1 Timothy 4:11-16: Notes to Tim, Part 2: Personal Progress and Pedagogical Persistence
1 Timothy: Living in the Household of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Let’s pray.
This week, I was pretty convicted about keeping a close watch on my teaching, so I’m not going to inflict you with my usual silly introductory illustration other than to promise you that I will not neglect the gift I have — specifically, the gift of alliterative sermon titles, less commonly known as Tyler’s Terrible Textual Teaching Title Technique.
And hey, at least half of the words in the title this week actually come directly from the text!
Today’s text doesn’t divide super neatly into sections based on grammatical structure alone, but it does divide pretty nicely into sections thematically. Specifically, the two big ideas we’ll look at are Timothy’s personal progress, seen in things like “be an example” and “keep a close watch on yourself”, and Timothy’s pedagogical persistence, seen in things like, “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture” and “keep a close watch on the teaching.”
After we look at those two big ideas, we’ll bring them together and ask — what’s the big deal? Why does Paul care so much about Timothy’s personal life and his teaching? Spoiler alert: that’s our main idea.
God’s household stewards must pay careful attention to their lives and the teaching that goes on in God’s household because lives and souls are at stake.
Before we look at those two ideas, though, let’s look at verse 11, which provides the context for Paul’s commands here.
11 Command and teach these things.
“These things” here is not actually referring to what Paul is about to say, but rather to the things he’s said in the letter up to this point, starting in 1 Timothy 2:1 and running up to 1 Timothy 4:5, precisely the same content as the “these things” of last week in 1 Timothy 4:6.
What’s of particular interest, though is the first two imperatives — and we’re going to see a lot of imperatives today, by the way — command and teach.
This letter started off with Paul urging Timothy to stay in Ephesus to charge certain persons not to teach different doctrines, and the same verb for charge is ending up here.
And now he’s circling back. Having laid out the false teachers’ errors and a few correctives for God’s household broadly speaking, Paul has turned his attention away from the church situation and taken aim straight for Timothy himself in a rapid-fire set of commands that may well have contributed to Timothy’s frequent stomach ailments as they rang in his ears.
Now, there’s one very minor nuance in the structure of this command that the ESV glosses over. Although it’s bad English, “command these things and teach” does a little better at capturing what Paul’s actually doing. As he’s focusing in on Timothy, he’s actually also going to be focusing specifically on life in the church for those who believe as opposed to dealing with the background of the false teachers for a little while. “Command”, in other words, is to be Timothy’s posture towards those wolves who would devour God’s sheep, while “teach” is to be Timothy’s posture towards his family in Christ, those members of God’s household who really do belong.
As John Calvin put it, “A pastor needs two voices, one for gathering the sheep and the other for driving away wolves and thieves,” and Paul wants Timothy to use both of those voices, but with distinct audiences.
That said, let’s turn our attention to Timothy’s personal progress. We’ll see that in verse 12.
12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
In this verse, we have two more imperatives, although the first is also hard to translate into good English and retain the force of how Paul wrote it. Rather than understanding this as, “Timothy, you don’t let anybody despise you,” we should hear Paul saying, “No one is to despise you for your youth. It is a forbidden thing.” It’s not up to Timothy to go around and defend himself, in other words.
Now, it’s interesting that Paul brings up Timothy’s age here — after all, if everybody knows Timothy is Paul’s apostolic representative, what’s it matter how old he is as long as he faithfully represents what Paul teaches?
Well, there are a number of factors going on. First off, for a man in his late twenties to mid-thirties as Timothy would have been, the weight of church leadership is a LOT. We’re largely still figuring out our place in the world, just beginning to flap our wings to see how capable of flight we are. If we’re married, it’s maybe a decade at most. If we have kids, they’re tweens at the oldest. And so on our end, who are we to give marriage advice to people who’ve been married longer than we’ve been alive? How could we possibly be an example for people who are old enough to be our parents or grandparents? It’s supposed to be the other way around!
Additionally, in Timothy’s context, people were already actively looking for excuses to discount him and ignore him. Do you remember the “I Win” game Caleb taught us last week? You can practically hear the false teachers saying, “I’m older than this guy. What’s he know? I win,” as those vacillating between following Timothy and making shipwreck of their faith nod along for the moment.
And one more factor — even those who wanted to follow Timothy may well have found it quite difficult if they had been discipled directly by Paul himself! Even though they were eager and willing, it would have been a little scary putting their trust in someone relatively unproven and unsure if they’re up for the task at hand.
