AM Bible Study Group; March 26, 2014
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Theme: The pastor is given a charge to defend the truth; and it’s good to take careful inventory of it.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
In the first chapter of this epistle, Paul had been exhorting Timothy toward evangelistic integrity. He told his young pastoral colleague, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith” (1 Timothy 1:3-4). This was so that the truth of God’s saving gospel of grace would be protected.
The church, as Paul will stress later in this letter, is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (3:15). It is the pillar in that God calls it to lift truth up high for the world to see; and it is the ground in that God has provided it to be the sure and unmovable base from which that truth can declared in a fallen world. There is no other “pillar” and “ground” for the truth in this world but the church. And so, the man who would minister as pastor to such a church must be committed to the responsibility heart and soul—and the church itself should help him remember his commission.
Note how a serious ‘inventory’ of commitment is stressed by Paul; as he speaks of . . .
I. THE AUTHORITY OF TIMOTHY’S RESPONSIBILITY (v. 18a).
A. Paul begins by saying, “This charge I commit to you, son Timothy . . .” The word “charge” in the original language is the same one used in 1:3, where Timothy is told to “charge” some to teach no other doctrine; and so, it has the sense of a command. And the word “commit” is one that means to ‘place’ something ‘beside’; and it speaks of the act of entrusting or pledging or entrusting something precious to someone. And so, the thing being committed to Timothy’s care is the “charge” (or “command”) that he was to give to “some” who were teaching falsehood. Paul is not so much giving a ‘charge’ or ‘command’ to Timothy, as ‘entrusting’ a ‘charge’ to Timothy’s stewardship—expecting Timothy to issue that charge in Paul’s place.
B. You can see the spirit in which Paul gives Timothy this trust by the fact that he doesn’t treat Timothy as a underling. He speaks of him as a son in the faith—”a beloved son”, as he puts it in 2 Timothy 1:2. Paul had given him a pattern to follow (2 Timothy 1:13) and things that he heard from Paul that needed to be passed on (2:2), and demonstrations of Christ’s deliverance in Paul’s life (3:10-11). This is one of the highest motivations for a younger pastor to take-on the responsibilities passed on to him from an older pastor—the sense of loving imitation; as a son would follow the example of a father.
C. Timothy had, in that sense, authority from Paul. But it wasn’t from Paul alone. Paul stressed that Timothy received this responsibility “according to the prophecies previously made concerning you . . .” We best understand this in the light of 1 Timothy 4:14; “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.” Timothy’s position was under the commendation of those who knew him and spoke well of him in the churches in Lystra and Iconium (Acts 16:2); and under the accountability of appointed church leadership in Ephesus. Paul literally said that Timothy’s responsibility was “according to the prophecies that led the way to you”—perhaps just the way that previous prophecies had led the way to the ministry of Paul and Barnabas (see Acts 13:1-3); perhaps directing the leaders of the church of Ephesus to recognize Timothy’s gifts and ordain him to the task of defending the faith. Homer Kent, Jr. has written, “Young ministers have often found relief from occasional discouragement by recalling their own call to the ministry and the time when their spiritual gifts were recognized by the church and the elders laid hands on them, separating them to the work of the ministry” (The Pastoral Epistles, p. 92).
II. THE EXECUTION OF TIMOTHY’S RESPONSIBILITY (vv. 18b-19a).
A. Those words of prophetic affirmation were not just to assure and comfort Timothy. They were also to motivate him and drive him forward. Paul says that “by them”—that is, by those prophecies accompanied by the commission of the elders—”you may wage the good warfare”. Timothy needed to remember that he was in a fight for the truth; and he needed to treat the matter like a soldier would. As Paul would later tell him in the second letter, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:4). Paul himself said, “I have fought the good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7). Knowing that he didn’t merely take this responsibility to himself in an arrogant and self-promoting way—that, rather, he was called to it by those who led God’s household—would help keep Timothy strong in the hard task ahead. Those who’s only sense of a ‘calling’ is one that originates from the flesh—one that comes arrogantly from within themselves or from the pressure of overly eager relatives—don’t last very long in the battle.
B. Timothy was to take up that sense of calling from God through the leaders. But he was to take up more than that; and is to wage the good warfare “having faith and a good conscience”. Timothy was never to stand for the truth on the basis of his own power. Rather, he was to wage the good warfare with confident trust in God—just as Paul had modeled for him (see 2 Timothy 4:6-8). He was also to do so with a good conscience before God. He is to be able to end his ministry with the sort of integrity that Paul demonstrated when he told the Ephesian elders, “Therefor I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26-27). He was to follow Paul’s instruction to “be diligent to present yourself approved of God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
III. THE PROTECTION OF TIMOTHY’S RESPONSIBILITY (vv. 19b-20).
A. The importance of faith and a good conscience in ministry is shown by what Paul says next about those two things; “which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck . . .” The word “reject” means to “thrust away”; and the definite article before “faith” suggests that he is speaking of the doctrines of the gospel. The moment a preacher begins to violate his conscience before God and compromise his teaching of the truth of the word—pushing it away because of pressure in the warfare—he sets himself on a course of destruction in the faith. William Hendriksen wrote, “A Christian must be both a good soldier and a good sailor. Now a good sailor does not thrust away or discard the rudder of the ship. The good conscience—one that obeys the dictates of the Word as applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit—is a rudder, guiding the believer’s vessel into the safe harbor of everlasting rest. But ‘certain individuals’ (the Ephesian heretics . . . ) have discarded that rudder. The inevitable result was that with reference to their faith—the truth which they had confessed with their lips; the name of Christ which they had named . . . —they suffered shipwreck. If even literal shipwreck is agonizing, as Paul had experienced (Acts 27:39-44; 2 Corinthians 11:25), how much more to be feared is religious shipwreck!” (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of The Pastoral Epistles [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1957], p. 86).
B. Paul reminds Timothy of some personal examples that must have been familiar to him; “of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” Alexander probably isn’t the same man as is mentioned at the end of the second letter (2 Timothy 4:14); but Hymenaeus appears to be the same man as is mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:17-18; who with another errant teacher, “strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.” Apparently, Paul had to put them out of the church and away from its protective care—into the hands of the devil (1 John 5:19)—until they repented of their wandering. Such an act should always have restoration as its goal (see also 1 Corinthians 5:4-5).
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The concern Paul is expressing here is not those who have already made shipwreck. It’s that Timothy himself not be one of them. Paul’s words to him remind all faithful pastors—and the churches they serve—that they will not make shipwreck if they remember their authoritative call to the ministry from God through appointed leaders, wage a good warfare on the basis of that call, and keep faith and a good conscience in their preaching.