The Church: The Pillar and Guardian of Truth and the Mystery

I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. And most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Pray

Introduction:

Today’s passage, and its message, is in some ways, a summary of what has come before, and a call to understand the importance of what Paul has written. It is a call to obedience. It is an exhortation that careful obedience, out of love for God and our gazed fixed on Jesus, will safeguard the the Church, and the gospel message.

In order to do that, we’ll be diving into a few things today, including the authority and nature of Paul’s writings, the need to obey God’s commands today, the purpose of God’s commands for his church, and the role that obedience plays in upholding truth. These are so important today, as much of Paul’s writings are scoffed at by our culture, and some even who claim Christ will reject or twist what he has written here in Timothy to avoid obedience to the plain commands of God. While much of what is said here in 1 Timothy 1-3 is for the Church, it is necessary to cover some of these foundational teachings so that we can apply them to the rest of the New Testament.

My goal, and my prayer this morning, is that this message would not cause you to feel a weight of legalism, or a checklist of things we need to do to be good Christians or a good church, but that it would faithfully represent what God says about his commands,

The Main Points:

Paul has given commands to be followed

The commands guide the behavior and structure of the church

The Church is the pillar and guardian of Truth

Commands to be Followed

1 Timothy 3:14–15 CSB

Paul has been giving Timothy, an elder/pastor chosen to lead the church in Ephesus, commands regarding the elders and the church in its worship of God:

Recently, the qualifications of Elders and Deacons

What He Must Be

What He Must Not Be

Correcting people teaching wrong doctrines

Myths

Endless Genealogies

Speculations

Resulting in the abandonment of stewardship

Resulting in vain discussion

Lack of understanding regarding God’s word, namely his Law.

Formal Instruction on Worship

Pray - specifically, Men are to lead in this

Pray for all people

Including the persecuting kings, so that a quiet life may be led.

So that they may come to faith

Women are to be careful with how they dress

Modesty and self control

Not flaunting wealth

Not flaunting beauty

Let your godliness in your actions serve as your beauty

Women are to remain quiet and submissive

What this means is that a woman is not permitted to teach or exercise authority over a man

Grounded in the creation and fall, and seen as ongoing, standard, not one that has been redeemed.

Some of these are obviously commands, especially when we read things like “an overseer must be above reproach.” But what about all the other things where Paul says, “should,” “I desire,” and “I urge?” We find our answer in verse 15: “I have written so that you will know how people OUGHT to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God.”

This word “ought” does not communicate a strong recommendation. It does not communicate a preference. When we think of the word “ought” in English, it definitely indicates a requirement, especially in a moral sense. The Greek word translated as “ought” here (Dei) communicates a strong sense of obligation, or compulsion.

John 3:7 “Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.”

John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.””

John 9:4 “We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.”

Acts 5:29 “Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people.”

1 Timothy 3:2 “An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,”

Hebrews 11:6 “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

We find this to be the case in other places in the New Testament that this word is translated as “it is necessary.”

Mark 13:10 “And it is necessary that the gospel be preached to all nations.”

Acts 26:9 “In fact, I myself was convinced that it was necessary to do many things in opposition to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.”

Luke 9:22 “saying, “It is necessary that the Son of Man suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.””

Luke 19:5 “When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.””

These examples of the the word “Dei” help us to see that Paul is communicating with great force, that the things he has commanding Timothy must be obeyed. Again, this isn’t Paul just speaking about preference. He is speaking with the authority of an Apostle, who witnessed the risen Christ, who founded the Ephesians Church, and wrote a significant portion of the New Testament.

When we see Paul give these instructions, he does not say, “It would be a good idea,” or “this is my opinion, but….” No, Paul recognizes that he has been given authority by God to instruct the church.

1 Corinthians 14:37 CSB

If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he should recognize that what I write to you is the Lord’s command.

