Healthy and Loving Instruction - 1 Timothy

1:31They follow Paul's train of thought throughout the letter, especially as he opens the epistle in chapter 1. In all the verses I mentioned, except for the last, the same Greek root is translated into English, either in verb form or noun. So if it's a verb, you're going to find something like instruct, command, charge. If it's a noun, you're going to find something like instruction or commandment. In the English, our Bibles use different words, but in the Greek, it's the same, either in verb form or in noun. And that's why we're going to be following Paul's train of thought as we go through these different verses. So chapter 1, verses 3, 5, and 18, and chapter 6, verses 13 and 20. So let's begin with verse 3. 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. Verse 5, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Verse 18, this command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son.

3:00In accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight. If you could go to chapter 6, in verse 13, we read, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate. And finally, verse 20, O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge. Now, throughout our lives, we are constantly faced with instructions. Growing up, our parents tell us what we should and should not do. We learn to read, write, and behave in certain ways in school. When we learn to drive, we learn that we have to follow certain rules, or at least that we should follow certain rules. And this is because we typically desire that ourselves and others be well-behaved and a blessing to our families and our communities. There is not much controversy there. We can all agree on that until we get to the specifics of the instructions. So, for example, you Mean, I can't text and drive.

4:34You're getting more specific, and people start not liking what they're hearing. You know, you cannot text and drive. You mean when I write something down, somebody else has to understand what I'm writing? Yes, that's the purpose of your handwriting. But even if we get to the point where we can agree on specifics, how the instructions are given to us and how we impart them are also very important. Because the same instruction can have different responses depending on the who, what, where, and when.

5:14The same is true with spiritual instruction. 1 Timothy highlights for us two important aspects of biblical instruction: its content and its motivation. It's content and its motivation. So, my goal tonight is for you to seek and treasure good instruction, and when you find it, that you may receive it and impart it charitably. So, my goal is for you to seek and treasure good instruction, and when you find it, that you receive it and impart it charitably. Now, Paul wrote that two letters to Timothy toward the End of his ministry. Many years and things happened from the time that the apostle called Timothy to accompany him in his missionary journeys in the book of Acts. Paul sent Timothy to the immature church at Corinth to remind them of his ways in Christ. When Paul was in prison the first time, he was writing in Philippians that he hoped to send Timothy to Philippi and learn how they were doing there. Paul also sent Timothy to Thessalonica because he wanted Timothy to encourage the church there. And at the end of Paul's life in 2 Timothy, he was in prison the second time in Rome. Martyrdom was imminent. Paul knew he was going to die. He was not going to be set free. And he writes in 2 Timothy, writing to Timothy, make every effort to come to me soon. He wanted to see Timothy one last time. That's how much love he had for his disciple. And we see this affection in the opening verses of 1 Timothy when we read in chapter 1, verse 2, that Paul addresses the letter to Timothy, my true child in the faith. My true child in the faith. So, in addition to Timothy's efforts in Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica, he now found himself. In Ephesus by himself without the company of the Apostle Paul. And he had to deal with weighty and important matters there, even though he was still considered young. And as I mentioned earlier, the apostle was concerned with the content and motivation of the instructions that Timothy was to give. And regarding the content of the instruction, Timothy was to do three things. He was to avoid strange doctrines, he was to guard sound doctrine, and he was to instruct. So he was to avoid strange doctrines, guard sound doctrine, and instruct.

8:14So, first, avoiding strange doctrines. We see that in verse 3 of chapter 1, where an interesting compound word is used that is translated as teach strange doctrines. It's three words in my New American standard, but again, it's one compound word in the Greek that combines the term hetero, you might be familiar with that, hetero meaning different, and combines it with the word for doctrine or teaching. So it conveys the idea of a teaching that is different, strange.

8:53We can think of it as something similar to our modern phrase, that doesn't sound right. It doesn't sound right. I may not be certain what's wrong with what I'm hearing, but I have this sensation that it departs from what I'm used to hearing. It's something strange and something different. And the New Testament uses this Greek compound word only twice, both times by Paul and both times here in 1 Timothy. The first instance is in verse 3 of chapter 1, and the second instance is in chapter 6, verse 3.

