Imagine for a minute that you’re Timothy. If you can, think back to what it was like to be 30! Now, imagine you’re slightly reserved, perhaps a little timid. You’ve travelled around with Paul, but now he’s left you in charge of the church at Ephesus. At long last, you receive a letter from Paul. Except, instead of saying he’ll be there next week, it looks like he’s going to be delayed for some time. He’s writing to remind you of what you’ve been left there to do. It’s your job to get the church in Ephesus in order, to oversee the household of God. What’s more, the very first thing he wants you to do is confront some of the elders and leaders of the church who’ve deviated from the truth, who’re distorting the gospel. In verse 18, we see it wasn’t an easy task. Paul uses the language of a fight, of conflict and war, to describe the struggle that Timothy is engaged in. So how are you feeling? Are you up to the task? How are you going to take on these false teachers? What’s going to keep you going?
The truth of course is that not many of us will find ourselves in exactly the same situation as Timothy. But, we will all encounter false teaching. At some stage or another, we’ll all come across those who want to distort the message of the gospel. We’ll all have to think about how we’re going to respond.
The good news is that Paul doesn’t leave us dangling. He encourages Timothy, and us, left right and centre. Paul says the answer is to focus on the gospel, which is trustworthy and true. Throughout this passage, that language abounds. Paul reminds us again and again, that his message is true and trustworthy, that the gospel is true, that his ministry and message is true and faithful. He says we must be true to the gospel, we must cling to it. We must faithfully live it out in our lives, both individually and as a church.
At the end of verse 11, Paul had reminds Timothy to focus on
the sound teaching 11that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.
It’s possible that the false teachers had been calling Paul’s leadership into question. But the truth is that God entrusted Paul with the gospel. As we saw last week from verse 1, Paul was appointed an apostle by the command of Jesus Christ. What’s more, God judged him to be faithful, to be trustworthy in this service. But Paul acknowledges this is only the case because God first strengthened him. He’s incredibly thankful, he’s grateful, that God has not just called him, but also equipped and strengthened him to carry the gospel.
Paul wants us to know that he wasn’t entrusted with the gospel based on his own merits. His credentials were hardly suitable for this task. In fact, if you’d received Paul’s C.V., he’s the last person you’d be recommending for the job. With incredible honesty he tells us that he was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor of the church, a violent man. This description matches up with what we see in the early chapters of Acts. Paul/Saul, was there when Stephen was martyred. He looked on; he gave his approval, as the crowds stoned Stephen. Then in Acts 9 we read that:
9:1Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts (9:1-2)
In Galatians he says that in violently persecuting the church, his aim was nothing less than destroying it! Paul had been determined to stamp out the Christian faith. He firmly believed Christians were heretics, that they were the blasphemers.
More than just being fired up by a religious zeal, Paul candidly confesses that he was fuelled by violence. Far from living a life of love coming from a pure heart and a good conscience (v5), he breathed violence. He was completely unfit to be a messenger of the gospel!
In verse 13, Paul says he did all this in the ignorance of unbelief. He’s not trying to excuse what he did, or claim that he deserved mercy because of his ignorance. If that were the case we should probably stop sharing the gospel with people. Ignorance would be bliss. When Christ returns, you could claim you deserved to be forgiven because you didn’t know any better. But, just as that doesn’t work if you’re trying to get out of a parking ticket, it doesn’t work with God. Rather, Paul is drawing on a Levitical category, to say that these sins didn’t arise from a willful disobedience of God, but rather from an ignorance of the truth.
Paul’s the least likely to be appointed as a messenger of the gospel and yet that’s exactly what he’s become. How can this be? It’s because despite all that Paul had done, God’s grace has abounded even more. It’s happened through God’s overflowing, overwhelming mercy. This inward working of God’s grace in Paul’s life brought with it faith and love that are in Christ. It was only because God acted, that Paul could have faith. It was only because God changed his heart that he could love!
As he shares his testimony, Paul wants us to know that this isn’t something peculiar or unusual! No. In fact, this is so important, he wants us to sit up, to pay attention. He shares his first trustworthy and true saying. Here’s a fair-dinkum, God’s honest truth statement. It’s worthy of full acceptance, not a single bit is doubtful. What’s more, this is a universal truth. It’s not a post-modern, good for some, kind of truth. Here’s a message everyone needs to hear, and should accept as the truth!
15 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.
Paul wants us to be absolutely clear that what happened to him, is just part of God’s big plan of salvation. Jesus Christ came into the world, for the purpose of saving sinners. Jesus’ incarnation is inextricably linked to the work of redemption. The sole purpose for Jesus coming into the world was to save us! It’s a great, a clear, summary of the gospel.
The gospel is so powerful that it even managed to save Paul, the self-proclaimed worst of sinners! It’s like those adds for Napisan. They take a white shirt and pile the stains up on it, red wine, mustard, dirt. They want to convince you it can take care of the worst stains possible, so that you’ll know it can handle everyday cleaning. That’s what has happened with Paul. God has shown him mercy, he’s been saved, so that he can be an example to everyone. If God could save someone like him, the worst of sinners, then God could save anyone. We see this happening later on in Acts 9. People were amazed that Paul could have received grace and mercy from God! We too can have confidence in the power of the gospel!
