(1 Tim. 4:6 — 5:21).
The writer of this article addresses you assuming that you have opened your Bible at the verses indicated above and are going to follow him with your eye upon the passage. Consequently all long quotations of Scripture are avoided and mere references cut down to a minimum, If you do not read with the Scripture open before you it is hardly likely that you will derive much help from your reading.
Read carefully. Read prayerfully. Read thoughtfully.
In the early verses of our chapter the Spirit’s warning is against the doctrines of demons, which, if received, altogether turn men from the faith. In verse 7 the warning is against a danger of a somewhat different order, “Profane and old wives’ fables.” Timothy is urged to stand firm against both errors.
The Apostle’s instructions in verse 6 seem to have especially in view the first of these dangers. We are to be kept in remembrance of “these things,” and here he alluded not only to what he had just written in verses 4 and 5 but also to the great truth unfolded in chapter 3:16, and indeed to all his instructions given earlier in the Epistle, for verse 6 of chapter 4 cannot be disconnected from verse 14 of chapter 3. Thus we as well as Timothy may be nourished with the words of the faith and of good doctrine and this will effectually render us proof against the seducing doctrines of the devil. But this must be “attained” or “fully followed up” for it is only as we become fully acquainted with the truth that we can detect error and consequently refuse it.
Godliness is set in contrast with the profane and old wives’ fables, from which we gather that they were mainly concerned with the superstitious ideas and customs which have always played so large a part in heathendom and which creep so easily into Christendom. The poor heathen mind is in bondage to endless superstitions connected with the bringing of good fortune or the averting of evil, and all these customs appeal to, and bear far more hardly upon, the womenfolk than the men. Hence the Apostle’s term— “old wives’ fables.” Now godliness brings GOD Himself into the details of one’s life since it is based upon that “trust in the living God” of which verse 10 speaks.
It is instructive though sad to note the great increase in recent years of superstition amongst nominal Christians. The war doubtless gave it a great impetus when hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of charms were made for the protection of soldiers. The cult has spread everywhere and now mascots abound, and more and more people observe customs which are designed to bring “good luck” or avert “bad luck.” All this argues the decline of godliness. If God is shut out of the life these stupid abominations creep in.
Our God is the LIVING God. Nothing escapes His notice and He is “the Saviour [or, Preserver] of all men, specially of those that believe.” The poor heathen enjoying a wonderful deliverance may attribute his escape to the potency of the charm given to him by the medicine man. The British motorist, a nominal Christian, just escaping a fearful crash may declare that he never comes to any harm so long as he has his black cat mascot on board — he has never known it to fail. They are both wrong though the latter is far more guilty. Both are victims of profane and old wives’ fables. The truth is their deliverances came, whether directly or indirectly from the hand of God.
God’s preserving mercy is specially active towards those that believe, so a simple trust in Him should mark us. It marked Paul and carried him through his labors and reproaches. We are to exercise ourselves to godliness. This is a mental exercise of far greater profit than mere bodily exercise. That is profitable in some small things whereas godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of life, both now and to eternity.
Here let us recapitulate for a moment. Godliness is, we may say, the main theme of the epistle, and it is enjoined upon us because we are of the house of God. The knowledge of God Himself as He has been revealed in Christ is the secret spring of it, and it very largely consists in that God-consciousness, that bringing of God into all the details of our daily lives, which is the result of trust in the living God. All this has come before us, and the question would now naturally arise in our minds as to whether any practical instructions can be given which will help us in exercising ourselves unto godliness according to the instruction given in verse 7?
Verse 12 to 16 supply us with a very ample answer. Timothy was a young man yet he was to be an example to the believers who were to see godliness expressed in him, a godliness which affects us in word, in conversation or conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. To this end he was to give himself with all diligence to reading, to exhortation to teaching. The reading enjoined upon him was, we suppose, that public reading in the presence of believers generally which was so necessary when copies of the Scriptures were few and far between, yet it should impress upon us the importance of reading the Scriptures both privately and publicly. When Paul came Timothy might have the joy of hearing God’s Word from the inspired lips of the Apostle; until then he must pay all heed to God’s inspired Word in its written form.
The Christian who neglects the study of the Word of God never makes much progress in the things of God nor in the development of Christian character. “Give attendance to reading” should be a watchword with all of us, for only as we are well furnished ourselves Can we be of help to others.
Timothy was to exhort and teach others and for this a gift had been deposited in him in a special way. Hence “neglect not the gift that is in thee” is the second word instruction. By reading we take in: by exhortation and teaching we give out. Not all of us have received a special gift but all of us are responsible to give out in one way or another, and we neglect it at the peril of our own spiritual good.
“Meditate upon these things” is the third word that comes before us. By reading our minds become well furnished with truth. By meditation the truth in its force and bearing is brought home to us. Just as the ox not only feeds in the pastures but also lies down to chew the cud so we need to ruminate, to turn things over in our minds, for it is not what we eat that nourishes us but what we digest. If we meditate upon the things of God, getting right into them so that they control us then our profiting, our spiritual advancement, becomes apparent to all.
