1Timothy 4:13 - The Heavenly Walkie-talkie, with an assist from Gutenberg and Wycliffe and Steve Jobs and Al Gore

”Until I am coming, be paying attention to the reading, to the exhortation, to the teaching.”

-Reading with comments.  This is what Jesus did in Luke 4.16.  It was customary - dating back to the very beginning when God’s people first received His written Law - that when God’s people “syn-ago-ed” (hence our word, synagogue), when they assembled together, they took the time to read passages of Scripture and then comment on them (cf Deuteronomy 31.11; Acts 13.15, 15.21).  Teach about them.  Exhort the hearers to respond and put them into practice.  Comfort and encourage their hearts from the Word as they journey through brokenness in all its forms.  Paul is commanding Timothy to keep doing that there in Ephesus, doing that in a place where the only access people would have to God’s Word would be in the assembly.  No printing press, no family Bibles sitting at home, no Bible app or Bible on CD, no Right Now media.  Just the oral reading in the assembly.  So, don’t miss this.  Don't forget this.  Don't neglect this or let it fall into disrepair.  Don't slack off one iota on this.  Point God’s people to His Word, and to the God of the Word.  Reserve space in your services for this.  Give them the chance to be exposed to it, to get steeped in it, even if only just a little.  Let them hear it.  Help them to focus on it, on it’s life-changing truth, and on it’s Author.  And if their focus is there, by the way, then it is not on me (the preacher) - not on how old (or young) I am, not on my appearance or gifts or abilities or education.  As it should be.  Be getting them into the Word, he says.  Never goes out of style, that Word of God.  For all our progress, all our technology and audio-visual prowess, there is no media more powerful or life-changing than the always-profitable living and active inspired inspirational God-breathed Word of God (Hebrews 4.12, Isaiah 55.11).  Never outdated.  Never irrelevant.  Yes, we do it a grave disservice when we read it and comment on it with so little joy or reverence or enthusiasm or conviction.  When we turn it (and ourselves) into just a bunch of dry do’s and don’ts, weened on so many lemons, wielding a veritable guilt-hammer with which to pound people into greater involvement in this that or the other of my programs.  A bully pulpit.  Performance legalism.  Noses and nickles - when that’s the upshot of our reading-and-commenting then we’ve done the Lord and His Word a grave disservice.  And I would add parenthetically, that when it comes to helping God’s people get into His Word, using contemporary vernacular (i.e. an understandable and accurate modern translation)(cf Nehemiah 8.7-8) certainly can be helpful for the hearers.

-But by the way, excellent litmus test for a preacher, this.  After listening to him do his read-and-comment thing, is your focus more on him (and his programs), or more on the Lord and His Word?  And when all is said and done, it’s not the words - it’s the attitude of our hearts, whether we’re the one reading-and-commenting or the one hearing-and-responding.  How’s your heart?  How’s mine?  What kind of two-way transmitter is it?  Because isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work?  Receive and broadcast, right?  Sea of Galilee not the Dead Sea, right?  Both flowing in AND flowing out.  We all of us long for (or should) and humbly hear and receive the Word (1Peter 2.2, James 1.21-22), and we all of us are (or should be) learning to handle accurately and speak Good News and edifying encouragement to others and one another with the very same Word (2Timothy 2.15, 1Thessalonians 1.8, Colossians 3.16, Ephesians 6.17, 1Corinthians 14.26, Matthew 28.19).  Surely this is what the author of Hebrews has in mind as well (cf Hebrews 10.24-25), believers gathering together to encourage and be encouraged from God’s Word.  It’s a two-way radio, made not in China but in Heaven!  A heavenly walkie-talkie - and while that really fails to capture the incredible breathtaking gloriousness of the situation, you get the idea.  Hopefully. :) Lord-willing...!

-And as an aside - with such mind-boggling access today to the Word of God, not only in print but in all kinds of media - have we not been gifted something of which the ancients could have barely hoped, certainly not imagined, not in their wildest dreams?  Thanks to Gutenberg and Wycliffe and Steve Jobs and Al Gore.  Almost all of us have instant access to God’s Word pretty much all the time, anywhere we are.  And do we not take this oh so for granted?  Be paying attention to the reading, he says.  Constantly.  Why should any of us leave it up to the preacher to do our reading for us?  So many of us are like baby birds, who depend on a parent to regurgitate some morsel of food which they have already ingested.  Isn’t that the level to which many of our parishoners have descended?  Our assemblies are no longer these convenient smaller gatherings where each person engages with the Scripture such that anyone might have something to say to exhort or instruct the group as to the Word of God (small groups, anyone?).  Rather, most of us, we come to the slick big program and we sit and we stand and we sit back down and we listen and the preacher is the one who does pretty much all the heavy lifting, doesn’t he?  He did the reading and the studying, and he does the speaking and the teaching and commenting, and for the masses - their Scriptural aplomb, their degree of adeptness, their level of biblical fitness and confidence can be downright dismal, can it not?  Thankfully there are many glorious exceptions to this trend, but surely, on the whole, when it comes to God’s Word God’s people do leave quite a lot of meat (and bread and milk and honey) on the bone, do we not?  But this is not for the birds.  We ought not be making like baby birds in our intake of heavenly manna.  Let us each one of us join Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15.16), and let’s find God’s Word (daily! cuz we can!) and dig in to the spiritual feast which it offers and indeed is, and may it truly become the joy and delight of our hearts (Psalm 1.2, 19.7-10, 112.1, 119.103), like it was for David, a man after God’s own heart!

