First Timothy Lesson 3 start

So we'll try to, actually, I guess I wasn't even really thinking about it, but we do have quite a few new participants this morning in First Timothy. So maybe we'll kind of do a really, really brief kind of catching up to speed on where we've been. The good news is we're not too far in yet, so not a lot to catch up on. Lesson three, right? Lesson three and there are nine questions and we'll hopefully we'll hopefully get through half of them this week and half of them next week. Um, so because then I'm in the Philippians class the week after that. So, so the pressure's on. So Courtney, keep it down. Okay. Uh, okay. So, um, So just kind of get a little bit of a running start.

And of course, we're all somewhat familiar with with First Timothy. But of course, this is written by Paul to Timothy, who he refers to as his true son in the faith. And Timothy had been left by Paul with a specific job in in the church at Ephesus. So we find that Paul really quickly gets down to business here. He reminds Timothy to instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. What was going on at Ephesus was that there were certain men teaching strange doctrine.

This is a long Greek word for strange doctrine. which is a compound of heteros and didaskalos. So heteros, we recognize that word from the way we use it in English, hetero, it means another of a different kind. And then didaskalos is teaching or doctrine. So we get the word didactic from didaskalos. So heteros and didaskalos together, These men were teaching things that were not the same kind as the biblical kind of teaching we could if we want to say it like that. Um, so extra, extra biblical teaching and, and what exactly was that extra biblical teaching?

Well, um, I think Bob mentioned here, uh, myths and endless genealogies. Um, and, and we talked about that in, in, in Courtney's lesson last time. And, uh, And there's an interesting connection with those words and the Gnostic ideas that were popular at that time. The genealogies, apparently in the plural, is a reference to the Gnostic concept of the orders of the eons, or you've heard probably about the emanations, kind of the degrees of separation from God.

We won't get too much into that here. We're just trying to do a quick review. But what Paul says here is that this kind of teaching leads to mere speculation. That's the way the NASB has it. But I think it might be helpful to understand that as questions, confusions and debate. In other words, that kind of teaching results in exactly the opposite of faith. Right, because faith is a sure confidence in what we know to be true. The result of this unbiblical teaching is uncertainty and confusion. So very, very contrary.

So so that kind of gives us a real, real quick catch up in the first few verses. We're going to be looking at verses five through seven in the next probably two weeks, although we won't get out of verse five today in all likelihood. So Does someone want to read? Why don't we just read from verse 3 down to the end of verse 7, and then we'll start in on verse 5.

As I urge you upon departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Or some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussions, wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assurance.

Great. Assertions. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, so okay so verse five, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith That's the nasb translation. So so question one. What is the gist of the word instruction here? Any thoughts on that It's pretty basic.

Does anybody have um the new king james? Uh, I know I know king james new king james gives uh the word command there Um, i'm not sure about all the translations. Um The first note that we've got here is that the word instruction or command is not the word entale, which is the word used when speaking of a commandment such as the Ten Commandments. That would be a common word for the word commandment.

The word is perangelia. Do you hear any do you hear the word? Angola's in their parangalia kind of sounds like our word for evangelism, right you and gallium And that's the word for messenger right or Or angel which are who are messengers, right? So, um parangalia means an announcement or the giving of a message One of the things I think that's that's interesting here and I And you notice it in the NASB. I didn't check other translations, but I checked a few, I guess.

But it says, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart. And that threw me off at first for a little bit because I thought, well, what what instruction is he referring to? Our instruction? And in the Greek, it really just has the definite article there. So it would be better translated, maybe the goal of the instruction or this instruction. Um, Wiest has it translated as the objective, which is the aim of the aforementioned charge.

So, um, so which particular instruction is he referring to? It refers back to verse three, um, which is the, it's just, which is the charge that Paul just reminded Timothy of. So, um, Perangelia, in verse five, is the noun form of the verb in verse three, perangelo. So verse three says, so that you may instruct, perangelo, certain men not to teach strange doctrines. And now Paul is telling Timothy what is the goal or the purpose or the aim for giving that instruction to these false teachers.

Does that make sense? What do you think about that? What did you say the goal was? So, OK, well, we're going to ask question number two. But what Paul means here in verse five in the beginning there, the goal of our instruction What he's getting out there is, what we could do, let's read verse three, drop out verse four, and read verse five, and I'll translate it with this instruction, and I think you'll catch the connection.

