Welcome back.
Wednesday, but remember we’re closing out the week with this,
and maybe potentially, probably today, closing out the book
of 1 Timothy.
And then just again a reminder,
we’re off next week.
So,
we are in verse 17 here as we move toward the end of the chapter.
We’ll kind of do it in two sections today.
Yesterday we had this wonderful passage,
kind of a doxology.
Paul breaks into a moment of praise.
We end with amen,
which kind of we said
Paul is prone to do.
And then we kind of teased this out yesterday.
It almost feels tacked on.
It’s like Paul said,
“Oh, I meant to tell them that,” and he goes back into a teaching moment.
So, let me read these,
then we’ll go through them a little bit.
“But as for those who are rich in the present age,
command them not to be haughty,
or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches,
but rather on God who richly provides
with everything for our enjoyment.
They are to do good,
to be rich in good works,
generous and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future,
so that they may take hold of the life
that really is life.”
Not unlike we saw Paul make mention of this earlier.
We mentioned that the gospel is full,
the New Testament is full of teaching on money and on danger.
You know, we’ve had that verse,
you’ve probably heard the root of,
the love of money is the root of all evil.
And here he says,
you know, Timothy, just tell the people who are doing well not to be proud,
not to be haughty,
not to be puffed up because of it.
Yes, it’s nice to have a lot,
but tell them that means they should be doing a lot.
They are held accountable for the goodness that they do,
not just for having possessions, for having wealth,
but for using that to build a good
foundation for the future,
so that they can take hold,
this is a wonderful phrase,
they can take hold of the life
that really is life,
so that their life will not just have stuff in it,
but it will have meaning in it.
And, you know,
these are great words.
They feel a little out
of place in the order of the book,
but they are great words.
And in this community,
as we probably have already seen,
there were some people doing well as there are in most communities,
and Paul’s kind of,
through Timothy, giving them a warning,
make sure you don’t let that wealth become a
barrier to you and others and to you in faithfulness.
I think if we’re going to look for how this connection,
or sorry, this passage connects to the overall arc of the book,
I think we can easily
see that it connects to that prevalent idea that we’ve had,
that the words or the teaching has been
the word that we’ve used most often,
that the words of the church
should match the action of the
church.
We’ve seen that over and over and over again.
Paul has very concretely,
very specifically called out hypocrisy from within the church,
particularly those who he characterizes as false teachers.
Clint, it’s hard to not look at this and see that theme being summarized once
again, that if you are rich with material gain,
I don’t think that he is focusing in here on
wealth as a particular frame itself.
I think for him,
it’s to say that there should always be right
action in the midst of Christian community and that having riches is not a disqualifier from that requirement.
Whether you have a lot or you have a little,
everyone is called to be the one
whose works matches the substance of our teaching.
I would say that that is exactly the connection
that we’re going to have here to the passage from yesterday,
where Jesus Christ is extolled
with this beautiful kind of meditative moment.
We’re reminded now,
as he brings this back to
the community itself, that this very same action that we see in Christ, the righteousness,
the godliness, the self-giving,
that this is to characterize the Christian life,
and that includes everybody,
including Paul probably, I mean, as pastors, I think we maybe make assumptions here,
but I’m sure Paul probably had some people in mind when he writes these words.
Maybe he and Timothy knew kind of who the folks were that Paul had in mind here,
and it’s likely it’s just
to say they’re included in the list.
Yeah, if you use a word like “rich” in most churches,
I suspect that community would have some idea of
who that pertained to.
Right.
I mean, that would likely
be fairly well known in that community,
and this seems like it stands alone,
but really, Paul throughout this entire letter
has been calling the church through Timothy to concentrate
on the things that were truly meaningful rather than things that distracted them,
genealogies and false teachings and et cetera,
and he’s already done that with wealth,
and here he does it again.
You know,
the problem with wealth is that we think we can trust it,
or we think that
it fills some gap in our life.
