Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Timothy 1:3–11 (ESV)

3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion,

7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this,

that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,

10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

Section 1: vv.

3-7 — A church’s departure from devotion to right doctrine rightly taught is a five-alarm fire.

Explanation:

First, look at the manner of Paul’s command to Timothy.

Paul did not tell Timothy, nor ask Timothy, to carry out the work Paul assigned him — he had previously urged or implored Timothy to remain in Ephesus, and he is doing so again with the same force and urgency.

And note why Timothy is to remain in Ephesus — not to simply tell or ask, but to charge or command certain persons concerning their teaching.

These certain persons teaching “different” doctrine pose such a problem that, instead of launching new missionary efforts so that the gospel may spread further as is his MO, Paul is compelling his most trusted associate, his true child in the faith, to stay put and muster every ounce of his strength to stand up against those who, if left unchecked, would dismantle a church who had sat under Paul’s direct apostolic teaching for three entire years.

The exact content of their teaching is both difficult to reconstruct and less important than the results of their teaching, so look with me at the end of verse 4.

These other teachings, which Paul describes as myths and endless genealogies, are so dangerous because they run directly contrary to God’s entire way of interacting with humanity.

“Speculations” are those decidedly human ideas which can be so juicy and attractive to people who want to be in-the-know, who want to have a good answer for any question that might arise in their inquisitive minds — I’m speculating here, but I imagine a phrase these teachers might have employed quite frequently was something along the lines of, “Now, I’m just asking a question here,” usually followed by some sort of provocative and interesting but ultimately unimportant or meaningless question.

This is not God’s design for us to relate to him, though — what the ESV translates as “stewardship” is used elsewhere to refer to something like an administration or a plan, namely God’s plan to reveal his glory in all creation through his works in the world, especially his work of saving sinners.

Simply put, God’s plan for you and me is not for us to continuously chase down rabbit trails in order to answer every question we might have so that our minds can be at rest and we can feel like we know everything and have it all together; no, his plan for us is to live by faith that he is who he says he is and he’s going to do what he says he’s going to do.

Look with me at verse 5 to see the result of God’s people following God’s plan: 1 Timothy 1:5

Isn’t that much more appealing than endless searching and speculation?

Right doctrine rightly taught results in the fulfillment of some of God’s greatest promises to his people: pure, clean hearts of flesh attuned to God’s will and oriented towards him rather than away from him; good consciences that are not seared by knowledge of rebellion against God and constantly pricked by accusation of wrongdoing, knowing instead that one is at peace with God and walking according to his instruction; and sincere, honest faith that simply takes God at his word rather than hedging one’s bets and having a backup plan in case God falls through on his word.

I mentioned that the exact content of the errant teaching in Ephesus is a little difficult to reconstruct, and probably not as important for our context, but the reason for the errant teaching is both clear and extraordinarily relevant for us today.

Look at verse 6.

The troublemaking teachers in Ephesus’s hearts were led astray well before their doctrine went awry.

Note that they did not swerve first from the gospel — they swerved from the character traits — pure hearts, good consciences, and sincere faith, that the gospel ought to produce in us.

In other words, moral drift preceded any sort of doctrinal drift, and it’s exactly the same for us today.

Do you want to know how you can spot dangerous teachers and dangerous teaching?

Look at verse 7.

These teachers are desirous of prestige — they want to be known for their teaching; in this case, as teachers of the law like the famed Gamaliel or the prestigious rabbis, except in the Christian church instead of the Jewish synagogue.

These teachers are also wrongly confident.

They are all smoke and no flame, all style and no substance, eloquent and erudite educators whose well-crafted and carefully curated personas are enticing and compelling but in whose wake lie the corpses of their captive audiences.

I want to offer two takeaways from these 4 verses.

We must be aware of the other enticing teachings out there that cry out for our attention and leave us feeling intellectually satisfied and good about ourselves but are nothing more than modern versions of myths and endless genealogies.

The loudest, most prominent voices in our culture are all too frequently nothing more than banging gongs and clashing cymbals parroting one another to strengthen their respective tribes and gain social, political, and, ultimately, economic capital.

Brothers and sisters, do you perceive how the world of media is hijacking human minds and souls for profit?

Most producers of content are not interested in your health and wellbeing — they are interested in their bottom line and will “confidently assert” whatever will bring them more attention, whether good or bad, because your attention — your devotion — funds their lifestyle and fuels the machine they’ve created.

The talking heads on Fox and CNN and the greatest celebrity pastors are not laboring in prayer to guard your souls from the enemy who seeks to destroy you, and when your life falls apart in a difficult providence from our Lord, they’re not going to be the ones bringing you casseroles and shedding tears with you.

We cannot simply “assume the gospel”.

If we are not actively saturating ourselves in the gospel of Jesus, we will drift away into something else, with disastrous results.

Holding fast to the message of Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension is not something we just do once at the start of our Christian lives then move on to other, more advanced things.

We cannot expect to grow in maturity in Christ apart from regular, frequent meditation on the message of his gospel, expressed very nicely in 1 Timothy 1:15

So if you start thinking to yourself, “Man, my pastors pretty much only have one sermon stated a hundred different ways,” GOOD.

