Bible Reading Challenge Blog

I have used this chapter more than any other chapter for funeral services.  If you just block out I Timothy 4:6-8 you will find a great context for leaving people with hope for the passing of a loved one.  Paul is writing and he knows that his work is close to being completed on this earth.  He wants to leave a legacy behind.  The legacy that he leaves behind is the fact that he has pursued his faith as his primary  purpose from the time that he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.  Those are my words but his intent.  If we can all say at the end of our lives that we have fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith we will be doing well.

But there is more to this chapter than funeral cliches.  At the beginning of this chapter he encourages Timothy as he spends his time in Ephesus to proclaim, be persistent, convince, rebuke, encourage.  That is quite a list of admonitions to pursue.  But he really wants to make sure that Timothy succeeds and doesn’t just give up the first negative pressure that he feels.  At the end of the chapter he lists some people who have been a disappointment to him because they have abandoned him.  He points out Demas whom he calls in love with the present world.  What is especially shocking is that he calls Mark “useful” for his ministry.  Do any of you remember Acts 15:36-41?

Take a little time and read it.  Mark was not well liked by Paul in this Scripture.  In fact, most scholars attribute the conflict between Barnabas and Paul to find its home in this Scripture and specifically in Mark.  Barnabas and Mark were cousins and Paul was not happy when Mark decided to leave him and go home in Acts 13.  Paul remembered that and so did not want him along in Acts 15.  Barnabas protested and Paul and he split after that never to see each other again.  Something has changed.  Maybe it is just time which heals most wounds.  But Paul wants Mark around because he is “useful”.  

How many people in our lives have we either felt betrayed us or with whom we were unhappy only later to recognize that we need them?  I’m grateful that I don’t have any people that I would dread to see or that I consider them as “enemies” or unlikeables in my past.  I’ve been fortunate that God has blessed me with people in my life whom I was able to respect and they have been good friends.  But we know that is not always the case in a church.  There are sometimes events that happen that sour people on each other.  The sign of a mature church, and a mature person, is that the church and the person is able to move on once the event happens and is over with.  It seems as if Paul was able to move on and plant seeds all over Asia and Europe.  So ends II Timothy.

So, you’re probably wondering who Jannes and Jambres are.  They are not mentioned by name anywhere in the Bible, but tradition has it that they are the sorcerers and the magicians that opposed Moses in Exodus 7:10-12.  That has to be Paul’s understanding so we are going to go with that as well.  I’m guessing that as many of you read the beginning of these verses, you are thinking: We are in the last days.  You would be correct.  Every day brings us closer to the last days, but that does not give us any more insight as to exactly when those last days might be.  We are closer, but not there just yet.  If you look at the long list of attributes that mark people in the last days we have to see some signs of similarity.  

Paul moves from depicting the godlessness in the last days, days which we are experiencing and people that we are experiencing, to setting Timothy up with an encouraging word for the days to come.  It seems like starting in vs.10 Paul gives a foil to oppose the people that he spoke about in the earlier verse, you know, the godless ones.   He lifts up his attributes and speaks about the times that he was persecuted, almost to the point of death.  If you had time and wanted to track his persecutions you can find them here: Antioch – Acts 14:19 and surrounding Scriptures, Iconium – again in Acts 14, and finally Lystra – okay, so chapter 14 of Acts seems to be the chapter which most clearly lays out the persecution of Paul at the hands of others.  He backs up his own persecutions with the statement: Anyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted.  It isn’t something we hear when we join the church.  So glad you are going to be a part of the family, here is your packet, and a pack of band-aids for when you are beaten and persecuted for you faith.  It simply does not happen any longer.  It makes we wonder if we ought to be living in such a way that we are more on the edge than we currently are.

