The pastoral epistles of Paul, all three written we may safely affirm after the termination of the apostle’s first imprisonment, now claim our attention. In each of them he presents himself in his apostolic character, and that in connection with God and the Lord Jesus Christ, supplying us, by the way in which he introduces himself in these three letters, with a key-note to the contents of each of them. In the one before us, which contains regulations given to Timothy for the right ordering of God’s house on earth, Paul describes himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Saviour, and Christ Jesus our hope. Furnished with such credentials, he was fully competent to give directions for matters concerning the assemblies of God. In the second epistle to Timothy, which enjoins individual faithfulness to the Lord at all cost, Paul writes of himself as “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.” And in that to Titus, which dwells on practical piety in every condition of life, he reminds his own child after the common faith of his apostleship “according to the faith of God’s elect, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to piety.”
Timothy and Titus were apostolic delegates charged with the service of watching over doctrine, and of regulating matters which concerned the well-being and order-the one of the assembly at Ephesus, the other of the assemblies in Crete; and the letters addressed to both would serve among other things to authenticate their mission (1 Timothy 1:18; Titus 1:5.)
Paul had visited Ephesus on two occasions ere he went to Rome (Acts 18:19; 19:1.) On the first occasion he was on his way to Jerusalem from Macedonia. On the second occasion Timothy had left Ephesus, sent by Paul into Macedonia (Acts 19:22), whilst he tarried for a season still in that city, the metropolis of proconsular Asia. Hence it is pretty plain, from the circumstances recounted in this epistle (1:3), Timothy being left at Ephesus when Paul went into Macedonia, that it must have been written at a date subsequent to his first appearance before Nero.
Timothy was to keep watch over the doctrine taught in the assembly. There was need for this. Of what would take place in Ephesus after Paul’s death he had warned the Ephesian elders years before at Miletus. How the prediction was verified the Lord’s address to the angel of that Church surely intimates. (Revelation 2:2.) But whilst he was still in life he saw heterodoxy getting in there, and the saints in danger of being ensnared by fables and endless genealogies, which ministered questions rather than God’s dispensation which is in faith; whereas the end of the command, i.e. what was enjoined, is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, which things some having missed had turned aside to vain talking, desiring to be law-teachers, understanding neither what they said nor whereof they affirmed. Such were the dangers at Ephesus to the maintenance of sound teaching to which Timothy’s attention was especially drawn. Paul had pointed them out before leaving for Macedonia; he refers again to them in this letter.
About the fables he says nothing more. They were not in any sense from God, and they did not, it was evident, further God’s dispensation which is in faith. Nothing which does not do that is of any real profit in teaching. Questions of this kind might amuse and exercise the intellect, but they did not tell upon the conscience. Of the law which some wished to teach he speaks. That came from God, and is good if used lawfully. It is like a rule which applied to anything crooked shows where it departs from the straight line; and applied to men, when unrighteous and ungodly, shows them what as responsible creatures they ought to be, and wherein they have sinned. Such is its use. It convicts and condemns men of unrighteousness and ungodliness, in a word, of whatever is against sound doctrine according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which Paul was put in trust.
Another revelation then had come from God— “The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” and, consequent on His death, and resurrection, and ascension, the gospel of the glory of God was to be preached. This met men in their need. The law could in a way, yet not fully even, prove to man his need. The gospel shows how fully that has been met, and Troves the folly of those, when it is really understood, who would be law teachers, applying the law for a purpose, and to those for whom it was not intended by God (1: 9.) The mention of the gospel recalls to Paul the grace in which he shared, a sample, a pattern of the extent of God’s long-suffering goodness. He who was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious, characteristics severally true of men in the last days (2 Timothy 3:2), of the Jew in the apostles’ time (1 Thessalonians 2:15), and of the heathen world before the cross (Romans 1:30), had obtained mercy after having opposed the truth through ignorance and in unbelief, the grace of the Lord having surpassingly abounded with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. What the law could not do was affected by the gospel; and Paul, once the ardent champion of Judaism, here stands out as the fullest illustration of grace. “It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,” he writes, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief;” that in him, as chief Jesus Christ might show forth the whole long-suffering for a delineation of those about to believe on Him to life everlasting. How different then are these two revelations of the mind of God, both dealing with the sinner—the former to bring out into fuller belief his sinfulness, and to condemn him; the latter to meet him as condemned that he might be saved, and that perfectly. Hence thinking of the gospel of the glory of God, which shows how fully by the atonement He has been glorified in His very nature and character, nothing could be more suited than an expression of praise— “To the King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, only God, be honor and glory to the ages of ages. Amen.”