While Paul clearly thinks he is writing the commands of God in 1 Corinthians 14, what did the apostles and other New Testament authors think? Well, this is what Peter said:

2 Peter 3:14–16 CSB

Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight, at peace. Also, regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.

in this we see a few key points:

Paul wrote in wisdom given by God

Paul speaks on the same things that Peter does, so neither speaks as an isolated witness

Peter is aware that Paul has written many letters for the churches

Peter admits that Paul writes some things that are hard to understand - according to the wisdom given to him by God.

Peter consider’s Paul’s letters to be Scripture

People attempt to twist and distort what Paul said just like they do with the rest of the Bible.

As we have seen what Paul thinks about his commands, and the fact that Peter sees Paul’s writings, his commands, as Scripture, Let us turn to 2 other passages which tell us about the nature of the Scriptures:

2 Peter 1:20–21 CSB

Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 CSB

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Not only do Peter and Paul view the Scriptures as authoritative, and from God, but Jesus also views them as authoritative, saying, “Have you not read?” And answering the devil’s temptations with the Scriptures saying, “It is written.” There is much more than this, but there is clear evidence that ALL of Scripture is given by God, all the commands are from God, it is not man’s opinion. Therefore, it is necessary that we obey all that Paul has written in 1 Timothy.

Commands that Govern the Church

1 Timothy 3:14–15 CSB

As we read in verses 14-15, Paul intends to visit Timothy and the Ephesian church, but rather than wait for his visit to deliver his message to Timothy and the Ephesian church, he has decided to write. This message is so important, that it cannot be delayed or never be delivered. This letter was quite urgent, because the church was experiencing great problems. As we see earlier in the letter and as Kyle explained earlier this year, the problems include false teachings, unqualified leadership, a lack of prayer, and people shipwrecking their faith. These problems needed to be addressed quickly to avoid any more damage being done to the church in Ephesus.

So Paul gives all the commands that we see so far in chapters 1-3 with the aim that “you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God.”

So, not only do we know that these are commands that carry an obligation to be obeyed, but they are commands intended for God’s church. These commands are for the people of God to follow, especially as they govern the organization, leadership, doctrine, and behavior of God’s people. While much of this is most easily applied to the church as it gathers, Paul says that this is for “God’s household.” Let’s just think about this kind of language as it pertains to our households. At the most basic level, our households are our families. Now, for those of you who have kids, there are house rules. These rules govern how the children are to behave in the home - in the household. Now, do those rules just go out the window when they are at a friend’s house? No! They definitely don’t! Why? The kids are still part of YOUR HOUSEHOLD. So, when the New Testament commands us to submit to our elders, we are not given caveat that it is only within 4-walls of the church that we are to submit to the spiritual authority of our pastor-elders. It’s the same thing here, that as we examine these commands, yes, they first and foremost apply to our conduct with the church body gathered in worship of God, but if there are not limiting factors (such as other scriptures which speak on a particular issue) these commands are for God’s people, his whole household, no matter where we may be.

So, what are the implications for these statements and what Paul has already written about in this letter?

All of God’s commands given through Paul, are for today

Let’s look a look back at 1 Timothy 3:2

1 Timothy 3:2 CSB

An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

And let us look at 1 Timothy 2:12-14

1 Timothy 2:12–14 CSB

I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed.

As Kyle has preached earlier in our study of 1 Timothy, these verses clearly teach us that God has determined that his church is to be taught and led by qualified men, and that is offensive to many today. It is offensive to our culture, which says that men and women are not only equal in value, but equivalent in function and role. To say that men and women have different roles in the home, society, or even the church, is offensive to much of our world. They accuse us of being misogynists and bigots. They accuse us of hating women. They say that we are oppressing women, keeping them down by not allowing them to exercise their abilities. They say that men who hold such views have fragile egos and are just trying to protect themselves. And those who claim Christ, some who are even brothers and sisters in the faith, take great offense to the plain reading of God’s commands here. They say instead that “God has called both men and women to preach and pastor.” There are some even within the SBC trying to push for view which says that these verses don’t say what we plainly read. They say commands texts were only for a church with really bad issues when it came to women being disruptive. They say that these commands were just to make sure that God was accommodating the culture, that if Jesus walked the earth today that he would have appointed women as Apostles. They use examples like Deborah, the Judge, as evidence that God calls women to be pastors. But as we can see, Ephesus had problems precisely because God’s standards were not being followed! The requirement of male leadership and teaching in the church was not isolated to Ephesus, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians; 14:33-34 “As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.”

