-Last week we looked at the background to this book, Paul writing to Timothy, his protégé in order to help keep the church at Ephesus pursuing the right things. But what are those right things?

READ/PRAY (pg. 1051)

1. Conforms to the Gospel (3-11)

-Throughout this section, Paul will be bouncing back and forth between prohibitions (what not to do) and commands (what to do). He begins with what not to do: teach false doctrine. 

-Many times in Paul’s letters I wish he would specify what exactly he’s talking about, because we don’t have the exact context as we read this 2,000 years later! So we have to do some work to determine exactly what he’s referring to here. Thankfully we have 2 other letters written to pastors that deal with similar ideas, so we’ll pull those in to help us understand what the problem is. First off, he uses this same word later in this letter to begin to tell us what this false doctrine is not: it doesn’t agree with Jesus’s teachings, and it doesn’t promote godliness. Instead, it focuses on other things like: 

-Myths: made up stories that contradict the one true story that centers on Jesus’s life. Peter even uses this phrase in 1 Peter to state what God’s people should follow. This isn’t saying that reading books like LOTR are bad, this is saying looking to other stories that attempt to explain why the world is the way it is are wrong, instead we follow the story of the Bible to understand the world.

-Endless genealogies: this is similar to the myths – lineage was a BIG deal at this time, and particularly among the Jews because they worked hard to trace their family back to father Abraham. Paul warns that now that Jesus has come, everyone is now a part of the family of Abraham! No one is excluded, so suddenly genealogies don’t matter anymore (except for the one that puts you in the family of God! Household!)

-Fixating on the wrong things leads to “empty speculations”: one of the most fascinating things to me is how obsessed people get with trying to figure out exactly when Jesus is coming back. You may have heard the phrase “We must hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Barth:

-The opposite has tended to be the norm for many Americans for the past century. We read about events taking place in the Middle East and try to align them with charts about the end of the world, and friends, let’s be honest, how fruitful is all that work? Hypothetically, if we were supposed to be tracing all these events to know for certain the date Jesus was coming back, what would that change about what we’re called to today? NOTHING! Luther quote. Friends, don’t fixate on empty speculations, focus on what God has clearly revealed, which will help us avoid:

–6 Fruitless discussion: friends, sometimes debating theological issues is a fruitless, pointless, useless discussion. 

-I onetime had a random person attend here and then reach out and ask to meet for coffee after. It turned out that he just wanted to debate whether or not we could eat bacon! After about 30 min, I got so frustrated at the lack of humility and refusal to engage any of the issues I brought up that I told him this had become a waste of time, so I needed to leave. It’s the 1 time I’ve literally just gotten up and walked away from a coffee meeting! That is time that I’ll never be able to get back!

-In contrast to fruitless discussion or false doctrine is true doctrine, but how do we know what is true doctrine? Look at the fruit! It must lead to 3 things:

-Love that comes from a pure heart: this is picking up on Jesus’s summation of the entire law: love God, love others. Friends, if you don’t have love for fellow Christians, you should question whether or not you’re truly following Jesus. 

-A good conscience: this isn’t an individual expression or determination, I think we tend to see this as I need to listen to what I think is right, which means we read this through an expressive individual lens (I need the freedom to be and do whatever I feel like doing regardless of how it affects anyone else). Paul qualifies this as “good” that is it conforms with God’s plan and design for how humans should live, this is a conscience that is held captive to the Word of God, continually growing more like Jesus

-A sincere faith: genuine, true, aimed in the right direction instead constantly looking over your shoulder or debating all these other pointless issues that people like to discuss.

-Just as I asked last week: are these 3 things true of our church? Do you see people growing in love from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith? If not, we need to question what is being taught!

-In contrast, these teachers of false doctrine keep trying to teach but they’re making stuff up. They don’t understand it, and they don’t know what they’re asking people to do. Goes on to talk about the appropriate use of the law, which is good. So this tells us that these false teachers are using the law in ways it isn’t meant to be used.

-The law is referring to the OT, and specifically the Pentateuch, as we’ll see in a couple verses.

