1 Timothy 3

1 Timothy 3:14-16

V THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH1 Timothy 3:14-16 Our last discussion closed with 1 Timothy 3:13, on the officers of the church, their qualifications and duties. The closing paragraph of the chapter is devoted to setting forth the mission of the church in relation to the truth and what the elements of the truth. Since the contention that there is now existing a universal church is based upon the broad statement applied to the church in the letter to the Ephesians, I am glad that in the passage now to be considered, and in the address of Paul at Miletus to the elders of the church at Ephesus (see Acts 20), we see the broadest of these terms applied to the particular church at Ephesus.

Now, let us read: “These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, but if I tarry long thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Here “the house of God,” “the church of the living God,” “the pillar and ground of the truth,” “the flock,” “the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood,” are statements just as broad as we can find in the letter to the Ephesians, and yet all these broad terms are expressly applied to the one particular church at Ephesus, for he is discussing the heresies in that church, the prayer services in that church, and the officers of that church.

The reader will notice that when Paul wrote the first letter to Timothy, it shows that on this last tour of his, after his escape from the first Roman imprisonment, he had been in Asia and at Ephesus, and now expresses the hope to speedily return. In 2 Timothy, we find evidence that he did return to Ephesus, and had a very stormy time.

The word “behave” in 2 Timothy 3:15 refers to more than mere proprieties. It includes worship and service – how church members should conduct themselves in the church assemblies. Right behavior on the part of both men and women in the worship and service of the public assembly is based on three great reasons:

1. The assembly is the church of the living God. The institution is not of human origin. It is not a Greek ecclesia humanly devised for the transaction of municipal or state business. It is not a political gathering.

2. It is a house for divine habitation. The letter to the Ephesians expresses the thought. (See Ephesians 2:21-22.)

3. Because of its mission, being “The pillar and ground of the truth.” The ground of a thing is the foundation upon which the superstructure rests. A pillar is a column upholding a superstructure. The attitude of the church toward the truth is that’ it supports and upholds the truth which teaches these doctrines. The Bible alone would not save the world. There must be an organization back of the Book, an organization that has in it the elements of perpetuity, otherwise the truth would go to pieces. If there was no competent body to exercise discipline, to insist upon the gospel elements of the truth in preaching, and to exercise jurisdiction over the preachers of that doctrine, then there would be all sorts of preaching, all sorts of doctrines, and there would be no conservation of the truth.

I now answer the question: How does the church, as a pillar and foundation, uphold the truth?

1. By proclaiming it through its ministry. They carry that truth to the end of the world.

2. By exhibiting it pictorially) through the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Wherever water flows) wherever it stagnates in pools, wherever it masses in lakes, bays, or oceans, there in the yielding waves of baptism the church pictorially represents the central truths of the gospel.

3. They uphold the truth by vindicating it in their discipline. If a man comes teaching for the gospel that which is not the gospel, if a man lie and contradict the gospel, the church upholds the truth by refusing to hear, receive or in any way give him countenance. Yea, the church must expose his heresy.

4. It upholds the truth by illustrating it in all its practical life. Every Christian father and mother, brother and sister, boy and girl, every Christian citizen, is upholding the truth by illustrating it in the life.

I would not have you forget these four points by which the church upholds the truth:

1 – Proclaiming it through its ministry.

2 – Pictorially representing it in its two ordinances.

3 – Vindicating it in discipline.

4 – Illustrating it in life.

The next matter we have under consideration: What is the truth which the church is to uphold? Here we have a summary of the truth so far at is relates to the mystery of godliness. It, of course, is not a summary of all the truth, but it is a summary of the truth as it relates to the mystery of godliness and these are its six elements:

1. “God was manifested in the flesh.” It is immaterial to the sense whether we read “God was” or “who was.” Both teach the incarnation of Deity. The incarnation of the Word that was with God and that was God. Incarnation includes all that he did in that incarnation, his personal obedience to the Law, his teaching of the fulness of the New Testament law, his expiation for sin on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead. A church that does not uphold that, ought to be discountenanced and disfellowshipped as a church. That is the purport of John’s testimony. (See 1 John 4:1-3.)