1Timothy 4:12 - Back It Up

”No one the youthfulness of you let them be despising, but rather constantly be an example of the faithfuls in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

-In Timothy’s day, wisdom was the purview of the aged.  Time and experience and accumulated gray hair allowed you to accrue the kind of status which garnered respect from your village and earned you a seat at whatever table they sat at, playing chess or backgammon and sipping mint juleps.  Or whatever sage beverage befit their station.  An elder.  Definitely someone older.  Those were the guys you listened to.  They had been around the block a few times.  They could tell you what time it was without even looking at their sundial.  And you wouldn’t be as inclined to listen to a guy like Timothy, cuz he simply hadn’t been around the block long enough to accrue the requisite knowledge and wisdom about life and truth.  A youth.  Even a young man.  You definitely didn’t give them the time of day until they were at least thirty, and even then they definitely still didn’t get a seat at the table.

-Fast forward to the present.  In our day, things have changed.  The progress of civilization.  Or has it?  You can go to college, yes (even do so from your home, online)(women, too!)!  You can go to graduate school and get a doctorate before you’ve lost much of your peach fuzz or even had kids.  But now you’re an “expert”.  Lots of head knowledge, no doubt.  Definitely more driven by numbers.  Hopefully not too puffed up...?  Used to be the youngers sat at the kid's table - now they're the elders and the olders, the silver-hairs have to find their own table.  Usually in a room or a home where they can relive their glory years without slowing down progress.  Put out to pasture - or they put themselves out there early (the beautiful kind covered with lots of short green grass and 18 holes)(and they don’t seem to mind too much).  But too often they’re behind the times.  Slow adapters.  Old dogs, past their prime.  Anymore, it’s almost as if we need to be told not to look down on someone’s agedness.

-But irrespective of age, Paul’s advice to Timothy here is spot on: back it up.  Not as in the clock, but rather, back up your talk with a walk.  Word AND deed.  Exemplary.  Constantly, always be an example of someone who walks the talk.  God has put you where you are for such a time as this, so look to yourself, and make sure that your life lines up with what you believe and say, regardless of whether you are seventeen or seventy.  Regardless of what table He might allow you to sit at.  And on top of that, all that we do and say is to be colored by love and faith and purity.  Words and deeds of love, which bless and build up.  Words and deeds of faith, of trust in the Lord and in His sovereignty and breathtaking goodness.  Words and deeds which are pure and clean and free from any worldly or selfish filth.  And Paul uses the genitive - he is most likely thinking not of those who will see Timothy’s example, he is thinking of the quality of Timothy’s example.  An example OF those who are faithful, as opposed to an example TO the faithful.  In other words, don’t get caught up in your audience and how they see you.  Just focus on always being exemplary, a beautiful example of a believer, of someone who truly follows Jesus, wherever you go.  Back it up.

1Timothy 4:11 - Sheep, Juveniles, Potential Imbeciles, and the Rule of Seven

”Be constantly commanding these and teaching [them].” 

-Okay, this is what you do to an unclean spirit (aka a demon)(Luke 8.29, Acts 16.18).  This is literally delivering a message, yes, but it is giving a directive, an imperative.  This is what the terminator says to the driver of the vehicle he is hijacking.  Get out.  A command which is expected to be obeyed.  Sit down (Matthew 15.35).  Be quiet.  Do this-that-and-the-other (Luke 5.14; Acts 1.4, 4.18; 2Thessalonians 3.12).  Paul apparently finds it necessary to repeatedly command his protege, timid Timothy, to do this very thing throughout this letter (1Timothy 1.3, 5.7, 6.17, as well as here).  Even pastors need someone all up in their grill from time to time!  Pastor Timothy needs to cowboy up and be willing to tell certain folks in this assembly (and maybe all of them) what time it is.  Sheep can be that way, right?  Generally speaking, sheep, being prone to wander and stray and overgraze and get upside-down and all kinds of sideways, also being maybe not the brightest bulbs on the tree at times (hey - Jesus said it - He called us all sheep...!), plus there’s the whole wolves thing, but yeah, sheep need to be told what to do, at least some of the time, certainly more than we human sheep may care to admit.  Sheep need a shepherd, one who will protect them and lay his life down for them, yes, but they need to be led.  Guided, instructed, at times against their instinctive judgment.  Just like children and other juveniles and potential imbeciles.  Now if you’re dealing with a supposedly mature adult, you obviously wouldn’t address them the way you would a child or a juvenile, but sheep are sheep.  And yes, if you’re dealing with an imbecile, there are proverbs which suggest that perhaps we might be wasting our breath, as fools do despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1.7) and hate knowledge (Proverbs 1.22), but isn’t their soul just as precious and just as worthy of rescuing from error and destruction?  Didn’t Paul just talk about that, about saving all men?  Doesn’t Scripture remind us that it is good and desireable to help turn a sinner away from the error of their ways (James 5.19-20)?  Safe to say that no one, not even pastors, are ever past the point of needing an occasional prod in the proverbial pants.

-And I do think that part of the point behind the present tense imperative(s) in this verse is that of repetition.  What do the experts say, it takes how many exposures to get something?  The rule of seven?  Some researchers say it can take up to 17 exposures to learn a new vocabularly word.  The point is, there is no one-and-done when it comes to teaching a dog new tricks.  Or a sheep.  You gotta tell it to them, and then you gotta tell it to them again, and then you gotta tell it to them again.  You might get their attention with a clever 30-second commercial, or a fantastic 30-minute sermon, but like Madison Avenue you’re gonna need to come back to it and come back to it again, and again, and again, and again, and again.  See what I did there?  And you got tired of me doing it - but I think the point is, until folks are somewhat tired of hearing it, they maybe haven’t quite gotten the point of what it is they need to get.  No doubt part of the art of teaching (both pastoring and parenting, to be sure) is how to fulfill the rule of seven without exasperating (Colossians 3.21) or otherwise losing your audience...!

