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BY GLENN PEASE
CONTENTS
1. NO OTHER DOCTRINE‑INTRO TO I TIM. I Tim. 1:1
2. REVELATION IS SUFFICIENT
Based on I Tim. 1:1‑4
3. THE END IS LOVE Based on I
Tim. 1:5
4. LAW AND GOSPEL Based on I
Tim. 1:7f
5. LAW AND GRACE Based on I
Tim. 1:8
6. PATRIOTIC IN PRAYER Based
on I Tim. 2:1‑8
7. THE ATONEMENT Based on I
Tim. 2:4‑6
8. LEARNING FROM YOUTH Based on I Tim. 4:12
9. THE PARADOX OF MONEY Based on I Tim. 6:3-10,17-19
10. THE LOVE OF MONEY Based on I Tim. 6:6‑10
1. NO OTHER
DOCTRINE‑INTRO TO I TIM. I Tim. 1:1
The Apostle Paul has always been one of the most loved and
most hated of men. Thousands of books
have been written about him, and many of them seek to blacken his name and
cause men to despise him. For many he
is too stern and narrow minded. He
tries to pressure people into his own mold.
He tells Timothy to charge others not to teach any different
doctrine. Paul is opposed to freedom in
teaching Christian truth. He felt that
the truth has been revealed by God, and that it was comprehensive and
conclusive. If anyone sought to change
it or add to it, he was to be accursed.
Paul is really a
thorn in the flesh of those theologians who delight in speculation. Paul had direct revelation from Christ, and
he was the theologian of the Christian church.
Any deviation from his teaching is a deviation from the truth, and so he
had to be stern about it. We must still
test our doctrine today by its harmony with and conformity to the theology of
Paul. Anything we hold as a doctrine,
which is contradictory to Paul becomes a possible heresy. It was Timothy's task to keep the church of
Ephesus on the right track.
It is just a good principle of biblical interpretation to
keep in mind that nothing ought to be accepted as Christian doctrine if it
contradicts what is taught by Paul. This
principle will protect you from many man devised interpretations. Paul in telling Timothy to charge certain
persons not to teach any other doctrine establishes clearly that all basic
Christian doctrine was fully known by then, even if it was not fully developed
in all of its implications. We want to
consider the character of Paul himself, for he had the authority to forbid the
teaching of anything that he had not taught.
Modern critics do not like Paul because of his big words
and long involved sentences. His
opinions about women and marriage have also gotten him into trouble with
many. Paul was not infallible but men
have gone so far in attempts to make him unlikable that they have even attacked
his personal appearance. Renan called
him an "Ugly little Jew," and the idea became so popular that became
an accepted fact that Paul was little of stature, homely, weak, and with a bald
head and bow legs. I had this
impression myself until I read a book called The Character Of Paul by Charles Jefferson.
Jefferson points out that the negative description of Paul
comes from a 3rd century novel, and that it is on this poor foundation that the
enemies of Paul build their case for his unattractive appearance. The whole case collapses when you consider
that when Paul came to Lystra and healed the lame man the people took him for a
god. These pagans may have been
superstitious and foolish, but they were not blind. All of the Greek gods were graceful and well‑formed
Hercules type men, and not bow‑legged little homely Jews. If they could mistake Paul for Hermes or
Mercury it is likely he was a real specimen of a man.
The fact of his surviving the stoning and enduring all
kinds of trials, hardships, and sufferings, indicates that he was a man of
marvelous physical strength. Paul might
mean little, but that does not make the Apostle a little man anymore than it
makes Paul Bunyan a midget. We cannot
say that he was a New Testament Samson, but there is no reason to think that he
was not a man as mighty in body as he was in spirit. Why should I hold a degrading image in my mind of such a great
man when it is based on the testimony of those who did not like him?