Finally, vs.16 is a Scripture from which I arrive at my understanding of the authority of Scripture.  I believe that the Bible contains inerrant truths that reflect the nature and grace of God.  The Bible is an authority unlike any other authority we have in life.  The church is a form of authority, but the tradition of the church does not hold the same weight as the authority of Scripture.  Over time people have interpreted the Bible in such a way that we say it is normative and it is our understanding of how the Bible ought to be read.  We can’t read a passage from Scripture and just think that we can come up with our own, unorthodox translation without some backing from other Scripture and some church tradition as well.  The vast majority of the cultural wars in the churches that we are experiencing revolves around the interpretation, and ultimately, the authority of Scripture.

Some people see their experience as a viable authority that can at times trump the Scripture.  So if my experience tells me that love is the most important thing and that it is okay to live a certain way, even if Scripture says no, then my experience will win out.  That is not my approach.  If my experience contradicts what Scripture says, then I’m going to have to say that what I’m experiencing is not reflective of the will of God.  It is such an important topic because Christians use all sorts of different parameters to distinguish what is the most important and why.  That is my approach.

I was going to save this explanation until Revelation, but I think it might fit in well with this chapter in II Timothy.  If we were to say that the Cowboys destroyed the Eagles, you would all know that I was talking about football.  But if we buried those headlines and dug them back up two thousand years from now people just might think that this land was one where people on horses fought against giant eagles in order to procure the land.  They would miss the metaphor and the hidden meanings which all of us understand today.  That happens a lot in Scripture.

When Paul speaks to Timothy in the last chapter about Phygelus and Hermogenes and then again this chapter about Hymenaeus and Philetus we simply do not know who they are.  But we can guess that they were Christians who were in the flock who then decided to leave the flock because this living in hiding and not letting others know that you are a Christian was not for them.  They were certainly people who were apostates (that’s the fancy term for leaving the faith).  But it was especially difficult for the first century church when people fled the faith because then the whole community could be susceptible to the authorities.  Paul is especially harsh on people who step away from the faith.  He basically approaches it as there being no compromise with those people.  That’s why Paul states: “The Lord knows who are his.”  We can never truly know, and I would argue that we should never question or wonder.  But in this chapter the problem was also that they were teaching false principles which were extremely dangerous for this fledgling community.

The problem was found in the false teaching where these two troublemakers were saying that Jesus had already come back again and that the dead had already been raised.  So, I often get the question: what happens once we die?  Are we immediately resurrected, or is there a period of time where we kind of hang out until Jesus comes back again in the second coming.  My understanding of Scripture and my very firm belief is that the moment that we die we are resurrected with a new body, spirit and soul with Jesus in heaven.  There is no in between phase, and it isn’t just our spirit or our soul which goes to heaven.  All of us, including our resurrected body.  Paul wants people to not be uninformed.  

I also love the definition of a leader according to Paul’s words: And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient,  correcting opponents with gentleness.

Paul writes another letter to Timothy as he encourages his “son” in his oversight of the church in Ephesus.  Paul reaches out to Timothy and brings up some of the familial contacts that they have in common.  Isn’t it interesting that Paul states that he is grateful to God whom he worships and whom his ancestors worshipped as well.  Now, remember Paul was the one on the road to Damascus who heard the voice of the Lord and was converted from Christian killer to Gospel spreader.  So when Paul speaks about his ancestors who loved God, he is talking about the God of the Old Testament before the Son walked the face of the earth.  I hope that doesn’t sound contrarian to you.  It makes sense to me.

So let’s be clear.  Paul tells Christian slaves that they are to obey their masters.  Slavery was accepted in the 1st century but even then it was wrong and not the will of God.  These verses have been used in the past to support the evil institution of slavery by saying that because Paul did not speak out against slavery, then it must be okay.  An argument from silence is not an argument that holds water.  The institution of slavery puts unequal value on people.  This assumption that some people have more value than others is completely contrary to the basic premise of Scripture.  God has created us all equal and loves us equally.  We can take that concept and apply it to today with people who understand people of color having lesser roles and values than whites.  How is it possible that the vast majority of white supremacists consider themselves Christian?  It is an embarrassment and something no one reading this should ever consider supporting, even tangentially.  

