1 Timothy 1:1-11

[0:00] Well, today we begin what will be a ten weeks long journey through the first letter of Paul to Timothy. And with this opening message, I hope to launch us into the book, first of all, by two words, by way of introduction, introduction to the book, and then by two observations, by way of exposition.

[0:27] So, diving right in, introductory word number one as we prepare this spring to spend time in this letter, is this.

[0:39] The letter is personal, but not. That's the first thing to be said when you begin to look at verses one and two. And take a look there for yourself.

[0:52] The letter is personal. It claims to be written from one person to another. In fact, it claims Paul, the great apostle, as writer, and Timothy, his protégé and ultimate replacement, as the only receiver.

[1:13] And so, in this respect, the letter differs from many other letters in the Pauline corpus, letters that were written to local believers, to assemblies, to entire churches, rather than merely a single individual who had been left in charge.

[1:33] And by all appearances in the biblical record, Timothy is just that. A single individual engaged in full-time gospel work.

[1:45] That said, I don't want you to be put off by our first word by way of introduction. The messages in the series are not meant merely for those few persons in our midst who are called, or who may one day be called, to exercise individually appointed leadership in ministry.

[2:14] In other words, this letter, if we preach it well, is going to be filled with application for everyone, not pastors and interns in isolation.

[2:26] So, while I mention that the letter is personal but not, I don't want you to be afraid that you'll be left at the gate. The fact of the matter is this.

[2:37] The aim of 1 Timothy extends far beyond a solitary young man by the name of Timothy or those who, like him, serve in similar capacity today.

[2:51] Rather, the letter itself claims that Paul is writing to the one for the purpose of the fitting of the many.

[3:02] Take a look at the way the letter closes. Just flip the pages of the Scripture over to chapter 6 and verse 21. The you there is plural.

[3:17] The final word of the letter then is grace be with you all. Let me see if I can get it right by way of introduction. When this letter arrived, it was not a piece of mail delivered to the pastor's personal home as a private manual of sorts meant to advise him in confidence.

[3:41] That's not what this is. When this letter arrived, it arrived at the church office. Which, by the way, we just moved our offices again, the fifth time in 14 years.

[3:53] I'm in for a move every two and a half years. They asked me how many boxes I would need to fill my books. I said 40. They said, well, how many did it take?

[4:04] I said 41. They said, that was a good guess. I said, I'm not guessing. I've done this a number of times. I don't know where our church office is yet. I haven't been there yet.

[4:14] I'll be there on Monday. But when this letter arrived, it arrived at the church office. And while it had the pastor's name on it, it was from the beginning to the one that the many would be fitted for productive gospel work.

[4:32] So, the letter is personal, but not. It's for the church, not merely the clergy.

[4:44] And it is meant to fit us. And by that I mean Holy Trinity Church Hyde Park with both a word and a way that will bring life in this world.

[4:59] The second word of introduction is better approached, I think, by way of a question, and it's this. Is the letter from Paul or not?

[5:12] Now, there are two sorts of responses at opposite ends of the poll, I might add, that are tempted to think that the question itself, is the letter from Paul or not, to be an absurdity.

[5:25] Let me show you the polls. For the uncritically minded folk, they read, as we read in verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, and they think the matter necessarily, decisively closed.

[5:43] The Bible says it's Paul, and so Paul it is. And those who would question this authorship, let alone decide to make a judgment against it, well, they must be unchristian at best, or at worst, anti-Christian, and indeed, that more likely.

[6:05] On the other end of the poll, though, let's call them the critically reflective fellows, they read Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, and they read that in light of the last 100 or 125 years of biblical scholarship, and they think the matter equally settled, but in a different direction.

[6:26] After all, hasn't a close reading and study of the pastoral epistles, that would be 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, hasn't the history shown, beyond a reasonable doubt, that this letter is a product of 2nd century pseudonymity?

[6:44] Surely, this was written by a bloke, or in our day, a bloke-ess, we don't know, who for reasons of his or her own, deemed it necessary to lend authoritative credence for an individual in leadership who needed some apostolic backing to address some very real contemporary concerns in his day.