Wealth is wonderful, but when we make it something it’s not intended to be,
we put it in the way,
and it becomes a barrier to our faith,
and so they are to do good
and be rich,
and not to trust the uncertainty of riches,
but put their faith in God and build a strong
foundation for the future so that the treasure that they have is really treasure,
and they may take hold of a life that really is life.
You know,
I’ve known a few people,
Michael, I think probably
others have as well,
who have seen people who do really well,
who have a lot,
who
are wealthy,
but
whose lives probably feel empty,
you know, who don’t have joy,
who don’t have purpose.
They have things, but they don’t have meaning,
and unfortunately all of the stuff that
they trust, that they look to,
doesn’t fulfill them, and I think that’s what Paul wants to avoid
for those in the church.
Yeah, we want to be clear here that I don’t think that Paul is speaking out
to suddenly wrap up this book with a huge shot across the bow at people who just aren’t doing
financially well in Ephesus.
I think that,
realistically,
this is the kind of thread that
biblical scholars work so hard to sort of tease out, right?
How is this connected to the false teachers?
How is this connected to that general kind of critique that Paul’s been making to those
whose actions so severely are separated from the substance of their belief?
And if we’re going to
be honest, that has a kind of direct application that’s,
I think, uncomfortable for everyone,
because we will all,
at some point in our life,
find ourselves, to use this language here,
tempted that we would be essentially relying upon ourselves,
putting our hopes on the uncertainty of riches,
instead of storing up this good foundation.
And I love this last phrase, Clint,
that we may take hold of the life that really is life.
If you’ve ever gone through a
season of life where you’ve been on autopilot or think where it just sort of feels like it’s a day
upon day sort of situation,
you know what it feels like that moment when you see a dawning,
a kind of light that comes from experiencing real joy,
real excitement, real gratitude.
There’s a telling in this.
If we invest in an idea of who we are that is not true to who God made us to be,
we will always be living a half-life,
not the kind of life that really is life.
And that’s ultimately who Jesus Christ is,
the life of who God made us to be and God’s revelation as to what
God intends for us to be.
And that’s a great gift.
Yeah.
And interestingly enough, a pretty good transition to the last word here,
as Paul goes back to a personal word to Timothy.
Let me read this for you.
“Timothy,
guard what has been entrusted to you.
Avoid the profane chatter and contradiction of
what is falsely called knowledge.
By professing it,
some have missed the mark
in regards to the faith.
Grace be with you.” This is,
I think, an absolutely wonderful ending.
It’s a strong ending.
The language is deep.
The words are well chosen.
“Timothy,
guard what has been entrusted to you.
Protect the faith.
Nurture the faith.
Be on guard against what might weaken it.
Avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.” In other words,
Timothy, if you’re going to swim in these waters and you’re going to have to confront these things,
don’t be affected by them.
Don’t be led astray by them.
Avoid them.
Because by professing it,
some have missed the mark as regards the faith.
I think this is really good.
That idea that part of
the calling in our life of faith is to sort out what is true from what is falsely called knowledge.
That in the world,
there are no shortage of ideas and things that people claim as truth.
And the Christian task is to navigate one’s life,
avoiding the profane and the contradictions of
what is falsely called knowledge and holding on to that,
which is really true.
Because by following the false knowledge,
some in regards to faith have missed the mark.
And just a reminder here,
the word sin literally means to miss the mark.
So not to say this says they’ve sinned,
but that is the concept here that we aim for in our life,
the truth of God.
And when false knowledge leads us
astray in regards to faith,
we miss that mark and we find ourselves
drifting away from what is true.
Yeah.
And profane chatter, contradictions,
false things that are called knowledge.
I mean,
Clint, this could be written to us today.
I mean, we’re tempted as humans to the same exact thing.
In fact,
one could argue in the midst of essentially free information and social media
and getting to post whatever we want whenever we want that we’re even more tempted to these things.
I was just having a conversation with someone today over lunch about how easy it is to get
caught up in this eternal cycle of saying something a little bit more extreme or reading something a
little bit on the edge of our comfort because it strikes our attention.
Oh, that’s interesting.