As great as Paul was he was no god, and he knew it. He tore his clothes when the pagans of Lystra
began to worship him. In spite of his
great authority and power he was a very humble man in his own eyes. When he begins his letters by calling
himself an Apostle, you will notice that he does not take credit for being in
such a position. He always acknowledges
that it is by the grace or will of God.
It is God's doing an not his own.
He wrote, "I am not worthy to be called an Apostle." He went even further and wrote, "I am
less than the least of all saints."
If Paul is stern, narrow and authoritative when he writes it is not
because he is proud, but it is because of his office. He has an obligation before God to fulfill the great
responsibility of establishing the church in the world that is based on sound
and pure doctrine.
Look behind the official pronouncements and you will see a
man of like nature with us. Paul could
speak with an ultimate authority, which could forbid any other doctrine. And yet be perfectly willing to admit that
he was not infallible. When Paul spoke
as an Apostle to men he spoke with authority just as Jesus did. Paul, however, as a man never thought of
putting himself on the same level with his Lord. Jesus could say, "Which of you convicts me of
sin?" Paul could say, "I am
the chief of sinners." Paul never
pretended to be perfect or infallible.
He admitted he only knew in part, and even near the end of his life he
said he had not yet attained but was still pressing on.
Jesus is our ideal example, but Paul becomes our greatest
example of what is attainable in this life.
Jefferson wrote, "We need two examples, a sinless man, and a sinner
who has repented. We need the
inspiration of a man who never fell, and the encouragement of a man who fell
and got up again. A perfect man reveals
what the ideal is; a man defeated and finally victorious discloses what by
God's grace we may ultimately become."
Paul was held in high esteem by those who really knew him. They wept in Ephesus when he left them. They listened all night to him in Troas, and
the Galatians would have dug out their eyes for him. The Philippians sent him presents again and again, and followed
his travels with great interest. In
Corinth he was exalted as a great teacher.
Paul had the amazing ability to keep his head in the sky and
his feet on the ground. He was caught up to the third heaven and saw things
that he could not communicate. He had visions, trances, and spoke in tongues,
and yet he was healthy minded and practical. Many with such experiences become
fanatical, but Paul did not. He never got carried away in attempts to become an
authority on angels or demons, or heaven or hell. He was down to earth
practical in his theology. When the ship he was on was going down he was calm
and was used by God to save all the men on board, which was 275 men.
He was a man with marvelous spiritual gifts, but he never
abused them or used them as ends in themselves. He wrote to the troubled
Corinthians, "Thank God I speak in tongues more than any of you, but in
church I would rather say five words with my own mind for the instruction of
other people than ten thousand words in a tongue witch no one else can
understand." Paul's concern for the practical kept him in a balanced
position at all times. He never emphasized one truth to the point of excluding
others. This is what happens to those who become fanatical over some aspect of
the truth to the point of making it the whole of truth.
Paul was as practical as Jesus was. His goal was simplicity,
and we see this as we study his letter to Timothy. He starts by stating his
apostleship, not because Timothy had any doubt about his authority, but because
it was not just a friendly letter, but an official letter that would be a guide
for all the church. The whole church needs to recognize its authority and their
obligation to teach no other doctrine than Paul.
2. REVELATION IS SUFFICIENT Based on I Tim. 1:1‑4
An English boy went into a store to get change for a
sovereign, and the clerk asked him if it was good. The boy said, "Certainly it is good. I saw my father make it just this
morning." The clerk, of course,
refused to take it. Money, like truth,
has the shadow of suspicion cast across it when it has been coined only this
morning. Anything that you can really
rely on will not be totally new. Even
in the realm of science this is true. New
products and new medicine are not as new as we might think. Nothing just discovered this morning would
on the market. It takes months and even
years of research before things are ready for the market. Even that which is really recent in
discovery is usually based upon older knowledge, and so it is not totally new,
but an extension of what has gone before.
The totally new and novel is seldom of lasting value.
