1 Timothy 4.6-Timothy Will Excellently Serve Jesus Christ By Instructing The Ephesian Christian Community By Means Of His Accurate Teaching In 1 Timothy 4.1-5
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 9, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 4:6-Timothy Will Excellently Serve Jesus Christ By Instructing The Ephesians By Means Of His Accurate Teaching In 1 Timothy 4:1-5
Lesson # 79
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4:6.
The apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 4:6 tells Timothy that he will be a good servant of Christ Jesus by communicating to the Ephesians the content of what he taught in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
1 Timothy 4:6 In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. (NASU)
“In pointing out these things to the brethren” is composed of the accusative neuter plural form of the immediate demonstrative pronoun houtos (οὗτος) (oo-toce), “these things” which is followed by the nominative masculine singular present middle participle form of the verb hupotithemi (ὑποτίθημι) (ee-poe-teeth-ah-mee), “in pointing out” and the articular dative masculine plural form of the noun adelphos (ἀδελφός) (ah-thel-foce), “to the brethren.”
The immediate demonstrative pronoun houtos means “these things” and refers to Paul’s warning in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 with the respect to the demonically inspired content of the Judaizers’ teaching and Paul’s teaching concerning marriage and food.
The verb hupotithemi means “to point out” or in other words, “to direct someone’s attention to.”
The masculine singular form of the verb hupotithemi is a reference to Timothy indicating that Paul is addressing Timothy’s responsibilities directly and is not addressing the Ephesian church.
The verb functions as a participle of means indicating that Timothy will be a good servant of Christ Jesus “by” pointing out his statements in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 regarding the demonically inspired content of the Judaizers’ teaching and why it is false doctrine.
The noun adelphos means “brothers and sisters” and refers to Timothy and Paul’s fellow Christians in Ephesus who are related to each other and the Lord Jesus Christ through regeneration.
This word emphasizes with Timothy his common familial relationship with the Ephesian church rather than his delegated authority from the apostle Paul.
“You will be a good servant of Christ Jesus” is composed of the nominative masculine singular form of the adjective kalos (καλός) (kah-loce), “good” and the second person masculine singular future middle indicative form of the verb eimi (εἰμί) (ee-mee), “you will be” and the nominative masculine singular form of the noun diakonos (διάκονος) (thee-ak-owe-noce), “servant” which is followed by the genitive masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (Χριστός) (cree-stoce), “Christ” and the genitive masculine singular form of the proper noun Iesous (Ἰησοῦς) (yee-soose), “Jesus.”
The adjective kalos describes Timothy’s service to the Lord Jesus Christ as being “excellent” in the sense that his servanthood would be of a high moral quality or character with the implication that it is a great benefit to the Christian community in Ephesus and to the Lord Himself.
The noun diakonos means “servant” and is used in a spiritual sense of Timothy’s function toward the Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian community in Ephesus.
“Constantly nourished on the words of the faith” is composed of the nominative masculine singular present middle participle form of the verb entrepho (ἐντρέφω) (en-tref-owe), “nourished on” and the articular masculine plural form of the noun logos (λόγος) (loe-goce), “the words” and the articular genitive feminine singular form of the pistis (πίστις) (pee-steece), “of the faith.”
The verb entrepho means “to teach, instruct” since in context Paul is speaking of sound doctrine in contrast to the demonically inspired doctrine of the Judaizers described in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
It means “to provide instruction and training, with the implication of skill in some area of practical knowledge—‘to train, to teach.’” (Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 33.24)
It is different than didasko, which refers to providing authoritative instruction in a formal public setting.
Entrepho refers to providing someone with instruction so that they acquire some skill in a particular area of practical knowledge.
Here it refers to Timothy instructing the Ephesians with regards to Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 so that the Ephesians know how to conduct themselves according to the will of the Father.
It refers to Timothy providing the Ephesians instruction with regards to marriage and food so that they have a practical knowledge with regards to these things in the sense that they know that they can partake of these things with a clear conscience.
