wrath against brothers and sisters or against other people.
There is also a temptation to doubt and reason with God. Men often like to reason with God and question Him.
When we pray, let us make sure that there is no wrath and no disputing. We must be at peace with our brothers and sisters and submissive to our Heavenly Father, whatever His will may be. It is in that spiritual condition that we are able to pray.
In like manner, women are also to pray. I like the words “in like manner,” because they show that women ought to pray too.
In some places, people say that only men should pray in public meetings and that women should remain silent. But the Bible does not forbid women to pray. It says, “In like manner, women.” In other words, women are to pray too in public.
But how? The temptation for men is wrath and disputing. The temptation for women is outward adornment instead of inwardness.
Therefore, women are to be adorned in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety. This is very meaningful, because the word translated “adorn” is related to kosmos, meaning the world as a system.
In other words, women are to be adorned with an otherworldly spirit, not like the people of the world who follow its fashions and passions, but with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.
This does not mean that women should dress carelessly or unattractively. Someone has said that proper dress for women is not to be the first expression of fashion and not to be the last expression of fashion. That is dressing modestly. I leave that with you.
The chapter also mentions teaching. The teaching here is again in public, in the church gathering. A woman is not to teach in the sense of occupying the place of a teacher or exercising authority over a man.
In the church gathering there is a divine order. The man represents Christ, and the woman represents the church. Both must represent this relationship correctly. This is why, in the matter of public teaching, there is a divine order.
The third chapter concerns church government. When God’s people come together, there must be government and administration. In church government, we find two offices: the eldership and the deaconship.
God raises up among His people some who take the function of elders. The functions of elders are to supervise, oversee, and shepherd the flock.
Then there are deacons, or deaconesses, raised up to take care of daily administrative and practical matters: serving tables, visiting the sick, and caring for the physical needs that must be attended to.
There are elders and deacons. But it is very interesting that when we examine the qualifications given for them, the emphasis is not on ability.
We might think that, to be an elder, one must have great ability. We might suppose that if someone is a chief executive in General Motors, surely he can be an elder in the church. But no, it is not primarily a matter of ability.
Almost everything mentioned is moral character. Yet it is not merely moral character, because an unbeliever may possess some of those outward qualifications.
The qualification is spiritual character. Those who lead must have spirituality. The same is true with deacons.
This is why, when the early church selected seven persons to serve tables, they had to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.
It is Christ. Even in church order, we find Christ. It is Christ manifested and expressed in men and women. Because of this, they are able to serve the body of Christ.
In chapter 4, we have ministry in the house of God. In God’s house, ministry is needed. By ministry, I mean the ministry of the Word.
There is not only the governmental side; there is also the ministry-of-the-Word side, the teaching side.
In Ephesians 4, we find that, in order to perfect the saints, God gave to the church some apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. These are gifts given to the whole universal body.
Then, in the local assembly, there are prophets and teachers. In Acts 13, in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers. They took care of the ministry of the Word for the church there.
They were not necessarily elders. They were those who ministered the Word to the church.
In order to fulfill that ministry, Paul uses Timothy as an example. He says, in effect, “Timothy, in order that you may minister the Word rightly, you must take care of yourself.”
It is not merely a matter of teaching people. He who teaches must be one who has been deeply taught by God. It is not only the word spoken; it is the man who speaks.
Therefore, Paul says, “Exercise thyself unto godliness.” If you exercise godliness, it is profitable not only for the present age but also for the age to come.
We need to be disciplined. We need to exercise. By the Holy Spirit, we need to be developed, that we may be like God—that in love, word, deed, conduct, and relationships, in everything, Christ may be seen.
When we speak, Christ should be imparted to others. Therefore, Paul says, “Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching.” That is ministry.
In chapter 5, we find discipline. Discipline is very important in the church. If there is no discipline, there is no church.
You cannot have a church if there is no discipline, because everything will be in disorder. Everyone will act according to his or her own thought, opinion, and desire.
Therefore, there ought to be discipline. But discipline must be exercised with caution and love. We may deal with this more fully when we come to the book of Titus.
Then chapter 6 concerns a good confession. The church, being a testimony, must maintain a good confession before the world.
Our Lord Jesus made the good confession before Pontius Pilate. Therefore, we need to make a good confession before the world.
What is our confession? Our confession is that Jesus is all. Jesus is powerful. We trust Him. We have committed our lives to Him. He is the One in whom we trust, and He is the One whom we serve.
Paul especially speaks to those who are rich in earthly things: do not trust in earthly riches, which are uncertain. Trust in God.
Trust in God. This is our confession. Before the world, we declare that we trust God, that we trust in Christ, and that He is everything to us.
This is a good confession and a good testimony.
Brothers and sisters, in this first letter to Timothy, although it deals with church order, we find that if church order is real, it must be Christ—His expression, His manifestation, and His pouring out.
Otherwise, it is merely an organization. It is not real. It has no spiritual value.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee, knowing that Thou art building Thine own house. We have the confidence that Thou wilt build it until it becomes a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish.
O our Father, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast established Thy church upon this earth. Thou hast revealed to us that order is not merely something outward; it has to come from within.
O that we may know Christ, and by knowing Him, may have that order in the church, to the praise of Thy glory and the building up of Thy people.
So we commit Thy Word into Thy hands and pray that, if it is usable, Thou wilt use it for Thy glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.