A craving for what is strictly new is a sign of degeneration
and superficiality in a culture. This
is what was happening to the Greeks in Paul's day, and has happened time and
time again in history. Acts 17:21 says
in the NEB, "The Athenians in general and the foreigners there had no time
for anything but talking or hearing about the latest novelty." Certainly masses of Americans are cultural
cousins to these Athenians. Novelty is
a must in our society. People feel only
a fool believes and acts today the same as people believed and acted in the
past. That which is the in thing must
be something just coined this morning.
Someone wrote, "So long as an artist is on his head, his painting with
a flute, or writes with an etching needle, or conducts an orchestra with a meat
axe, all is well, and plaudits shower along with the roses. But any plain man who tries to follow the
unobtrusive cannons of his art is but a commonplace figure."
This applies to every realm including the realm of
theology. The men in the limelight
today are those who are expounding the novel and the freshly coined ideas. They capture the minds of millions for a
while, but then they become old hat, and people begin looking for something new
again. This was the problem that Paul
wrestled with in his day, and it is one that he urged Timothy to help him
fight. It was a real battle, and Paul
uses military language often. He tells
Timothy to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
He starts off in this first letter by stating that he was not an Apostle
by his own choice, but that he was drafted by the Lord. God commanded him to be His ambassador to
the Gentiles. He was inducted into the
royal service of representing the Risen Redeemer. He loved being a soldier of the cross, and would have agreed
whole heartedly with the poet who wrote,
Life can never be dull again
When once we've thrown our
windows open wide,
And seen the mighty world
that lies outside,
And whispered to ourselves
this wondrous thing,
We're wanted for the
business of the King.
Paul felt one of his important tasks for the Lord was in
keeping the churches on a solid foundation.
This was no easy task in a world as filled with novel nonsense as his
was. We often talk as if we were the
only people to ever live in the last days, and that we alone must bear the
burden of so much human folly. We would
be ashamed of our complaints if we knew what others have gone through before
us. Paul spent 3 and one half years in
Ephesus going from house to house and teaching the believers sound Christian
doctrine. In spite of all he did he
has to urge Timothy to stay there and charge some to teach no other doctrine. Here were people who had the best Christian
education experience possible, and yet they were in danger of falling into
heresy and being led into fruitless speculation.
I think it can be said with plenty of evidence to support it
that no group of Christians could long remain Christian in their thinking
without the Bible being constantly read and expounded. If Churches degenerate to the place where
they are no more than humanistic clubs, they have none to blame but themselves,
for God has provided the means by which we are to stay on the right track. If men do not avail themselves of the means,
they will certainly get off the main road and onto a side road of trivia. This very church of Ephesus where Paul and
Timothy labored for years was still in trouble when John wrote Revelation. Christ was threatening to remove their
candlestick if they did not return to their first love.
Anytime a Christian, or any group of Christians, thinks they
have reached a plateau of security where they no longer need to have constant
vigilance and self‑examination, they are in grave danger. Christian truth must be applied to new
situations constantly, and there must be new methods and new means, but in all
of this there is the danger of loosing the old old story. The message must remain the same however
unique and novel the methods of delivering it.
Christian doctrine must be based on the clear teachings of Scripture
however modern the words used to communicate it.
The Jews lost all practical relationship to the Old Testament
revelation by using so many fables, myths and spiritual interpretations to
communicate it, that they forgot the message of God and got all wrapped in
their own stories and methods of communicating. This was the very danger the early church faced, and the danger,
which eventually won out over a large portion of the church when they made
tradition the authority. We see then
the danger of believing something because it is old for that reason alone. This is as foolish and dangerous as the
craze for novelty. There is only one
test by which we can be sure of the truth of any doctrine, and that is its
conformity to the Word of God. Paul
having given this revelation to the Ephesians charges Timothy to prevent the
teaching of any other doctrine.
