Being a Good Servant of Christ (1 Tim 4:6-16)

Welcome & Announcements

This Friday at 7pm, we’ll be showing Amazing Grace, we’d love for you to join us—we’ll have free popcorn, drinks, and snacks. All are welcome.

Child Dedication of Ember Lynnae Dickson on February 5th, 2023 during Sunday AM Worship.

“SOUP”erbowl Watch Party on February 12, 2023. We’re encouraging everyone to bring a homemade soup, we’ll vote on the best soup, and the winner wins a $50 gift card to Brown Dog Catering in Philipsburg. Kickoff is at 6:30pm.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Preaching of God’s Word (1 Tim 4:6-16)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to 1 Timothy 4:6-16.

As we’ve worked through the first letter of Paul to Timothy, Paul has emphasized two primary points—(1) he’s emphasized the need to remove false teaching and false teachers out of the church and (2) he’s emphasized the need of having people who are biblically qualified leading and officially serving the church. It’s notable that these two issues are regularly confronted in many of Paul’s letters to the churches and to other pastors—he emphasizes repeatedly the need of right doctrine and right leaders and servants within the local church. He does that intentionally because if the doctrine isn’t right, the church isn’t worth being a part of and if the leaders and servants within the church aren’t biblically qualified, then they’ll be more likely to lead the church into false teaching.

What we’ll see in today’s passage is almost like a purpose statement for Timothy as Timothy awaits for Paul’s arrival in Ephesus and it centers around the idea that there are issues in the church at Ephesus that need to be handled. So, how ought Timothy deal with all the issues at hand in Ephesus? By boldly confronting things that are false and by demonstrating right Christian behavior to the believers in Ephesus.

Keep this in mind as we read 1 Timothy 4:6-16 together.

1 Timothy 4:6–16 ESV

6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to look at it in two parts: (1) Confronting Falsehood (6-10) and (2) Demonstrating Proper Christian Behavior (11-16). In many ways, Paul follows his typical pattern to put off certain things and to put on other things in encouraging and exhorting Timothy to strongly and boldly confront false teachers and false teachings while being an example of what Christians are to be like. As we study this passage, we’ll be reminded of the importance of confronting falsehoods while also being exhorted to demonstrate what accords with proper Christian behavior—like Timothy, we’ll be encouraged and exhorted to put off and to put on.

Prayer for Illumination

Confronting Falsehood (6-10)

Our text starts with Paul stating that “if [Timothy] put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus.”

The questions that we must ask as we start in this text is, what things are being referred to and who exactly does Paul mean when he speaks of the brothers?

Concerning the things that he references in v. 6, it ties in everything that he’s already discussed in this letter with the things that he’s about to highlight in the next eleven verses:

This includes the warnings to prevent false teachers from teaching within the church of Ephesus as well as Paul’s exhortation to be sure that all the elders and deacons within the church are biblically qualified to lead and to serve.

It also includes the next few verses that highlight the need of proper teaching within the church and the demand to live as a Christian ought to.

Concerning the brothers that Paul references, Paul is referencing those within the church of Ephesus.

This emphasizes the fact that despite the church in Ephesus causing Timothy issues as their young pastor—they’re still Christians, they’re still part of the family of God.

By stating that they’re his brothers, Paul reminds Timothy that those under his charge are still believers, which might just be a simple reminder because in their behavior, they haven’t been acting like believers.

So, Paul’s statement is that everything that he’s already said to Timothy and everything that he’s about to say to Timothy needs to be put before the brothers—he is to provide a positive presentation of the things that Paul has stated in this letter.

By doing this and by doing something else, he says that Timothy “will be a good servant of Christ Jesus.” What is the something else that Paul says Timothy needs? It’s this idea at the end of v. 6 of him being “trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.”

Or in other words, Paul is commending Timothy for his learning of right doctrine and the words of the faith; and he’s exhorting Timothy to take what he’s learned both concerning good doctrine and what Paul has stated, and present all this to the believers in Ephesus.

If Timothy does well by presenting these truths in opposition to the supposed truths of false teaching, then he will be a good servant of the Lord.

