1. Paul, Apostle of Jesus Christ.
THIS is in accordance with what we find in Acts 9:15, 26:16, 17. “Delivering thee from the people (the Jews) and from the Gentiles (nations) to whom now I send thee.” Christ was the Apostle of the Father (John 10:3636Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? (John 10:36)); and as He had been “sanctified and sent into the world,” so He sends the apostles (John 20:2121Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. (John 20:21)) “as my Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” But from the, right-hand of God — not as on earth― “He gave some apostles” to the Church, and Paul was one of them — the most noted of all, and one who labored more abundantly than they all. Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, after He was in the glory of God, for He both called, authorized him, and gave him his commission, sent him and sustained him by His grace and over-ruling providence in the prosecution of His work. “He gave some apostles.”
Although Paul, as well as Barnabas, was afterwards separated by the Church of Antioch for a special mission (Acts 13:1, 41Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. (Acts 13:1)
4So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. (Acts 13:4)), yet, properly speaking, as to the origin, authorization, channel, and title of his apostleship (Gal. 1.) as well as his call to it, he was “an apostle” (not of the Church, “neither of man nor by man,” but) “of Christ Jesus.” This he vehemently affirms and insists on in Gal. 1. Here he traces it up to the “commandment of God our Saviour, and Jesus Christ our hope.” In some of his earlier epistles, he styles himself, apostle “by the will of God,” the same source as the saints’ blessing flowed from. Here, “according to the commandment,” shows a more direct and authoritative commission; just as public proclamations are subscribed — “by authority.” It contemplates man universally, hence (Rom. 16:2626But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: (Romans 16:26)) “according to the commandment of the Eternal God made known to all the nations for obedience of faith.” Sometimes he spoke only by permission, and not of commandment, as in 1 Cor. 7:6, 256But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. (1 Corinthians 7:6)
25Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. (1 Corinthians 7:25); 2 Cor. 8:88I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. (2 Corinthians 8:8). It is not so in these pastoral epistles, as here and Titus 1:33But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour; (Titus 1:3). Apostles were immediate servants of God and His Christ, and had authority in establishing and governing the Church as well as declaring divine truth, whether as to doctrine or duty. It is “by commandment of God our Saviour and Lord Jeans Christ,” he writes to Timothy (it is not a mere private letter of friendship), that he might show his warrant in dealing with “other teaching” than that which flowed from, and was in accordance with, the “Gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” Due authority is thereby conferred on him, to give Timothy a commission to guard the doctrine at Ephesus from any admixture of frivolousness or legalism. With all “authority,” the word is translated in Titus 2:1515These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. (Titus 2:15). From the Saviour God Paul had his apostleship by commandment, to proclaim His dispensation to all men — all nations — “to every creature under heaven.”
2. Our Saviour God.
“God our Saviour,” or, as it may be rendered, “our Saviour-God,” is a phrase peculiar to the pastoral epistles. It is found in the following places: —
2nd “This is good and acceptable in the sight of our Saviour-God, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth (l Tim. 2:3,4).
It occurs five times in these pastors epistles, as “the heavenlies” occurs five times in the Ephesian epistle.
This expression, “our Saviour-God, looks towards men, and in connection with it you find God in these pastors epistles having regard to men. In this chapter you find the “Gospel of the glory of the blessed God,” and the, preaching of this great fact that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. In chapter 2, to pray for “all men” is represented as “good and acceptable in the sight of our Saviour God, who will have all men to be saved,” and the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all.” In chap. 4 the apostle says; “We trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe”―i.e., as the providential preserver. In Titus 1-2:9 servants an enjoined to “adorn the doctrine of ‘God their Saviour’ in all things;” and the ground of the exhortation is this― “the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared.” And all sort Of, right conduct in Christians toward! Mankind is founded in Titus 3:44But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, (Titus 3:4) on this “that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man hath appeared,” saving us according to His mercy, and not according to our works of righteous ness. The ground-level of the pastoral epistles is God saving men―not the body or bride of Christ, or God’s counsels carried out in Christ with regard either to the mystery of God in its inner or outer evolutions, although we have the mystery of piety and the mystery of impiety fully disclosed. “God who hath saved us,” and “our Saviour Jest; Christ who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, an purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works,” are before us.
3. “And Christ Jesus Our Hope.”
God hath saved us, and doth save us and Christ Jesus is our hope. Our hope is not any perfectly sinless state-down here in ourselves, nor do we hope for the conversion of the whole world by the present means and agencies and the introduction of the millennium and a holy happy world for Christ to come and reign over; nor do we have the reunion of a disunited Christendom, and a pristine condition of the Church as our hope; but “Christ Jesus is our hope.”
He is our life as He is our righteousness; and being owned of God― we are one with Christ at God’s right hand; and He who has redeemed us and given us Himself as our portion has said, “I will come again anti receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also;” and “we know that when He shalt appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is”―the dead raised, the living changed, and we all in one glorious company ascending to meet Him in the air, shall be perfected in glory, “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Himself coming to meet us, and we glorified together with Him―that is “our hope.”
As children we shall be in the Father’s house with the Son of His love, and as heirs displayed in the golden city with the glorified Lamb in His millennial reign, but, whether in heaven or on earth, our hope is to be together with Him, “Christ Jesus our hope.”