The problem appears
to have been from leaders and teachers who were Christians within the church,
but who were more interested in their own thinking and clever ingenuity than
the revelation of God. Had they been
outsiders Timothy would have no authority over them, and they could not have
cared less what he said. He could only,
in that case, warn believers not to listen to them. But these were in the church, and so they were subject to his
authority. You need to see this truth
that the greatest problems of the church have always been caused by Christians
and not unbelievers. Heresy and false
teaching, and controversies of all kinds that have hindered the work of Christ
have come about by God's own people, and not by the slander of the
unsaved.
The darkest blots on the history of the church are those by
the acts and attitudes of born again believers. If Christians could only rid themselves of the sinful pride that
makes them think they are infallible, they would cease to point fingers
anywhere but at themselves when they seek to find the cause for their lack of
power. Any deficiency in our personal
lives, or in our local church, have their origin right here in our own hearts. We can blast the sinner and cry out that
they will not listen. We can knock the
liberal and say they have perverted the Gospel. But when all is said and done we have not answered the question
we should be asking, and that is, what am I doing for Christ? Even if the whole world is wrong, the
question is still, what am I doing that glorifies Jesus Christ?
The world was filled with error in Timothy's day, but his
responsibility was to do his best in Ephesus.
God does not hold us responsible for what is beyond our influence, but
He does hold us responsible for an effective witness to those we can
influence. If Ephesus could keep Paul,
Timothy and the Apostle John busy, and still be far from what it should be, I
have a hunch all of us could find enough need for improvement in our lives and
church to keep us busy for the rest of our lives.
Paul was opposed to that which was impractical, and this is
made clear in verse 4 where he says that we are not to give heed to
fables. This is a distinct problem
separate from other doctrine. It was
not only the false and dangerous things that Paul feared, but the foolish and
trivial things. He wrote to Titus in
1:14 and urged him also not to give heed to Jewish fables. The Jews wasted millions of man hours and
mental potential in developing fables.
They were not false doctrine but just worthless and a waste of
time. Some feel that Greek mythology
was also in Paul's mind. The Christian
is not to get wrapped up in man made speculations, for they only steal time
that could be given to learning and spreading the truth.
Paul also mentions endless genealogies. The whole ancient world had a passion for
genealogies. Alexander the Great had an
artificial pedigree made up tracing his lineage back to Achilles on one side
and Hercules on the other. Philo had
all kinds of allegorical interpretations based on the Old Testament
genealogies. Jewish scholars use to
take each name in the genealogies and build up a whole story around it. It was all fiction and they were free to
speculate as they chose and make each man whatever they wished. It was endless, of course, for there is no
limit to what can be developed when there is no basis for any of it.
It was all endless and
fruitless based on nothing but imagination, and Christians are warned not to
waste their time on such nonsense.
Human nature has a tendency to drift into the speculative
and unknown, and develop controversy around the unprofitable. This prevents the Christian from facing
issues that really matter. Controversy
is often the method by which Christians avoid doing the practical will of
God. They fool themselves into
believing they are defending the faith when they are really doing nothing to
demonstrate the faith. Paul says that
what promotes questions and speculation is not good. It is what trains us in the faith that is good. That which has no practical value should not
become a time consuming discussion among believers. If we cannot become more
Christ like and built up in the faith by what we are discussing, we are wasting
our time. The revelation that God has
given us cannot be exhausted and so we are to be continuously reminded not to
waste our time elsewhere, but to focus on it, for revelation is sufficient.
3. THE END IS LOVE Based on I Tim. 1:5
Someone has said, "You can never win in the game of life
if you don't know where the goal posts are." You can't win in any game if you don't have a goal. Great men in every walk of life have been
those with a goal, and a determination to reach it. It is difficult to be determined if you are not certain where you
are going, and so the end must come before the means. The goal must be established, and then comes the best means for
reaching that end. I remember a
successful businessman who spoke to the students at Bethel one day, and he said
that the very first rule in being successful is to set a goal and then strive
to reach it. Studies show that the one
thing they all had in common as America's most successful men was the ability
to set a goal and pursue it. This
principle applies to the spiritual realm as well.