Donald Guthrie, “The minister of the gospel has a responsibility to lay before his people the positive answers to negative doctrines, and anyone who fails in this respect forfeits the right to be accounted worthy of the ministry . . . the best refutation of error is a positive presentation of truth [this] is a principle which the church in every age constantly needs to learn.” (Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 108-109)

By use of juxtaposition, Paul then describes the false teaching in vv. 7-8. He tells Timothy to “have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

Now, the first question that we have to ask is, what exactly is Paul referring to when he speaks of irreverent, silly myths?

I think it might help for us to read this verse in other English translations for us to get the best understanding of what Paul means:

KJV, “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables.”

NASB, “But stay away from worthless stories that are typical of old women.”

NLT, “Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales.”

Do you catch what Paul’s condemning here? The first term irreverent speaks of issues that are vain and godless—it is religiously bankrupt. The second idea, silly myths speak of something that’s gossiped about by (as Hiebert suggests) the “senile, childish old crones.”

Remember, this is all in the context of false teaching—meaning, whatever these old wives’ tales are, whatever the irreverent, silly myths are, they’re being passed along as if they’re the truth of God, when in reality, they aren’t even remotely true.

Paul says not to even waste his time with these sorts of old wives’ tales, which tells us that there are certain types of false teachings that aren’t even really worth your time. Instead, he is to train himself up in godliness.

Which for Paul, godliness involved both right belief and obedient action, we see that truth over and over as he repeatedly writes about the necessities of not just believing the right things but acting the right way.

And to Paul as he expresses this sentiment to Timothy, this training up in godliness is of greater value than even training yourself bodily because it effects not just this life but the life to come.

Note, that Paul does not set up a false dichotomy here like some Christians have today. There are some (maybe even many) Christians who don’t take seriously their physical health whatsoever because they claim they’re more concerned about their spiritual well-being than whether they’re physically healthy.

But note that Paul does say that there is some value to bodily training in v. 8. Meaning, that taking care of yourself physically is still important, though it isn’t as important as taking care of yourself spiritually.

And the reasoning for that’s rather simple—if you don’t take care of your physical body while you’re on this side of eternity, how useful can you be for the kingdom of God?

Paul says to not even waste your time with these sorts of old wives’ tales, which are false teachings, and to focus instead on training yourself for godliness because true, genuine godliness has value for not just the present life but the life to come.

V. 9 then ties in this idea of training yourself up in godliness by stating that this is something that is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance, which might sound like an unusual thing to say, but not when you think of how the world thinks.

The majority of people alive today place an inordinate amount of emphasis on physical well-being—so much so, that many people today could tell you exactly how much they weigh, everything that they ate, and the amount of calories they burned; but they couldn’t tell you what passage of Scripture they read, what they learned Sunday morning in church, or whether they prayed recently.

Even those within the church are guilty of this same issue, which let’s be honest, is really nothing more than idolatry—we’ve made an idol of physical well-being when we focus more on our physical health than on our spiritual health.

But Paul’s statement is that while physical health is indeed important, spiritual health is of greater value.

We should trust this statement and we should fully accept this statement. But why?

The answer to the why is found in v. 10, “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially to those who believe.”

Or in other words, what compels us to reject these old wives’ tales, to reject false teaching, to not just focus on physical health, but rather focus on our spiritual health is because we have hope in God.

We work on our spiritual well being because we have a confident expectation in the God who lives, the God who saves.

Note, that Paul calls God the “Savior of all people.” Don’t misunderstand that and think that this is teaching a universalistic mindset where anyone regardless of their beliefs gets saved—that’s not what Paul is stating.

Rather, he’s stating that God desires for all to experience salvation, but only those who believe experience genuine salvation.

Thomas Lea and Hayne Griffin, “Paul’s statement that God is the Savior of all people is no endorsement of universalism. Nothing in these statements supports the idea that Christ’s death provides any benefit for those who reject him as Savior and Lord.” (Thomas Lea and Hayne Griffin, 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 137)

So, first things first according to Paul—Timothy needs to boldly stand against the false teaching in Ephesus—including these old wives’ tales and irreverent babble and in turn he needs to develop himself in spiritual maturity. That alone sounds like a tough job and one that will take a significant amount of effort and time, but Paul doesn’t stop here—in fact, he continues and a lot of what he’s about to say builds on that idea of developing spiritual maturity within himself. Let’s look at vv. 11-16 again.

Demonstrating Christian Behavior (11-16)

1 Timothy 4:11–16 ESV

11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Paul continues in this passage with a firm statement that Timothy is to “command and teach these things.”