It’d be like if a pastor served at a church for almost two decades and then went elsewhere, passing the reins on to three young men as he transitioned out. Even if that pastor said, “Hey, I’ve been training these guys for a while and you’re in good hands!” you’d be forgiven for being a little bit hesitant to throw your lot in with them with no reservations.
But Paul does have a solution to make this first command much easier to obey. Paul commanded Timothy, imperative number four, by the way, to be an example for his brothers and sisters in Christ, both older and younger — effectively fleshing out what he’d said in 4:7, “train yourself for godliness.”
Let’s consider each of the five categories briefly — it’s doubtful that this list is exhaustive, and Paul lists these categories off in rapid-fire fashion so I don’t want us to get bogged down, but we shouldn’t just gloss over them either.
First, speech. We know that it’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out, because what comes out of the mouth is the overflow of the heart. If Timothy’s speech was exemplary, it follows that his heart was likewise exemplary. His inclination and ability to speak timely words in a timely fashion rather than using his words to tear others down, puff himself up, or fill people’s ears with wasteful nonsense, would be life-giving for both him and his hearers.
On the other hand, failure in this area would lead to cancerous unhealth in the body. People would either reject Timothy and, by proxy, Paul, and follow the smooth-talking false teachers or, marginally less bad, still follow Timothy but be conformed to patterns of speech that are unhelpful at best and bring shame on Christ at worst.
Next, conduct. Timothy’s daily conduct was to be reflective of someone who submits every aspect of his life to God’s instruction, from waking to sleeping, dawn to dusk. Timothy’s example was not just to be in the church setting every Sunday, but day after day, so that he could truly say, “Follow me as I follow Christ” just like his spiritual father Paul.
He was to be like a skilled drummer whose rhythm sets the pace for those who follow after him, keeping the rest of the band in time and playing in harmony rather than everybody occasionally and accidentally hitting the right notes together.
Up next, love, faith, and purity. I’m lumping these together because they are all more abstract personal characteristics — you can directly examine speech and conduct, but love, faith, and purity are necessarily attached to some sort of habitual action. It’s one thing to say, “I love you,” or “I’m a relatively faithful person,” or “I’m pure at heart,” but it’s another thing entirely to back it up.
It’s pretty easy to manufacture good speech and good conduct for a time, but you simply can’t fake love, faith, and purity. They are fruit of the Spirit harvested only through time spent in the presence of God himself. The love, faith, and purity required of Timothy — and of all of us — are the very love, faith, and purity of Christ Himself which grow in us as we see him more and more clearly and are conformed more and more into his image.
And the presence of all these characteristics would certainly make it a lot easier for his brethren in Ephesus to obey Paul’s command not to despise Timothy because he was young, wouldn’t they?
Unfortunately, personal progress alone would not be enough for Timothy to carry out the necessary work in Ephesus in Paul’s mind. Exemplary character is nothing to be sneezed at, to be sure, but for the health of the church and the success of her mission, some pedagogical persistence would also be required. Let’s look at verses 13-14.
Section 2: Pedagogical Persistence
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
Explanation:
In this section, we see two more imperatives — numbers five and six: first, devote yourself, and second, do not neglect.
Let’s look at that first imperative.
In contrast to the false teachers who were “devoted” to myths and endless genealogies as in 1 Timothy 1:4
4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
or those who disqualified themselves from being deacons by being “devoted” to much wine, Timothy was to be “devoted” to three activities: the public reading of Scripture, exhortation, and teaching.
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
Immediately, we can see that this devotion is not merely personal — the “yourself” is an addition to make the English readable. In addition, we ought to consider the “public” nature of the reading, as well as the fact that exhortation and teaching require an audience.
In addition to his exemplary character, Timothy was to watch over the church’s teaching activities like a hawk — certainly his own teaching, but I also think the teaching of others, too. As one who had worked with Paul for a very long time and Paul’s hand-picked man for the job, it would make sense that Timothy would be active not only in teaching the congregation personally, but also teaching the teachers and offering correction and feedback as appropriate — think of Paul’s later instruction in 2 Timothy 2:2
2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
Let’s look at the activities to which Timothy was to give attention.
The public reading of Scripture originally referred to the synagogue practice of reading portions of the Old Testament at quite some length, and most of the time that reading would serve as the basis for the exhortation and teaching in the worship gathering, a practice that continued into the early Christian church.
The exhortation and teaching aren’t too distinct from one another, except in their emphasis. Exhortation primarily refers to preaching — from the text at hand, of course — that has to do with behavior, whether implementing right behaviors, changing wrong behaviors, or teaching which affects the heart, will, and emotions. A prime example we have of biblical exhortation is the letter to the Hebrews, which does contain a lot of doctrine, to be sure, but is ultimately geared at encouraging Jewish Christians not to go back to their old lives in Judaism but rather to hold fast to Christ.