Mathew Henry, the well‑known Bible commentator, was
not successful in producing the works he did because he was uniquely
gifted. It was because he was a man who
set goals and persisted in using every means necessary to reach them. He set out in 1692 to deliver a series of
lectures on the questions on the Bible.
He began with God's question to Adam, "Where art thou?" Twenty years later he finished the series on
the last question in Revelation. When
he set a goal he persisted to the end.
Paul wanted Timothy to be this kind of a pastor, and he
wanted the leaders and teachers of Ephesus to be like this as well. Therefore, he writes to Timothy and tells
him to put an end to the nonsense of Christians getting all wrapped up in
fables and genealogies. He urges them
to make love the primary goal of their ministry. He then gives the three means necessary to arrive at this goal. They are a pure heart, a good conscience,
and a genuine faith. Verse 5 in the RSV
reads, "Whereas the aim of our charge is love..." Phillips has it, "The ultimate aim of
the Christian ministry, after all, is to produce the love which springs from a
pure heart, a good conscience and a genuine faith."
Paul is giving a standard by which we can measure the
success of our ministry. Whatever else
we have done, if we have not aided men to move closer to the goal we have failed. The end is love, and if teaching and
preaching does not make Christians more loving it is an ineffective means, for
it is not doing what God intended it to do.
If all the lessons and sermons you hear, and all the books and papers
you read do not increase your love, then they are all for nothing, for that
which does not move toward the primary goal is of no true Christian value. If your Bible knowledge only makes you
clever in winning arguments, but does not increase your ability to love the
unlovable, you are making no progress at all.
The end is love says Paul. The
goal of the Christian life is to be a channel through which the love of God can
flow.
Paul took very seriously the exalting of love to the supreme
place in the Christian life. In all of
his letters it is the supreme goal, for to be filled with agape love is to be
filled with Christ. To love and to be
Christ like are synonymous. In Gal.
5:14 Paul writes, "The whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love
your neighbor as yourself." The
Old Testament is not to be used as a source of material for speculation, but as
a source of material to be fulfilled by love.
Alexander Maclaren, the famous English Baptist preacher, wrote,
"The Apostle here lays down the broad principle that God has spoken, not
in order to make acute theologians, or to provide material for controversy, but
in order to help us love."
The number of persons won to Christ by argument and
condemnation is from small to non‑existent, but the number one through
love is legion. No wonder Paul said
that knowledge, eloquence and sacrifice are nothing without love. None of these things can open a man's heart
to Christ. Love alone is the key to the
human heart, and so it is the goal of the church's ministry in the lives of its
members. Our lack is not power, but
love. Paul said you can have all kinds
of power and still be nothing without love.
Love is the key factor in every situation.
Paul was the greatest theologian of all time, but his goal
was not to be a great theologian, but rather, to be a channel of God's
love. He wrote to the Corinthians that
the love of Christ constrains us. That
was the power that drove Paul on and on with the Gospel. It was not some craving for controversy, or desire
for adventure, but it was for the end of love that he was motivated. He then gives 3 means by which we are to
reach that end of love. If we develop
these three things we will be progressing toward the goal of love. Not any love will do, for it must be a love,
which issues from these three things.
1. A PURE HEART.
Just as a pure fountain sends forth refreshing water to the
thirsty, so the pure in heart bring the refreshing attitude of love into a
world of hostility. Jesus said that the
pure in heart shall see God, and it follows that the pure heart which sees God
will also see the need of men to see God, and so long to express the love of
God in Christ that they may have the opportunity to do so. The more I read about love in the New Testament
the more I realize how little Christians have moved toward this primary
goal. Can it be because we are really
not pure in heart? Have we neglected
the means to the end to the point that we do not even recognize the nature of
the kind of love that is to possess us and constrain us as it did Paul?