1Timothy 4:10 - Up For Whatever...?

”For unto this we are toiling and agonizing, because we have hoped upon [the] living God, Who is Savior of all men especially of believers.”

-And so here Paul describes his response to Coach Jesus, his all-in full out pursuit of godliness, of becoming more like Him in this life as he prepares to enter the life which is to come - bringing a bunch of others with him, of course!  Toiling, agonizing “unto this”, he says - towards completeness in Christ for both himself and others (cf Colossians 1.29).  He is all in, making every conceivable effort, strenuous and even painful effort - to the point where he completely runs out of strength (at least some of the time).  It is a battle royale, a fight to the finish.  It is a race to be won, a marathon, uphill both ways.

-And it is all - all this all-in-ness - predicated on the Who, the object of our faith, He on Whom we have set our hope.  Jesus.  The Savior of all men.  Resurrected, glorified King of kings and Lord of lords.  The living God.  Don’t miss that - the living God.  Not some idol.  Not some knockoff deity who could never hear or see or speak, much less save.  Not one of the countless other things we constantly put in His rightful place in our hearts and lives (cf Romans 1.22-23).  Not something or anything other than the one true God.  He is alive.  He is real.  He is the One Who made us (along with every thing else in the entire universe), formed us with wondrous splendor and burdened us with glorious purpose.  He is the One Who died to save us, and He is the One with Whom we have to do.  All things are from Him, and through Him, and to Him, FOR Him (Romans 11.36).  Our response, all our toiling and agonizing, should be commensurate with His worth and His sacrifice.  Precious, priceless blood.  Unbounded glory.  Words fail to capture the depth of His wisdom and majesty, and depth of His everlasting love for us.  No sacrifice is too great.  In the words of CT Studd, “If Jesus Christ be God, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him... What is all the fame and flattery worth ...... when a man comes to face eternity?"  CT came from wealth, and found fame as a cricketeer on the English national team, yet once he went all in, he gave away his family inheritance to missions and spent the remainder of his life serving the Lord in China, India, and Africa.  I’m not saying that the Lord calls everyone to give away their family inheritance and become a foreign missionary, but are you and I even willing to do so?  Are we all in with all our might unto the end of ourselves and the end of this wispy short vapor of a life?  Are our hearts so gripped by the Lord and by the weighty implications of eternity that we are all in for whatever?  Bud Light tried to convince us to be up for whatever - how about Jesus?

1Timothy 4:9 - All In and Full Out

”Faithful [is] the word and worthy of all acceptance.”

-And so Paul says, yes, you can trust this.  This word, this statement about godliness and the life to come, it is true and you can indeed take it to the bank.  It will never change, will never fail, will never let you down.  You can stake your entire life on it - and you should (just like the statement about Jesus coming to save sinners in 1Timothy 1.15).  This statement, this truth - the truth about eternity, and the pursuit of godliness, of becoming more like our Savior, is deserving of a worthy response.  Total acceptance.  All in.  No holding back.  No reserve.  No regrets.  And no retreat.

-All acceptance, he says.  ALL acceptance.  Not partial acceptance.  Paul is not asking for a half-hearted response here, friends.  He is not thinking about piddling around making mud pies in the slum.  None of this “I’ll have $3 worth of God please.”  A little dab’ll-do-ya.  No sir.  He wants Timothy - and us - all in.  The verb form of this word is what you do when a guest shows up at your home - you welcome them, embrace them, and bring them into your home (Acts 21.17, 28.30).  All the way in.  You don’t leave them sitting on the porch, or in the foyer.  And in this case, we are embracing and welcoming this eternal truth, and bringing it all the way into our hearts.  We wrap our minds and our hearts and our very lives around this idea of eternity and we go all in.  All acceptance.  We hold nothing back.  We keep nothing at arm’s length.  No giving God or the Great Commisison or the Great Command the heisman.  None of this nauseating lukewarm lipservice (Revelation 3.16).  This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me, says the Lord (Isaiah 29.13, cf Matthew 15.8) - let not any of that be found in our midst.  And yet so often, too often, we have our routine and our rote, our ritual and our tradition, we are going through the motions of devotion but our hearts are elsewhere.  Divided.  Or distracted, with so much manure, so many baubles and trinkets.  Something - or someone - else holds sway: our job, our career, our education, our family, our significant other (or the one we have our eyes on), our house, our car, our stuff, our fitness, our leisure - if you’ll notice, the recurring theme (pronoun) is the first person possessive.  Ours.  Mine.  My life.  And that’s how we roll.  This is the way we roll.  It’s not His.  And I am not His.  Sure, we add a little dash of Jesus for favor, then we go about our merry way, practical atheists many, but few who are all in.  Many of us, we’re holding something back.  It’s like those interminable wind sprints at the end of soccer practice.  You go through the motions, right?  You swing your arms and bob your head and scrunch up your face in a convincing grimace, but you’re not running full out.  Not running with all acceptance.  Maybe you can fool your soccer coach.  But there’s no fooling this coach.  Coach Jesus.  He’s the Playcaller, the One calling the shots.  This is Who we follow, Who we trust, Who we reflect and hope to resemble.

1Timothy 4:8 - Just Do It

”For the bodily discipline toward a little it is profitable, but the godliness toward all things it is profitable, having a promise of life [in] the now and [in] the coming.” 