Teaching, on the other hand, emphasizes the more doctrinal side of Christian education. This teaching could come either from the text being discussed, or it could be more systematic in nature, concerning, perhaps, theology proper, or the nature of the resurrection, or any of the other “ologies” we’re familiar with. It’s the same word we see in 1 Timothy 4:6, 16, 6:1, and 6:3.
Now, let’s consider why Paul wanted Timothy to pay close attention to these specific things. We know that the gatherings of the early church also included prayers, singing, prophecy, and the Lord’s Supper, so it’s not like we should understand this instruction as a church worship manual. What’s going on?
First, consider with me what happens when we read Scripture together at length.
When we read Scripture together, we are all on a level playing field, hearing God’s Word. The extent of interpretation going on is the translation we choose and the inflection, tone, et cetera, of the Scripture reader. It gives us all an opportunity to declare together, “We’re here to hear from God, not man.” Even a false teacher speaks truth if he’s reading God’s word and not changing it, and even people who aren’t great teachers can read.
When we read Scripture together, we are also reminded of God’s story, especially when we read narratives like the Pentateuch, the Gospels, or, as we’ve been doing recently, the book of Acts. We are reminded of who God is and what he’s done, and we’re reminded according to how he wants us to remember those things since God is the best interpreter of his own actions.
When we read Scripture together, we are reminded that God’s story is still going on in the world. God’s saving acts of the nation of Israel, God’s work through Jesus, and God’s work through the apostles by means of the Holy Spirit haven’t stopped. We are united in faith with those very same people to the very same God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and when we read those things together, we have an opportunity to lock arms and say, “This is OUR God!” not just, “this is MY God” as we might say in our individual reading of Scripture.
When we read Scripture together, then, God is shaping all of our individual stories and identities by weaving all of them together into his larger story.
So, as long as Timothy saw to it that Scripture held the central place in the Ephesian church, the false teachers’ silly myths and endless genealogies would start to look like spaghetti covered in Skittles and maple syrup in comparison to the perfectly-cooked steak of God’s Word.
Hear how one well-known figure in church history described the gatherings of his church:
“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray.” — Justin Martyr, First Apology
Did you catch that? The public Scripture reading goes on as long as time permits, and then the leader gets up and teaches and exhorts. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love what we do here at GBC. I’m partially responsible for planning our Sunday gatherings! But how far we have come in the modern church, when a five or six minute reading followed by a three or four minute prayer can feel long to us, but a 30 minute sermon is relatively brief!
How about this for an application: if you ever see that Caleb’s, Hayden’s, and my youthful exuberance is running out and we’re looking a little tired in the pulpit, why not suggest giving us a down week and we’ll read Scripture together for an hour then simply give a brief exhortation afterwards? I can’t speak for the other two, but you won’t hear opposition from me.
As always, I’ve thoroughly under-nuanced what I have said and left a great many important things unsaid, but we must move on.
Now, Paul’s command in the previous section may well have caused Timothy some anxiety — being an example is hard work, especially when people aren’t in your corner to begin with and you’re trying to win them over!
But in this section, as Paul’s commanding Timothy to devote himself to these activities around the Scriptures, Paul is encouraging Timothy — hey, bud, all that training you’ve gotten from your grandmother, your mother, and me? Put it to work. You know the Scriptures. You know how to teach them. You know the doctrine I’ve taught you and that I teach in all God’s churches. You already have all the skills necessary to succeed if you just stick to what you already know and like to do anyways!
At the end of the day, though, there is one thing that matters far, far more than Timothy’s internship with the greatest theologian and Christian missionary of all time. Let’s look at verse 14.
14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
Paul commanded Timothy — imperative number 6, if you’re keeping track — not to neglect “the gift” which was given to him by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on him.
For all his good character, for all the time he spent learning the Scriptures from his grandmother, his mother, and Paul and his associates, none of that would have mattered if God had not equipped Timothy for the work to which he was called.
Because our time is limited today, I don’t want to go down the rabbit trails of what gifts of the Holy Spirit are and how exactly they work, nor do I want to get distracted by the very interesting question of prophecy and the laying on of hands, but I will say a couple of things.