The impure heart harbors lust and not love. It is a form of love, which is selfish
desire. Have we allowed agape love,
which is the selfless love of Christ, to be lost and replaced with the natural
eros love of desire? I think it is so,
and so we cannot begin to reach Christian maturity until we become pure in
heart. We need to be sanctified, and to
learn those truths of God's Word that purify our attitudes and actions. We need to escape the pull of the world in
all realms, and purify our hearts if we expect to reach the end of love, which
is our goal. A church which is not
succeeding to aid its people in attaining purity of heart is a church in danger
of having a meaningless ministry of no use to the cause of Christ.
2. A GOOD CONSCIENCE.
A bad conscience is the force behind much of Christian un‑loveliness. The Christian who condemns rather than loves
is often filled with guilt feelings.
His conscience is bothered by his own sin and failure to be what he
knows God wants him to be. And so
rather than repent and receive forgiveness he lashes out in anger to punish
others who are more guilty than he, and he seeks in this way to satisfy his own
conscience. It is all futile however,
and it only leads to frustration and greater guilt.
If the Christian is ever going to love others as he ought,
he has got to love himself as he ought.
He can never do this if he has a conscience, which is always condemning
him. A Christian that dislikes and
condemns himself cannot really love anybody.
Therefore, a good conscience is essential in the Christian life. A good conscience is one that allows a
Christian the freedom to love himself, and to love his neighbor as himself. This means that the doctrine of forgiveness
of sin needs to be taught until all Christians understand fully the ministry of
Christ's present intercession on their behalf.
Confession of sin, which played such a major role in the New
Testament must be understood by Christians today. The Christian who does not know how to deal with his sin and his
bad conscience is greatly handicapped, and he is unable to move along the path
to the goal of love. A Christian who is
always looking for scapegoats, and always complaining and griping is a
Christian with a bad conscience, and he becomes a very poor channel for the
love of Christ to be expressed to others.
Any ministry that aids believers in maintaining a clear conscience is a
ministry that is fruitful for Christ.
3. A GENUINE OR SINCERE
FAITH.
That is a faith that is not hypocritical. It is not simply a mask over the real
person. There is a certain insincere
kind of faith, which oozes piety all over on the surface, but it is only a
shallow cover up over an impure heart and a bad conscience. Christians must be aware of the danger of a
false faith, which is a faith built up around words they have learned, but
which has no basis in experience. A
sincere and honest faith will be practical and down to earth. Those who wonder off into myths, and who
take adventures into the unknown seek to give the impression that this is a
demonstration of real faith, but it is not so.
Fantasy is not faith. A sincere
faith brings forth love and a devotion to people, and not a devotion to fables
and systems.
Any teaching that helps a believer to shed his mask and to
live as he really is before God and man in simple trust is a kind of teaching
that will be blest, for genuine faith will lead to the end of love. The implication of this advice to Timothy
is that if a Christian lacks love the reason is because of a defect in one of
these 3 areas‑his heart, his conscience, or his faith.
In verse 6 Paul says that those teachers who have wondered
away from these 3 things, and who have lost their sense of direction and goal,
have ended up with an emphasis on what is vain. Whenever Christians get into foolish discussions it is because
they have lost sight of their goal. The
goal is love, and the means to that end are a pure heart, a good conscience and
genuine faith. We have a clear goal and
a clear revelation as to how to reach it.
Our perpetual duty as Christians is to keep this ever before us, for all
of our teaching, preaching and discussion is of no ultimate value unless it
moves us to reach the end, which is love.
4. LAW AND GOSPEL Based on I Tim. 1:7f
There is mystery enough in life without us adding
unnecessary mysteries of our own making.