What things is Timothy to command and teach?

First, it has to do with everything that Paul has iterated concerning the rejecting of old wives’ tales and the stress of personal and genuine godliness.

Second, it has to do with everything that he’s about to state in vv. 12-16.

Now, you might ask, why exactly is Paul so firm that Timothy is to command and teach these things and beyond just stating the obvious, that Paul has a penchant for the truth, we really can look to v. 12 as a reason why Paul feels he needs to be firm as he tells Timothy to do this. V. 12, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

Now often, this verse is misrepresented and taken out of context—its utilized by youth pastors who are trying to convince their teenagers to behave properly because those older folks shouldn’t look down on you because you’re young, but remembering the context, Timothy is in his 30s—he’s not a teenager.

And Paul’s statement that he let no one despise him for his youth tells us that despite being in his 30s, there’s still a tendency for those who are older to look down on Timothy—whether that’s due to a perceived lack of life experience or for any other reason.

So, what ought Timothy to do? He is to be an “example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, [and] in purity.”

He’s to live precisely how Christians ought to live and he’s to do so in a way that people can’t rest on this idea of him just being too young—they can’t make accusations against him based on his age because he lives how Christians ought to live.

Note that Paul specifically highlights how he speaks—what he says; how he conducts himself—how he acts; and the motivation behind what he says and how he acts—that he’s to do these things in love, in faith, and in purity.

Or in other words, Paul tells Timothy to be an example in not only what he says and what he does, but in how he does these things.

These ideas alone encompass the whole life of Timothy, but note how these are all things that he tells Timothy to do, not necessarily what he ought to command and teach to the others.

This idea of being an example to the others is really specific to Timothy, though the idea is that as Timothy speaks and acts in love, faith, and purity; the others are to realize that they are to act and speak in love, faith and purity.

Paul emphasizes the idea that despite Timothy’s apparent youthfulness, he’s to live and speak in such a way that those around him recognize that he’s living like a Christian and if such a supposedly young person can live like a Christian, so should we.

Then Paul uses vv. 13-16 to give the rest of these ideas that are to be taught and commanded in the local church. He says this, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Depending on how you understand some of these statements, there’s about eight commands that Paul gives in the last four verses. Let me tell you what the eight commands are and then we’ll look at them one-by-one:

Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture—Paul starts with this simple idea of devoting yourself to the public reading of Scripture. Part of the reasoning for this is rather simple—most people during the first century didn’t have a copy of Scripture to take home, so the only time they actually heard anything from Scripture is when the church gathered and read it together—so thus, there needs to be a time dedicated to the public reading of Scripture. This was a practice that even the Jewish people did (cf., Deuteronomy 31:11 “11 when all Israel comes to appear before Yahweh your God at the place which He will choose, you shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing.”) This same practice is utilized in churches today—not because most Christians don’t already have a copy of Scripture, but rather because the church’s gathering is to be dedicated on the Word of God (and most pastors realize that most of their congregation only is exposed to the Bible at church).

Devote yourself to exhortation—the exhortation refers to a specific pastoral role within the body of Christ—in which part of the role of the pastor is to take the Scriptures and explain how the Scriptures are to be applied within the life of the believer. The exhortation at hand is for believers to take seriously God’s Word and actually do God’s Word.

Devote yourself to teaching—this devotion to teaching is pretty self-explanatory, especially in a letter that has emphasized the need for proper doctrine and right teaching. What’s the best way to deal with false teaching? By confronting it with right teaching and true doctrine.

Now the next two commands has to do with what Paul calls the gift that had been given to him by the laying on of the hands of the council. He says that Timothy should not neglect the gift he has and to practice his gift to the extent that he immerses himself in them.

Now, there is some confusion as to what exactly this all refers to, but when we consider the handful of times when elders laid their hands on someone, it seems to be specifically talking about what we refer to as ordination (at least this is what John Calvin suggests and what I also suggest).

Which means that when Paul speaks of a gift, he’s not speaking of a spiritual gift per se, but the gift of pastoring itself, which is passed along first by calling of the Holy Spirit and affirmation of the elders of a local church.

Paul’s idea here is that Timothy not neglect his gift of pastoring—that he should immerse himself in this gift of pastoring so that all may see his progress.