Paul moves on quickly from this topic.  We will also move on, but I don’t think I feel more strongly about anything, besides the Gospel, than this topic.  Just saying.

Look at vs. 7 and see if it gives you the same sense of comfort as it did me.  We brought nothing into this world, so we can take nothing out of it.  Yeah, that’s true.  We were born with nothing and we leave with nothing.  What a great concept as he goes on to encourage us to fight the good fight.  Paul tries to move us from a life focused on materialism and focusing on money, which is the root of all evil by the way, to a life focused on Jesus and his desire for us.  What does that look like?  It looks like a life of making decisions not based upon what it will provide us materially but rather what joy can we get from living for Christ.

Living for Christ, Paul tells us, looks like what he describes in vs. 11: “But as for you, man (or woman) of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.”  We have to shun our pursuit of those things that have money as their base and their goal.  Rather, we ought to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.  What great goals and how different they are from monetary goals.  

This is an interesting chapter and one where you can see that Paul has very specific advice for the church in Ephesus which may or may not apply to other churches with different demographic groups.  He addresses the church and their treatment and their approach to widows.  Verses 1-16 deal with the widows and those who are “real” widows and those who may not be as real.  The way that Paul distinguishes them is really by age.  Those over 60 are real widows and they have to have been married only once.  The reason why the younger ones are not real is because they have sexual desires that will move them away from a life of purity.  I’m thinking there was a problem in Ephesus which we don’t know about and which Paul felt like he had to address.  

I can’t imagine using this as a guideline for us today.  I can understand that Paul is thinking that the younger widows have the opportunity to marry again and so be taken care of materially in that way.  The older widows, well, their opportunities in the first century would have been much more limited.  They would not have men who would want to marry them which would have made them desperate to have their material needs met.  The church had to rally around them to make sure they were taken care of.

He then switches gears and talks about pastors, he calls them elders which is the technical term for a pastor.  You see, I’m officially called a teaching elder and those on session who are lay people are called ruling elders.  I like the term Minister of the Word and Sacrament better but teaching elder is more biblical.  Anyway, Paul tells the church to treat the pastors well.  Make sure their needs are taken care of as well.  So really, this chapter is all about making sure that the church not overlook its duties to take care of people who are under their care.  

There are some modern day issues that Paul addresses and wants to be sure that Timothy does not overlook.  He tells Timothy to beware of those whose conscience has been seared by a hot iron, which basically means those who do not have a conscience, whose conscience is numbed.  He points out specifically food and marriage, the two area of joy and pleasure and fellowship and lasting relationships that are so critical to our modern day social fabric.  He chastises those who say you should not marry, even though he himself says at one point in I Corinthians 7:8 that people should stay unmarried.  But he does not forbid marriage, in fact he calls created by God and so it must be good.  

This is a message for those who believe that being unmarried somehow makes you more fit for the kingdom of heaven and somehow makes you a better servant.  I’ll never forget getting together periodically with the Catholic priest from across the street when we were serving in Naples.  We were good friends and we would meet for pizza and fellowship, just the two of us.  Many times he would confide that the fact that he was not allowed to marry was the most tragic “thorn in the side” of his calling.  It absolutely caused him to sin, even though it was his decision.  I am certain that some day this burden will be removed from my brothers in the calling.

Paul goes on to write to Timothy that even though he was young, and he was young, that he should conduct himself in such a way that no one would be able to point to his youth as a reason for why he is acting the way that he does.  This is a great point.  I’ll never forget coming back from Italy as a young 29 year old and being the pastor of a church in Florida.  It was a very scary experience for me, I knew I was clueless, but I had to hold it together.  The way that it manifested itself was the first few years I was very reticent to make decisions.  I was so unsure of myself that when I had to decide something I had such a hard time knowing the will of God.  That has evolved into gathering the input of people around me so that the Holy Spirit isn’t limited just to what I think but what those around me advise.  That is much healthier but it takes time and maturity to figure that out.