-Just do it.  Built to make you better.  Start strong, get stronger.  We will.  These are the mantras of today’s disciplined athletes (or at least the shoe companies which cater to them).  This is the mindset of the one who typically is resolved to get better at some sport or form of physical fitness.  But to what end?  What is the profit?  In other words, what’s in it for me?  A natural question.  What am I going to get out of this?  Practically speaking, how does this help me make progress in the things that matter to me?  And when people talk about profit, they are usually thinking about money.  Financial gain.  Financial matters (because finances do matter).  But clearly the subject here is broader than that, since neither of these endeavors are directly tied to income.  

-We’re talking about value, benefit beyond the bank account, apart from the ledger.  It calls into stark relief the question of worth - and what is “worth it”, what is really valuable in life.  Jesus actually did the heavy lifting, He crunched the numbers for us, when He posed the ultimate value question: what does it profit someone if they gain the whole world, and lose their soul (Matthew 16.26, Mark 8.36, Luke 9.25)?  In John’s Gospel, Jesus puts it even more clearly: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (John 6.63).  Zero.  Useless.  A complete waste of time, it would seem.  If and when you run the numbers and do the accounting, it turns out that your soul - that immaterial-yet-not-immaterial part of you and me and each one of us which bears the eternal divine image of the Almighty and which was truly built to last forever, on into eternity - this is by far the most valuable and precious thing in the world.  And you and I and all God’s people each have one!  An eternal soul!  But it’s hard to think in those terms, isn’t it?  It’s difficult to get our finite brains around this concept of forever, of life beyond this life, the here and now.  We’re so tied to the temporal, aren’t we?  Each day is so full of cares, it’s entirely understandable that we get and stay so focused on the immediate, the tangible, the material.  Life in the now cries out for our attention.  Our bodies scream for our attention.  Our families, our homes, our duties, our world clamors for our attention - and to be sure, we should not neglect our bodies nor our worldly obligations.  We should take care of our bodies - Paul does make that concession here.  There is some (little) profit to be realized in physical discipline.  And we can and should strive for excellence in the things we pursue in this life.  But with all our pursuing, we must not neglect nor ever underestimate the importance of the pursuit of godliness, this cultivation of the eternal, our soul.  In fact, we should prioritize it!  This is THE one thing which holds promise for eternity.  

-Eternity.  The life that is to come.  That place and time out of time where we will (or could, or should) truly be all we were created to be.  Not because we did the extra mile or lap or set or rep, not because we took good care of our physical body, but because we took good care of our soul.  We pursued excellence in things spiritual, those which will last forever.  We invested in the kingdom of God.  We learned to handle accurately the eternal inspired words of Scripture, the words of Christ which give life and are able to save and preserve our soul (and the souls of those around us).  We were careful and learned to engage in love and those good deeds which store up treasure in heaven (cf 2Timothy 2.15, 3.16-17; Titus 3.8; 1Corinthians 13.3; Luke 18.28-30).  

-So, let’s do it!  Let’s start strong, and get stronger - in the strength which God supplies by His Spirit - mighty in the Scripture, mighty in good deeds (like Jesus - Who was mighty in word and deed, Luke 24.19, and Apollos, who was mighty in the Scriptures - Acts 18.24).  David had his mighty men, how about Jesus?  Where are His mighty men and women of faith?  Who will step up to the plate, who will go for it in this generation, in the now time?  We will.  By God’s grace, we will.

1Timothy 4:7 - On channeling your inner Nike...

”But the profane and old-woman myths be refusing.  But be disciplining yourself toward godliness.”

-We call them old wives tales.  A traditional belief which is generally regarded as perhaps having no firm base in reality.  I.e. unscientific (and quite possibly incorrect).  Do you know any?  An apple a day...?  Full moon...?  Counting sheep...?  Chicken soup...?  They may actually have some basis in reality, and sometimes they are actually true (grandmas are pretty wise folks), but it is a question of where do you direct your focus and energy?  Do you pay attention to these?  Or to the truths which are able to save your soul?

-And at a fundamental level we are talking about the difference between what is holy and profane - that is the word here (cf Leviticus 10.10, Ezekiel 22.26).  These are not worldly in the sense of their origin - they are worldly in their very nature.  They are that which is to be kept outside the holy place, because they are not holy.  It is the sandals of Moses vs the area surrounding the burning bush.  It is God’s temple and the holy of holies - none of that which is common or unclean or stained by the world may enter - because it will defile that which IS holy and set apart by and for the Lord.  That’s what these myths are - don’t even touch them, Paul says.  Refuse them.  Insist, yay demand to be released from any obligation to them whatsoever.

-Because, the ultimate question here is, what is our goal?  What is the end game of all of this, the ultimate destination?  Paul tells us - godliness.  Godliness.  To be like God, increasingly so.  Bearing His image, in a way which actually resembles Him.  This is what He designed us to do in the first place (Genesis 1.26).  He made us in His image, to be like Him, divine image bearers.  And is there any greater goal, any higher call?  All these other things, these myths and ungodly distractions - that’s precisely what they are, distractions.  Distracting us from our final destination.  Detours.  We are running a marathon, the marathon of marathons, and the route is full of things which can make you stumble or get off track, off the path... Refuse them, Paul says.  Just say no while you’re doing the just do it thing.  Insist on saying no to that which is unhelpful or unnecessary.  That’s the spirit of just do it, is it not?  You say yes to the goal, and to all that it takes to get there, including saying no to a whole lot of unnecessaries.  So discipline yourself, he says.  Channel your inner Nike.  Which means victory.  The goal, the victor's prize.  We are talking about the disciplined and rigorous training of a gymnast or other elite athlete (the Greek verb here is gymnazo).  In fact, anyone who aspires to a lofty goal, be it athletic or in any other arena, must be disciplined.  Dedicated.  Willing to do the hard-work, to sacrifice and focus.  Because in the end, it will all be worth it.  Achieving that lofty goal will be so worth it.  And make no mistake, there is no better higher goal than godliness, than that of becoming more and more like the God Who made us and saved us and is bringing us into His forever family.  Let’s do it...!