For example, like the woman who evicted a man from her boarding house,
and when she was asked why she did it she said, "Something mysterious is
going on when a man hangs his hat over the key hole every time he comes
in." She created the mystery for
herself by her own snooping. Others
create mysteries even by their attempts to help. Like the professor who came upon the man setting in his car whose
tire was going low. The professor said,
"I say, your tubular air container has lost most of its
rotundity." The motorist blankly
replied, "What?" The
professor said, "The cylindrical apparatus which supports your vehicle is
no longer inflated." Again the
motorist responded, "I beg your pardon." The professor was determined to communicate his point, and he
said, "The elastic fabric surrounding the circular frame whose successive
revolutions bear you onward in space has failed to retain its pristine
roundness." As the motorist
scratched his head a little boy walking by shouted out, "Hey mister, you
got a flat tire."
In spite of his vast vocabulary and comprehensive
description of the problem, the professor only added mystery upon mystery to
what was the simplest of problems.
Truth is worthless as long as it is hidden in the obscurity of language. One might just as well be silent as to make
sounds, which convey no meaning to the hearer.
What is even worst is if they sounds convey a false meaning, or one
which the speaker does not intend. This
was the case with the Mexican who was just learning to speak English. His friend told him that a woman is pleased
if you tell her how cool she looks. Not
realizing the significance of the words he thought it was the idea that was
important, and so he told his girlfriend she didn't look very hot. He learned that a little knowledge is a
dangerous thing very quickly. It is
dangerous because it assume too much.
It over simplifies, and it does not grasp the implication involved.
All of these illustrations are similar to what can happen in
theology when men like the boardinghouse owner begin to snoop into what is none
of their business, and try to find out what God has revealed. Or when they like the professor get
unreasonably wordy and complex about the simplest matters. Or when like the Mexican they convey just
the opposite impression than what their intentions are because of their
ignorance of the language. These were
the kinds of problems that Paul faces at Ephesus, and he asked Timothy to help
him with these problems. Some of the
Gentile Christians were taking it upon themselves to become experts on the
law. The Jewish law was, of course,
precious to the Gentiles who became Christians, for it was the Jews who brought
the Gospel to them, and it was the Jewish Scriptures that would be there source
of knowing God's will.
Some wanted to spread the word and teach it that others
might know what God has spoken. The
problem was that they had zeal without knowledge, and this leads to more harm
than good. These men were teaching
without adequate understanding, and they were corrupting the purpose of the
law. Paul asked Timothy to try and curb
these self‑ordained scholars.
Their motive was all right, and Paul does not condemn the desire they
had to teach. This was good, but they
just did not have adequate equipment to do the job. They were not trained and so they didn't understand. Anyone who thinks that just being a
Christian is all that is needed to understand the Bible understands neither the
Bible nor history. Training is just as
essential in Bible knowledge as it is in any other realm of knowledge. There has never been a great Bible expositor
who was not well trained, either formerly or self‑trained, as was the
case with D. L. Moody.
No matter how committed and sincere a believer is, God
cannot use him as a teacher if he is ignorant.
However sincere a man is in getting people healed, I do not want him
treating me unless he has some knowledge of the body and medicine. A man has got to have knowledge and
understanding to be used effectively in any area of life. Ignorance has never qualified a man to teach
anything, and least of all the law of God.
Paul is bothered by these teachers, for their very
earnestness and zeal make them all the more dogmatic in their ignorance. When a man knows he loves the Lord, and
knows his motive is the glory of the Lord, his ignorance is all the more
dangerous, for he assumes that his love and zeal will guarantee that he speaks
the truth. Unfortunately, this is not
the case, and the ignorant tongue can spew out poison to corrupt the very
people he hopes to purify with truth.
Sincerity is no substitute for the facts. If a Christian does not know what he is talking about he had best
be silent. The New English Bible
translates verse 7, "They set out to be teachers of the moral law, without
understanding either the words they use or the subjects about which they are so
dogmatic." If it wasn't so tragic,
it would be funny. Like the Mexican
telling his girl she didn't look so hot without understanding what he was
conveying. These Christian teachers
were throwing around words, which they didn't even understand. Such nonsense is dangerous, for the one
doing it can fall in love with his own concepts, and feel he has cornered the
market on inspiration.