So verse three says, as I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. And the goal of this instruction is love from a pure heart, and so forth. So the goal of instructing these men, and this is getting into question two now, what is the goal? But the goal is love from pure heart. But the instruction refers back to the instruction that he had given, that he had urged Timothy to give. So Paul had urged Timothy to instruct certain men, And then in verse 5, he's telling them, and the goal of instructing these certain men is love. That's what we're aiming at, Timothy. Would you say that the word, like in the New King James, It says the purpose of the commandment. Is the commandment kind of misleads, or is it a commandment?

Well, it's probably a little bit off. I mean, it's a message or an announcement. I mean, if you read it in verse three, that you may command certain men not to teach strange doctrines. I mean, that that is the case. It's an instruction. It's, you know, an imperative instruction. You know, we talked about that when we were there. You know, you you are to instruct them not to.

That would be a that would be a command. But but it's it's just in verse in verse five here with the goal of the command. We want to see if that's connected back to verse three. So what Paul is talking about here is that, by the way, Timothy, as you're doing this, as you're giving these false teachers this instruction, this is what you're aiming at. You're aiming at love.

Miles, I guess trying to go back to the verses I was picking up, where you're not even to pay attention, you're not even supposed to turn your eye, you're not even supposed to, you know, give anything to the false doctrine. I'm wondering if this isn't that he's, the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart.

Is he just kind of giving Timothy, this is going to be hard, you're not supposed to even pay attention, you're not supposed to give anything to this. So he's telling about his instruction, is kind of harsh, that you're not supposed to pay, not even give these guys a time of day, basically, after one or two warnings, some of the other verses we looked at. But is this kind of giving him You're doing this out of love for loving the body there. He's trying to give him some kind of comfort or instruction that you've got to be harsh on these guys. You're not supposed to even give them any credence or anything.

As we said, once the doctrine gets in, it becomes exponential growth and deviation from the true doctrine. So I think, to me, it's almost like I'm commanding you to do this, but it's in love, the reason why you're doing this. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Courtney, are you calling this tough love?

Yeah, basically, kind of, but just reassuring them that this isn't just being mean to not give these people who get on endless genealogies or myths and fables, you're not supposed to even – that word that we looked at about paying attention, it's like you don't even look that way. You don't give them anything. It's kind of tough, and it's tough love, but I think it's just trying to say, you're doing this out of love. You're not doing it because you're just being a mean dictator.

Yeah. So Miles, if you allow speculation of weird things like this, you're going to end up with divisions in the church. And that is the opposite of love. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a good point, because I think that the issue of sound doctrine is cohesion. The resurrected life of Christ is a unifying force, not a dividing one. And so I think the message here is the proper instruction in verse 5 will have the effect of drawing us together as believers in love for one another. Yeah, I know. It's so easy to get off on some side issue. But here we're talking specifically about something that's not even biblical and turn into a divisive debate. you know, it goes on and on and on. It's happened over and over in the church for centuries, you know, and churches divide over things that are completely not even issues of the word of God, you know.

And so that mere speculation or question, confusion and debate winds up in division and hostilities rather than love and that's brought out in 2 Timothy 2.23, but refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. Exactly. That's exactly it. That's good.

So what is, we've talked about this already, but question number two, what is the goal or object aimed at? I think we've already answered this, right? The word goal or end is telos, which means the aim or purpose of the thing, or the object of it, or the objective, I should say, the objective of it. So as we already said, that's the purpose of instructing these men not to teach unbiblical doctrine, and love is the goal. So really these first three questions all kind of blend together. because in talking about the, um, what is the aim? Question number three is what is the, what is the working of God through his word to produce?

Um, and, uh, and, and so let's do any, any comments on, on number two. I mean, that's kind of where we're, we already handled that here, but, um, talk about love and unity. Um, we're going to get, I think, well, I think really it's in question three where I've got kind of the most content here in terms of what is this, this love. Um, I think that that's what, um, that's what this instruction is, is, is aiming at. So why don't we get, why don't we get into question number three, unless we have any other thoughts there. Don't want to step right over question two. We just kind of combined those.

So, um, But the word for love there is agape, not a real surprise. We're fairly familiar with that. Wyss translates that word agape as divine and sacrificial love. So I think if we spend a little bit of time here on the word love and on the love that the Father intends um, for the church. Um, it's, it's kind of, uh, instructive here. So, um, so this divine and sacrificial love, um, I really think is perhaps the primary thing that, that the father wants to produce in the church.