1Timothy 4:6 - Beautiful...

”These things putting under to the brethren a beautiful servant you will be of Jesus Christ, being fed by the words of the faith and the beautiful teaching which you have followed.”

-A beautiful servant.  A beautiful servant - of Christ Jesus.  It was said of Him, that He did all things beautifully (Mark 7.37).  Who among us, among those who have truly come to know Him and are following Him, who doesn’t aspire to the same?  To be a beautiful tree which produces beautiful fruit for our Savior (Matthew 7.17-19, 12.33)?  This word meaning "good" in a beautiful sense (kalos) appears more frequently in 1Timothy than in any other book of the New Testament.  Beautiful servant, beautiful teaching.  The Law is beautiful.  Beautiful fight, a beautiful work, reputation, home, managers, service, reputation, creation, works, confession, foundation.

-And so here, Timothy has the chance to actually beautify himself (AND the Lord) by putting these things under the believers at Ephesus.  It is the rock which supports them for whatever it is they are facing (cf Genesis 28.18, Exodus 17.12).  Placing these things, these beautiful truths, this teaching under them (and in them) such that it forms a foundation which equips them to follow Christ more beautifully.

-And yes, make no mistake that these truths, this beautiful teaching, these words of faith - they are food for the soul.  How many of us can miss even one meal before our body bogs down and our service (whatever form it takes) gets a little ugly?  These words of faith - they are life, they are milk and meat and bread.  Bread - the staple food in much of the world (or rice, I suppose).  Daily bread.  Heavenly manna.  Isaiah 55.1-12, Matthew 4.4.  These words of faith, these words of life - they are nourishment and sustenance for the long journey of faith, an arduous uphill journey of unspeakable beauty and joy which begins anew each and every day.  It IS a race, a fight, a battle.  And sadly, most of us, most days, rather than fueling up, we eschew our spiritual carbo-load and insist on running on fumes.  Maybe we grab a small slice of toast, a hurried glance at Christ.  That and the preacher’s regurgitations on Sunday morning.  Not nearly enough to put us in a position to run with the quickness, to run in such a way as to win, much less effect radical transformation.  If ours were a real endurance event, surely many of us would be hitting the wall.  Barely making it, crawling to the finish.  Surely many of us - if we could get an honest glimpse of our spiritual selves in the mirror would see something rather more emaciated than robust and beautiful.  No, it starts right here, right at the beautiful feet of Jesus, the very spot which Mary chose to take up - He is the Bread of Life, and unhurried time at His feet, feasting on His words of life - this is where it all begins (and ends).  Or should.  Each and every day.

-And let us not miss the value added for Teacher Timothy as well.  The participle makes it pretty clear that there is nourishment here for him as well.  You wanna learn something?  Try teaching it to others.  Can’t teach what you don’t know.  Before you can effectively teach others, you generally need to learn it, you need to go there yourself.  It usually doesn’t go as well to try and take someone someplace where no one has gone before - unless you are Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise.  Maybe if your mission is seek out new worlds and civilizations, but not if you’re a teacher/pastor (or a discipler).  Timothy has been learning and following these beautiful teachings for some time (he’s had to, really) - and these have fed (and continue to feed) his soul as well.  He has learned them and immersed himself in them such that he is able to teach others also (cf 2Timothy 2.2), to do so beautifully, the doing of which is also cementing and reinforcing and strengthening these truths in his own heart and life.  But the quality of the teaching is vital - next verse...

1Timothy 4:5 - In here...

”For it is being made holy through [the] Word of God and prayer.”

-These createds, these things which God made - various foods, the institution of marriage, etc - they are good!  What they are is essentially morally neutral.  They are not at all unclean in and of themselves (cf Acts 10.15, Romans 14.14), but neither are they particularly holy or salvific - partaking or participating with them does not earn us any better standing in God’s eyes (1Corinthians 8.8).  God’s kingdom is not “out there”, in what I eat or drink or in any of that of which I partake.  It doesn’t depend on whether or not I relate to any created thing per se.  Again, it begins “in here”, right here in my heart.  It’s about how I relate to the Lord, in my heart - everything else flows from that.

-What I think Paul is saying here, though, is that created things can in fact take on a kind of holiness, a special set-apartness to the Lord based on what He says about them in His Word (that HE made them and that they ARE good), and when I then receive them with prayers of thanksgiving.  I gratefully acknowledge any and all of these as created by God, as His good gifts and as His provision of all that I need for today and for a life of faith and service.  And in acknowledging them, I am acknowledging Him.  This is the daily exercise of the redeemed, who retain in mind the(ir) all-Good Creator and who strive with all their might in that power which He so abundantly supplies to worship and serve Him, the gloriously incorruptible God (cf Romans 1.23, 25, 28), Who is blessed forever.  Amen.

1Timothy 4:4 - All Good, and The Secret Sauce of the Vacuous Fickle Heart

”Because every created thing of God [is] good and nothing rejected being received with gratitude.”

