Hughes / Chapell 1-2 Timothy and Titus (ESV Edition)

To Guard the Deposit
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4335-3056-2
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 464 Seiten

Reihe: Preaching the Word

Preaching the Word Commentaries are written by pastors for pastors, as well as for all who teach or study God's word. With pastor R. Kent Hughes as the series editor, these volumes feature an experienced pastor or teacher who models expository preaching and practical application. This series is noted for its steadfast commitment to biblical authority, clear exposition of Scripture, and readability, making it widely accessible for both new and seasoned pastors, as well as men and women hungering to read the Bible in a fresh way. This volume explores 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus to help us better understand what God requires of those who lead in the local church, as well as of those who would be led.

R. Kent Hughes (DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is senior pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, and former professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hughes is also a founder of the Charles Simeon Trust, which conducts expository preaching conferences throughout North America and worldwide. He serves as the series editor for the Preaching the Word commentary series and is the author or coauthor of many books. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Spokane, Washington, and have four children and an ever-increasing number of grandchildren.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hughes, R. Kent

Chapell, Bryan

Leseproben

1 TIMOTHY

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 TIMOTHY 1:1, 2

1

Greetings to All

THERE ARE SUBSTANTIAL reasons to be energized by the prospect of studying the Pastoral Letters of St. Paul.

I am filled with pleasant anticipation by the purpose of 1 Timothy as it is variously stated by the apostle. The overarching purpose of the book is to teach the proper ordering and conduct of the church, as Paul so clearly states it to Timothy: “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth” (3:14, 15).

Paul had communicated the essentials of church conduct during his earlier long ministry in Ephesus, but recent events had apparently necessitated his spelling it out again in a letter to Timothy, to whom Paul had charged the care of the churches there. And in respect to Timothy, Paul’s instructions about church operations were meant to help him to “hang in there”—“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” (1:18, 19). So the letter of 1 Timothy provides the exhilarating essentials to both leader and congregation as to how they must conduct themselves to the glory of God. This is cause for marked enthusiasm in our day, when there is so much confusion about what the church ought to be like.

I am also enthusiastic because the teaching of 1 Timothy (and all the Pastorals) about church order and conduct came through special revelation from Christ to St. Paul, as is implicit in the stated purpose of this letter, as we will see.

To begin with, when Paul earlier wrote to the Galatians he made it very clear that the gospel had come to him by special personal revelation from Christ himself—“For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:11, 12). Thus we understand that the knowledge of the gospel was not mediated to Paul through any other human being. It came straight from the lips of Christ. The gospel theology that he inscripturated in his writings first came from Christ. Most believe this happened during Paul’s three-year sojourn in Arabia (cf. Galatians 1:13–18).

Along with “the gospel,” Paul received knowledge of what he called “the mystery,” which he referred to as “the mystery . . . made known to me by revelation” (Ephesians 3:3). Evidently Paul was given knowledge of “the mystery” in the same direct manner that “the gospel” had been given to him—straight from Christ.

In the book of Ephesians, which deals so much with “the mystery,” Paul indicates that it is revealed in the coming together and ordering of three pairs of relationships: 1) heaven and earth, 1:9, 10; 2) Jew and Gentile, 2:11—3:6; and 3) husband and wife, 5:31, 32. All three relationships are joined and ordered under the headship of Christ. And all three (heaven/earth, Jew/Gentile, husband/wife) are joined into one by and through Christ. Each pair reveals a different aspect of the wondrous mystery of Christ’s work.1

Understanding from Ephesians something of the dynamic union and ordering that comes from the mystery of Christ, the purpose of 1 Timothy (which has to do with church order and conduct) takes on additional importance—because the practical ordering of the church has everything to do with the revelation of the mystery of Christ to the world. We know this because the word mystery was in Paul’s thinking when he declared the purpose of 1 Timothy. Listen closely to the purpose of 1 Timothy again: “I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness” (3:14–16a).

Paul then quotes an excerpt from a creedal hymn about Christ’s incarnation. Because the mystery of Christ’s incarnation made possible the gospel and the mystery of Christ and the church, the hymn sings of the wondrous reality of the incarnation: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (v. 16). And now, with Christ ascended, the church (his Body) proclaims the mystery by the way it lives on earth.2

The details of proper church life are therefore part of “the plan of the mystery” revealed to Paul directly from Christ, as that apostle explained in Ephesians where he talks about the union of Jew and Gentile:

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. (3:8–11)

First Timothy is a letter on order in the church and how it ought to live so as to reveal that “mystery.” God tells us in 1 Timothy how the church must look and act if it is to glorify him. It has everything to do with the gospel and the declaration of the revealed mystery. Thus we have in 1 Timothy one of the grand treasures of the church—given directly from Christ to Paul for us. It is of immense value. The final paragraph of 1 Timothy begins with this charge: “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you” (6:20)—(that is, “guard the deposit, the revelation, I have given to you”). And Paul goes on to include in the opening paragraphs of 2 Timothy a further charge: “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (1:14). This is our happy charge today, and it is grounds for expectant enthusiasm.

First Timothy is incredibly relevant. Philip H. Towner addresses the question of the relevance of the Pastorals, saying:

What do these three letters have to do with our present situation? Consider the agendas for Christian action and evangelical response being set in many quarters of the church today. At the forefront are a number of very pressing items: the church’s role in a changing society, the church’s responsibility to the poor and the disfranchised, the Christian message among competing messages, the secularization of Christianity, church and state. Consider some of the perennial issues: a Christian attitude to wealth and materialism, the church’s response to the cults, spiritual lifestyle, leadership and authority, the role of women, discipline in the church. Finally, consider some of the items on our personal agendas: the true meaning of godliness, faithfulness to the gospel, suffering and life in the Spirit, responsibility to those in authority, the importance of Christian witness. For the church that seeks to understand its role in a complex world and for the individual Christian “who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:12) today, the Pastoral epistles make very relevant reading.3

Indeed they do.

Paul provides a Biblical worldview for today’s culture-bound church. The Pastorals are shocking and disjunctive. There is nothing bourgeois about the Pastorals, as some critics have argued. They are not a tract about middle-class ethics.4 Certainly they do call the church to a respectable lifestyle, but it is radically respectable, and radically ordered by the most radical of all persons—Christ himself! The Pastorals are also bracing. The church that will ride the high seas of the third millennium will be the one that is Biblically defined—by the Pastorals.

The Pastorals are also saving. We will see that Paul tells Timothy in the middle of the first letter, “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” (4:16). That is what I hope for myself and you—to be saved as we study this book. Not saved and re-saved (as in reborn again and again), but saved certainly and securely, and therefore saved from our selfishness and from our carelessness, and then saved and saved and saved and saved from our sins as we give closer attention to our doctrine and way of life.

Greetings (vv. 1, 2)

With the purpose of 1 Timothy in mind (the proper order and conduct of the church), let us turn to Paul’s carefully phrased greetings to Timothy, which are meant to hearten him in his daunting leadership role.

Paul. Paul’s opening self-designation—“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope” (v. 1)—is boldly significant because this is the only greeting where he claims that his apostolic...