4. The Genuine Son.
“Unto Timothy my own son in the faith; grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord” (vs. 2; See also Acts 16.)
“My own son;” for own, the Greek word is true, genuine, legitimate son. The word no doubt is employed in addressing Timothy in relation to Paul, because, as a son with a father, he was with him in his missionary journeys; and labored with him in the gospel. The word is used in Philippians 4:3,3And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlaborers, whose names are in the book of life. (Philippians 4:3) in the sense of true or genuine― “true yoke fellow.” Paul could trust Timothy, and address him as a genuine young man. In one place he wrote of some― “These only are my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God who have been a comfort to me,”―evidently implying that some had been a trouble. Timothy was one of the true, genuine sort, who always proved a comfort to him. We may see a confirmation of this in the Apostle’s written character of Timothy in Philippians 2:22: ― “But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like, minded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he has served with me in the gospel. Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me” (vss. 19-23).
It is a high honor for a young man to get a character like this from the first man of his day in the Church of God. His genuineness was seen in several things, First in his naturally caring for the saints — “for your state” (ver. 19). While all were seeking their own thing, not the things, which were Jesus Christ, Timothy took to the care of the Church of God―the welfare of the saints― just naturally as if they were his own children. I would not give much for the character of a young man who merely did a certain round of things because is was supped to be his duty; a genuine Christian youth is one who naturally cares for others because they are Christ’s; and he is thus the active, practical display of Christ in self-sacrifice for others here below, since He is no longer here. Timothy, was a man who had ceased to think of self, because of the Christ-thought filling and absorbing him. And when this is so, one will Me for the people and things of Christ. A young man, whom the self-sacrificing Paul called “a genuine son in the faith,” must have been no ordinary Christian.
Again, secondly, another trait of His genuineness was, that he adhered to Paul with so much fidelity. He had so much of the genuine in him, that he could discern great moral worth in Paul. It is to my mind a sign of genuineness and growth in trace and knowledge and Christian holiness, when young people make up to elderly and experienced Christians―for we are formed by some higher model than ourselves―they thereby gain solidity of character, and learn to deny themselves, and follow Christ for Christ’s sake. When there is a constant desire among young Christians to club together, and an irksome feeling experienced as if older Christians were slow, heavy, and too solid, there is imminent danger of religious epicureanism, or the making of ephemeral enjoyment the alpha and omega in religion, and self the beginning, middle, and end. Young Timothy’s, if genuine sons in the faith, will be found in company with elderly Paul’s.
Thirdly, What helped to make Timothy so genuine? He had had a good training as a child in the Holy Scriptures as a foundation, and then had faith in the Lord Jews (2 Tim. 1:5; 3:14, 155When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. (2 Timothy 1:5)
14But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:14‑15)). His grandmother and his mother were genuine people of faith and piety, and they, taught, him the Holy Scriptures. The steady Christians―pious, holy, and constant-are, as a rule (there are many bright exceptions), those who have had a godly upbringing, and have been familiar with the Holy Scriptures in a pious family from their childhood, how-ever irksome they may have found it. Unconverted young people do find it heavy and oppressive enough to have Christian instruction forced upon them.
But it is the duty of parents to make them receive it although they may appear to take it as physic rather than at food, and their after life will show the health given by having it.
It is possible that Timothy may have been literally Paul’s son in the Gospel (1 Cor. 4:1717For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church. (1 Corinthians 4:17)), having received it on Paul’s first missionary journey to Lystra (Acts 14:6, 76They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: 7And there they preached the gospel. (Acts 14:6‑7)). However that may have been, he was taken along with Paul in the work of the gospel (Acts 14:1, 21And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. 2But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren. (Acts 14:1‑2)), He went with him to Troas, to Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, where he rained for a time, while Paul went on to Athens (Acts 17:14, 1514And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. 15And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed. (Acts 17:14‑15)). Then he was sent by Paul to strengthen the Thessalonians, and afterwards joined him at Corinth (Acts 18:55And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. (Acts 18:5); 1 Thess. 3:66But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you: (1 Thessalonians 3:6)). We find him on Paul’s third missionary journey at Ephesus; thence sent to Macedonia and Achaia (Acts 19:2222So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. (Acts 19:22); 1 Cor. 4:17; 14:10, 1117For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church. (1 Corinthians 4:17)
10There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. 11Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. (1 Corinthians 14:10‑11)). Timothy was with Paul when he wrote his Second Epistle to the Corinthians from Macedonia (2 Cor. 1:11Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: (2 Corinthians 1:1)); went with him to Corinth; thence sends his greeting to saints at Rome (Rom. 16:2121Timotheus my workfellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you. (Romans 16:21)). On returning through Macedonia, Paul sent Timothy before to Troas (Acts 20:44And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. (Acts 20:4)).
I need not trace him further. He was one evidently trusted as a right-hand man by our apostle, one whom he could designate “man of God” (1 Tim. 6:1111But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (1 Timothy 6:11)), not man of men, as many young preachers are, whose whole aim is to please men, which, as Paul avers, makes them not the servants of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1). His connection with Paul from the outset was unbroken, intimate, happy for himself, and a source of refreshment to Paul, as the last letter (2 Tim.) he ever wrote shows. Paul’s last earthly work was penning a letter to his son Timothy, in which he acknowledges as his “dearly beloved Son.”