2. “Justified in the Spirit.” Does the Spirit here mean Christ’s own human spirit, or the Holy Spirit? The revisers evidently understood it to mean Christ’s human spirit as contrasted with his flesh – manifested in the flesh and justified in his spirit. Their contention is based upon the absence of the article before “Spirit” and the apparent parallels between “flesh and spirit.” The “Cambridge Bible” thus paraphrases to bring out the rhythmical effects of the several pairs in the verse: Who in flesh was manifested, Pure in spirit was attested; By angels’ vision witnessed, Among the nations heralded; By faith accepted here, Received in glory there.

This presentation is grammatical, plausible, and strong. If it be the right interpretation, the sense of “justified in spirit” would be that because sinless in his inner man, and because none were able to convict him of sin, he was justified or acquitted on his own personal life.

But the author prefers, as more in consonance with the line of thought and far more feasible, to understand it to refer to the Holy Spirit. The line of thought would then be:

1. God assumed human nature in his incarnation for the salvation of men.

2. In this incarnation the Holy Spirit justified or vindicated his Deity and its claims.

3. The angels recognized the Deity in the flesh.

4. As God in the flesh he was proclaimed to all nations.

5. Wherever thus proclaimed and attested he was accepted by faith, i.e., the truth so proclaimed and attested was credible.

6. The Father’s reception of him into glory after his resurrection was a demonstration of his Deity in the flesh and a vindication of all his claims while in the flesh.

Here we have one great proposition embodying a mystery, God was incarnated, supported by five successive evidences: The attestation of the Holy Spirit; the recognition by angels who had known him before his incarnation; the fact of its publication to all nations; the credibility of the publication, evidenced by the fact that men all over the world believed it, and the Father endorsed it all by receiving him into original glory and crowning him Lord of all.

There mere rhythm of the parallel, proverb style can never be equal in force to this line of thought. The insistence on making “spirit” mean “his human spirit” – not only is redundant and tautological, since a human spirit is already stated in his being made flesh – flesh meaning full human nature – but in a similar construction, 1 Peter 3:18-19, such interpretation teaches most awful heresy and indefensible foolishness. Therefore, I totally dissent from the thought of the revisers. It means that when God was manifested in the flesh, he, so manifested, was vindicated – justified by the Holy Spirit. If the reader asks when did the Holy Spirit justify the Deity in his incarnation, my answer is:

(1) At his baptism. Nobody could otherwise know that he was the Christ. John the Baptist could not, except by certain action of the Holy Spirit. “I knew him not,” said John, “but he that sent me to baptize gave me this sign: Upon whom thou shall see the Spirit of God descend, he is the Messiah.” And so at the baptism of Jesus Christ, as he came up out of the water, he prayed that this demonstration might take place – and in the form of a dove the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him. Unenlightened men who looked at him in his humanity would say, “This is no God. This is Joseph’s son; we know his brothers and sisters.” But the Holy Spirit vindicated him in that manifestation; justified him, as did also the Father’s voice: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

(2) If the reader again asks me how next the Holy Spirit justified him, I will say that all his teachings and miracles were by the Spirit resting on him without measure.

(3) The sacrifice he made in his body for the sing of the world was through the Holy Spirit. When he made that sacrifice, according to the letter to the Hebrews, that offering was through the eternal Spirit. If man counts not that a sacrifice, the Holy Spirit did.

(4) In raising his body from the dead. They had denied his messiahship and his divinity, and demanded a sign to prove it. The sign was that God would raise him from the dead on the third day, and according to this apostle in another connection: “He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, even Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:4).

(5) Now, the fifth way that he was justified by the Holy Spirit was in the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost to accredit and give power to the church whose mission was to proclaim this truth. This was the promise and the sign without whose fulfilment the church dare not preach that mystery. The coming of another Paraclete to abide with them till the return of the absent Lord, was the supreme justification of their preaching that God was manifested in the flesh. See John 14:16-18; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7-10; John 16:13-15; Acts 1:4-5; Acts 1:8.

