“Getting the Teaching Right”
(1 Timothy 1:1-11)
Series: Reality Check: Keeping it Real at FBC
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
First Baptist Church Henderson, KY
(8-17-08) (AM)
- Take God’s Word and open to 1 Timothy, chapter 1.
1 Timothy is located in the New Testament after the Gospels and other letters, right after 1 & 2 Thessalonians and just before Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews. If you’re using the pew Bible, it’s on page____. Today we are starting a series of studies in the book of 1 Timothy.
One thing that brands our church here at First Baptist is that we believe in Bible-book exposition, studying together, verse-by-verse, through books of the Bible, because we believe this is the best way to understand what God is teaching us in His Word. So we’ve studied different books from both Old and New Testaments as well as different genres or forms of the biblical literature. So we’ve studied together in the past couple years in the Old Testament the books of Genesis, Proverbs, 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. In the New Testament we’ve studied the book of Revelation and we just finished the book of Acts.
Having finished the book of Acts, which largely describes the exciting expansion of the church from Jerusalem to the utter ends of the earth, we now turn to 1 Timothy to look at the makeup of the church itself. What does the local church look like? How should it operate? It’s wise for us to pause and ask these questions to check the health of our church here at First Baptist, especially as we’re embarking upon a new schedule in our worship, Sunday school, and Sunday and Wednesday evenings.
As more of you get to know me you know that when it comes to driving, I am directionally-challenged and I am not very mechanically-inclined. But I know this: if the car breaks down, I know the main thing you’re supposed to do: You pop the hood. That’s just what you do. You pop the hood. And you walk around and look under that hood and hope that something jumps up at you and says, “Here’s the problem right here!” Now that’s true, you know. If you ask a mechanic to check out your car, the first thing he’s going to do is say, “Well, let’s take a look under the hood.” And so he looks under the hood and makes sure everything’s doing what it’s supposed to do.
So in our study through 1 Timothy we’re going to take a look under the hood. We’re going to take a look inside First Baptist Church Henderson and make sure everything’s “running” right. 1 Timothy is something of a “handbook on church administration,” so we’re going to use 1 Timothy to help us look at the teaching, the membership, the deacons, the pastor, the overall makeup of our church and make sure everything running according to the Bible. And so I’ve entitled our series of messages, “Reality Check,” because I want us to pause for a few weeks and make sure we’re “keeping it real” here at First Baptist, making sure we’re following the truth of God’s Word in everything we do as a church.
So as we read these opening verses we’re going to see right off the bat that the first thing we need to check is to make sure we’re getting the teaching right. Let’s check it out. Paul is writing to Timothy, who is like an official missionary delegate at the church in Ephesus. Let’s read what Paul writes to him in about the year AD 64.
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia — remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.
5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,
6 from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk,
7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,
9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.
- Pray.
Introduction:
Having already introduced this letter before we read the text, let me add just a few more things. This letter was probably written by Paul after his release from prison in Rome. You remember our recent study in the book of Acts that the last chapter, chapter 28, leaves Paul imprisoned in Rome. Most scholars believe Paul was released and then continued his missionary travels before being arrested again later. So sometime after Paul’s release he travels back to Ephesus where he leaves Timothy there as a sort of pastor-missionary delegate and then Paul writes this letter to Timothy. The letter of 1 Timothy, along with 2 Timothy and Titus, are known as the “Pastoral Epistles.” Paul writes these letters to Timothy and Titus to give them counsel to use in the local church.
Okay, so as we look at these opening verses we just read we see that Paul wants to be sure that the right teaching is happening there at the church in Ephesus. Before we jump back into the text, I do want to remind you of an event there in Ephesus we studied previously in our study in Acts. Paul anticipated that some false teaching would arise within the church there and we read about that back in Acts 20. So put your finger there in 1 Timothy and turn back to the left to Acts, chapter 20. In Acts 20 Paul is saying goodbye to the church leaders there in Ephesus. He says, “I have preached to you the whole counsel of God,” and then he tells them why. He says in verses 29-31:
For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
Paul knew that these teachers would arise within the very church itself, men he describes as “savage wolves,” who will “draw away the disciples after themselves.” He warns them for three years by systematically teaching the Scriptures, the whole counsel of God, and so he is following up now with Timothy, encouraging him to do the same, to make sure they’re getting the teaching right there at Ephesus. And as we turn back to 1 Timothy, we need to be sure we’re getting the teaching right here at First Baptist.
