1 Timothy 4.11-Paul Commands Timothy To Continue Making It His Habit Of Commanding And Teaching The Things He Taught In 1 Timothy 4.6-10
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 22, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 4:11-Paul Commands Timothy To Continue Making It His Habit Of Commanding And Teaching The Things He Taught In 1 Timothy 4:6-10
Lesson # 86
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4:11.
The third division of chapter four appears in verses 11-16 where Paul emphasizes with Timothy the importance of concentrating upon his duties of being occupied with communicating the Word of God and growing spiritually which will benefit the Ephesian congregation.
1 Timothy 4:11 Prescribe and teach these things. 12 Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. 13 Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. 14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. 15 Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. 16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” (NASU)
1 Timothy 4:6-16 contains two paragraphs.
Verses 6-10 contain the first which addresses Timothy’s relationship to the Judaizers’ teaching and his responsibility to live a godly life.
Verses 11-16 is more personal emphasizing the importance of Timothy concentrating upon his duties of being occupied with communicating the Word of God and growing spiritually which will benefit the Ephesian congregation.
1 Timothy 4:11 is a transition verse that brings to a conclusion the section that began in 1 Timothy 4:6 and begins a new section that concludes in 1 Timothy 4:16.
1 Timothy 4:11 Prescribe and teach these things. (NASU)
This verse is composed of the second person singular present active imperative form of the verb parangello (παραγγέλλω) (pah-dahn-yellow), “prescribe” which is followed by the accusative neuter plural form of the immediate demonstrative pronoun houtos (οὗτος) (oo-toce), “these things” and this is followed by the conjunction kai (καί) (keh), “and” and the second person singular present active imperative form of the verb didasko (διδάσκω) (thee-thah-skoe), “teach.”
The immediate demonstrative pronoun houtos refers to Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:6-10. This is indicated by the fact that each time Paul uses this word in the accusative plural form in 1 Timothy (1:18; 3:14; 4:6, 11), it sums up the immediate preceding paragraph.
The verb parangello appeared in 1 Timothy 1:3, where it means “to command, order” and is used with Timothy as its subject and the false teachers in Ephesus as its object.
Timothy is to command these false teachers to stop propagating false doctrine.
It implies clearly that Paul has delegated authority to Timothy to rebuke and hold these false teachers accountable since this word indicates that the false teachers in Ephesus are under Paul’s apostolic authority and are thus Christians.
Here in 1 Timothy 4:11, Paul uses the verb parangello again where it means “to command, order” and is again used with Timothy as its subject but this time it is used with reference to Paul’s commands in 1 Timothy 4:6-10.
Paul is commanding Timothy to pass along the commands that appear in 1 Timothy 4:6-10. Two are found in 1 Timothy 4:7.
Parangello implies here as it did in 1 Timothy 1:3 that Paul has delegated authority to Timothy to teach these things since his young delegate was to communicate his teaching in this epistle to pastors who were not under Timothy’s authority but Paul’s since he was an apostle.
The verb is used to command to exercise the authority of his spiritual gift of pastor-teacher.
The word expresses the idea that Timothy is to stand before the Ephesian Christian community and officially and authoritatively communicate to them all that Paul taught in 1 Timothy 4:6-10.
It is used elsewhere by the apostle with respect to authoritative commands (1 Corinthians 7:10; cf. 11:17; 1 Thessalonians 4:10; cf. 4:2; 2 Thessalonians 3:4, 6, 10, 12; 1 Timothy 1:3).
In 1 Timothy 4:11, the present imperative form of the verb parangello is a “customary present imperative” whose force is for Timothy to simply continue commanding the Ephesian Christian community all that Paul commanded in 1 Timothy 4:6-10.
The present imperative of parangello means, “to continue making it your habit of” performing this task of commanding the Ephesian Christian community all that Paul commanded in 1 Timothy 4:6-10.
The customary present imperative implies that Timothy was already about performing this task when this letter arrived from Paul, which is indicated by what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:3.
In this passage, Paul urgently requested upon his departure for Macedonia that Timothy instruct certain men to stop teaching false doctrine.
This indicates that the contents of this epistle are a reminder to Timothy of a conversation that he and Paul had before the latter left for Macedonia.
Also, Paul acknowledges in 1 Timothy 4:6 that Timothy was following his accurate teaching.
The verb didasko in the Greek New Testament means, “to provide instruction in the Word of God in a local public assembly” (Matthew 4:23; John 18:20; 1 Corinthians 4:17; Colossians 1:28-29; 3:16).
In the Gospels, the verb didasko was used of the Lord Jesus Christ “educating, teaching and instructing” His disciples in regards to the kingdom of God.
Our Lord was often addressed as the didaskalos, “teacher,” or Rabbi (Matt. 8:19; Mark 10:17; Luke 10:25; John 3:2; 20:16).
The verb didasko is used of the Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching ministry in which He was always teaching publicly whether in the Temple in Jerusalem, the synagogues or outside in the open air (Matt. 4:23, 5:2; 9:35; 11:1; 26:55; 28:20; Mark 1:21-22; 2:13; 4:1-2; 6:2, 6, 34; 8:31; 9:31; 10:1; 11:17; 12:35; 14:49; Luke 4:15, 31; 5:3, 17; 6:6; 11:1; 13:10, 22; 19:47; 20:1; 21:37; 23:5; John 6:59; 7:14, 28; 8:2, 20; 18:20; Acts 1:1).
The verb is used of Paul’s “teaching” ministry (Galatians 1:12; 1 Corinthians 4:17; Colossians 1:28).
It is used of “teaching” Christians the Word of God (Colossians 1:28; 2:7; 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 1 Timothy 4:11; 6:2; Titus 1:11; Hebrews 5:12; 1 John 2:27).
In Romans 12:7, the verb didasko refers to the function of the permanent spiritual gift of teaching or communicating the Word of God to the congregation.
In 1 Timothy 4:11, the verb didasko again means “to teach, instruct” and speaks of “providing authoritative instruction” in the Word of God in a formal setting, namely the public worship service.
The verb denotes the preservation and communication of the gospel concerning Jesus Christ.
Thus, Paul is commanding Timothy to authoritatively teach the Ephesian Christian community the Word of God in the public worship service.
Specifically, Paul’s young delegate is to authoritatively teach all that he taught in 1 Timothy 4:6-10.
In 1 Timothy 4:11, the present imperative form of the verb didasko is a “customary present imperative” whose force is for Timothy to simply continue teaching the Ephesian Christian community with regards to Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 4:6-10.
The present imperative of didasko means, “to continue making it your habit of” performing this task of teaching the Ephesian Christian community all that Paul taught in 1 Timothy 4:6-10.
The customary present imperative implies that Timothy was already about performing this task when this letter arrived from Paul, which is indicated by what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:3.
In this passage, Paul urgently requested upon his departure for Macedonia that Timothy instruct certain men to stop teaching false doctrine.
This indicates that the contents of this epistle are a reminder to Timothy of a conversation that he and Paul had before the latter left for Macedonia.
Also, Paul acknowledges in 1 Timothy 4:6 that Timothy was following his accurate teaching.