And so on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down and the church was baptized in that Spirit, that was his vindication.

Let’s restate the five points in which the Spirit justified him:

First, in his baptism.

Second, through whom all his teachings and miracles were wrought.

Third, in offering himself for sin.

Fourth, in raising him from the dead.

Fifth, in his coming on the day of Pentecost to abide with the church until his final advent.

That is the second element of the truth the church must ever uphold. Let us see the third element.

He was seen by angels. Men heard with indifference that a babe was born at Bethlehem. Nobody would pay any attention to such an incident as that. That babe surely was not God. But the angels who knew him up yonder in heaven recognized him in his incarnation. The flesh could not veil him from their sight. But when did the angels so recognize him? When did he have their attestation of the Godhead in his humanity?

Go back to that announcement to the shepherds, where they told the shepherds that unto the world was born a Prince and Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, and that this would be the sign: they would find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. They recognized him there.

When else did they recognize him? Just after his baptism, when he was tempted of the devil. As the first Adam was tempted, so the Second Adam was now tempted, and after triumphing in that temptation the angels recognized him, and came and ministered unto him.

The third time was when he was in the garden of Gethsemane, going there in anticipation of the awful horrors of death, as a malefactor at the hands of man; death, as a sinner at the hands of God; death, in passing into the power of Satan. When he triumphed in that temptation the angels came and ministered unto him.

And the angels will further bear witness to him when he comes to judge the world. They will come in execution of the divine will in gathering his elect, and in gathering up the tares to be burned. Man may see no divinity in that Babe of Bethlehem, but the angels recognized him, and I may add that the devil recognized him, and all the evil angels. Whatever infidelity may have existed in the minds of Pharisee or Sadducee, the evil angels made no mistake. On one occasion they said to him: “We know thee, who thou art, thou Holy One of God.” The next element of this truth is a universal gospel, to be preached among all nations. This appears from the Great Commission – Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-20; Luke 24:46-47; John 20:22-23; Colossians 1:23.

This commission was not limited to Jews: “Go ye unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” “Make disciples of all nations.” That preaching was done in Paul’s time. He said the gospel was preached unto every creature under heaven, and it has been done since, generation by generation. We are doing it now. We do not limit our missionary work to America. We go to Mexicans. Brazilians, Italians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Russians, the Germans, and the Swedes, telling them how God was manifested in the flesh, was justified by the Holy Spirit, and so manifested he was recognized by angels. That is the theme of universal preaching. That this truth was believed appears from the history of its preaching.

Three thousand Jews were converted at Pentecost, and before the close of that big meeting near unto 144,000 Jews were converted. Some of the Jerusalem sinners believed on him. His great persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, believed on him. Then his gospel was carried to heathen Antioch, Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, the ends of the earth, and wherever this gospel has been faithfully preached it has been accepted and believed. It is not a gospel of empty sound. That is an element of the truth that the church is to uphold. That Jesus was received up into glory appears from this vision of him there by Stephen, Paul, and John.

But we need not go back to Pentecost and apostolic times for proof. Nor need we rely on persistent monumental evidences – baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Day. Fresh evidences abound now, and we are his witnesses. If Jesus be now alive in glory he can now manifest that life. The continued work of the Holy Spirit in the call of preachers, in regenerating and sanctifying sinners, attests it. Every new convert has the witness in himself. Every prayer heard, every sad heart comforted, attests it. It is just as credible now as when first preached, and its saving power as evident.

My old-time teacher in Latin and Greek became an infidel. Our personal friendship continued till his death. He said to me once: “I like to hear you. You always interest me, but what you preach about the incarnation, its miracles, its vicarious expiation, cannot be believed. It is unscientific and therefore incredible.” I replied, “Doctor, I oppose your dogmatic affirmation, not by argument, but by the fact that it is believed, and has been believed wheresoever in the world it has been preached. Earth’s noblest, best, and wisest have believed it.