The question now arises, is Paul referring to training or teaching Timothy in the past with the Word of God or Timothy training himself by obeying the precepts of Paul’s teaching?
Or is Paul referring to Timothy training or teaching the Ephesians?
The verb can be a passive meaning “trained or taught by” or middle meaning “train yourself” or “you yourself train or teach.”
First of all, Paul is not referring to training or teaching Timothy in the past since the verb entrepho is not in the aorist or perfect tense but rather the present tense.
He is not referring to Timothy training himself in the present with his teaching since the intensive perfect form of the verb parakoloutheo emphasizes the present state of Timothy’s obedience to Paul’s teaching.
Rather, he is referring to Timothy training or teaching the Ephesians since he just got through telling Timothy that he would be serving Christ Jesus excellently by pointing out to the Ephesian Christian community his teaching in 1 Timothy 4.1-5.
This is indicated by the participle form of entrepho, which is a nominative of simple apposition meaning that it stands in apposition to the nominative participle form of the verb hupotithemi.
Thus, it is clarifying or describing further Timothy’s service for the Lord of pointing out to the Ephesians Paul’s teaching in the previous paragraph.
The emphasis is upon what Paul wanted Timothy to do and not what he was doing for Timothy by communicating what he did in the previous paragraph.
Therefore, Paul is speaking of Timothy instructing the Ephesians with respect to his teaching in the previous paragraph.
Entrepho is clarifying what Paul means by Timothy pointing out to the Ephesians what he taught in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
It is a participle of means just as hupotithemi, which indicates that “by” instructing the Ephesians with Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5, Timothy would be serving the Lord Jesus excellently.
It defines or explains or makes more explicit what Paul means when he says that Timothy will be serving the Lord excellently by pointing out to the Ephesians his teaching in the previous paragraph.
The noun logos refers to the content of what Paul taught in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 and functions as a dative instrumental of means indicating that Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 was to be the means by which Timothy was to train the Ephesian Christian community.
The noun pistis is used in an objective sense for the Christian faith and functions as a genitive of source indicating that these words or in other words, Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 “originate from” the Christian faith, i.e. the gospel.
“And of the sound doctrine which you have been following” is composed of the conjunction kai (καί) (keh), “and” which is followed by the articular genitive feminine singular form of the adjective kalos (καλός) (kah-loce), “sound” which is modifying the genitive feminine singular form of the noun didaskalia (διδασκαλία) (thee-thask-ah-lee-ah), “doctrine” and the dative feminine singular form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) (oce), “which” and the second person singular perfect active indicative form of the verb parakoloutheo (παρακολουθέω) (pahrah-koe-lee-theh-owe), “you have been following.”
The conjunction kai is epexegetical meaning that it is introducing a statement that “explains” in another way the previous expression “by means of those words originating from the Christian faith.”
The word is introducing the expression τῆς καλῆς διδασκαλίας, “that which is accurate teaching” that identifies Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 from a different perspective.
The noun didaskalia is in the singular and means “teaching” referring to Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
This indicated by the fact that the word is found in an epexegetical clause that defines from a different perspective the expression τοῖς λόγοις, “by means of those words,” which also refers to Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
The adjective kalos is modifying noun didaskalia and means “accurate” in the sense that Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5, which originates from the gospel is free from error and conforms exactly to the truth and God’s standards in contrast to the demonically inspired teaching of the Judaizers.
The relative pronoun hos refers to Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 and functions as a dative of advantage meaning that it was for Timothy’s own benefit that he was adhering to Paul’s teaching with respect to marriage and food that appears in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
The verb parakoloutheo means “to adhere to” Paul’s teaching with regards to marriage and foods that appears in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 and denotes Timothy holding fast or sticking to closely and being loyal to this teaching.
The verb refers to obeying Paul’s teaching with regards to marriage and food faithfully and means that Timothy has faithfully conformed to Paul’s teaching with regards to marriage and food.
The perfect tense of the verb is an intensive perfect emphasizing the present state of Timothy’s obedience as a result of the past action of being trained by Paul.