Um, I was reminded of, uh, at the, uh, at the last supper when Jesus was preparing his disciples, for this, this new, this whole, this new thing, you know, uh, unnamed there even, but, but we know that it was the church. Right. And, um, and in John 13, uh, 34 and 35, Jesus begins to, to introduce something, uh, something new. He says a new commandment.

I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you. That you also love one another by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another And and the false doctrine being taught at Ephesus was like we said leading to debate and division in the church rather than a focus on the administration or dispensation of God right from from verse 4 there and And we think about that, what is the dispensation or the household management? That's the word dispensation. What is the household management that God has in mind for the church? How would you describe that? How is it that God wants the church to function? Or what is his main purpose or aim for the church, the body of Christ.

Put it into your own words and I'll give you my... Am I going too far astray if I refer to John 17? No, that'd be perfectly in line. Go for it. 21 says that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. And he goes on and talks about the glory that he's been given, he's going to give them, I in them, you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. So the instruction that Paul the Apostle has been given to instruct the new believers with a goal towards this unity, this oneness between the Father, the Son, and the Bride of Christ. Yeah. And that's where the love, that's where the love abides, and that's where we abide in it, I think. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. No, that perfectly fits. Yeah.

I was curious, like, so there's two different sides to what Timothy was being instructed to do, right? There's the side of protecting the body, and then there's the side of instructing those who are teaching things that are strange, and et cetera, and verse four. And so there's the tough love, but then there's the love of the body that he has. So the goal is to provide a love within the unity of the body, to preserve the unity of the body. And there is the main aspect of what this instruction provides is unity in Christ that the body shares together. You got to imagine that those folks, and those are my friends that you just instructed not to teach those things. I know them. That hurts that they're not allowed to at least share their opinions anymore.

Well, we do this because of our love for the body. We do this for unity in Christ. We don't do it because we don't like that person or we don't like Yeah, we don't like them. It's because it, it provides the, uh, what was the word? Divisive. Yeah. And that's not the love that the body has for one another. Yeah, that's great. That's really good, JD. Absolutely. Um, the, the goal, the goal is to realize the unity that we have, you know, and it's, It's all inclusive.

I mean, it's between Timothy and those certain men, you know, out of a love for them. He's going to instruct them in this way. It's between, you know, those men and the others in the body, you know, it's so that doctrinal clarity remains so that there's a true unity, a fellowship around the Word of God and not not some other issue or some false divisions in the body. I mean, we know, obviously, that true doctrine does divide. It does separate as well. I mean, if people are going to come down on the wrong side of a true biblical doctrine, at some point, if they won't be quiet about it, there's going to have to be a separation over it, however that plays out.

But the goal is always with the unity of the body of Christ in mind and a deep and sacrificial love towards one another. I found it in Ephesians, where he's giving the different gifts, evangelists, pastors, teachers, in Ephesians 4, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith in the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure and stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. The goal is the unity of faith. and hopefully the fullness of Christ is in the body. Yeah, isn't that something? Until we all attain to the unity, there's a unity that we have. It's ours, that's part of our position in Christ, and yet there's a growing, right?

There's a attaining to the unity, and that's kind of along the lines of what I wrote down here, that conforming, that the life of the Son would be reproduced through us, that we would come to mirror His very image Um, you know, right now in this, uh, in this time. So, um, very good. Yeah.

Um, I wrote down here, the Lord doesn't intend for us to be a debate team. Um, Jesus, Jesus didn't say that all will, um, I got a typo here. What did I mean to say? Um, I, I said, Jesus, Jesus didn't say all will know you are my disciples because you are great debaters. He said all men will know you are my disciples if you love one another right and yeah, what is? sadly so much So I mean look just look at you know Christian YouTube videos or whatever. I mean like there's so much Debating and proving my point. I mean, yeah, we do need to be doctrinally clear.

We do need to be able to expound the scriptures clearly and and and and to defend them against error, but I suppose in a sense, but um Although really, Scripture doesn't need our defense. It's fully capable. God's Word is sufficient to stand on its own two feet.

But there is so much division and dissension and debate. Again, like I said, not that we don't draw distinctions. We stand firmly with the Word of God. The thing that the Lord is working to produce is not intellectual giants, but those who have the life of Christ, a deep love for the body of Christ. Miles, one more thing.

Yeah, go ahead. Back in John 17, verse 17 says, sanctify them or set them apart in the truth, your word is truth, so it fits with what you're saying. And then in 19, the Lord Jesus says, for their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. So it's interesting that the Lord Jesus in truth and are setting apart unto him all go in the same sentence.