Timothy’s told to then keep a close watch on himself and a close watch on the teaching—the idea is two-fold. Paul first encourages Timothy to essentially be self-aware—to keep a watch on his heart and be sure that he is acting and speaking like a Christian ought to act and speak. Paul then encourages Timothy to keep a close watch on the teaching—both his own teaching and the teachings of those within the church of Ephesus, which makes sense, when Paul has highlighted false teaching throughout the letter.

Paul’s last admonition is simple. Timothy needs to persist—he needs to persevere, which is easier said than done when the church of Ephesus is filled with people who are contentious, who have already opposed Timothy because of their own false teaching and their disdain of his youthfulness. He needs to keep pushing through anyway.

And all this is to be done for one specific reason found in the very last phrase of the text, “for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

By being an example in speech and in action, by devoting himself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching, by not neglecting his gift of pastoring, and keeping a close watch on himself and the teachings, by persevering—people will come to know Jesus.

Or in other words, when we take all of 1 Timothy 4:6-16 together, what we see is that when it comes to false teaching within the local church, the best solution is a positive presentation of the truth. Or in other words, once we reject the error, we need to be sure to teach the truth so that those that heard the error can replace the error with the truth; and the best way to do that is to live as an example of what it actually means to be a Christian.

This leads us this evening to our application and I think you can already tell the direction that I’m going with the application. I think in this instance, that the best way to apply this text is by keeping the divisions that we started with.

Application

Confronting Falsehood (6-10)--In the first section, we read that if Timothy teaches and commands the following things to the brothers and sisters in Ephesus, he will be considered a good servant of Jesus Christ; and then Paul gives us several different things that ought to be taught and commanded within the church. He specifically calls out false teaching, encourages training for godliness, and emphasizes that the reason for all this is because our hope is set on God. There are two specific applications that I want to draw out of these verses: (1) you need to clearly reject false teaching and (2) you need to toil and strive for godliness.

One of Paul’s most blatant commands throughout the entire letter to Timothy is this truth that any amount of false teaching needs to be completely rejected from the church in Ephesus. He’s repeatedly made this statement and this time, in v. 7, he extends the definition of what might be construed as false teaching to anything that is irreverent, silly myths, or what we might call old wives’ tales.

In our modern-day church, there is a high tolerance for false teaching within the Western church and its typically all done for one of two reasons: either the church allowing the false teaching is doing it (1) because they don’t think the Bible is sufficient to meet every need or (2) they think that by allowing false teachers the ability to stay within the evangelical church, they’re loving them (or put differently, to oust a false teacher would be considered unloving). But here are the issues with both of those ideas:

Scripture teaches that the Bible is absolutely sufficient to meet all our needs and it doesn’t need to be supplemented with worldly ideology, unbiblical philosophies, and anti-Christian worldviews to do so. In fact, anytime we supplement Scripture with worldly ideologies, unbiblical philosophies, and anti-Christian worldviews, in essence, we’re making the argument that the Bible isn’t enough. That we need the thoughts of man because God’s Word isn’t sufficient. I hope you can see the error in this perspective.

When we allow people who blatantly teach false teaching to remain in the local church out of a false sense of love, we actually are doing significantly more harm to both the false teacher and the church than we realize. The Bible calls false teaching sin and it calls false teachers sinners that need to repent. Just like any other sin, we cannot allow sin to go unchecked within the church—to do so is unloving because it harms not just the sinner but also the church itself. The issue with this perspective is that it’s simply not true—it’s not loving whatsoever to allow someone who teaches false things to remain in the church, it’s actually unloving to both the false teacher and the church.

There’s a high amount of false teaching in local churches in the west and it has harmed the local church far more than you realize—and if you aren’t convinced that there is false teaching in the local church, just ask the average churchgoer their thoughts on the following questions:

Is it always God’s will to heal someone physically?

Is God always fair?

Does God change?

And you’ll get a series of completely unbiblical answers combined with a modicum of truth.

False teaching is a serious issue, so much so, that Paul clarifies that even if the false teaching seems mild—like an old wives’ tale, it needs to be handled and gotten rid of.

We cannot and should not tolerate false teaching of any kind within the local church; rather we are to toil and strive for godliness.