-It’s all good.  Literally.  Everything God makes is good.  The primary problem is not with the world, or the things in the world - it is with my heart.  All that is in the world, all that which I am not supposed to love (cf 1John 2.15-17) - the problem comes in when I attach my vacuous fickle heart to those.  When I put other things in God’s rightful place in my heart and try to find my security and significance and ultimate pleasure or even my salvation in something other than Him.  When and if I begin to hold up a created as that which will help me earn better standing in God’s eyes.  When I worship and serve the created rather than the One Who created (Romans 1.25).  He created it all, and made it all very good.  Real good, yes.  But He is ultimate, the ultimate Source of all goodness and joy.  He is all good, breathtakingly so, and He is the ultimate destination for my heart.

-And it’s all good, Paul says.  God has given us all good things to enjoy (1Timothy 6.17).  Isn’t that the heart of a father?  Doesn’t dad want to give good gifts to his children, to shower them with love and with things to enjoy, to make them happy?  Isn’t that the heart of our heavenly Father?  Isn’t that what He did for His children Israel?  He brought them into a land of milk and honey.  Yes, it ultimately turned sour (Deuteronomy 6.11), as He said it would, but the problem is never with the good thing.  The problem begins in my vacuous fickle heart, in my heart which stops short... of gratitude (cf Romans 1.21).  That’s exactly what Paul is saying here.  The problem is not with marriage or with food or with any other earthly (created) thing.  God created all these things - not to be avoided like the plague or as means to curry favor with Him but rather to be enjoyed - WITH gratitude!  With a heart which acknowledges the all-good God Who made and provided.  A heart which gives Him His proper place and honor.  Gratitude is the secret sauce.  It’s the key which unlocks the blessing of heaven on my enjoyment of the blessings of heaven.  And it’s not my words - it’s my heart.  Anyone can say thank you with their lips but not really mean it in their heart (cf Isaiah 29.13).  It’s my heart which is the heart of the matter.  God wants our hearts.  He wants to bless us and shower His goodness on us, yes - but it is a two-way transaction, one where we consummate our joy as we return thanks to Him, where we acknowledge Him as the Provider, the all-good Source, the Good and Great Creator of all we enjoy.  That’s worship.  That’s the work we were made to do.  Let us not stop short in our worship, in our gratitude.  In everything give thanks - this is what God wants (1Thessalonians 5.18)!  Thank you, Lord...

1Timothy 4:3 - On Smacking and Whiffing and Totally Missing the Point...

”...hindering to be marrying, to be abstaining from foods, which God created unto shared with thanksgiving by the [ones] faithful and having come to know the truth.”

-These apostates, these ones standing away from the faith, from the truth, from Jesus - there’s no telling what kinds of things they might put forth in their self-styled Gospel...

-For starters, you can’t get married.  And you can’t eat certain foods.  You find traces of this in the ascetic teaching of the strict Essenes sect (which predates the Church), vestiges in both Gnosticism (which Paul addresses in Colossians 2.20-23) and Catholicism (where no priest or monk or nun can marry), and some might suggest even in Paul (where he suggests in 1Corinthians 7 that it is better not to marry, altho his is not a prohibition).

-Ultimately, whatever they put forth, all of these things have one thing in common, however.  They smack of works.  Trying to better oneself or curry divine favor and earn better spiritual standing primarily through self-effort.  And anytime you get a whiff of works in somebody’s teaching, in their approach to God, you can know for certain that they have not yet come to fully understand the truth.  The truth about God’s grace in Christ.  This was the very thing with which the Pharisees struggled (Matthew 23.23-24).  These ones prop up various things to do or avoid, as if the way to be clean comes through what takes place on the outside, or what you put in your body from the outside, when in fact clean begins in the heart.

-And so does worship.  And gratitude.  What we do find in Paul is a heart to receive and enjoy what God has created with a grateful heart.  God ordained marriage and blessed that estate to be joyfully shared by a man and a woman (Genesis 2.24, 1.27-28).  He designed us (and calls most of us) to start families which enjoy His breathtaking goodness and then to be a part of spreading the knowledge and celebration of His breathtaking goodness to families everywhere (Genesis 12.2-3).  AND He created all kinds of foods to be joyfully shared by all people (Genesis 1.29).  It is Who He is, and what He does, and these ascetics are totally missing the point.  Next verse...

1Timothy 4:2 - Desensitized and Pretender-ized

”...in hypocrisy of liars, their own conscience having been branded...”

-Hypocrisy.  Hypocrisy.  Duplicity.  Affectation.  Pretense.  These are the pretenders, the actors.  These perhaps do not appear to be directly opposing the Truth, in fact they are pretending to believe the Truth, playing a part in a play, one written by the devil in hisself.  You say one thing, but that is not really who you are, what you believe.  You’re just acting - which in matters of truth makes you a liar, just like that one who was a liar from the beginning (John 8.44).  The father of lies.  Begetting lies is what he does - and what you are doing.  You don’t really believe that.  Your lifestyle doesn’t match your words.  Living a lie.  You hypocrite.  I know, right?  That’s a heinous indictment, isn’t it?  Cuz nobody likes a hypocrite, least of all, Jesus (Matthew 15.7-8, 24.48-51, and the entirety of 23.13-30).

-These pretenders, these deluded deceivers, their conscience is branded.  A brand is the result of a searing red-hot iron being applied to the skin such that it leaves a massive scar, skin covered over by thick tissue which basically has no feeling to it.  The nerves have been destroyed.  Desensitized.  This is akin to what happens to our conscience, that part of our soul which is supposed to have moral sensitivity, designed to tell us what is right and what is wrong.  And failure to heed - repeatedly ignoring my conscience in favor of a lie - gradually desensitizes it.  Eventually I can get to the place where the lie no longer bothers me.  It’s okay to live a lie.  I can lie to your face and not feel even the slightest twinge of remorse.  I may even lose all awareness of the truth, unaware that what I am saying and how I am living is straight-up hypocrisy.  But wait, there’s more...