Yeah. Yeah, that's so great, yeah. That we are set apart as the body, we are set apart, all of us corporately are set apart unto Christ. And the truth is what is critical to that, right? Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. That's what, um, that's, that's the means by which we, we have been set apart, right? Faith in, in the truth, faith in his word. Um, that's great. Yeah.

Um, I wrote down here as well that this, this love is not just, um, just any old love, you know, um, Jesus said, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. Um, that's, uh, That is, that's where, you know, that we get that concept of divine self-sacrificial love.

This is a love that we are not capable of in and of ourselves. This is, this is a love that the world knows nothing of. They can't, they don't have, um, they've never, um, they never come to know this love. Um, Only those who have come to know the father and to know his son have ever even tasted of this love.

And that's the love that we are to have for one another, which demands, absolutely requires that a life other than my own be the one that is lived out and expressed through me. Um, I can't, I can't do this. I can't produce that kind of love. It's not, it's not my love. Um, so any, any other thoughts on that?

We're, uh, we can move, we can, we can move into the next part of verse five here. Um, because Paul expands on this love, um, by telling us where it is sourced. So the verse, and then we'll ask question four here, but the verse says, the goal of the instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. And that word from is ek, which is translated by the NASB as from, but it might be better understood as out of. So I'm not sure which translations have that, but out of a pure heart and a good conscience. It's referring to, these are all genitives, the heart, conscience, and faith. So it's telling us what this love is flowing out of or sourced in. And of course, there are the three things, a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

So question number four says, can you define the word good? That's a great question. That sounds really, really simple. I think I have a full page of notes on that. Of course, the word good is modifying the noun conscience, right? And the Greek word there is agathos. It appears 102 times in the New Testament. Obviously that's a common sort of word, right? This is good, that is good, and so it's common. But I thought it might be helpful to look at a few verses where the word good is used to see if we can get a better handle on it. So if you can, turn to Matthew 5, 44 and 45.

So keep in mind this is instruction given to the Jewish nation about obedience to the law of Moses. But it's a really key verse on the word good because Jesus does something here. He parallels the word good, agathos, in these verses. So we're not going to get too much into discussing the command here and the results of it, because keep in mind, Jesus is teaching the nation Israel under law. But just pay attention to especially the last part of verse 45. Does someone want to read that, those two verses? But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous. Okay, so we get two things in this verse. Actually, we see that good is contrasted with evil. And then we also see that it's paralleled with righteous. So that's kind of the side by side, good and evil, righteous and unrighteous.

So it gives us a little bit of a flavor for the way that Jesus used the word good here in this context. Thanks for, is that Jim? I didn't, couldn't see, that sounded like Jim's voice. So, turn to Luke 18 verse 19 as well. I think this is probably pretty important to our understanding of the word good here. So, I can read this, it's very short. And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. So here, Jesus makes it clear that true goodness is found only in God himself. That's, I think, pretty important as we consider the word good.

And then another worthwhile verse to look at is in 1 Peter 3 and verse 21, where Peter uses the exact same phrase as Paul, a good conscience. a good conscience. So let's look at that. I don't know if someone wants to read that one, 1 Peter 3, 21. Like figure whereunto even baptism of death also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience told of God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thank you. Yes. Good. Okay. Your audio was a little quiet. I didn't quite hear. Did it have good conscience in that? Yes. Yes. But the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Okay. Perfect. Yeah.

So, um, so, so this, this reminded me of Jesus words, um, when he would, uh, talk to those, you know, who are outwardly clean, but inwardly we're full of death and corruption. Um, You know, in this verse, Peter tells us how we gained a good conscience as believers. It came through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is perfect for this morning, right? Um, the baptism that Peter is talking about is the baptism that placed us into union with Christ in his death and resurrection, right? Not the outward, uh, removal of dirt from the flesh, um, but the, uh, appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So we, we, we keep in mind, uh, Romans six, where we've been baptized into, uh, Christ Jesus, and we participate in his death and resurrection.

And through that, we've gained a good conscience. And really, I think our death and resurrection with Christ is the only means by which we could ever gain a good conscience. But by His grace, that's what we share in. So we have, I think, a pure heart and a good conscience because we have the nature of Christ as our own. We have His heart. We have His mind.

Um, and so, you know, when Jesus says, uh, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Um, of course he was pressing them because he knew he was God. Um, he, he, you know, they were, he, he didn't know if this guy was, was, you know, clear on that. Um, and of course Jesus was good because he, he is God. Um, but, uh, but we now actually share in his very nature.