9:40If you go to chapter 6, verse 3, you will read: if anyone advocates a different doctrine, if anyone advocates a different doctrine. The nice thing about verse 3 of chapter 6 is that it adds something else. It gives a little bit more explanation about these terms. It says, and does not agree with sound words. Strange doctrines do not agree with sound words or healthy words. And what happens when you don't agree with sound words? Not a big deal. Nothing really happens. Can sort of move on from that. That's not what 1 Timothy tells us. What happens when you deviate from sound words is that you go astray. You deviate. You start going in paths in which you should not go. It's inevitable. It's inevitable. That's what 1 Timothy is telling us. Because in the letter, we can see the drifting away. For example, in chapter 1, verse 4, we read that there are some teachers of novelty that were mixing a Judaic speculation with Gentile myths. And the end result was confusion. In chapter 1, verse 7, men wanted to be teachers of the law, even though they did not know what they were saying. That's not very good when somebody's teaching you and they don't know what they're saying. And what's the result, according to verse 6 of chapter 1? Fruitless discussion. Fruitless discussion, futile and spiritually dangerous. As Christians, we want to bear pleasant fruit for our Lord. But listening, heeding, and espousing novel doctrines will not get us there. That's not how we're going to give pleasant fruit for our Lord. In chapter 6, verse 3, those who advocate a different doctrine end up with the results. Of verses 4 and 5, which are envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction. Not very good.

12:15Not good. Now, correct instruction mattered greatly to Paul because he knew he was talking about the church of the living God. In chapter 3, verse 15, Paul tells Timothy, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. Now, if the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth, does not get the truth right, then nobody will.

12:56The church of the living God must get the truth right, because if it loses direction, lost people will continue in darkness. In chapter 2, verse 4, lets us know that God desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. So truth must be preserved and proclaimed. Which brings us to the second aspect of content, and that is that truth must be Guard it. We must guard sound doctrine. Now, if we read in chapter 1, verse 18, where the word that we've been tracing is found, it says, This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son. In chapter six, verse thirteen, it says, I charge you in the presence of God. Verse 14, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach. And finally, in verse 20, O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.

14:18Feel the weight of the command. Guard what has been entrusted to you. It's something precious. It's a treasure. It's something that we need to care for. Now, godly parents know that their children are a treasure to be guarded. People are usually zealous about guarding what they think is important. Paul uses athletic imagery in chapter 4 of 1 Timothy, and the imagery is still relevant in our culture. Now, I'm definitely not a football player. Probably easy to tell, and I'm sort of a lukewarm fan, but I've watched enough games to know that that football is important.

15:12You know, people, these players go to great lengths and often personal harm to get it, guard it, and run with it. They run with that ball, they care for it. So we know from that example that the unbelieving world understands seriousness when we are trying to guard something that's special. So it is time for the unbelieving world to see it in the church of the living God. We must know the truth and we must guard it. And where is the truth to be guarded found?

15:57Of course, in the Holy Scriptures. Paul tells Timothy that or reminds him of that in 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, when he writes, From childhood, you, Timothy, have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Know the scriptures. Know the scriptures. And the wisdom that leads. To salvation through faith in Christ Jesus needs to be taught to others. Timothy was to be a diligent instructor in Ephesus. That's the third aspect of content, to instruct.

16:48And Timothy had to deal with people of all ages. In 1 Timothy 5, verses 1 and 2, we read he had to instruct older men, younger men, older women, younger women. Then in chapter 5, verses 3 through 16, he is to instruct widows and their families. Then verse 17 through 25, in chapter 5, he needs to instruct elders. In chapter 6, verse 17, he needs to instruct the rich. In chapter 2, verse 8, he needs to instruct men in regards to prayer.

17:33In chapter 3, verse 11, he had to instruct women. In chapter 2, verse 11, he also had to instruct women in the area of submission. And all this instruction probably did not happen just on Sundays. It was day in and day out as he interacted with the people in Ephesus. We have to realize that instruction takes place in many different contexts and not only in formal settings, like when we assemble together as a church. You can ask any parent if there's any time off when teaching their kids. There is not, it's all the time. They're watching, they're listening. The instruction goes on all the time. So, regardless of the setting, whether it be formal or informal, be mindful of the topics of conversation and the demeanor with which you carry those conversations. Be aware that both what you say and how you say it convey a message. You are instructing with what you say and what you do. That's why Paul tells Timothy in chapter 4, verse 12: let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Timothy was to be a living example at all times. And so should we. We should do the same. So now that we have covered the aspects of content and we know that we Should avoid strange doctrines, guard sound doctrine, and instruct diligently, it's time for us to turn our thoughts to how we should go about doing this. It's time to examine ourselves and examine what motivates us. The two aspects of biblical instruction that we're focusing on are content and motivation. Content and motivation. So we have dealt with content. Let's move now to motivation. And for that, we read verse 5 in chapter 1 of 1 Timothy, where the word that we've been tracing is also found.

