Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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)

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.