Now, returning to the purpose for which he wrote this epistle, he commits the charge to Timothy, his child in the faith, who had been marked out by prophecies for this service, exhorting him by them to war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. The faith he was to keep, and to maintain a good conscience as well, the effect of putting away the latter being seen in the cases of Hymenceus and Alexander, who had now made shipwreck concerning the faith, and had in consequence been delivered by Paul to Satan to learn not to blaspheme. Two points are noteworthy here: first, the importance of maintaining a good conscience, and the results that may follow its abandonment; and second, the way God can use the enemy for the profit (if such an one will learn) of the person delivered up to him. Souls once doing his behests are set free from his thraldom by the gospel (Ephesians 2:2.) Professors could be delivered up to him to learn by punishment their needed lesson. Thus, God can use him as a creature in the carrying out of His designs, he himself having no such power over one in the assembly, unless such an one is delivered up to him.
Following on this exhortation given to Timothy for the fulfillment of the service entrusted to him, we have instructions concerning the Church in general (2,3); and after that those which in an especial way would help to guide Timothy in his work at Ephesus. (4-6)
And, first, as to prayer. (2.) The gospel of the grace of God being preached, prayer was to be made for all men, and the spirit of supplication might rightly go out on behalf of rulers and all that are in authority, whatever their ways towards Christians might be, that under the shelter of their rule, government being maintained, Christians might lead a quiet’ and tranquil life in all piety and gravity. But whilst this could result from prayer on behalf of rulers, no one on earth was excluded from the offer of grace.
Thus the everlasting interests of any man, whether a ruler or a subject, might form the burden of a Christian’s supplication, and be well-pleasing to our Saviour God, who is willing that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; and this was evidenced by the gospel. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, the testimony to be borne in its own times, for which Paul was appointed a herald and an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Having stated for whom we may pray, and the reason for it, since God is not acting in favor towards one nation, but towards men, the apostle proceeds to give directions for the saints when met together for prayer. All one in Christ, the distinction of sexes is, nevertheless, to be maintained in the assembly, and each receives an appropriate word. The men were to pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath, and doubting or reasoning. A spirit of that kind would be unseemly for those who were to lead the devotions of others. As to the women, the character of their attire and ways were not subjects beneath the notice of the Holy Ghost. Creation order was to be remembered, and the instruction to be drawn from it was to be put in practice. The woman was to learn in quietness with all subjection.
She was not to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in quietness ἡσυχία. “For Adam was first formed, theft Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in transgression.” What a simple way of solving the question! God’s word in Genesis casts a light on it. His order of acting before the fall, and the history of the fall, both help us in this matter. So not only do these two chapters of Genesis (2,3.) acquaint us with facts of which otherwise we might not have been informed, they also furnish guidance on a point of order in the Christian assembly. But more. If God would maintain creation order on such a matter, and would have His people remember it, He would also maintain His character as a Saviour God, and here declares it. He will preserve the woman through child-bearing, her special sorrow, a consequence of the fall, if they—i.e. the man and the woman—continue in faith, and love, and holiness with sobriety.
C. E. S.
I don’t know that, if anyone wanted to be to the praise of God, he could do it better than by being full of Christ. I meet some aged saints full of Christ, saying, “I’ve done with this world, but I have Christ. The only thing I have got to speak of is what this Christ of God is —He is All.” I don’t believe anything is better than that. If I look around me I see in saints —not want of intelligence, not lack of knowledge, not want of activity—but what they want is the affections full of Christ. There’s plenty of oil in the machine that’s full of Christ. If the heart is full of Christ, and full of joy in the Holy Ghost, then we have got our other portion, our real portion. The early Christians were so full of Christ that all their trials, all their difficulties, sank down into nothing. Why is it not so with us? G. V. W.