1 Timothy - God’s Design Ch 1

No Small City

1 Timothy 1:3 tells us that Timothy was sent to Ephesus to correct false teaching.

But what do we know about Ephesus and is it important?

Ephesus was no small unimportant city.

It was a major hub in the Roman Empire.

It had a large port where goods from a variety of places could come into the area.

There was a large market there and as you might expect the market was the center of the life in the city. People would gather and talk about all sorts of things.

Life was buzzing in the City of Ephesus. All sorts of people from all over the known world were there. With different people a plethora of ideas too.

One of major attractions in the city was the Temple of Artemis or Diana that was just outside the city.

The temple was huge. It was 350 x 180. It was one of the largest Roman Temples and one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is slightly larger than a football field.

If you have ever been to Nashville and seen the Parthenon it is huge. It makes you feel so small. The Temple to Artemis towers over the Parthenon.

People would travel from all over to see this massive temple.

It was the temple to Artemis or Diana.

Artemis was the Greek goddess of wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation and of chastity and childbirth.

For the Romans this was home to Diana, and she was similar enough to Artemis.

This is all very important because, it was a center of worship and who they worshipped and how they worshipped is important.

in the Ephesian cults, women were seen as the source of life and light to men. They were believed to be mediators between Artemis and males- Paul Burkhart

In Ephesus especially in worship to Artemis we see that women had a high and powerful role in the cult. That is going to be important later.

The worship of Artemis was of great importance both socially and economically.

Acts 19:24–25 CSB

For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen. When he had assembled them, as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said, “Men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business.

When Paul came peaching the Gospel and signs and wonders started happening people started loosing money.

Acts 19:19 tells us that people burned their occult books and paraphernalia because they saw that Jesus was true and the Gospel was true. They saw real power for life and life change. The books and paraphernalia they burned totaled 50,000 pieces of silver.

That is roughly $5 Million in todays money. People saw the truth of the Gospel and Jesus. They saw the Gospel in Real Life and burned $5 Million. So yes there was a riot.

People said the goddess who this mighty temple to is nothing compared to Jesus

All of this is important because it sets the stage for what we read in 1 Timothy.

Ephesus in Church History

So we have the founding of the church in Ephesus. The Apostle Paul spent about 2-3 years there. He was teaching and raising up leaders. He is finally leaving in about 57 A.D. and he says to them,

Acts 20:29–31 CSB

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I never stopped warning each one of you with tears.

You know what, they were not on their guard.

Paul writes the book of Ephesians about 3-5 years after leaving them while in prison. The main point of Ephesians is to remind them, and us, that we are reconciled to God and each other. That we have position in Christ.

Then almost immediately he needs to send Timothy there because,

1 Timothy 1:3 CSB

As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine

People had crept in and were teaching false doctrine. Paul warned them not to allow people to creep into the church and they did not do their job. Timothy, this pastor in his early 30s needs to come in and clean house.

If we are wondering Timothy did his job. He cleaned up the false teaching but they forgot something very important. They started holding to a firm faith but Paul tells Timothy that the whole point of the instruction,

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.

They need right doctrine or orthodoxy and love. They need to love God and each other.

Jesus through John about 30 years later says to them,

Revelation 2:2–5 CSB

I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

They had solid teaching but no love. They were good on orthodoxy and bad on loving from a pure heart.

So much of what we are going to examine and look at is rooted and nested in the things we just talked about.

Any Exegetical analysis of an Epistle presupposes that it is an ad hoc document, that is, that it is a piece of correspondence occasioned by a set of specific historical circumstances. - Gordon D. Fee

This is important we need to know what a letter was written so when we read something hard or confusing we can understand the intent and meaning.

CONTEXT IS KEY

There is a lot more background we could get into but we will unpack it as we go.

Love from a Pure Heart, a Good Conscience, and a Sincere faith

I think the right lens to read 1 Timothy through is 1 Timothy 1:5. Paul is telling them it is important that you do things the right way and that you believe the right things but the goal of that, the goal of right belief is love.

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.

We are to love God and other people from a pure heart a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

Pure heart

What is a pure heart? It is a heart that is clean or purified by fire.

It is a heart that loves from the right motives for the right things.

It is about loving God solely because He is God and deserves our love.

Psalm 145:3 NLT

Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness.

We praise and love God just because He is good. He deserves the praise and love we give Him. But we do not manufacture this love on our own.

1 John 4:19 CSB

We love because he first loved us.

God loves us so we love Him. We cannot love Him on our own. Not only that,

Romans 5:5 CSB

This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

God has given us His love.

So if we are ever wondering if God loves us we can rest assured He does if we love Him. We can only love Him because He put His love in us.

How amazing is that!

Not only that but because of God’s love in us we love others.

No law has ever been passed that can compel one moral being to love another, for by the very nature of it love must be voluntary. No one can be coerced or frightened into loving anyone.4

A. W. Tozer

We care for and love others from a pure heart. That means we are not just looking for what we get but what they get. We are not looking for our interest alone but theirs as well.

We are asking the question, how can I demonstrate the Love of God to this person?

It is so freeing. Are we perfect at it? No, but the pursuit is freeing.

We are able to do things just because we operate from an economy of grace.

A Good Conscience

A good conscience is a good, pleasant, agreeable, joyful, or happy soul. A soul that is joyful and desires good for others. It knows it has goodness and joy and desires that goodness and joy for others. This makes it easy to go the second mile.

Jesus says,

Matthew 5:41 CSB

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.

If you have a good conscience or a joyful soul you can do this. You can do hard things for others. You can love like that because it is within you to do it.

If you are thinking can I really do that? Yes because,

2 Peter 1:3 ESV

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

If you are in Christ you have the ability to love from a good conscience. No excuses allowed. You can do it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Will you, that is up to you but can you? Yes!

A Sincere Faith

I like this phrase in Latin:

bona et fide non ficta

It means real and not fake.

We can love with real love not a fake substitute.

We can love with real love. That is huge. It is not something you are making up, manufacturing, or sustaining yourself.

Does that mean that sometimes you need a little break? Yes.

Does that mean you need to keep filling yourself up with God’s real love being poured into you? Yes.

Is that ok? Absolutely.

You cannot pour from an empty cup. We go back to God and let the Spirit fill us back up and then we can go out and love with a

bona et fide non ficta love

This is God’s Design for the church and for His people. This is the goal that we would love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. That as we look to Jesus and receive from Him we would love rightly.

When we understand this everything changes.

We are willing like the original followers of Jesus in Ephesus to say burn the old way I am not going back. Throw it all in the fire. I trust Jesus.

We can then say like Paul that this is a trustworthy saying,

1 Timothy 1:15–16 CSB

This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them. But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life.

Saved for a Purpose

We can be like Paul and say I was a sinner, but I was saved and received mercy so that Jesus could demonstrate His extraordinary patience. That we were saved for a purpose.

One of my favorite things to tell people is that there is a seat at the table for you. Will it be the seat you want? Maybe, maybe not, but that is not important. What is important is that there is a seat at the table for you. There is a place set for you and God is calling you for a purpose. He has something that He desires for you to do. Will you do it? Will you take your seat at the table? Will you join the mission, will you join the journey?

Everything else we will read in this book is going to have as its goal, love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

We will look at hard things because we want a real love. We will look at some tough things because we want a real love.

Do you love with a bona et fide non ficta love. A real and not fake love? Jesus can help you do that. Jesus can help you love that way.