Bible Commentaries
1 Timothy 4

Verses 1-16

VI

THE MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS. A GOOD MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST

1 Timothy 4:1-16

Our last discussion considered the church of the living God, upholding the mystery of godliness. This chapter commences with a view of the synagogue of Satan, upholding the mystery of lawlessness. God’s intervention was a mystery. Satan’s intervention was a mystery. Both a mystery because super" natural. The two mysteries are in opposition – the one working to man’s salvation – the other to man’s damnation. Both propagated by human agency; both, a fulfilment of prophecy 1 Timothy 4:1 "But": This conjunction teaches that what follows is not in line with the foregoing, but in opposition.

1 Timothy 4:1 – "The Spirit saith" may mean either "hath said" in a former revelation, or "now saith" by inspiration of the apostle writing. In this case it is both. That constant inspiration rested on the apostle appears from Acts 20:23:"The Holy Spirit testifieth unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me." So we are not necessitated to find that what the Spirit here said is a quotation from a previous record. In fact, however, the substance of it, and more besides, appears in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12.

Here we find that a great apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin must precede the final advent of our Lord; that this apostasy is a "mystery of lawlessness" already commencing to work; that Satan is back of it; that just before the final advent he will incarnate himself in the man of sin, accrediting him with miracles, "power, signs, and wonders," intended to create a lying impression, working a delusion with all deceit in unrighteousness in them that perish; that God permits this subjection to Satan because they received not the love of the truth. All of which is in accord with our lesson and the later testimony of Peter (2 Peter 3:1-4) and of John (1 John 4:1-3).

1 Timothy 4:1 – "Some shall fall away from the faith." This is apostasy, not from personal faith, but from "the faith" – the truth embodied in the mystery of godliness.

1 Timothy 4:1 – "Giving heed to seducing spirits." These spirits are demons, Satan’s evil angels.

1 Timothy 4:1 – "Doctrines of demons." As the mystery of godliness was embodied in doctrines considered in last chapter, so the mystery of lawlessness is embodied in doctrines, some of which are to be named here, and others elsewhere.

1 Timothy 4:2 – "Through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own consciences as with a hot iron." On this sentence note:

(1) As the mystery of godliness is propagated through human agents under the influence of the Holy Spirit, so the mystery of lawlessness is propagated through human agents under the influence of Satan.

(2) Over against the "good minister of Jesus Christ" (1 Timothy 4:6-16), we have here the character of the evil minister of Satan:

(a) They received not the love of the truth;

(b) They are hypocrites;

(c) They have Satan’s brand on their consciences, as Paul bore the mark or brand of Jesus;

(d) They teach lies;

(e) They are God-abandoned to a delusion of Satan that they may perish.

What then are the "doctrines of demons" that embody this mystery of lawlessness?

1 Timothy 4:3 – "Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth." So far as this scripture testifies, these doctrines consist of one prohibition: "Forbidding to marry," and of one command; "To abstain from meats.” Both are tenets of the Gnostic philosophy condemned in all the later New Testament books, and to which so much attention is devoted in John’s Gospel and in the letters of the first Roman imprisonment, and which abound in the letters of Peter and Jude and Revelation.

The theory of both the prohibition and the command is based on the heresy that sin is limited to matter, residing in the body alone, and so by ignoring sexual relations, and restricting food to a vegetable diet, the body may be kept in subjection and sin avoided. It is the doctrine of celibacy and asceticism, and is responsible for all hermits, whether heathen or Christian, that seek escape from sin in isolation from one’s fellows, and is the father of monasteries and the mother of nunneries. It is the doctrine of Buddha and the Papacy. It opposes the gospel teaching that sin is of the inner man – "apart from the body" – and consists of spirit alienation of mind and heart from God. Envy, malice, jealousy, lying, stealing, blasphemy, pride, vanity, slander, idleness, selfishness, and the like, are sins. These proceed from the inner man. To eat meat on Friday is not a sin. To marry, multiply and populate the earth and subdue it was the original commission of man in innocence. The very depths of Satan are disclosed in making that to be sin which is not sin, and in making that to be righteousness which is sin. And especially is this doctrine deadly in the assault on the gospel teaching that marriage is honorable in all. In the beginning of time the Father instituted it, in the fulness of time the Son honored it with his presence, in the end of time the Holy Spirit sanctifies it by bestowing its name on the relation eternally subsisting between Christ and his church. No idle hermit in his cave, no ascetic monk in his cell, no nun in her convent can bar out sin which resides in the spirit.

The prayer of Jesus was: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one." External barriers do not keep out the evil one. He can enter wherever atmosphere enters. Experiment may show what diet in particular cases promotes physical health. Let each one eat the food, whether vegetable or animal, which in his own case is promotive of a sound body. Says this section: "Meats which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believed and knew the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer." The temporary, symbolic distinction of the Mosaic law between "clean and unclean meats" was nailed to the cross of Christ. Therefore says our apostle elsewhere: "Let no man judge you in meats and drinks," and particularly pertinent are his words: "If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances: handle not, nor taste, nor touch – all things are to perish with the using – after the precepts and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will, worship, and humility, and severity to the body, but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh."