Much that goes on under these delusions is harmless, but
Paul says they detract from the purpose of the church in edifying the saints
and building them up in the truth, which leads to the end of love. It may not be positive evil, but it is vain
jangling says Paul, and it has no place in the church. There is even a danger of being aware how
easily a subject can be perverted by the ignorance of men. It can lead you to dismiss or neglect and
important part of God's Word. It every
Tom, Dick and Harry starts spouting about love for every other Tom, Dick and
Harry, it can discourage the Christian who has the highest concepts of love. He can be led to neglect that which is his
own highest goal. He can be so
disturbed by the nonsense and trash that he slips away from the field of Bible
prophecy altogether. It is possible to
get such a negative attitude toward all the perversion that you forget to
pursue the truth itself.
Paul wanted to make it clear that he was not doing this. He was opposed to ignorant teaching of the
law, but he was not opposed to the law.
On the contrary, he says in verse 8 that we know the law is good if a
man uses it lawfully. The problem, as
Paul sees it, is not with the law at all, but with man's use of it. If used unwisely that which is good in
itself can become an evil. The law is
not just neutral, but Paul says it is a positive good, but it is
conditional. It is not automatically
good, but has to be used properly. A
knife is good for cutting your meat, but bad for cleaning your eyes and
ears. Every good thing can be used in a
way that is improper, and then it become harmful and dangerous, and so it is
with the law.
A proper use of law leads to liberty, but on the other side
of this great value are the extremes of legalism and libertinism. Both of these extremes are the result of a
false teaching concerning law, and both have plagued the church from the
beginning. Paul deals with both extremes
in this letter. The law can either add
to the Gospel or detract from it, and so it is very important that the
relationship between the two be understood by Christians. It is a vast subject, and we can only touch
on it.
The basic thing to see here is that the law is good. The Christian is in no sense in favor of
lawlessness, for this is a characteristic of depraved man at his worst. Paul puts the lawless first in his great
list of evil men beginning in verse 9.
The Gospel does not free men from the burden of law by abolishing it,
but by fulfilling it, and by changing its character from an external force to
an internal power. The church is itself
under law, which is the law of her Head and King, the Lord Jesus, who said that
all authority is given to Him, and so go into all the world and preach the
Gospel. The very taking of the Gospel
into the world is obedience to the law of the Lord. This is His command. He
has also laid down the law of what our goal is to be, and that is to make
disciples of all nations.
The difference between this and the Old Testament law is
that it was an external rule threatening punishment, but the law of Christ is
the law of love, which constrains from within and moves us to obedience, not out
of fear of punishment, but out of love and gratitude. Paul could speak of his
being a slave of Christ, and also of having great liberty in Christ. Both of these are unified in the law of love
written on the heart. Being bound to
Christ is being totally free when one chooses to be so bound. When a man is in love and plans to get
married, no matter how others joke of the bondage and the chains, and the loss
of liberty, he freely chooses it all because the fulfillment of his love is
liberty to him. To be bound in love is
the greatest freedom. So it is when we
yield ourselves to be servants of the law of Christ. We become sons with perfect liberty to do all we please, for all
we please to do is that which pleases Him.
Law then can magnify the liberty of the believer and add to the benefit
of the Gospel.
5. LAW AND
GRACE Based on I Tim. 1:8
The new bride said to her husband, "I took the recipe
for that cake you are eating out of my cookbook." "Good," responded the husband,
"It never should have been put in there in the first place." Some feel this same way about the law being
in the Bible. They see it as only an
infringement upon their freedom, and they wish it were taken out. Others just ignore it, and they express the
feelings of the lawless like this poem of Alfred E. Houseman:
The laws of God, the laws of
man,
He may keep that will and
can:
Not I, let God and man be
decree
Laws for themselves, and not
for me.
He wants to be free from all law, but does not realize that this leads to total bondage rather than freedom. The