First, Timothy’s gift was given him. This does sound a lot like what’s going on in Ephesians 4:7-12
Ephesians 4:7–12 (ESV)
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift… 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
This is to say that if Timothy’s gift was teaching, it wasn’t so much for his own sake as it was for the sake of God’s people — as much as he had the gift of teaching, he was a gift himself, as a teacher. Timothy’s facility with the Scriptures and his ability to teach them to others certainly came as a result of hard work on his own and diligence in faithfully following Paul, but ultimately Timothy’s publicly-acknowledged capacity as a teacher wasn’t because of his smarts or anything else in him that made him special — if that capacity was from him, he could do with it what he wanted, but as it was from God, he had a responsibility to cultivate it rather than to neglect it.
Now, I want you to consider — what God-given gifts do you bring to the table, brother or sister? If you’re not sure, ask the people around you — maybe someone with prophetic insight will be able to tell you exactly what you need to hear.
Or, if you’re a cessationist by conviction, maybe someone with exceptional wisdom who knows you really well will be able to help you figure out your giftings so that you may cultivate them for the good of your brothers and sisters here at GBC.
To sum all this up, if Timothy’s personal progress were the shield he used to deflect the attacks of his enemies and which he could hold up to defend himself and his ministry, his pedagogical persistence would be the sword with which he would cut the false teachers’ feet right out from under them — as well as the scalpel he would wield to carry out the necessary heart-and-head surgeries for the health of God’s household, skillfully slicing out unhelpful and unhealthy behaviors and gently but firmly correcting errant or unclear beliefs so that the whole body might grow into full maturity in Christ, or at least not totally implode on itself before Paul got there.
Let’s take a look at verses 15-16 to see the point of all this.
15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
If you’re still counting imperatives, you’ll notice four more in this section, to bring us up to a grand total of 10! I don’t know about you, but after reading this section, I find myself exhausted — and not just because I was finishing up this sermon at 3 in the morning because I’m the least likely of the 3 pastors to use an imperative.
In this section, Paul is pretty much tripping over himself to find different ways to say exactly the same thing. “Practice these things”. And if you didn’t catch that, “Immerse yourself in them.” Hard of hearing? “Persist in this.” It’s as if Paul deeply cares that Timothy heed his commands here, no matter his perceived inability or desire to run away and pursue a less dangerous, lower pressure career.
And Paul has good reason to care so deeply. As with every text in 1 Timothy, we must remember that this letter is not so much concerned with Timothy himself, nor even with the Ephesian church. This letter is ultimately about God’s mission — God’s mission to save sinners through faith in the message of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, the focus of all Scripture, the center of all Christian doctrine and practice, and the living God with whom we all must deal.
Timothy’s personal progress and pedagogical persistence were so critical to Paul because success would result in the salvation of both Timothy and his hearers. Now, obviously, Paul isn’t suggesting that Timothy would literally be his own savior, nor the savior of his brothers and sisters who listened to him. Turn to literally anywhere in Paul’s letters and you’ll see really quickly that salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.
But God, in his infinite wisdom, has decided to use those weak and shameful things in the world, people like Paul, Timothy, you, and me, to display his perfect power on earth and his manifold wisdom in the heavenly places so that we can very accurately say that Timothy, and all who would follow in his footsteps, are agents of God’s salvation who play a genuinely meaningful role in God carrying out his work in the world and especially his work in the church. Failure on Timothy’s part — or on our part — really can lead to people being saved or not. Our trust in God’s complete and utter sovereignty does not give us permission to kick our feet up and relax — far from it!
But it does give us confidence that simple, foolish things like Scripture reading, preaching, and teaching can make far more of an eternal difference than drawing massive crowds with charismatic, successful leaders and words that tickle peoples’ ears all the way to hell.
So, Grace Baptist Church, here we stand. Caleb, Hayden, and I will seek to follow in Timothy’s footsteps, keeping careful watch over our lives and this church’s teaching. It is our job, our responsibility, the task God has called us to, and our joy. We do all of these things not because we have to, but because we have been privileged to.
In return, I beg you — if you’re going to despise us, do it for something other than our youth since that’s obviously out of bounds. I kid. In all earnesty, lift us up in your prayers that we might walk according to the Spirit of God, working in his power, submitting ourselves to his ways and his wisdom, taking courage in the task set before us to work for your perseverance and growth in Christ.
And let us all together keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus, whose speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity serve not only as our example but as our righteousness, securing our place in God’s household. Let us practice following him. Let us immerse ourselves in him and in his word. Let us all continue progressing in him. Let us keep a close watch not only on ourselves, but on our perfect Shepherd King. Let us persist in clinging to the one who did not save himself, but submitted himself to death, so that he might save those who hear his voice and come to him.
Let’s pray.