A GOOD MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST (1 Timothy 4:6-16)

We have just considered on 1 Timothy 4:2 the evil minister of Satan, and now sketch on opposite canvass, in salient strokes, the outline of a good minister of our Lord.

1. The matter of his preaching.

(1) Positively, having been himself nourished in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine, of the mystery of godliness, he puts the brethren in mind of them.

(2) Negatively, he refuses to teach profane and old wives’ fables. Here we have "fables" opposed to revelations from God. These fables are the lies spoken by the hypocritical, conscience-seared ministers of evil; they are doctrines inspired by seducing demons, and hence profane, irreverent, godless. From Titus 1:14 it appears that these fables were of Jewish origin, "commandments of men" that make void the word of God. They are further characterized as the fables of old wives. This alludes to the fact that there are certain women among the ministry of Satan, and suggests another form of Gnosticism – unbridled license – equally derived with asceticism from the one root heresy that sin resides only in the body and as the body perishes without a resurrection, it made no difference of what uses it was made an instrument. In the next letter to Timothy these teachers are thus described: "Holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof: from these also turn away. For of these are they that creep into houses and take captive silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also withstand the truth; men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith" (2 Timothy 3:5-8).

The phrase "old wives," however, does not refer to corrupt women who are willing victims of these evil ministers of Satan, but to godless old women themselves teachers of fables. They are of the class who deal in palmistry, magic, or other methods of fortune telling, gathering their herbs for love philters, or other materials for working charms, and brewing their potions with incantations, somewhat after the method of the three hags in Macbeth.

Edward Eggleston, in The Hoosier Schoolmaster, gives a fitting description of one of these old "grannies" that filled a neighborhood with evil superstitions. I myself knew one who wrought serious evil in several families by persuading the wives that marriage was an evil institution, thus bringing about separations that wrecked homes and scattered children.

2. His athletics in teaching and practice. While not underestimating physical athletics, he stresses rather spiritual athletics. He concedes some profit in physical training. "Bodily exercise is profitable for a little in this life." But his ideal man is not a winner in the Olympic Games, in the Ephesian Amphitheatre, in prize rings, ball games, or foot races, or boat races. His heroes are not gladiators. As elsewhere in many of his letters he uses the exploits and activities of the outer man athlete as images of a spiritual race course or gymnasium, because exercise in godliness has the promise of both this life and the life to come.

The saying which gives the greater glory to spiritual exercise is not only a "faithful one," but "worthy of all acceptation." He is indeed a good minister of Jesus who can develop among Christian people an enthusiasm for spiritual culture that will equal the world’s enthusiasm for physical athletics. John Bunyan on this line, in his Heavenly Footman and Pilgrim’s Progress, not only won a tablet in Westminster Abbey but is heard today in all the languages of the world, and welcomed in all its homes. Without endorsement of some of their teachings, the author rejoices to honor John Wesley and Savonarola in their great reformations toward "exercising unto godliness." Nor does he hesitate to say that John Wesley’s class in spiritual athletics has not only conferred more honor upon Oxford University than all its boat clubs and ball teams, but its enthusiasm has fired the Western continent and awakened myriads to "strive unto holiness." A good minister "labors and strives to this end, because he has his hope set on the living God who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." That preacher’s doctrine is defective and his ministry narrow and barren who stops at election, predestination, and justification, and ignores the salvation in us – sanctification developing the life given in regeneration – and has no heart and hopefulness in preaching a universal gospel.

3. His own example:

(1) In himself heartily believing, without wavering, the vital doctrines of the faith. Loose views on any fundamental doctrine should forever bar a man from the ministry. That presbytery is itself disreputable and disloyal that lays the hands of ordination on a man who has loose views on the incarnation, the vicarious expiation, the resurrection, the exaltation, and intercession of our Lord, and upon the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and upon the necessity of regeneration and sanctification.

(2) In character and life: "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an ensample to them that believe in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12).

(3) In diligent study and practice: "Till I come, give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching" (1 Timothy 4:13). "Be diligent in these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy progress may be manifest to all" (1 Timothy 4:15).

(4) In stirring up by exercise any spiritual gift: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery" (1 Timothy 4:14).

In Timothy’s own case a prophecy went before – by Paul. Silas, or some other prophet – that a great gift of the Spirit would rest on him, and it did come on him as the hands of ordination touched his head. Indeed, the laying on of hands symbolizes the imparting of Spirit power as appears from Acts 8:17; Acts 19:6. On these two passages in Acts, with Hebrews 6:2, the Six Principles Baptists always followed baptism with a laying on of hands, and strangely enough Episcopalians, founded on the same passages the rite of Confirmation by the laying on of the hands of their bishop.