20:10Chapter 1, verse 5 says, But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. The goal, the aim of the instruction is love. That's what we're shooting for. That was the purpose of all that we've been talking about. The purpose is for love to be exhibited, is for love to be showcased for what it is. And one thing that we can learn from 1 Timothy is that love is not opposed to sound doctrine. Love is not opposed. To righteousness. They go hand in hand. They go together. In 1 Corinthians 13, where we find the great love hymn that Paul wrote, we learn of love's affinity for truth when, in verse 6, Paul says, Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. And according to 1 Timothy 1:5, where does this kind of love come from?

21:33It comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. In other words, it comes from a heart that has been saved and changed by the Lord Jesus Christ. It springs from the interior of a person that has been saved by our Lord Jesus. Now, Paul had this salvation experience very fresh in his mind. In chapter 1, verse 13, he writes, Even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.

22:30It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Because Paul was the recipient of such great love, he could now then impart it to others. And if Paul could receive God's grace and mercy, so can you today. The offer of salvation in Christ Jesus is offered to you. Do not ignore it, but believe in him, and you will receive a love that will not fail you. His love will not fail you. It will be a loyal love, as we'll learn this morning. Now, the false teachers cannot give this kind of love. The confused teachers that we read about at the beginning of the letter in chapter 1, verse 3, they can't show this kind of love. At the end of chapter 1, we read in verse 19 of some that have suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenias and Alexander. They couldn't express and show this kind of loyal sacrificial love. In chapter 4, verse 2, we'll. Learn of so, of some lying hypocrites. They can't show this type of love. Who was going to show it? It was up to Paul, Timothy, and the mature believers in Ephesus to show what true love is as they spoke and lived out sound doctrine.

24:29And now, today, it is our turn to do the same, to show believers and unbelievers what true biblical love is as we speak and leave out sound biblical doctrine. Heavenly love cannot be fabricated by humans and cannot be consistently exhibited by false teachers. Our Lord Jesus reminds us of this in Matthew 7:16 when he said, You will know them by their fruits. You will know them by their fruits. Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. True and false teachers are recognizable, and the hallmark of a true teacher is love.

25:24The hallmark of a true teacher is love. Paul tells Timothy. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 24, the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth. Paul knew the difficult ministry situation that Timothy was facing, but he tells him the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition. Perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Corinthians 13, the hymn of love also tells us love is patient. Love is kind. It's not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. It does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own. It's not provoked. Does not take into account a wrong suffered. And please keep in mind that the love Paul speaks about both in 1 Corinthians 13 and in 1 Timothy 1.

27:00Is not love for God. It's understood that love for God is there, but that's not what Paul is talking about. He's talking about love for people. Love for people. That's the context of 1 Corinthians 13, and that's the context of 1 Timothy 1:5. Love for people. So love for the Ephesians is what Paul is calling Timothy to exhibit to all of them in all interactions, in all teaching sessions. Love was to be Timothy's motivation, just as it should be our motivation to in all interactions that we have with our fellow believers and also with unbelievers. You can pick any New Testament writer, and he will teach you how foundational love is in human relationships. The gospel writers, they highlight that Jesus said, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The Apostle John, he wrote the Gospel of John. He wrote three New Testament letters and he wrote the book of Revelation. And he's known as the Apostle of love. That's how much love permeates his writings.

28:32James tells us a lot about how we are to interact one with another. 1 Peter 4:8, Peter tells us, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Jude 21, keep yourselves in the love of God. And he goes on to say, have mercy on some, save others. It should not surprise us to read in 1 Timothy 1:5 that the goal of our instruction is love. The goal, the aim of the instruction is love. So we are to uphold truth in love. And how do we do that?

29:29In reality, it's impossible for us to do it. We can't. We will tend to sinfully neglect either love or neglect sound doctrine. What can we do? Pray, cry out to the Lord, ask Him that He may grant us to grow in Christ's likeness, so that we may be as zealous for both truth. Truth and love, as our Lord Jesus was when He walked on earth. He embodied those things perfectly, He spoke perfect truth, and He lived out perfect love.