1Timothy 4:1 - A little bit of Martha...

”But the Spirit explicitly is saying that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons...”

-Some will fall away.  These are the "apostates” (that’s the word in the Greek).  Luke 8.13.  They may have truly trusted in Jesus, or perhaps they have only superficially believed something(s) about Him, but (for now at least) they are distracted.  They are not paying attention to sound doctrine, to the truth of the Gospel, they are not paying attention to Jesus, in fact.  No, they are paying attention to something “different” (1Timothy 1.3), something concocted by deceiving spirits and demons, those beings and that mindset which is opposed to God and His truth.  The spawn of hell, if you will.  

-Some will fall away, Paul says.  The truth is, there is a desperate battle being waged, every day, and nobody is ever exempt from the wiley wiles of the enemy, his fiery darts and deceitful slings and arrows (Ephesians 6.16), false accusations, discouragements.  Nobody is ever so experienced or educated or on such a spiritual roll as to be spiritually invincible, immune to these attacks.  Nobody.  The spiritual casualty list is littered with names of the illustrious and (in?)famous, of those thought to be impervious.  Every day, there is a prowling lion (1Peter 5.8) ready to roar and do his darndest to frighten and distract and defeat those who would follow the Lamb of God in spiritual triumph (2Corinthians 2:14).

-Some will fall away.  To a shepherd, this has to be one of the saddest verses in all of Scripture.  Which was certainly the heart of our Savior, the Good Shepherd (John 6.39, 17.12, 18.9) - He lost none but the one now referred to as the son of destruction (that one who sadly was destined to fall away).  That is certainly the heart of the good Father, Who is daily looking and longing and waiting for His prodigal son(s and daughters!) to return home.  Yet some WILL fall away, Paul says, in later times.  A future fact.  Elsewhere he mentions a latter-day “Apostasy” - a specific time of falling away (2Thessalonians 2.3).  The word means to stand away, a separation - it could be a physical distancing (cf Luke 2.37) or more of a relational/functional distancing.  It is a departure, a state of spiritual revolution, deserters, a revolt of the worst kind.  It does beg the question of whether or not these who thus distance themselves from the truth of the Gospel, esp in whatever later time(s) to which Paul is referring, will have actually trusted in Christ to begin with.  Without taking the time to unpack that here (this author firmly believes that those who trust in the Good Shepherd, who have heard and responded to His voice and are truly called of God can never be separated nor even separate themselves from Him - Romans 8.1, 8.29-30; John 10.27-29), it is safe to say that all these ones thus distanced need to make sure they have trusted in Christ and then follow and obey Him, each and every day.

-And needless to say, you and I and all God’s people (and even those who are not) are all at risk, at risk of being distracted and distanced from the Truth and from what is truly most important - just like Martha (Luke 10.40-41).  She was distracted from the purity and simplicity of devotion to Christ (2Corinthians 11.3) - by something good, in fact.  She was so focused on serving (that’s what she did - John 12.2), working so very hard to host the Lord in her very own home, but she got so caught up in it that she somehow found herself distanced from Jesus, unable to focus on Him first and foremost.  Surely we all have a little bit of Martha in us, surely we are all prone to those benign distractions and dalliances which can redirect our focus away from Jesus, away from pure and simple devotion to Him.  And then there are those demonic distractions of more monstrous and disastrous proportions which can really upset the proverbial oxcart.  Next verse...

1Timothy 3:16 - The First Great Creed

”And confessedly, great is the mystery of the godliness: He Who was revealed in flesh, He was justified in spirit, He was seen by angels, He was proclaimed in [the] nations, He was trusted in [the] world, He was taken up in glory.”

-The truth which the church is to support is unpacked right here, the first confession, the first great creed of the Christian faith, if you will.  The truth with the premise that there is a God, and He made us - to know Him and be like Him, to be in a relationship with Him and bear His image and the truth about Him to the ends of the earth.  The truth that the means to this end, the way back to this original intent and design which was severed and seemingly so irretrievably broken way back in the garden, our grand return to godliness (God-likeness) is centered and founded on a Person.  Found in a Person, this One Whom God sent to earth to be the Savior of the world.  God the Son, infinite and eternal - revealed in the flesh, stepping out of eternity and into the womb of a young Jewish virgin.  A great, inexplicable and mysterious miracle.  

-Justified in spirit - this could mean several things.  The Spirit Who descended on Jesus at His baptism, vindicating Him and confirming that He was indeed God the Son.  The power of God’s Spirit annointing Him to heal and work wonders and set spiritual captives free (which is also at work in us, I might add).  The very Spirit which the crucified Christ committed to His heavenly Father (Psalm 31.5, Luke 23.26), Who subsequently did not abandon Him to the grave but raised Him up on the third day (Psalm 16.10, Acts 2.31-32).  The resurrected Lord Whose same Spirit He pours out on us and will not only give life to our mortal bodies (Acts 2.33, Romans 8.11) but also a new heavenly quality of life which puts an authoritative stamp of authenticity on the Message of this life in the present.

-Seen by angels, these powerful and frightening heavenly messengers.  Angels signify that the next great chapter in God’s great story is about to unfold.  Anytime they are present, God is up to something.  And He is definitely up to something in the person of His Son.  Angels no doubt saw God the Son in eternity past, they saw and sang about His birth (Luke 2.13-14, when He was first revealed in the flesh), they ministered to Him after His temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4.11) and during His struggle in Gethsemane (Luke 22.43), they saw and announced His resurrection (Matthew 28.2, 28.5; Luke 24.23; John 20.12) - they surely have been eagerly watching and longing to see this story unfold from the very beginning (1Peter 1.12).