No matter how uncomfortable it is, no matter how much our anti-christian culture, or even professing Christians try to push back, we must always obey God. And this is just one example of the unpopular commands of God.

God’s commands keep us focused

At the beginning of 1 Timothy, Paul gives us commands like, “do not teach false doctrine or pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith.” Essentially: don’t teach false things or things that distract from God, namely the Gospel! Let me give you an example of this:

When we lived in Phoenix, we would do street evangelism near the bar district at Arizona State University. While we were out there we would see some interesting folks. Sometimes Mormons were out there. We might see groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites. We also ran into Flat Earther’s while we were out there. One night, out of curiosity, I approached one of them and struck up a conversation. This man assured me he was a Christian, and pointed to one of his signs, which featured a short Bible verse. So I asked him, “So, if you’re a Christian, why are you out here trying to convince people that the earth is flat instead of giving them the Gospel?” The man was very offended and told me that they have to disprove the lies of scientists and government first so that people could believe in Jesus. And what did they keep promoting out there? Flat Earth, not Jesus Christ and him crucified. Ultimately, these men served as a distraction because they promoted empty speculations rather than God’s plan of redemption. By following the commands that Paul gives us helps us to avoid distraction and falsehood, and remain focused on truth and the Gospel. Focus on the person and work of Jesus helps us to remember our sin, his grace, and the need to tell the world about Jesus’ saving work on the cross.

God’s commands protect us

As we have two young kids now, we are having to deal with setting rules, one of them being, “do not touch the stove.” Kids will often think it is unloving, or unfair to have rules placed on them. And they think it is doubly unfair when those rules are enforced through discipline. But what my toddler doesn’t understand is that many of the rules we have, like “don’t touch the stove” are for his protection. He doesn’t know when the stove is on or if it is still hot, so he better not touch it. It doesn’t matter if the stove is off and he touches it, he needs to be disciplined, because we are trying to protect him. Better a stinging hand and a few tears, than a burned hand with oozing blisters because we never set boundaries for our son.

Not only are God’s commands protecting us from bearing the wrath of God, on account of false gospels, God is also protecting us from harmful leadership. As we have heard from Kyle in his sermons about what an Elder must be, and what he MUST NOT BE, these commands serve to protect the church. The command to have a man who is the husband of one wife - and in other words, a faithful husband, protects the church from lust-filled men who would prey on others. The command that an elder must demonstrate self-control and not a bully protects the church from angry and selfish leaders who cannot govern with wisdom and patience. The command that an elder must not be a new convert protects the church from being tossed about by every wind of doctrine, protects from false teaching, and protects from the apostasy of an unproven man. It doesn’t take long to think about examples of these kinds of men who have been in the spotlight, only to have great and public failings, bringing shame on the Church and causing the world to look on the church with disgust for the sin of its leaders, not on account of the offense of the cross.

4. God’s instruction is given to stir up love.

Paul says right at the beginning of 1 Timothy

1 Timothy 1:5 CSB

Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

Obedience to these commands stirs up love in multiple ways: Through obedience to God, we experience his protection from evil people and evil teachings, and therefore love is stirred up toward God on account of his wisdom. When we stay focused on the cross, love is stirred up in us toward God for his mercy. When we keep God’s instructions, a love is stirred up within us toward our Godly leaders, for we know that they are trustworthy men who will not abuse God’s people. Following the commands of God stir up love for the unbeliever - especially our political opponents.

1 Timothy 2:1–6 CSB

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.

I have heard it said that if you begin to pray for someone - for God to bless them, for God to save them, it is hard for ungodly anger and hatred to take root. Especially in this day-and-age, when many politicians hate God, hate Christians, demand the right to slaughter unborn children and promote genital mutilation as healthcare, we ought to have righteous anger. We ought to cry out to the Lord these evil ways be brought to an end! And yet, we must remember Paul, who held himself up as an example, a blasphemer and persecutor, whom God saved. He called himself the chief, or worst of sinners, and yet God saved him. So we are commanded to pray, to intercede for even our political enemies, that they might come to the knowledge of the truth, that they might repent - so that the war being waged against God in our culture would end because God rescues them from their sin just as he has rescued us from ours!