Washington, Gladstone, Lee, Jackson, Chief Justice Marshall believed it. Your own mother believed it. Greenleaf, the greatest international authority on the Law of Evidence, declares it legally provable and proved. Whenever it is hid, it is hidden to those who are spiritually blind. The difficulty in its acceptance is not intellectual, but an alienation of heart from God.”

That is one of the things the church ought to uphold, one of the truths concerning godliness; that when he is preached to the world he will be believed, he will be accepted.

It has been said, if this mystery of godliness be so credible, why do not Jews, his own people, accept it? The answer is (1) Many of them did accept it. (2) Some of them now accept it. (3) In later days all of them will accept it.

Paul explains why some of them rejected it then, and most of them now reject it (2 Corinthians 3:15-16; Romans 11:7; Romans 11:10; Romans 11:25).

He foretells when and how the whole nation will one day accept it (Romans 11:11-12; Romans 11:26). In this he agrees with their ancient prophets (Isaiah 66:7-8; Ezek. 36-37; Zech. 12:8-13:1).

Let us look at the sixth-element: “Received up in glory.” If God had not received him, all of his claims would have been set aside; but the record tells us that the last time the disciples saw him he was going up into the clouds. A prophetic psalm tells us what happened as he approached heaven, shouting: “Lift up your heads, oh ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in. Who is this King of glory? I, the Lord, mighty to save.” And when he was received up into glory, the test he gave them that he would be received was the descending of the Holy Spirit. The point is just this: If Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended up into heaven, he is alive now. That is what he says: “I am he that was dead but am alive.” If Jesus is alive he can right now manifest that life just as well as when he was alive and walking the streets of Jerusalem. Arguments on a monument are very poor things when compared with arguments based upon present evidences that Christ, the living God, is King of kings and Lord of lords.

Paul, elsewhere, gives summaries of the truths that the church is to uphold, some of them very much like this. For instance, in Romans, “It is Christ that died, he is risen again, he is exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high, he ever liveth to make intercession for us,” or as he puts it in another passage: “I delivered unto you that which I also received; how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he is risen, and that he was recognized when raised.” But these six elements here are limited to the mystery of godliness.

1. Upon what is based the contention that there now exists a universal church?

2. How does this passage written concerning the church at Ephesus and Paul’s previous address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus (Acts 20) disprove it?

3. What the meaning of “behave themselves” in 2 Timothy 3:15?

4. On what three reasons is the exhortation to “behave” in the church assembly based and what the force of the first?

5. Prove the second from the letter to the Ephesians.

6. Explain “pillar and ground” in the third.

7. What would be the result if there were no church to uphold the truth?

8. In what four ways does the church uphold it?

9. What the one great truth the church must uphold?

10. What the six elements of the mystery of godliness?

11. How much is included in the first element, “God was manifested in the flesh”?

12. What the testimony of John on this point?

13. What should be our attitude toward a man or a so-called church denying this truth?

14. In the second element “justified in Spirit” what the controversy?

15. Give the argument and paraphrase supporting the view that it means Christ’s human spirit and ’then the meaning of the phrase.

16. Give the author’s line of thought in support of the contention that it means the Holy Spirit.

17. Where do we find a similar construction and what heresy and foolishness result from making “spirit” in that connection mean “Christ’s human spirit”?

18. If the author’s contention be right when did the Holy Spirit justify God incarnate?

19. Explain “seen of angels” and its bearing on the line of thought.

20. When this recognition by angels?

21. Cite proof that the devil and his demons recognized God in the flesh.

22. On what three occasions did Satan himself assail God in the flesh and what the result in each case?

23. What proof in the next chapter that the demons fight this truth?

24. Where do we find embodied the next element – a universal gospel?

25. What the historic evidence of the next element, “believed on in the world”?

26. What the monumental proof?

27. What the proof of today?

28. Relate the incident in this connection concerning the author’s infidel friend.

29. Where the only difficulty in its universal acceptance?

30. If it be incredible to any what the cause? Quote Paul.

31. Why do not Jews believe it? Quote Paul.

32. When will they believe it? Quote Paul and cite the prophets.