As I studied these opening verses this past week, I believe God led me to outline the paragraph with three main things we need to get right in the church. First and foremost we need to be sure we’ve got:
I. The Right Lord (1-2)
We might easily read through the first two verses of the letter and say, “Yeah, yeah. This is all that official introductory stuff in Paul’s letters. It’s just intro stuff.” But as I studied I noticed Paul’s mentioning the Lord Jesus Christ no less than three times in these two opening verses. I think this is intentional. I think Paul wants to make sure we’re all on the same page here, that following the right teaching means we’re following the right Lord. See it again here:
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
It really begins here, making sure that Jesus Christ is the foundation of everything we’re doing as a church. Paul says, “I am an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God,” that is, “I have been royally commissioned by God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.” He writes, verse 2, to “Timothy, a true son in the faith.” You remember that Paul apparently led Timothy to faith in Christ back in Acts 16 in Lystra and brought him along on his second missionary journey.
So he warmly greets Timothy with “Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.” So we won’t dwell on this introduction, but I just wanted you to see how Paul builds his letter on how the church should operate upon the right foundation, upon the right Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we’ve got to have the right Lord. Secondly, we’ve got to have:
II. The Right Leaders (3-7)
And what we mean by the right leaders is that we’ve got to have the right teachers teaching the right message. Paul gets right to this matter in verses 3-4:
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia — remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.
So Paul is saying, “Look, the first order of business is to make sure you’ve got the right leaders, the right teachers, in place there at the church.” And who are the right teachers? They are the ones teaching the right teaching, teaching the pure gospel message of salvation in Jesus Christ. This is one of the main themes in the book of 1 Timothy: Get the teaching right. It’s so important that Paul begins the letter with this topic and he ends the letter with this topic. Look at the very last two verses of 1 Timothy, 6:20-21:
O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.
So Paul says if you’re going to do church “right,” then make sure you’ve got the right leaders, people who are teaching the right stuff, people who are not straying off into a bunch of different directions, but people who are committed to the straightforward teaching of the Bible as it points to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul says in verses 3-4, “Stay there, Timothy.” I don’t know if he was tempted to leave, but Paul says, “Stay there; remain in Ephesus.” I’m urging you to remain in Ephesus there at the church. Why? “So that you may charge—or command—some that they teach no other doctrine.” Paul says, “you’ve got some there—some teachers, two of which he will call by name before the chapter is over—some who are straying from the Gospel. Tell them to stop.” Specifically, what are they doing? Verse 4, they are “giving heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputers rather than godly edification which is in faith.”
The context suggests that these teachers there at the church were imitating the Jewish Rabbis of old, trying to sound wise by giving their “authoritative” interpretations of the Old Testament. These fables seem to have been Jewish myths (Titus 1:14) that they spun out of the genealogies of the Old Testament. So they would engage in this sort of allegorical story telling that had nothing to do with what the text of Scripture actually was teaching. You can read some of this stuff, by the way, in The Book of Jubilees (135-105 BC). It is a mythological re-writing of Jewish history from creation to Mount Sinai.
Paul’s point is that there were these teachers in the church for whom the plain, straightforward teaching of Scripture was not enough. They had to add their own clever interpretations of the passages so that they might sound wise before their hearers. So John Stott refers to these teachers as “speculators,” who “treated the Law (that is, the Old Testament) as a happy hunting ground for their speculations.” They’re engaging in crazy, wild goose chases if you will, talking about things that have nothing to do with the clear meaning of the text.
So Paul says, they’ve strayed from the most basic commandment of love which should motivate their wanting to teach sound doctrine. He writes in verses 5-7:
5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,
6 from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk,
7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
So Paul says these teachers are engaging in “idle talk,” in “fruitless discussion” that has nothing to do with the text at hand. He adds in verse 7 that they, “desire to be teachers of the law, but they understand neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.” What an indictment upon teachers of the Bible!
Now I want you to think about the kind of teaching that goes on from the pulpit here and in our Sunday school classes and in our discipleship training and Bible studies, in every setting where teaching is happening. Are we sticking with the plain, straightforward interpretation of the Bible, or are we “turning aside to idle talk,” looking for the little angle in the text, boastfully trying to sound like we’ve discovered a little nugget that the simple people overlooked?
How many teachers do we have in our congregation? If you now teach or have ever taught a Sunday school class, discipleship training class, or some other kind of Bible study would you raise your hand? Teachers stay with simple, straightforward teaching. The Bible is to be interpreted that way. It is pride that drives a teacher to some fanciful allegorical interpretation. Stick with the plain, straightforward teaching of the Bible. That’s where the power is. Don’t turn aside to “idle talk!”