-Proclaimed in the nations.  From a tiny corner of Palestine, this truth, this Message of God’s Son has gone out into all the earth.  Literally, according to Paul (Romans 1.8,; Colossians 1.6 1.23; 1Thessalonians 1.8).  Now I suppose that technically not ALL nations had yet heard at that point - it hasn’t yet happened in our day, although that clearly is the stated goal of this heavenly enterprise (Matthew 28.19).  Yet this Message has indeed gone forth, and had done so even in Paul’s day, and was being received and changing lives and societies everywhere.  Jesus was being believed on not just by a handful of devoted fanatics from Galilee but in every place where the Message had gone.

-Finally, He was taken up in glory.  His disciples stood there watching as Jesus, some 40 days after He had risen from the grave, one day was physically taken up into heaven itself.  Right before their very eyes, He began to ascend up into the sky into the clouds.  And not surprisingly, two angels then appeared, declaring that Jesus would return someday in the same way He had just ascended (Acts 1.9-11).  The Ascension is not simply a stand-alone miracle, it is a divine marker that Jesus is definitely coming back.  One day, at the end of time, when the time to proclaim and believe the Message has run out, Jesus will return in the same way He was taken up - in great power and glory (Mark 13.36).  He is coming back, this Son of Man, one day soon, at the end of the age.  The New Testament is replete with this message (Revelation 1.7, 1John 2.28, 2Peter 3.12, James 5.7, John 21.22, Luke 21.27, Matthew 26.64).  This is Gospel Truth - you can take it to the bank.

1Timothy 3:15 - The Heavenly Hokey Pokey and the Mother of All Hurricanes

”But if I may be slow-going, in order that you may be having come to know how it is necessary in [the] house of God to be conducted, which is [the] assembly of [the] living God, [the] pillar and support of the truth.”

-Sometimes, you’re in a pickle.  Or a pinch.  You can’t be there physically, and since you’re better safe than sorry you might need to communicate something important via distance.  Via some written form of communication.  It’s not ideal, but in a pinch this’ll have to do.  Albeit temporary.  That was Paul’s situation precisely.  There was a chance he was going to be delayed, he wasn’t going to be able to make it to be F2F (face-to-face) with his protege Timothy as quickly as he planned.  In other words, for a temporary time being.  So he is putting some things of import to pen.  Or whatever preferred writing instrument was available to him in that day...

-Conduct in the house of God.  God’s family, His people.  The Greek word literally means to turn yourself (or something else) about.  It’s God’s Hokey Pokey!  It is how you conduct yourself, your manner of life, how you turn yourself about in the place/season wherein you are living.  In this context, Paul has put Timothy (and those he appoints) in charge of helping this church in Ephesus, God’s household, learn His heavenly Hokey Pokey.  And Timothy is the divinely appointed dance instructor.  He needs to know (or be reminded of) the particulars of how life in the church should best be lived, how the church needs to function.  So Paul’s end game here is to get some kind of church playbook into Timothy’s hands.  He needs the user’s manual.  And since those are usually written, Paul is not really on ground which is all that shaky.

-But Timothy definitely needed to have a user’s manual, cuz this was no small appliance.  Not some modern day plug-and-play device like an iMac, something which will run itself or run through all the particulars of how to function automatically.  We are talking about God’s family, the assembly of the living God.  This is no Lions Club, no Rotary Club Auxiliary.  We’re talking about a living and breathing heavenly entity comprised of many individual living and breathing entities.  Unique entities all, destined for glory, wonderful impossibles, fearfully and wonderfully made, to be sure - altho admittedly sometimes you get more of the fearful and less of the wonderful.  It’s the family of God, His children, the bride of Christ, on the path to glorious perfection yet full of warts and brokenness.  Not yet perfect - yet God’s children nonetheless, precious and redeemed, of incomparable worth - this is indeed a lofty calling, both for those who stand before and lead and for all who belong.  And as it is with any family, any household, there are rules of the house.  There are do’s and don’ts.  There are how-to’s and best practices for those who manage and for all who are members of this household.

-And to that end, this entity which we call the Church of the living God has been entrusted with the Truth of God.  Both the guardians of Truth, and the conveyors thereof.  Paul calls it the pillar and support of the truth.  What exactly does he mean by that?  Let not many of you become teachers (i.e. of God’s Truth) - there is a high standard, a high bar set in place for those who would teach God’s Word to His people (James 3.1).  Any such teacher must be diligent both in learning and in communicating this Truth to others (2Timothy 2.15).  Some suggest that God’s Truth might somehow fall were the Church to not otherwise support it - I don’t think that is what Paul is suggesting here.  The Truth of God is eternal - revealed both in the words of Scripture as well as in the glories of the created universe (cf Romans 1.18-20).  This is more about a lofty calling than about the potential frailty of Truth.  To speak to others about God, to presume to instruct them and guide them in the ways of the Almighty, is truly a weighty and sobering prospect.  Or ought to be.  Because we are talking about ultimate realities and final destinies, eternal life and death.  We are talking about the healthy and proper functioning of a lighthouse in the middle of a mother of a spiritual hurricane to end all hurricanes - a brilliant beacon of truth (AND love!) to a world adrift in darkness.  Supporting truth and dispensing love - tangible expressions and confirmations of both, to our neighbors and to the nations.  The stakes could be no greater, the call could be no higher.  Bearing God’s truth, His love - His image - to the world.  Best get real familiar with that User’s Manual...