If anyone who steps into this pulpit says something new and enticing, keep your guard up!

But as long as Caleb, Hayden, and I are elders here, to the best of our abilities, you’re going to keep hearing one message over and over again: Jesus Christ and him crucified.

This is because a primary danger in the Christian life is not so much outright denial of the gospel as it is distraction from it — we’re not necessarily likely to change or deny the gospel, but it’s very easy for us to add on to it until it’s smothered and covered up by useless accretions.

Anything different than the pure, spiritual milk of the gospel of Jesus Christ will lead to spiritual cancer in our body — polluted hearts, seared consciences, and fake faith.

I assert this with full confidence, and unlike those Ephesian elders, I understand what I’m saying because it’s as clear as day in the Bible from which I’m teaching.

Section 1: vv.

3-7 — A church’s departure from devotion to right doctrine rightly taught is a five-alarm fire.

Section 2: vv.

8-11 — Right doctrine rightly taught leads to life with God in Christ through the Spirit.

If our first section expresses the urgency and importance of maintaining right doctrine, this second section seems a little out of place — after all, no one puts out a five-alarm fire with a digression, unless the digression contains the necessary ingredients for putting out the particular fire at hand, as it does here.

Because the errant teachers wanted to be “teachers of the law”, Paul takes the time to give Timothy instruction concerning how the law should actually be used — namely, according to its intention, or “lawfully”.

At this point, it’s critical for us to ask, “what exactly is the law Paul is referring to?” — after all, he could be referring to the Law of Moses, that is, the Pentateuch; or he could be referring to the legal regulations of the Sinai covenant, including the Ten Commandments as well as the sacrificial and governmental system of the nation of Israel; or, and I think this is the best option, he’s referring to God’s revealed moral will for humanity expressed across the entirety of the Old Testament and most clearly, but not exhaustively, explained in Jesus’s sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5-7.

Simply put, the law in view here is what God wants people to do and not do.

After all, look at the people the law is for: not the righteous, that is, those who live according to God’s standards, but those who live contrary to God’s standards, as Paul lists in verses 9 and 10.

Now, since Paul is digressing somewhat, I feel completely free to zoom in on one particular detail and digress for a minute — let’s talk about using the law lawfully.

Historically, Christian interpreters have seen three major uses of the law, with some placing higher priority on some uses over the others.

My list isn’t in any particular order other than what I think flows best in this sermon.

1.

The law defines sin.

Paul puts it this way in Romans 7:7

In other words, apart from God telling us what is contrary to his will, we would not know what he approves of and what he disapproves.

And unfortunately for us, we all know what it’s like to hear someone tell us, “Don’t do that”, which brings us to our second use of the law: condemning sin and sinners.

The law defines sin.

The law condemns sin and sinners.

Paul continues in Romans 7:8-11

Romans 7:8–11 (ESV)

8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.

For apart from the law, sin lies dead.

9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

As soon as God tells us not to do something, our flesh rises up and craves to do the very thing we’ve just been told not to do because, outside of Christ, we are slaves to sin, dead in our trespasses, completely unable to live in agreement with what God says is good.

And I think it’s these two uses of the law that are primarily in view here, since Paul says the law is for those who are characterized not by righteousness but by the opposite.

But if that’s all the law is for, what do we do with it if we’re Christians, people whom God has declared righteous in Christ?

Do we just throw the law out and ignore it, since it’s not for us?

By no means!

And so we come to our third use of the law, describing the standard to which Christians are being conformed as they grow in maturity.

1.

The law defines sin.

2. The law condemns sin and sinners.

3. The law describes the image of Christ.

Let’s turn back to the sermon on the Mount, the clearest example of this type of law we have in the New Testament.

You might read it and say, “Okay, if I’m going to follow Jesus well, I have to be poor in spirit, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker, persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and I can’t get angry with anyone, and if I call someone a fool I’m going to hell, and if I take a second glance at an attractive woman I’m an adulterer, and I’d be better off tearing my eye out, and I have to love my enemies” — and so on.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that standard for righteousness makes me want to find a Levite priest and sacrifice some animals instead because that’d be a lot easier than, as Jesus ends up saying, “being perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”.

If you, as a Christian, wither at the prospect of all the things the Bible says you must do and not do, I want to offer some gentle correction — you’re not using the law lawfully.

Instead, consider how Jesus has fulfilled the law.

Who is more poor in spirit than Jesus?

Who is meeker?

Who hungers and thirsts for righteousness more than he?

Whose heart is purer?

Who is perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect?

When you see the things the Bible commands of you, Christian, you must first remember that Jesus himself has already obeyed every one of those commands in your place.

His obedience, his perfect lawkeeping, has already been credited to you so that every one of your failures to be perfect does not stand against you because Jesus succeeded in your place.

As Paul says in Romans 8:1-2

and in Galatians 5:22-24

Simply put, for maturing disciples of Jesus, the law ought to be good news that fills us with hope and expectation because it gives us a clear picture of who Jesus is and who we are becoming as we are made more and more like him.

After all, look at verse 11: 1 Timothy 1:11

The law rightly used instructs us not only concerning those behaviors that are contrary to sound doctrine, but also those behaviors which are in accordance with the gospel.