I recall the day a young preacher visited my Sunday school class I was teaching back before I was in the ministry. I taught a young couples class and he was sitting-in on my class. The guy just sort of had this air about him like he was going to educate all of us simple people. I was teaching on Jesus’ feeding the 5,000 and how they picked up 12 baskets afterwards. This guy interjected, “Do you know why there were 12 baskets left over?” Now the Bible suggests there were 12 baskets left over simply because there was such an abundance of bread that there was enough left to fill a dozen baskets. That’s all the Bible said, but this guy you see was going to educate us to see the little nugget, if you will. So he said, “There were 12 baskets left over to represent the 12 Tribes of Israel.” Oooh! Look, the Bible doesn’t say that. It just doesn’t say that. When somebody gives you one of these esoteric interpretations ask them to back it up in Scripture. Ask them to show you were it says that in the Bible.
Sound doctrine is an important theme in this book of 1 Timothy. We don’t have time to see this right now, but it is a recurring theme here in the book (1:10, 4:6, 4:13, 4:16, 5:17, 6:3-4a, 6:20-21).
Doctrine is a good thing. It simply means right teaching about God. See sometimes somebody says, “Oh, I don’t want doctrine. I just want preaching,” but preaching is inherently doctrinal. It is about teaching the things of God. It’s like this:
How many of you love God? Good. Now, how many of you think you will love Him less if you learn more about Him? That’s doctrine. I love God more the more I know about Him. I started really loving Jesus Christ when I understood the atonement. So doctrine is good. Say, “Doctrine is good.” Doctrine is good.
We’ve got to have the right Lord and the right leaders. Thirdly we’ve got to have:
III. The Right Law (8-11)
By this I mean the right use of the law, the Law of the Old Testament. These teachers at the church of Ephesus were using the Law of the Old Testament incorrectly:
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,
9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate,
Paul is saying that these teachers of the Old Testament there in the church were teaching the Law in a way that eclipsed the Gospel of the New Testament. They were spinning their little yarns and fables from the Old Testament and just completely making a hash of the whole thing. Paul is like, “Look, if you’re going to teach the Old Testament Law, then teach it correctly.” He says in verse 8, “the law is good if one uses it lawfully.” And then Paul gives us what is the main purpose of the Old Testament Law. He says in verse 9, “The law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless.”
This is much like what Jesus says in Mark 2:17, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” I didn’t come to those who think they’re already spiritually okay; already righteous. I came for those who know they are spiritually in need.” This is what Paul means in verse 9: “The law is not made for a righteous person,” for someone who thinks he’s okay, someone like one of these self-focused teachers there in the church, but the law was made for those who know they’re in need; the lawless the insubordinate, and so forth.”
And so Paul lists some 14 different kinds of persons that the law addresses and in case he misses anyone he says in the last part of verse 10, “and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” In some sense he is saying, “if these teachers knew what they were doing then they would show how the Old Testament points out our need for the Gospel. We are all sinners. Every single one of us is somewhere in this list. The primary purpose of the Old Testament Law is to point out our need for grace, for help, for a Savior, for the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is why Paul ends the list in verse 11 with the Gospel. He says all of these things point us to Jesus. All of these sins are contrary to sound doctrine, verse 11:
11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.
So Paul reminds us that the Old Testament Law, like the 10 Commandments was never given as a means to accomplish our salvation. It wasn’t as though you could “keep the 10 Commandments” and then you would enter into heaven when you died. You and I can’t be saved by keeping the 10 Commandments because we cannot keep them. We fail.
We must understand that the Law like the 10 Commandments points us to our need for a Savior. We must feel the Law as a weight, a heavy burden that weighs down upon us. Only then can we appreciate the Gospel.
When I was small I remember one time going to a swim party at somebody’s house. I just remember there were many people in the swimming pool and I had jumped in one time and swam up to the surface, but I couldn’t reach the surface of the water. There were so many people in that pool that I kept bumping my head against the bottom of rafts. I remember becoming frantic, trying to get to the top for air and finally managing to get to the top and breathe. That’s the right imagery of the law. Understood correctly, the law should weigh so heavily upon us that we feel smothered by its standards. We believe we will die unless we are given breath to breathe. So along comes Jesus Christ, our breath of fresh air, who breathes into us the powerful life of the Gospel.
That’s the right use of the Law. The right Law taught by the right Leaders who teach the right Lord—Jesus Christ, our Savior; our Redeemer!
- Stand for prayer.
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