So this election season, even as we push back again real evil, are we praying for our leaders and opponents that God would open their eyes, that he would save them? Are we willing to be the mouthpiece proclaiming the Gospel, in its fullness, to our society and leaders?

The Church is the Pillar and Guardian of Truth

So far, we have covered the facts that Paul has been giving instructions which are to be obeyed by the Church, and that there are multiple purposes for these commands that God has given to the church. But the overarching reason that Paul has given in today’s passage for obedience is found in the description of the church as the pillar and guardian of the truth.

While the CSB translates the end of verse 15 as “the pillar and foundation of the truth”, other translations render it differently. For example the ESV describes the church as “a pillar and buttress of the truth.” When looking at these translations and the commentaries, what we see is that Pillars and Foundations serve largely the same function, they support a structure. But if we prefer the translation of “a pillar and buttress” then we get a different picture, while the Pillar upholds, supports, puts on display the truth, a buttress is a source of defense. The church is to defend, or guard the truth! That is part of what the church inherently is and does! If the church does not obey Paul’s commands, it is not defending the truth! If the church ceases to obey God, it stops putting God’s truth on display!

So what is the truth? Well, as Jesus said in John 17:17 “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

This takes us back to what we were talking about earlier, the Church is to uphold the Bible, the very words of God, given to us that we might know who God is, what he has done for us in Jesus, and how we might be saved!

The sad part is, as we have discussed, there are many who try to undermine God’s word, call into question the commands he has given us, call into question the qualifications for elders, try to twist God’s word into such a pretzel that they tell us that the Bible doesn’t say what it says. They say, “The Bible doesn’t really say women can’t be pastors. The Bible doesn’t really say that commited homosexual relationships are sin. The Bible doesn’t really say that Jesus rose from the dead.” The list could go on. But if we do not obey all that Paul has commanded us, we functionally do not support, uphold, and defend the scriptures as The Truth. If we, as a church, a denomination, or as families, begin to compromise on these commands, on these truths, we will lose our foundation for everything. Namely, we will lose the mystery of Godliness:

1 Timothy 3:16 CSB

And most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

You see, the moment we can wriggle our way out of believing what the Bible says in one area, we set ourselves up for letting go of other areas. Sure, it might start off small, but it grows over time, especially generations. This happened in Germany in the wake of the Enlightenment. First there was a dependence on Man’s ability to reason, then they explained away the miracles of Jesus as being mythology. As J. Gresham Machen said about this form of theological liberalism, “A Jesus without the miracles is merely the flower of humanity. Jesus with the miracles, is God in the flesh.”

Ultimately, many scholars who have followed this liberal tradition have denied everything that the Bible plainly teaches.

And many churches have functionally done the same thing. The United Methodists, Episcopalians, PCUSA began with admitting women into the office of pastor/elder, then lost their defense against sexually deviant behavior, and now have the whole spectrum of the LGBTQ in their pulpits, denying the sinfullness of sin, and therefore preaching a false gospel.

If we, as God’s people, do not uphold and defend the Scriptures, we lose our foundation for children obeying their parents, as this is a command of God. We lose requirement for men to lay their lives and desires down for their families. We lose the command for women to submit to their husbands. We lose the fundamental understanding that marriages cannot simply be dissolved at-will. And our society has already been reaping the consequences in the number of broken homes, and violent and rebellious young people who will not take responsibility for their actions.

When we cannot even identify sin, we have lost the gospel, for what needs to be forgiven? Why did Jesus need to appear in the flesh? Why did he go to the cross? Why is he even being preached?

We must take care, in our hearts, in our homes, in our church, in our denomination, in our culture, to embrace what God says, proclaim it, and defend it. This is what the household of God does out of love for God and the mercy he has on us through his son.