-So what is the good use of the law? The law creates the boundaries of what is acceptable behavior, and when God gives us laws is for our good. I think we often miss that reality! 

-Think of parents who create laws for their kids (no dessert before dinner, but why? Or don’t run into the street, but why? Or don’t touch the hot stove, but why?) God, who is infinitely wiser than even the best parents in the world, who also created the entire world gives us rules to help us best flourish in the world that He created. That’s where I said a couple weeks ago that all social sciences are doing are discovering the way God created us, but that can be said about all science: it’s merely a study of the way God created things! Therefore the rules that God gives aren’t because God wants us to live miserable lives, it’s because he wants us to flourish and knows apart from Him, we can’t!

-What is the best summation of the law? Jesus said it’s: love God and love others, but you could fill that out a little further with the 10 commandments, which one commentator argues is exactly what Paul references here.

-If you didn’t know, the reason Jesus summarized the law with 2 phrases is because that’s a summary of all 10 of these. The first 4 have to do with loving God, and the last 6 have to do with loving others.  

-I’m not completely convinced yet that this is what Paul is completely referring to, there’s some that are directly related (5-9), and even in the correct order, but others that I think are a bit more of a stretch!

-There are a few descriptions here that I think we do need to talk about in here, and it has to do with our context today. One common argument you’ll see on social media is that the word “homosexual” doesn’t appear in the Bible until the 1946 (publication of the RSV), and that translation means the entire evangelical world since then has been wrong about saying that homosexuality is a sin. Part of the problem is the word “homosexual” wasn’t a word until 1868, and Bible translations don’t just appear out of thin air, it takes time for them to develop and be translated. The problem is the word that Paul uses here is ἀρσενοκοίτης and it literally means “men bed-er.” Our translation says “males who have sex with males” which is as good a translation as you’ll find! And they actually changed it in 2020, because when they first published this translation it was “homosexual.” The problem today is that word refers to an identity and not a sinful act. So Paul is not saying that your sexual attraction means you’re outside the law, he’s saying how you respond to those attractions. And if it’s not clear, he also uses the word “sexually immoral” which in this case means any sex act prohibited by Scripture (which is a lot) – there is 1 context in which sex is not just permissible, but encouraged: covenant marriage between 1 biological man and 1 biological woman, anything else is both prohibited and condemned. 

-The other issue you’ll hear is Jesus didn’t say anything against homosexuality (which is part of the reason I don’t like “red letter Bibles” this whole thing is Jesus’s words to us, not just the ones he spoke!) But that’s also false, because Jesus uses the same general word that Paul uses to condemn all other sexual sin.

-The other one is “slave trader” Some translations translate this as “kidnapper” or “man stealer” and when the trans-Atlantic slave trade was in full force, they would narrowly interpret this to say only the act of kidnapping is sinful, once someone is kidnapped there’s nothing wrong with buying and selling them. Based on what we just saw with sexual immoral, do you think that’s the limiting factor here? No! Anyone that is involved in the process of slavery isn’t following the law.

-All 10 of these commandments do exactly what Paul is saying they do: condemn! And Jesus says if you’re guilty of breaking just 1 of these, you’re just as guilty of breaking them all! A great tool for evangelism is to walk people through these and ask if they’ve ever committed any of them, because it’s only when we realize how sinful we are that we’ll understand our need for a Savior. And friends, just in case you don’t realize it, these 10 commandments condemn every single one of us, we all have failed in at least 1 of these areas. 

-And then Paul concludes by focusing on his primary message: the gospel. But which direction does the gospel lead us? To the glory of the blessed God, who has entrusted it to Paul.

-Friends, because we stand in the same lineage of faith as Paul, these are just as true for us today as they were when this book was written to the church at Ephesus! Being a faithful follower of Jesus means there’s things we should avoid, things like myths and endless genealogies and empty speculations because they’re fruitless. It’s ok to refuse to engage people on these things! Don’t give in to the clickbait or get suckered into pointless debates. In our world, people tend to look for “hot takes,” but in that world, let’s be known for love that comes from a pure heart and refuse to be reactionary and drawn into these empty discussions. That’s not weak or passive, that’s what Paul commands us to do here. In fact, Paul goes on in Titus to limit how much you should be willing to engage someone who’s fixated on these things. He says reject them! I love the way the NIV translates this section. 