30:18Now, having looked at the content and motivation of Paul's charge to Timothy, we can ask ourselves: how can we apply this knowledge to our daily lives and daily interactions? I hope we all agree on the general idea of upholding the truth in love. And again, we may agree until we get to the specifics of how we should go about doing that. But please remember that the goal is not to win an argument, the goal is not to silence others, the goal is not to coerce others into doing what we want them to do or into believing what we want them to believe. The goal is to love them and lead them in the true way of the Christian life. Now, one nice thing about preaching on this is that you get to practice it immediately because you get to be charitable to me if you don't agree with what I say.

31:26You know, you don't have to wait to go home to practice. To put into practice what I'm preaching. You know, if you don't like what I said or how I said it, well, love me. And if you do agree with what I say and you find in your interactions that others don't, well, love them. So it's great because it's sort of a win-win situation. We all get to practice it. Now, for practical application, I would like to mention or bring up some current topics in the public arena. And I chose them because I suspect that you have strong convictions about some of these topics that people are talking about and are experiencing in the world and in this nation today. And I want you to think beforehand how to speak truth in love in these particular situations. So what I'll do is I'll bring up the topic, I'll pose some questions, and I'm not intending to give the answers. I just want you to think through and think: how would I carry a conversation with a believer or an unbeliever regarding a topic like this? So the first one I chose is politics. It's that time of the year or cycle in your country where politics is spoken about. A lot.

33:02And so I want to ask you: can you lovingly speak with your neighbor about the current political state of your country and the world? Now, true believers long for this land to be ruled in righteousness, but unfortunately, that is not the case now. Can you lovingly disagree politically with another person? Now, scripture does not call you to surrender your biblical convictions, but it does call you to love in all circumstances and in all situations. Second topic, immigration. Can you lovingly speak about immigration issues in the U.S. and Europe?

33:53You may have seen the picture of a three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned at sea trying to get to Western Europe. Tragic. It's a tragedy. But can you speak to others about this immigration problem in a truthful and loving way? Third topic, same-sex marriage. You may also be aware of the Kentucky County clerk who is now in jail for refusing to give same-sex marriage. Marriage licenses. Now, do you agree with her? No show of hands. Do you disagree with what she has done? Well, whether you agree or disagree, ask yourself: can you have a meaningful and gentle conversation about this with a believer or an unbeliever in a way that will speak truth to their lives? Now, the people that you talk to may not be so nice to you, they may act unbecomingly toward you, but love should compel you not to act that way, but be gentle with them. Fourth topic, church denominations. Now, many churches have incompatible doctrinal statements. That's very obvious. But how do we deal with those doctrinal differences? Do we go about them in a confrontational manner, hit you in the face kind of deal? Or do we carry these conversations with gentleness? Perhaps we subtly mock them, sort of laugh at them because of what they believe.

35:50Remember the way of love when dealing with other believers and church goers. I hope we've learned that sound doctrine cannot be compromised. But neither can love. And finally, theology. This is more of an internal Emmanuel Baptist Church question. If you are a member here or you attend regularly, you probably agree with our doctrinal statement. But I'm pretty sure you don't agree with every theological inclination of everyone present here. Could be the plan of God for Israel and the church, whether the earth is young or old, whether we should have elders or not, or how we should go about leading the church. We start going through the nuances of theology, we're always going to find out something that we disagree on.

36:56Are you willing to have genuine fellowship with your fellow brothers and sisters? Are you willing to be led in love to the truth? Do you desire to lead in truth and love? As we have learned today, you cannot set truth and love in conflict with one another. They rise and fall together. And God calls us all to proclaim. The truth in love. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. And we thank you for the love that you've exhibited toward us, sinful people. We thank you, Lord, for the purity of your word. And we thank you, Lord, that we don't have to choose between being loving and being truthful. But, Lord, help us to walk in a way that is worthy of you.

38:08Lord, we're weak, we're frail, we tend to compromise. We don't speak up when we should, and we be quiet when we should speak up. And Lord, I pray that you would help us all in our families, in our church body, as we interact with unbelievers in college, in work, wherever it may be. Lord, I pray that we would truly be a light and salt to this community. Lord, and that the love of our Lord Jesus Christ may be exhibited through us and that His truth may shine forth brightly. Lord, I pray that you would bless our evening, bless our week, and I pray. Lord, that your word may be treasured in our hearts and minds throughout this week. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.