Godliness of course refers to the idea of being like Jesus Christ—so the idea at hand is rather simple, you need to make sure that you remove any sort of false teaching that has crept into the church (even old wives’ tales) and you need to put on what accords with godliness.

Now, Paul doesn’t take time to describe what godliness is in this section, but he does in the next, so we aren’t going to hit those descriptions yet.

We’ll focus on the putting off and putting on.

Often, we tend to think of the Christian life as simply not doing certain actions and not thinking certain ways; and that’s true, but it’s only half the story.

Yes, we are to remove certain actions and stop thinking certain ways, but we’re also supposed to add certain actions and start thinking certain ways.

So, we put off the works of the flesh and put on the fruits of the Spirit; we put off lying and put on truth; we remove the desire to steal and put on the desire to work.

In this case, we put off the acceptance of false teaching and we put on Christlikeness.

Which gives us a significant impression that while we’re tolerant towards false teaching, we’re not like Christ.

We need to be sure that we are absolutely intolerant towards false teaching while we toil and strive for Christlikeness.

Demonstrating Christian Behavior (11-16)—in the remaining verses, Paul then encourages Timothy to be an example to all the believers and by encouraging Timothy to be an example, he shows us some characteristics of how believers ought to act as well. The same commands given to Timothy to be an example in are what we are to strive for as well, so the application is rather simple. Regardless of your age, you need to be an example of Christian living.

This is where Paul emphasizes that idea of Christlikeness. If you are to be an example of Christian living, you are acting like Jesus Christ.

And Paul gives several ideas of what this looks like, but note that this isn’t a comprehensive list.

He talks about being an example in speech and in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity—all of which Timothy is to command and teach to the church.

He mentions having a devotion to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching—all of which Timothy is to command and teach to the church

He tells Timothy not to neglect the gift of pastoring that he has and to keep a close watch on himself and on the teaching, which could be said to you as well. Don’t neglect the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given you, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teachings that you’re soaking in.

We might say all this in a different way—if you claim to be a Christian, act like it. Don’t just profess to be a Christian be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

James says to be a hearer and not a doer is to lie to yourself about who you are.

So, you need to check your heart to the mirror that Scripture is and in this case, Paul makes it simple.

Are you an example in speech and in conduct to other Christians? Are you an example of love, faith, and purity to other Christians? Are you devoted to the Scriptures? To exhortation from the Scriptures? And to teaching from the Bible?

Are you utilizing the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to you? Are you keeping a close watch on yourself and what you’re learning?

Or are you devoted to irreverent, silly myths and godlessness? Are you an example of what not to be like? Are you an example of someone who is hopelessly devoted to everything other than Scripture, exhortation, and teaching from the Bible?

Now, of course, none of this is something that we can do on our own—we cannot force ourselves to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit or be an example in these ways, they’re simply a result of you following Jesus and obeying His Word.

And that’s where the application comes in. Do you want to be an example of what it means to be a Christian? It all starts with genuinely following Jesus and obeying what He has said and by striving to be like Jesus Christ.

Really, what we learn from 1 Timothy 4:6-16 is simple: (1) you need to take seriously what is being taught in church and what you listen to outside of church. You need to stop being tolerant towards false teaching because Jesus isn’t tolerant towards false teaching. And while you’re removing false teaching from your life, (2) you need to be putting on godliness or Christlikeness by genuinely following Jesus and obeying what He has said.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Requests

The Bubb Family — Continue praying for the family as they grieve the loss of their son. In addition, please pray for Alice and Neil Miller as they are friends of the family and are practicing a ministry of presence to support them as best as they can.

Sean Herbst — Addiction

Pray for Alexus (Tom and Raenelle’s great niece) — Alexus is being sent to Pittsburgh next month to determine if she is a candidate for brain surgery that could potentially help her. Be in prayer through all this.

Tom and Raenelle Medzie — They were both diagnosed with COVID this past week and are still battling the illness. Be in prayer that they recover soon and can get back to their regular lives as quickly as possible.

Caleb Miller — Medical Issues

Reagan N. — Diagnosed with a tumor of the brain. Pray for doctors to have wisdom as they look at next steps.

Pray for the family of Janice Sine, who passed almost a week ago. Her son is Veronica Sampson’s son-in-law.

Alan Wisor — Medical Issues

Pray for the church’s building fund

Pray for Ian and Holly Carton as they continue their church planting endeavor in Boston.