There’s an article in the recent edition of Eternity, looking at the nature of grace. Michael Jensen speaks of visiting a prison and joining in a bible study with violent offenders. He wanted to see if it were possible that these people could know grace. And what did he find? There, amongst the worst of the worst, those we think least deserving of mercy, God was at work! Great to read biographies, be encouraged by testimonies
Just thinking about what God has done, thinking about the glorious gospel leads Paul to burst out in praise to God! He pauses for a minute in his letter and lets rip with a Hallelujah!
17To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Just as God’s mercy had overflowed into Paul, now he’s overflowing with praise! The false teachers led to endless speculation and meaningless talk. But the gospel leads to outpouring of joyful praise!
When you think about what God has done for you, how do you respond? Does thinking about the gospel fill you with praise and thanksgiving? Are you constantly grateful for what God has done for you?
After his outburst of praise, Paul gets back to the issue at hand. He reminds Timothy of his charge back in verse 3, reminding him of his duty to speak the gospel, to teach the Bible. He’s to hold fast to the true authentic gospel, and to ensure the church does too. He’s not to be swayed by the false teaching around him, but rather needs to cling to the gospel. But that’s only part of the good fight. Our lives must be consistent with the gospel too. Our deeds have to match our words. We’re to stand firm in our faith and have a good conscience, which can only come when we live faithfully to the gospel!
The danger is that if we lose one, we lose the other. If we abandon the sound teaching, it will soon show up in how we live. And if we don’t try to live as God desires, if we abandon our conscience, then our faith will end up shipwrecked, just as happened to certain persons, presumably the false teachers.
On ancient ships there was no such thing as a GPS, no satellite positioning. The most important instrument on a ship was the compass. It’s how sailors knew where they were and could work out where they should go. If the compass was broken, if it was demagnetized, or even worse lost, they were in deep trouble. They could easily drift into rocks or run into a reef. They’d quickly become shipwrecked. That’s what’s happened to those who’ve abandoned the truth of the gospel. They no longer live their lives the way they should. Their conscience has been ruined.
What’s worse is that it isn’t just their faith that they’ve compromised. They’re also in danger of shipwrecking the faith of the church and of ruining our witness to the world. The situation is so severe that Paul’s been forced to take drastic measures against two of the ringleaders, Hymenaeus and Alexander. They’ve been ‘handed over to Satan’. Elsewhere Paul writes that this is the last step in church discipline. It’s only to be done when all else has failed. These two have gone so far from the gospel that they’ve been cut loose. Paul’s effectively turned them out of the household of God.
Though effectively they’ve shown that they’re not part of it by the way they’ve been living. They’ve been released back into the world, back into the dominion of Satan. Notice though that Paul isn’t doing this vindictively. By excommunicating them, Paul’s hope is that they’ll come to their senses. Paul’s hoping they will learn not blaspheme just as he did. He’s hoping that they will return to the fold, that they’ll come back to faith, that they too will receive mercy and grace.
So Timothy is to watch out! We’re to watch out that we don’t become like these two. Only way we can stay on course, is to fight the good fight. To cling to the gospel with everything we have, so that we too don’t become lost, or shipwrecked.
Paul seems to change tack then doesn’t he? It looks like Paul’s finished dealing with what we believe in chapter 1, and he’s now moving onto dealing with how we should conduct worship. But do you see that the two are intricately linked? What we believe, the gospel, determines what we do as a church. Having told us that we must cling to the gospel, he says that first of all, the first consequence is that we should pray. We should pray all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people.
2:1First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone,
This includes praying for our civil leaders!
2for kings and all who are in high positions,
As Christians we should be seeking to be good citizens of the world. Rather then rebelling against our leaders, we should be praying for them. It’s great that this is built into our services in the prayer book.
The reason we should pray for everyone is:
2so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.
Isn’t this what the world wants us to do? To live out our faith quietly, peacefully in the corner somewhere?
Actually, the purpose of our prayers is more subversive than that! It’s brought out more clearly in the next few verses:
3This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
We’re to pray for all people, and to pray for leaders, so that we might be able to be good witnesses to the world. Paul wants us to pray that we might be free to lead lives that reflect Christ, so that those around us might see, that they might desire to hear the gospel, that they might come to knowledge of the truth and be saved.
Far from what the false teachers were saying, that you had to become Jewish in order to be saved, or that the gospel was only for the elite. Paul wants us to know the gospel is for everybody. God’s desire is that all might be saved. So we should pray for everyone, in line with God’s gospel purposes.
For there’s only one truth that the world needs to know. It’s that there’s only one way to God. There’s only one mediator between God and humankind, Jesus Christ. The one who gave himself up as a ransom for all. He died on the cross so that all might be saved.
We’ve come back to the gospel again. This is the sound teaching that stands in opposition to the false doctrines going around. This the gospel that Paul was entrusted with. This is the truth that Timothy is to insist upon. This is the gospel that we’re to cling to with all our might, lest we be shipwrecked in our faith. This is the gospel that we’re to pray that all people might hear. That they too might come to know as the truth. Let’s do so now.