[7:12] So there are the polls. But for those of us in the middle, there are complexities that should be accounted for. And I might add, thought through at least once.

[7:29] Better yet, a question like this revisited again from time to time. So, if you only traffic in religious circles of higher education, or, if you have merely been nurtured in a church where this sort of question of authorship is directly assumed and never for discussion, then welcome to Holy Trinity Church and the way we work.

[8:02] Someone asked me, are you going to deal with the issues of authorship? And I said, certainly. The last thing I think, I think of all of our people in this congregation, imagine sending your children off to university or college and they hear the sex talk for the first time from somebody else.

[8:18] Actually, now that might be by third grade. Imagine going somewhere and hearing questions of the authorship of the Scripture, never having heard that in your own local assembly. These are questions for the household.

[8:31] At Holy Trinity, we have a fixed belief that this is part and parcel of life. In other words, it is important to know why people would reject Pauline authorship or why others would accept it.

[8:49] It's equally important, maybe even more so, that we individually and corporately would learn how to approach such questions, that you would arrive at a conclusion for yourself and the demeanor in which it is to be held in this present day.

[9:13] So here, we are accustomed to taking a fresh look at things like this and at bare minimum, we need to know this, that at least, that until the last 125 years or so, 1 Timothy's claim to authentic Pauline authorship was largely, largely, unquestioned by everyone.

[9:34] That said, very thoughtful observations over the past century and more have led to what I would call a highly energized and spirited debate over the question, is the letter from Paul or not?

[9:51] For brevity's sake, and without trying to be reductionistic, although it is a bit impossible in a message of this length, the now nearly universal judgment against Paul as authors within the academic settings of our day come along the lines of evidence.

[10:13] I'm going to summarize it in three respects. First, the letter's perceived lack of early historical attestation. Second, the incompatible travel scenarios it presents when one compares them with Paul's well-established travel itinerary in the book of Acts.

[10:37] Third, the striking, and they are striking, linguistic and stylistic deviations from the rest of what we have in the Pauline corpus.

[10:50] If I was to get the three lines of reasoning in three words, just as banners for you, or silos to hold in vast discussions that could take place, attestation causes many to doubt, the book of Acts itself, and an analysis of the style and the method that is carried forward in the book.

[11:13] Let's take a look at those. In regard to early attestation, it is true that the pastoral epistles lag a bit in time.

[11:25] They're not included in an early Greek papyri manuscript known as P46, which is one of the earliest of a vast collection of letters that we have in the New Testament, many of them written in that.

[11:42] And Marcion makes no mention of the pastoral epistles in his proposed canon, which the date is set somewhere around 150 A.D. Nor do we find them in use in the very earliest of the church fathers, even though some are arguing today that there is a suggestive appeal to the pastorals within them.

[12:05] That's it for attestation. What about Acts? As for 1 Timothy's dissonant travel scheme from what we can deduce from Acts, namely the impossibility of harmonizing what you find in our text today, 1-3, take a look at it again.

[12:24] As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus. Well, you take that line with what we know in Acts, this too is true.

[12:36] It's an anomaly. And the same anomaly goes for Titus, chapter 1, verse 5, a clear indication that at some point Paul the Apostle's missionary journeys took him and Titus to evangelizing the entire island of Crete.

[12:54] Now squaring those with Acts is simply not possible. Third, analysis. When the analysis of the language and style of the pastoral epistles is examined at close range, there is a decided variance that emerges in contrast to the other known letters of Paul, as well as the rest of the New Testament.

[13:20] In short, of the 848 words in the pastoral epistles, 306 of them do not appear in the other letters of Paul.

[13:32] And 175 are not even found anywhere else in the New Testament. And so, when we return to this introductory question, is the letter from Paul or not, we need to find our legs.

[13:48] How do we approach questions like this? In approaching a question like this, you might be helped, as at least I have in my own mind, by applying a standard of proof that we would ask any jurist to adhere to within our judicial system today.

[14:11] In other words, one would make a judgment against a defendant in all good conscience when the evidence presented is to their mind beyond reasonable doubt.

[14:26] In our judicial system, that is our standard of proof. And so, you need to begin, even before you would begin to reflect on the question, is there or are there decent evidentiary reasons that are coming forward that I ought to stop and pause and question the authenticity of 1 Timothy?