And pretty soon we find ourselves not just reading chatter,
but it’s profane chatter.
It’s a violation of our deepest values of who we know we’re called to be as Christians.
And that if you’ve been around
church for any period of time,
you know that that is the eternal temptation of Christian community
that we go from how can I pray for you to you’ll never guess what happened to fill in the blank.
And we always must be on guard in that work.
That’s part of, I think,
the task that even
Jesus gives us the image or the metaphor for this,
the shepherd and the sheep.
We have the farmer and the field.
I mean,
these are all active tasks.
It requires work to make sure that we
root out the weeds in our own hearts and the weeds within our church community.
It takes active work to keep the wolves out from the flock.
This is the kind of thing that we commit to
as Paul instructs Timothy to be in Christian community and committed to the practice of
seeking to always put down ourselves in our own interests and to connect honestly and authentically
with the faith with our neighbor.
That is easily said and only done when lived out over time
and with the appropriate amount of work and humility and courage.
I mean, Clint,
this is in some ways the marching order of what it means to be church and it’s incredibly practical.
Well, I think this is in some ways the ultimate ending of a letter written to a young
person from an older person because this sounds in updated language very much like you might say
something you might say to a young person going off to college or leaving the house.
Don’t be led astray by people who believe they understand things they don’t understand.
Don’t be led astray by false chatter,
by contradiction,
and by pseudo knowledge that isn’t truth.
By professing it, some have missed the mark.
Don’t be among them.
Don’t follow them.
Don’t go with them.
And the final word from Paul is always grace and here it’s wished to Timothy
as he takes this,
as he endeavors to do this,
as he takes this upon himself,
as he hears this charge,
Timothy,
guard what has been entrusted to you and avoid going the wrong way.
Grace be with you because ultimately Paul understands that it is only by grace that we can follow the right path.
It is only in the grace of Christ that we can understand truth and avoid false.
It is only by Christ that we find ourselves able to navigate those things well as followers and then in
Timothy’s case as a leader.
So I think this is a very strong ending,
Michael.
I think it’s a beautiful verse.
I think you could dig into this for a long time and I think it would be helpful.
And as you mentioned,
it’s remarkably contemporary.
There will never be a point
in which this verse won’t sound like it’s applicable in the here and now.
Yeah, it is an amazing part of Paul’s writing as we come to the end of this book that he is able
to so seamlessly navigate between theology and by that I mean reflections upon the deepest values
of our faith and the way in which that gets lived out in the here and now,
the way that it actually
takes form in our relationships and in our families and our service.
He’s able to talk
about the grace of Jesus Christ,
the character of righteousness,
and then he’s able to just
immediately move into what that looks like if you’re a Christian leader or if you’re a deacon
or then he goes and talks about how one should treat one’s family.
All of this matters and he
sees them as a seamless whole.
I think that is,
as we turn to scripture,
a refreshing reminder
that Christians are always seeking to find that kind of authenticity.
I’m not sure that’s the
right word, but I mean that when we are living our lives,
that the things that we’re doing
in our work and in our relationships,
that these things match up with the very image we find of
Jesus Christ.
For Paul, that is a seamless whole.
That’s, I think, what we aspire to do.
And so as we read this letter,
let’s be honest,
there were some moments where we struggled or where we
sought an interpretation and there were hard texts and difficult moments to that end.
At the same time,
in our own present moment and in our own present faith,
that is the goal,
is that we might
live where these beliefs and these practices become intertwined and they find a oneness,
a wholeness, and that is, I think, a way that the letter points us forward today.
Yeah, I hope there’s been something in this letter that’s spoken to you.
I hope you’ve learned
something.
I hope there’s been something that has challenged you and been helpful in regard to your
own journey of faith.
I think this is a very strong letter.
It is certainly a letter with an eye toward the pastoral,
the pastoring, the leadership role of Timothy in the church,
but I think having
said that, there’s something for everybody in it.
I hope you can join us.
Remember, we’re off a week.
We’ll be back at it about a week and a half from now and hope to see you then.
Thanks.