How to Live in God’s House – Part 2
In our message, A TRUSTWORTHY SAYING (1 Tim. 1:12-20), we continued to look at the book of First Timothy, which focuses on the structure God wants His “house,” the church, to have as well as how we “ought to conduct [ourselves]” in that house as His children (1 Timothy 3:13 -see also 1 Tim. 1:3-4; 15-18; 2:1; 3:1-15; 4:6, 7, 8, 12, 14; 5:1, 3, 19, 21, 22; 6:4, 5, 11, 20 etc.).
After “charging” Timothy to make sure “no other doctrine” is taught than the Bible (1 Tim. 1:3), Paul then burst out into praise and thanksgiving for God’s mercy and grace that saved him! (1 Tim. 1:12-17). “I thank… Christ Jesus” Paul exclaims, because he “received mercy” from God (1 Tim. 1:12, 16 ESV). Paul had been “a blasphemer” (i.e. denied Jesus being God), “a persecutor” (using physical power to destroy Christians as he breathed out ‘murderous threats’) and “an insolent man” (full of pride, mocking people who trusted Jesus- 1 Tim. 1:12b; Acts 9:1, etc.), but he now realized how bad of a sinner he was and how Jesus had given him mercy through undeserved grace (1 Tim. 1:15).
When the Bible says, “THIS IS A FAITHFUL (OR TRUSTWORTHY) SAYING,” it is speaking of the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who “came into the world to save” all people who will come to him by grace through faith (1 Tim. 1:15 caps my emphasis; Eph. 2:8-9, etc.). “World” here means all of humanity, and “save” means to deliver or rescue (1 Tim. 1:15; John 1:29; Luke 19:10; 23:34, etc.). Paul understood how bad his sin was and because of that, God’s grace was powerfully at work in his life (1 Tim. 1:15; Luke 7:47; 1 Cor. 15:10, etc.). His life was a testimony to others that the Lord can save anyone and also will save anyone who “believe[s] on Him” (1 Tim. 1:16). Likewise, all of our lives as Christians are testimonies to this fact as well (Acts 1:8, etc.). May all “honor and glory” be to this awesome eternal King of the ages who is transcendent, holy, ‘other’… “God… alone [who] is wise… forever and ever. Amen!” (1 Tim. 1:17).
Paul then returned to the topic at hand, “This charge I commit to you…” (a military term that denotes strict orders from a superior officer… 1 Tim. 1:18). Timothy was commanded from the Lord to “wage the good warfare” at Ephesus for God’s kingdom (1 Tim. 1:3, 18). The Ephesian church was not easy place to serve, and maybe you are not in an easy place to serve our Lord as well, BUT if God has called you there and is not moving you, you are to occupy and fight the good fight for as long as He has you there (1 John 4:4; Matt. 28:18-20, etc.). The apostle then encouraged and reminded Timothy this calling was through the Word of God (i.e. in Timothy’s case, the Bible says, “the prophecies [that had been] made concerning” him declared this truth).
Unlike Ephesians 6:10-18, here Paul only includes two elements of the spiritual armor we are to hold to: #1 “faith,” and #2 “a good conscience” (1 Tim. 1:19a). God is speaking of people who have embraced “the faith” in Jesus Christ and are saved (i.e. the definite article is used here in the Greek- much like it is in Jude 1:3). Faith in the Bible and our God given conscience for a Christian always go together. Scripture says we can defile and even sear our conscience if we do not keep it clear by judging ourselves and confessing sin (Titus 1:15; 1 Tim. 4:2; 1 John 1:9; 1 Cor. 11:31-32; 2 Tim. 3:16-17, etc.). Once the conscience is seared, any Christian is capable of committing gross sin (1 Cor. 10:12, etc.). King David’s conscience, for example, was not cleared in the case of his sin with Bathsheba, and it was ever before him UNTIL he finally confessed it (Ps. 51:3). When/if a Christian sins against his or her conscience without repentance and confession of sin, it will hurt that child of God’s faith and his confidence in God (1 John 2:28-29). That is, when you go against your God-given conscience as a Christian, you also work against your confidence in the Word of God which can “shipwreck” your faith (1 Tim. 1:19b) bringing death to it in a present-day sense (2 Tim. 2:12; 1 Cor. 3:15; 2 John 8; James 1:21; 2:14-26, etc.).
John Calvin agreed with this writing, “There is danger lest faith be sunk by a bad conscience, as by a whirlpool in a stormy sea.”
But God always remains faithful even if we are faithless (i.e. 2 Tim. 2:13) and will see every of child of His into heaven by grace (2 Tim. 2:11; Rom. 8:32-39, etc.).
The Holy Spirit then gave two examples, by name, that Timothy would have known of who had ‘shipwrecked’ their faith at Ephesus by ‘rejecting’ their God-given conscience: “Hymenaeus and Alexander” (2 Tim. 2:19-20). By the way, the word “rejected” in 1 Tim. 1:19 (which refers to their conscience) means ‘a strong, deliberate thrusting away.’ In the case of Hymenaeus, the Bible shows us he was teaching the heresy that the resurrection had already passed when in fact it was coming (2 Tim. 2:16-18), and Alexander also strongly opposed the Bible taught by God through His apostle Paul (2 Tim. 4:14) which went against his conscience and resulted in his faith being ‘shipwrecked.’ (Eph. 2:8-9 vs. 1 Tim. 1:19-20, etc.). These men were certainly influential in the Ephesian church, and may have even been leaders… Nonetheless, Scripture says, in defense of the Bible, heavy church discipline was to be exercised against them by turning them over “to Satan” through excommunication (much like the brother in 1 Cor. 5:1-5) to protect the church and seek their eventual restoration to God (2 Cor. 5:9-11, etc.).
Is your conscience clear, child of God, or are you doing something you know is against the Bible? The Bible urges us to walk closely with our Lord so we are living for Him today and ready for His return (Rom. 12:1-2, 9; 1 John 2:28; 1 Pet. 1:13; 2 Pet. 3:17-18, etc.).