[14:50] And clearly, the answer is yes. The issues of attestation and acts and analysis are worthy of exploration.

[15:04] Secondly, we've seen then that there's some reasonable data that exists, proofs of a kind that would lead and will lead some to make a judgment against Paul as author and yet it must be acknowledged that an equally good conscience will lead others to make a judgment for Paul as author.

[15:28] For me, and you should know that I've spent even this week again a considerable number of hours in good conscience going through the question again in earnest.

[15:41] I haven't taught through this book and it must be over a decade. And I wanted to walk through it again slowly and squarely in earnest. And I'm sure that if we decide to preach through it again in our future or the other pastorals or books of this nature, these are the kinds of things we will wrestle with.

[15:59] I personally fall in the latter camp. That is, I'm not convinced that the evidence in good conscience for me clears the bar of beyond reasonable doubt that would turn me from a thoughtful decision in favor of Pauline authorship.

[16:20] Now, let me consider, or I should say consider with me these facts. In regard to historical attestation, the evidentiary weight I need to give the absence of 1 Timothy in P46, that document of old, has to be balanced with the fact that in P46, neither Philemon nor 2 Thessalonians are present.

[16:51] They're equally absent. And yet, the authenticity of those books, Philemon most especially, is not questioned on those grounds. Further, while 1 Timothy does not appear in Marcion's canon, it does appear in what is called the Moratorian canon, named after someone who found the list, a very early list, the earliest list we have, of the books in the New Testament, dated by most to be somewhere around the year 170 to 200 A.D.

[17:31] As to the incompatibility of the travel scenario of 1-3, with Paul's itinerary in Acts, it is sometimes advocated, or I should say advocates for Pauline authorship, are sometimes positioned by their need to get Paul out of jail at the end of Acts, in order to allow him a travel scenario that could create what we have in Titus and 1 Timothy.

[18:06] And I am sure that for some, this kind of a priori positioning, lest we lose Pauline authorship, is what governs them. And if that is the case, that is never where an individual ought to fall, with some a priori commitment to it.

[18:25] for me, there are other, I would say, evidentiary texts that should inform my evaluation. Consider Philippians.

[18:39] It could be argued that the apostle held out some hope of being released from his imprisonment at the close of the book of Acts, as well as that which would then lead him to his subsequent season of travel and work that would permit the itinerary that we have here.

[18:59] Philippians 1, 25 and 26 reads, Convinced of this, this is Paul, I know that I will remain and continue with you all so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you.

[19:17] This is one of his prison statistics. Or chapter 2, verse 24, I trust in the Lord that I, that shortly I myself will come also.

[19:30] There's an argument then that I have to balance in thinking Paul himself may have had some expectation of a release which permits this itinerary that doesn't square with Acts.

[19:44] Add to it the omission of anything about Paul's death in Acts. nothing is stated at the end of Acts about Paul's death.

[19:55] The question is left open. Or to put differently, those who would argue for the necessity of his continuing imprisonment and death do so from silence and in light of other texts.

[20:11] Not only the text in Philippians, think of the other texts in Acts. there's an appeal for the possibility of his release that could be made from the testimony of Festus who before King Agrippa said Acts 25 25 but I found that he had done nothing deserving of death and as he himself appealed to the emperor I decided to send him.

[20:37] Here's the attestation of an individual in Acts indicating the innocence of Paul and perhaps then the possibility of relief. Or of Agrippa's own assessment when hearing the charges against Paul said this man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.