-Now, you might say, isn’t that lacking in grace to just dismiss someone like that? Friends, let us never be more gracious than Jesus was or commands us to be! Jesus drew hard lines and wasn’t afraid of calling people to repentance.

• Transforms Sinners (12-17)

-The next thing we see faithful teaching do is transform sinners, and it’s only because of what God has done, nothing that we can do in ourselves.

-Paul once again says he has been strengthened by God, then notes that it is God who also appointed him to “the ministry,” that could also be translated as “the service” of planting and establishing these brand-new churches.

-But he also admits that his past didn’t set him up for this, in fact he was opposed to everything God had done in Jesus, but even in his arrogance, God extended mercy.

-What is the connection between mercy and ignorance? Does this mean we avoid telling people about their sin so they can receive mercy? No! It’s not an excuse to live however you want, but it is the reality that God needs to open our eyes, and God sends us to share the message of the gospel with others to reveal to them their ignorance. Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? 

-Apparently all this talk about God’s grace reminded Paul of an early creed (another evidence for the early beliefs of our faith) and not only an early creed, but the way that creed impacts his heart: I am the worst.

-Is Paul thinking God grades and he got the lowest score? No! That impulse should be the impulse of all of us! This is what I talked about earlier, the problem with the world (as GK Chesterton said) is ME. When we compare ourselves to the only perfect human to ever live (Jesus) we all are the worst! Friends, there is no room for comparison in God’s kingdom! We should all view ourselves as the worst sinner because we all have sinned! Only when we see and admit that reality can we start to be transformed through the power of the gospel. Our mindset should be: if God can save me, then God can save anyone! I don’t care if you were born at church on Sunday and never left, or if this is your first time in a church: it is a miracle when anyone is saved from their sin.

-Came – that’s the miracle of Christianity. To save sinners. If the 10 commandments condemn you, this is the best news in the world! 

-Which is why Paul goes on: when we’re saved it’s meant to serve as a picture of how God works, a picture of his unending patience with sinners. 

-And this reality causes Paul to break out in praise to God! When we think about God’s great mercy and grace given to us, the only proper response is to praise Him! Do you live that out?

• Fights the Good Fight (18-20)

-Finally, faithful equips us to fight the good fight. Didn’t we just talk about refusing to debate or fight with people? Absolutely! Our fighting should be aimed not at each other, but at our sin and at the devil and all his works and efforts. There’s a reason Paul ends here, we’ve needed all the previous steps to get to this point!

-Previous prophecies: used 2 other times in Paul’s letters to him, most likely refers either to Timothy’s call to ministry, or a specific gifting that would help in this ministry. I think this is a good reminder for us to regular reflect on the ways God has wired us, blessed us, and commissioned us for the good of each other and the glory of God. It all points back to Him! 

-Those times when we’re discouraged or weary, think back to what God has done, that will help us continue focusing in the right direction today. And this comes through faith and a good conscience (which we saw earlier in 5)

-However, some people don’t hold firmly to this, some people fight the wrong fight and become divisive, Paul says shipwrecking their faith. And then Paul lists their names!

-This is a reminder that this isn’t some theoretical idea, this has real world and real people implications. One of the ways Timothy is supposed to protect the church is by calling out false teaching and false teachers.

-Delivered to Satan most likely refers to church discipline as we see that same terminology in 1 Cor. 5. The purpose of church discipline is to help prevent someone from shipwrecking their life and facing eternal consequences. Friends, this is one of the reasons we all need the church. I don’t trust myself to not shipwreck my faith! My faith is fickle, my heart is hard, it doesn’t take much for me to question and doubt God’s goodness towards me.

-Bonhoeffer quote. This is 1 reason why singing is so important – when I come in weary, I can look around this room and be encouraged to remain faithful! 

-Church, what teaching are you listening to? Do you chase after things that make you feel good, things that you like? Or do you focus on faithful teaching that conforms to the gospel, transforms sinners, and equips us to fight the good and right fight?