As illustration of (2) above, I may allude to a warning I once gave to a spoiled boy preacher: "My boy, you are in great danger. You have been complimented so much for the fire of your offhand, maiden sermons you have quit studying. You have no library and do not read. You have already contracted the habit of relying on preaching over your first dozen revival sermons. Such a habit calls for a wide range of ever-changing pasturage. The first time such a sermon is a juicy roast, next time it is only warmed over, next time it is hash, next time it is soup out of the bones. Soon these sermons that once warmed your heart will no longer taste well, not even in your own mouth, and then you may be sure they do not taste well to the congregation. The spiritual stomach, as well as the physical, calls for freshness, variety, and change in the food served. When this stage of nonappreciation in your hearers arrives, you have to move on to another field; you soon will acquire the reputation of not being able to hold any field long. When your family increases you will find that ’three moves are equal to a burn.’ Then will you become sore and soured in spirit, and doomed to join the murmurers, complainers, and kickers – you will be avoided as ’the man with a grievance.’ "

I am sorry to say my foreboding in his case came to pass. I solemnly warn young preachers against mental and spiritual laziness. The unused gift or faculty, whether natural or spiritual, goes into paralysis and bankruptcy. When a stream ceases to flow it stagnates. Even the waters of Ezekiel’s River of Life that became sidetracked into basins of stillness became only salt marshes. When a tree ceases to grow, it begins to die. When a farmer does not take in new ground and put out his fences, the bushes and briers in his fence corners require him to move in his fences. We must give attention to study to enlarge our stock of preaching material. We can’t always preach on the first principles. Besides, it is robbing the churches.

I believe it was Booker T. Washington who tells the story of his rebuke of a Negro church for violation of contract in not paying their pastor, and how completely he was silenced by a remark of one of the sturdy members: "We done paid for them sermons last year."

Moreover, I warn again that to secure novelty and freshness, we do not need to turn to that crassest and most unprofitable of sensationalism – hat goes out of the record for pulpit themes. Leave that to worldly lecturers. The Bible is an inexhaustible mine to the student delver and all the student preachers of the world, generation by generation, may let down their little buckets into the wells of salvation without fear of lowering the waterline. "Save thyself and thy hearers."

QUESTIONS

1. How is the last paragraph of 1 Timothy 3 contrasted with the first paragraph of 1 Timothy 4?

2. Why in both cases a mystery and through whom each propagated and was each foretold?

3. What conjunction suggests the oppositions between, the two mysteries?

4. "The Spirit saith." Does that mean "now saith" or "hath said" or both?

5. Show how 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 contains the substance of the present saying of the Spirit and with what subsequent writings it ac- cords.

6. The meaning of "falling away from the faith"?

7. Who the "seducing spirits" of 1 Timothy 4:1 and how their seductions embodied?

8. On 1 Timothy 4:2 answer: (1) What agents propagate the "doctrines of demons"? (2) Their characteristics? (3) With whom in this chapter contrasted?

9. So far as this context extends what the doctrines of demons?

10. What philosophy inculcated both and what books of New Testament discuss the philosophy and where did it originate?

11. On what heresy is the theory of these doctrines based and what evils resulted from it and in what two religions are they embodied?

12. Show how an attack on the honor and sanctity of marriage and a teaching that isolates one from his kind controverts the mission of man as a race and the teaching of both Testaments.

13. What regimen of diet should each individual follow?

14. Show how the gospel abrogates the temporary and symbolic distinction between "clean" and "unclean" animals for food and characterizes present prohibitions thereon.

15. With whom is the "good minister of Jesus Christ" in 1 Timothy 4:6-16 contrasted?

16. Gather up from the paragraph what should be the matter, negative and positive, of the "good minister’s preaching."

17. What one word characterizes the negative matter of preaching – to what is it opposed – and why the descriptive "profane," and what means the other descriptive "old wives"?

18. Show from Titus the natural origin of the "fables" in question.

19. How does the one heresy, sin resident only in matter – in body – teach two opposing evils – asceticism and isolation from one’s fellows on the part of some and unbridled license ill association with one’s kind on the part of others?

20. Where the heresy tends to unbridled license give the apostle’s description of its subjects in the second letter to Timothy.

21. Give in description and illustration the "old wives" who teach vicious superstitions adverse to gospel revelation.

22. What the second element of a good minister of Jesus Christ and what his attitude toward physical athletics?

23. Is it possible to develop an enthusiasm for spiritual athletics equal to the world’s enthusiasm for physical athletics?

24. On this point what said the author concerning John Bunyan and John Wesley?

25. What may you say of a preacher’s doctrine and ministry whose preaching and life stops at election, predestination, and justification ignoring the salvation in us through sanctification’s development of the life in regeneration and ignoring a universal gospel?

26. What the third element in a good minister and what the particulars in which this element is exhibited?

27. What the incident given by the author bearing on the third particular, i.e., the necessity of study? Cite the Booker T. Washington incident.

28. According to what and through what was a special spiritual gift conferred on Timothy?

29. What does "the laying on of hands" symbolize?

30. Show what use the Six Principles Baptists and the Episcopalians make of 1 Timothy 4:14 in conjunction with Acts 8:17; Acts 19:6; and Hebrews 6:2.

31. What follows the neglect to stir up by exercise a natural or spiritual gift and how did the author illustrate it?

32. To what should a preacher not turn to satisfy the natural craving for freshness, variety, and progress and why is this resort not necessary?