[20:56] Now I don't want to make more of these three texts than I should but at minimum they demonstrate a possibility for release and in this I would say that there's something important for advocates on both sides of the aisle just as those who would advocate for Pauline authorship should never do so from an a priori commitment that he had to get out of jail to be able to do it so too we would never want a New Testament scholar to feel compelled on the basis of an a priori argument that Paul has to be kept in jail so that they would be free to obtain a professorship imagine if that was the kind of world we had the very notion would be unguided indeed it would mean the end of academic freedom so for me the major source of authorship falls on this third line of analysis it is the highest hill to climb for indeed the linguistic and stylistic dissimilarities with the other known letters of

[22:13] Paul give me pause yet in the end some have demonstrated an affinity with the common language of first Timothy and represented it as connected equally to the Septuagint as it would be to the late second century and in saying that out of the 306 words out of 848 words that don't appear elsewhere in Paul it is another way of saying that 542 words of the 848 do appear in Paul it is at least possible for me to conceive that due to the uniqueness of the occasion writing to an individual concerning particular things within the church the subject matter that it would account for it the other day I was trying to imagine again I do this for myself maybe you do it when you're trying to reflect on things

[23:14] I was trying to imagine somebody testing the authenticity of my own published material and I thought about somebody uncovering a copy of the Genesis Factor that I wrote with John Dennis back in 2001 imagine them uncovering that and I could actually envision somebody saying well we have done an analysis of the text and we're quite certain that this was not written by Dave Helm I mean the very word Jesus doesn't appear on this text until page 96 and this is 116 page document and it only appears one or two other times until the very last not only that the illustrations in this manuscript are 10 to 12 times the rate that we find in all the rest of the method in which he argues in fact we know from the personal correspondence of his congregants for we found papyri from them over the years that they longed for more illustrations in his common work no it couldn't have been written by him it stylistically too dissimilar well they could make the argument but in the end they would be wrong

[24:31] I did I really did I thought about the level at which we are in the way in which we work today in the academy and I don't want to speak negatively toward it but it's just an observation as one who's a practitioner not an academician imagine anyone's who has published a multitude of books essays personal letters and laying them all out a couple thousand years from now my guess is that we could find one a short one in particular which we have here a letter a monograph an essay only seven to eight pages in length that dealt with material that was indeed dissimilar to everything else that stood along the corpus and it was divergent from the common stock for good reason it seems to me that proponents!

[25:57] on both sides of the question will have their reasons and in many respects they will be reasonable and that said I anticipate for the next hundred years that reasonable people will yet differ as they usually do but for me I am not at a point to make a decided judgment against Pauline authorship it doesn't rise to the standard of proof or that which is beyond reasonable doubt and so as we come to first Timothy over the next ten weeks we don't want to come in an academic context this is a letter written to a pastor written to a church but we are a pastor and church within a context that I feel is worthy of spending ten to fifteen minutes laying some introductory comments in that regard so those are my two words by way of introduction the letter is personal but not and upon personal examination in good conscience

[27:15] I go with Paul on the question was it written by him or not so let's make a bit of quick hitting headway on two observations by way of exposition first three unique features in the opening did you notice in an otherwise very standard opening the unique features of verses one and two let me lay the first one out for you right there in verse one God not Jesus is referred to as our savior that's interesting we normally think of Jesus as savior and I just want you to take note of that early it'll come over the next nine weeks it's a precursor I think to the undertow of the letter we are going to see this phrase again and the concept that God is in the business of saving people bringing them salvation over and over again in the letter and while verse one indicates that he does so through

[28:24] Christ Jesus who is our hope nevertheless the writer wants you to view God as a savior have you ever stood in the shallows of the Pacific ocean and felt the undertow of the tide that almost anchors your feet in the sand which is ever tightening I love that feeling God as savior is that tide in this book it's really going to come God is saving people he desires that all people would be saved Christianity is not exclusive it's not for the few it isn't that you've traced it through some particular genealogy if you abstain from marriage and the rest of it then you get in and the rest of the world doesn't it isn't as if it doesn't care about kings and rulers in the world that they would come to know God God is savior he wants you to know that right away it's going to pull you through the whole letter second unique feature in the opening isn't in verse 1 concerning

[29:33] God but in verse 2 and it's a reference to Timothy look Timothy is referred to there as my true child in the faith now the English translation muddies the waters a bit when it says my true child in the faith the word true is kind of at a wooden level legitimate my legitimate a legitimate child in contrast to a bastard child or an illegitimate child and couple that with the notion that in the language the definite article in front of faith is non-existent so it's actually true child in faith now I know that we're used to preaching the pastoral epistles and pastors will wax long and eloquently on the psychological distinctions between the older Paul and his relationship with his true child Timothy I don't think that's what's going on here I think what he's saying is I'm writing to