Right. I think that's the only means by which we could say that we have a good conscience, a pure heart. I don't have an answer to. On Tuesdays in our Hebrew studies, twice in our text, the word conscience came up, and the word conscience comes up here. Is there a better synonym for that word? What exactly is meant by conscience? I don't know. No, that's good. Good question.

I mean, I didn't write a lot down. I looked at that a little bit. I didn't write a lot down here about it because the question kind of dealt just with the good aspect. I did look at some of the parallel usages of conscience. It's one of those words that's a little bit tricky to get a real kind of firm really nailed down entirely. I've kind of related it here to the concept of mind.

We do know that an unbeliever has a conscience as well. We'll see references to that throughout scripture. Believers and unbelievers have a conscience. And what I'm saying here is that the only way we can get a good conscience is to have to how the mind of Christ, I've kind of related it to the working of the mind. Hey Miles. Yes.

One thought that comes out of a quick look up, the faculty of the soul, which distinguishes between right and wrong, how do you do that on your own? Well, you're still in nature, not going to be able to do that in a good way, right? that same distinguishing between right and wrong also prompts one to choose the former and avoid the latter. So there's a knowing of oneself, but the world wants to know itself and its old man. Here, we're talking about knowing oneself in your new nature.

Yeah, that's good. I thought of here Romans 2 verses 14 to 15, for when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves and that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.

So they have a conscience and it is alternately accusing and defending them. Of course, on a basis, all their own kind of, you know, invented standards of right and wrong. And, you know, where you go throughout the world, there are different standards of what is right and wrong. And yet, it's clear that all people have a conscience, and they are self-condemned by their conscience, knowing that they're not even perfectly consistent with their own standard of right and wrong. even though they don't necessarily have God's righteous standard as Gentiles apart from Israel in the first century, for sure.

So yeah, no, that's good. I don't know if that sheds a lot of light. I think that was really helpful, JD, that distinguishing between good and evil or right and wrong. And keep in mind that that is exactly what Adam and Eve were tempted by in the garden, the knowledge of good and evil, you know, apart from God, a knowledge of good and evil apart from God, which is exactly where the world finds itself today. They have a concept of right and wrong, they have a concept of good and evil, but it's not sourced in God. And even if it were sourced in God, they wouldn't have the ability to successfully keep that standard of goodness anyway.

But yeah, I guess we're at time, hey? So any other quick thoughts on that that anyone wants to throw in there? Hey, Miles, when it comes to the word good, Should it be pointed out that there's a divine good and a human good? Yeah, it's between the two.

Yeah, I think that is I think that's valid to point out because, you know, there are there are things that the world will call good, you know, but based on their own um, faulty standards of goodness, which is kind of why Jesus throws that question back to the guy.

Oh, why do you call me good? You know, not as good, but God just, just what, what are you measuring my goodness by, you know, your own standard? Cause that's not worth anything. You know, I don't want to be, I don't want you to call me good based on your own standard. I want to be known as, uh, as good. Um, in the sense that God, only God is, is good. Right. Paul talks about a righteousness of my own derived from law. You know, we can be good on our own terms, but it's not worth anything to God. It's not his righteousness. It's not his goodness. So, yeah, really good.

I think, Miles, you can tie that to the resurrected life we have in Christ. Without that life, you know, you have conscience. As Romans talks about, your heart isn't exactly pure, and your faith is in things that are dying. So when you become a believer, this new resurrected life you have, as the position that you have in that life begins to work itself into your condition, you can trust, I think, the fact that your conscience is clear, it's good, because of this life. Your love is genuine. And your faith is true, sincere.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Really good, Mike. Yeah. I that's that's exactly it. Right. I mean, we it's it's really remarkable. We participate in this divine nature in these in these dusty earthen vessels, you know, just unfathomable reality. So.

Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what you have done. Lord, not for our sake, but for your sake. You actually desired for us to share in your nature so that you could fellowship with us and have intimacy with us for all of eternity. Lord, we're just awestruck by that awesome, awesome reality. And Lord, we just pray that we would grow in appreciation of that today. as we contemplate the resurrection, the once-for-all resurrection of your son that you have invited us freely into to participate in. Lord, we eagerly long for the day when we'll see the the full consummation of that, the full glory of that revealed. And Lord, we just thank you that you are working all things towards that great purpose, the revealing of the sons of God. And Lord, we just today keep our eyes fixed on that wonderful, beautiful hope. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.