These are the verses that I use when I train officers for the church.  I like to read it and watch the faces of those chosen to see their reaction.  The list is quite intimidating because none of us actually qualify according to these requirements.  Let me be clear, I am not saying that anything goes, but I am saying that we cannot just pick and choose those things that we subscribe to and leave others out.  We have to try to achieve all that we are asked to achieve which includes: being above reproach, faithful in marriage, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, and able to control their household.  Good luck with all of that.  But with God’s help we are made worthy to serve.  That’s the point I try to get across in the training.

Remember, Paul is writing to Timothy to remind him that these are the types of people that we are looking for to run the church.  We need pastors and we need deacons.  Here are some qualifications for these people.  Notice just about all of it had to deal with their own personal life and not how well they knew the Word of God, or how spiritual they were, or their faith pedigree.  

It is fascinating for me that the role of deacon is singled out here by Paul.  The deacons came around in Acts 6:1-6 where the Apostles could not handle all of the work of feeding and caring for the widows and those who were less fortunate.  So, they asked that people be chosen for that specific role.  I love to see the origin of it in Acts and then it is carried out in all of the churches where Paul had a hand.  The church in Ephesus would again need to have deacons to fill the role of helping those who are the most in need.

Moving fast forward to today where we see churches, especially First Presbyterian, who understand this role and fill it with people whose primary concern is to visit and care for those who are most needy.  We have an awesome group of deacons.  Praise God for the direction and guidance that we get from Scripture that helps us to set up institutions to meet the needs of the powerless.

Two separate topics are covered today.  The first is an appeal for prayer in the midst of a suffering and a persecution which had previously been unseen.  Do you notice for whom Paul asks that the community of Ephesus prays?  The very people who are doing the persecuting.  Paul asks that the community pray for the king so that, and hear this, so that we might live a quiet and peaceable life.  Pray for your persecutors, he tells the people.  That is not far off from what Jesus tells his disciples on the sermon on the mount.  Look at Matthew 5:44 where he tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute you.  Jesus in Matthew also gives us a reason for this: so that you would be children of your Father who is in heaven.  That is all the motivation that I need.

We now come to what I classify a “problem” verse in relationship to the consistency of what I see in Scripture.  Look at vs. 11-15 and ask yourself the question: do we still believe that women are saved through childbirth?  If that is the case, well then those who cannot have children are not going to be saved.  There is no special dispensation here is there?  So once you think about that for a while, ask yourself the question: why do some people only focus on vs.11 and completely skip or disregard or value as less vs.15?  For those who hold strongly to vs.11, when you speak to them, ask them why they don’t hold as valuable vs. 15, or vs. 9.  Ask them if they “allow” their women to braid their hair or wear gold or pearls.  If they say that Paul didn’t really mean it, then maybe, just maybe, we can see vs.11 as part of these verses as something that Paul was speaking specifically to the church in Ephesus which was found on the coast and considered a wealthy church.  And maybe, just maybe, there was a specific problem in that church with a few women who were causing problems.  Just something to think about.  

There is a part of us that has to live in the grey because not everything is black or white.  When we find ourselves in the grey we have to find what is the most consistent in Scripture and which most closely reflects the true nature of God which is grace and love and justice.

The background to I Timothy is fascinating.  Paul left the church in Ephesus in the hands of one of his trusted workers, Timothy, thinking that he would be back and be able to teach them and provide them guidance for the future.  When it becomes apparent that Paul probably won’t be making it back to Ephesus he writes this letter to Timothy in order to instruct him on what to do in leading the church in Ephesus.  You will find him giving instructions to Timothy throughout this letter.  Let’s look at the text.

He begins by warning Timothy about false teachings.  He wants to be sure that Timothy is teaching the congregation what Paul had taught him.  I need to skip to verse 17.  As I do, I want you to hear this hymn and see if you can figure out where it came from.