[30:34] Timothy legitimate child in faith in other words his legitimacy is connected to faith his sonship is connected to faith not to Paul now that's going to become very important in actual fact he's saying Timothy I'm writing to the real deal I'm writing to the genuine article I'm writing to the one who is legitimate and that's going to make sense when you read what follows for the entire letter is steeped in setting Timothy in contrast to the illegitimate ones the false teachers who see Christianity as some exclusive club governed and given to the few and run by a way of life that is inconsistent with the glorious adornment of a gospel that Paul preached grace and peace word there the surprising word is mercy it's used in second

[31:52] Timothy but the general way that Paul would open a letter is grace and peace to you Here it's grace, mercy, and peace. So in an otherwise standard opening, there are three unique features that will set you for the book.

[32:09] And we might begin to ask, why would Paul include mercy in his benediction upon Timothy? And we should look for its reasons as the letter unfolds.

[32:22] Finally, second observation, by way of exposition, the urgent focus of the occasion.

[32:36] I'm not going to walk through today in a linear way, verses 3 through 11. I want that banner of an urgent focus of occasion to lead the way for us into the letter.

[32:53] Timothy is charged to remain in Ephesus for the purpose of commanding certain persons not to teach different doctrines.

[33:05] There's an urgent focus to what he's to do. In fact, that word doctrine is going to emerge throughout. But take a look at how it bookends 3 to 11.

[33:20] Verse 3, that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. But then look down at verse 10, whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.

[33:32] There's this urgent command that you are left in Ephesus for a particular work. It's the bookends of the entire section.

[33:44] And so the occasion of a letter must come from a need to combat and silence opposition that is undermining the health of the church and the progress of the gospel.

[33:56] Perhaps they're predictions of Paul. If you're familiar with his time with the Ephesian elders on the beach in Acts 20, it kind of resonates at this moment for me.

[34:12] His words there, I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after them.

[34:27] Acts 20, 29, and 30. Evidently, it happened. At some point after that departure on the beach, the church in Ephesus came to a moment of cataclysmic need for one to stand and to address the issue of doctrine.

[34:45] And the reason, of course, is going to be interesting because the occasion of the letter, namely opposition and doctrine, would have an outcome in their life that was disastrous for their faith.

[34:59] There is a connection between that which is taught and how the church lives. the focus and the urgency is no different in our day.

[35:15] Unhealthy teaching, coupled with godless living, produces death and churches that will dwindle and die for a lack of any life-giving support.

[35:31] Whereas healthy teaching and godly living is the only thing that can produce life. And they both must be held.

[35:44] The focus and the urgency of the occasion in the letter comes when you understand the outcome of unhealthy teaching. Take a look at the bits of verses 4 and 6.

[35:55] Just put your eyes on it. Bad doctrine in the church, what does it promote? Verse 4, speculation. And verse 6, a wandering away into vain discussion.

[36:09] And as the letter is going to progress, and I don't want to steal any thunder of the future, it's going to be clear that these things aren't trivial. That it's the kind of stuff that actually leads to death or the loss of the gospel and the shipwreck of faith.

[36:27] So, we ought to ask ourselves, at least when we get introduced to the book, and by way of closing today, what was the nature of the teaching that set the ball rolling? Verse 4 attaches it to myths and endless genealogies.

[36:44] Now, it's impossible for us to get to the bottom of what is all meant by there. We'll see some of the meanings of it emerge in the letter. And you can define myth very particularly, or you can define it broadly.

[36:57] It might be helpful today just to think of it in a broad sense. For me, there's all sorts of irony here when I sort out where the church is today as I just kind of have an anecdotal view of what's happening in churchdom.

[37:12] I mean, Bultman, Bultman spent the majority of his professional life arguing for the demythologizing of the Christian text, a pulling out of things in hopes of finding authentic, palatable faith.

[37:28] But ever since evangelicalism's adoption of C.S. Lewis, who put forth myth as fact, there's been an emerging movement in our day to work in just the opposite direction.

[37:39] Nobody's trying to demythologize text that Christian faith would be settled on good footing. No, today it's the other thing that we deal with.