A fourth word of great importance if we would grow in the ways of godliness is that in verse 16, “Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine.” First of all we must get the truth itself, which is set forth in the doctrine, clearly before us. Secondly, we must take heed to ourselves in the light of the truth, testing ourselves and our ways by it altering them as the truth demands. This of course is the crucial matter.
Too often the truth of God has been taken up in a purely theoretical way, when it becomes just a matter of argument, a kind of intellectual battle-ground. When however we come face to face with it in practical fashion we at once become aware of discrepancies between it and ourselves and our ways, and serious questions are raised. Now comes the temptation to somewhat alter or pare down the doctrine so that we may leave our ways untouched and yet the discrepancy largely if not entirely disappear. May God give us all grace to reverse that procedure and rather alter our ways that they may be in conformity with the doctrine. Thus we shall be rightly taking heed to ourselves and to the doctrine as well, and continuing in the truth we shall be saved. The salvation here is from the dangers of which we are expressly warned by the Spirit in the earlier part of the chapter, whether doctrines of demons or profane fables.
Timothy had been entrusted with special responsibilities both as to teaching and as to order in the church. Consequently, if he kept right and in a state of happy deliverance from these dangers he would be a minister of deliverance to many others. But then this might bring him into a measure of conflict with some. An elder even might need admonition as verse 1 of chapter 5 shows us, and Timothy must be careful not to set himself wrong in attempting to set him right. The truth teaches us to render to all our fellow-believers their due, whether men or women, whether old or young.
In verse 3 the question of the treatment of widows comes up and the subject is continued to verse 16. We might be tempted to wonder that so much space is given to the matter did we not remember that it was this very question which first brought the spirit of contention into the church of God, as recorded in Acts 6:1-7.
The general instruction of the passage is quite plain. Widows 60 years old and upwards without relations to support them were to be “taken into the number,” or “put on the list,” as receiving their support from the church if they had been marked by godliness and good works. The Church is to relieve those who are “widows indeed” but not others. How wise is this ordering!
Other instructions come in by the way.
Notice how clearly it is taught that children and descendants (the word is “descendants” rather than “nephews”) are responsible for the support of their parents. Thus they show godliness or piety at home. Let us emphasize this in our minds for it is easily forgotten in these days of “doles” and other forms of public support. The denunciation in verse 8 of the man who avoids or neglects this duty is very severe, showing how serious a sin it is in God’s sight. There may be men quite renowned for piety in public who are nevertheless branded as worse than an infidel for lack of this piety at home.
The characteristics of a “widow indeed” as given in verse 5 are worthy of note. The Christian who in the days of her prosperity gave herself to such good works as are enumerated in verse 10, would have recognized that after all it was just God Himself ministering to the afflicted through her hands. He was the Giver and she but the Channel. Now the position is reversed but she knows well that she must not look to the channels but to the mighty Source of all. Hence her trust is in God and upon Him she waits in prayer. She too is marked by that trust in the living God which is so large an element in practical godliness.
Contrasted with this is the widow living “in pleasure” or “in habits of self-indulgence.” Such an one would be seeing life according to the ideas of the world, but she, is here declared to be dead while living — practically dead, that is, to the things of God.
Sometimes worldly-minded believers ask rather plaintively why it is that they do not make spiritual progress or have much spiritual joy? Verse 6 supplies us with an answer. There is nothing more deadening than self-indulgence in pleasure. The pleasure may be life of a worldly sort but it is death spiritually, for the soul is thereby deadened towards God and His things.
The bad effects of idleness come strongly before us in this passage. The younger widows were not to be supported at the expense of the church lest having no very definite occupation they should decline in heart from Christ and come under judgment — not “damnation” which is too strong a word. Their idleness then would assuredly produce a course of tale-bearing and general interference in other people’s affairs which is most disastrous to the testimony of God. Idleness in the twentieth century produces exactly the same crop of evil fruit as it did in the first century.
Further instruction as to elders is given in verse 17 to 19. An elder was not necessarily a recognized teacher of the word, though he was to be “apt to teach” (3: 2). Those who did “labor in the word and doctrine” were to be counted worthy of double honor, and that honor was to be expressed in a practical way as might be needful. If any of them lacked in material things they were to be supplied as the Scripture indicated. The first quotation of verse 18 is from the Old Testament but the second is from the New, Luke 10:7. This is interesting evidence that Luke’s gospel was already in circulation and recognized as the inspired Word of God equally with the Old Testament.
Above all, Timothy was to be moved by a care for the glory of God in His house. Those who sinned were to be rebuked publicly so that all the believers might be admonished and sobered thereby, only the greatest possible care was to be taken lest anything like partiality should creep in. Nothing is more common in the world than favoritism, and we all of us so easily form prejudices either for or against our brethren in Christ. Hence this solemn charge laid upon Timothy “before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels.”
F. B. HOLE.
An infidel trying to understand God and to comprehend all truth reminds one of a little story told of Augustine. As he walked on the seashore one day he saw a child with a cup, dipping water from the ocean and pouring it into a little hole in the sand. He said, “What are you doing my child?” The little child replied, “I am going to put the ocean in this hole.”