[37:51] All kinds of efforts to mythologize the text in hopes of presenting faith in a way that makes sense. So what do we do with that?

[38:04] How do we begin to think about the place of myth and the Christian faith broadly speaking in our day? Let me just give two words that I hope will be helpful to us because we are all in these conversations together.

[38:23] First, if we're going to advocate for myth, we need to do so in a qualified way which takes into account the New Testament use of myth.

[38:37] And guess what? The New Testament use of myth is never positively constructed. I'm not arguing that we shouldn't say anything about myth, but we should say something about it in regard to how the New Testament treats it.

[38:53] In the words of Philip Jensen, quote, the word myth occurs five times in the New Testament. On each occasion it's negative. Myths are where you turn to when you turn away from the truth.

[39:06] 2 Timothy 4.4 Titus 1.14 They can be cleverly devised or irreverent and silly, but they are not Christian. 1 Timothy 4.7 2 Peter 1.16 We are not to devote ourselves to them and their speculation.

[39:23] 1 Timothy 1.4 Jensen goes on. The Bible contains many literary forms and devices. Not everything in the Bible is history.

[39:34] There are proverbs and poetry, parables and prophecy. The apocalyptic literature has its own particular literary conventions. Though the Bible occasionally refers to some figures of some people who say they were mythological, e.g. Leviathan and Behemoth, it tells no myths about them.

[39:53] Now, what is Jensen saying? It's provocative and he's an Australian. We would expect it. But it at least is worthy of being considered in regard to how we speak of it.

[40:09] So, us, of all people, of all congregations, perhaps in the country, we should be thinking carefully and with qualification when we redress the Bible in the garb of myth.

[40:25] Only time will tell how the present day efforts will be viewed through the lens of history. The second thing I would think that could help us on myth today is this.

[40:41] If we are to advocate for it, we not only need to see what the New Testament says about it, but we need to be willing to ask a series of questions that run parallel to it.

[40:56] And at first they might seem unrelated, but according to 1 Timothy, an over-attention to myth, genealogy, etc., actually moves. It's actually moving in the letter with negative consequence.

[41:14] And so we should never be afraid of asking ourselves individually, corporately, other questions in light of it. If we're advocates for myth, we should be able to ask, and where do we stand on the exclusivity of our message?

[41:31] Do we yet hold to the exclusive message of salvation by faith through Christ alone? or final judgment?

[41:43] Do we actually hold to a final judgment in which Jesus will execute the justice of God and the separation of humanity?

[41:56] Hopefully, these things will be helpful to us together. together. Interestingly, the myth and genealogy of Timothy's day were obviously connected to people who wanted to handle the Old Testament law.

[42:10] They wanted to be teachers of Old Testament law. Verse 7 indicates that they were desirous of such. And so I'm not going to spend any time today walking through verses 8 to 11 because they arrive having said what he said in verse 7.

[42:27] And he doesn't want to be misunderstood. While certain ones were handling the law poorly and to bad ends, he wants you to know that nevertheless, the law is good when handled well and it will lead to an outcome in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God.

[42:49] Well, so much for us today. Enough to get underway and perhaps more so. A word of care in our day.

[43:04] We're going to be reading a letter where opposition had gained footing within the church of Ephesus. And the outcome of that footing and its continuance would, according to Paul, endanger the very health of the church.

[43:21] Let me put it as clearly as I can. Bad teaching and bad behavior under impure motives will undo the church.

[43:36] In contrast to what Paul's outcome would be, look at verse 5, the aim of his message is a local congregation that lives in love, which flows from a pure heart, a sincere conscience, and a sincere faith.

[43:58] Put differently, may we all give ourselves to good doctrine plus godly living, for that alone brings life.

[44:10] two words by way of introduction, the letter is personal, but not. Is the letter from Paul, or not?

[44:23] Two points by way of exposition, the unique features in this opening, and the urgent focus of its occasion.

[44:34] May God add his blessing to the humble explication of his word. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this letter, and we pray that we would all grow up together in love as a consequence of living in it this spring.

[44:55] And so we commit ourselves to the furtherance of our faith by paying attention to it. In Jesus' name, Amen.