Thoughts on 1 Timothy 1:3-4

"As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith."

In these verses Paul is telling Timothy to stay in Ephesus (modern day Turkey) and tell the people there not to deviate from the truth of the Gospel, not to spend their time telling and listening to fictitious fables about the faith, or spend their time talking about whose family line was more righteous and noble. These things will do nothing but cause needless debate and keep the churches focus off the business God had given them to do.

As we read these verses it is important that we are not self-righteous and identify ourselves with Paul or Timothy. If we are honest with ourselves we see that we are the ones in need of the correction Paul is calling for.

We are the people who deviate from the truth. This charge not to deviate from the truth is just as crucial today as it was when Paul wrote this letter. Today we live in a post-modern, morally relativistic culture where there is no absolute truth. What is true for one person may not be true for another. The church has not been immune from this post-modern thinking as we have seen numerous main-stream churches call into question things such as the virgin birth of Jesus and the inerrancy of Scripture. The saying goes “the truth hurts” and this is especially the case when examining ourselves through the lens of the Gospel. Scripture clearly calls us out and charges us as being one whose heart is only evil continually (Gen 6:3), impure (Prov 20:9), not righteous or good (Ecc 7:20), full of evil and madness (Ecc 9:3), wicked and estranged (Ps 58:3), gone my own way (Is 53:6), rebellious (Is 65:2), lover of darkness (John 3:19), a slave to sin (John 8:34), and the list goes on. People do not like to hear these things about themselves so culture has softened the truth and told us that we are basically good people who do good things. It makes us feel warm and fuzzy to think that we are good, nice people. It is a lie. Clearly, scripture indicates our true character apart from God. The truth does hurt sometimes but we are charged not to deviate from it.

We are the people who like to listen to and tell fictitious fables so as to make Christianity seem more mysterious and interesting. Books such as “The Bible Code” and “The DaVinci Code” are fables told by modern-day storytellers seeking to make Christianity seem more alluring, mysterious, or exciting. As I was watching the news today a story came on about a woman who believes God was speaking to her through her breakfast sausage. As she was frying the sausage the word “GOD” was spelled out in the sausage patties. I’m serious. People, God speaks to us through the Bible, not through breakfast sausage. God reveals himself to us through the Gospel and through his Son Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and he Word was with God, and the Word was God. ; And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1; 14)

We are the people who don’t feel like we live up to God’s expectations for us so we brag about our family member who we see as very faithful or our grandpa who was a pastor. We brag about the church we go to because we think because we attend there and they have a good children’s program somehow that will make us more faithful. We seek our righteousness through our faithful family members, friends, or church. I have news for you: you are correct in your thinking that you don’t measure up to God’s expectations for you but you are incorrect in thinking that your faithful counterparts do. Nobody lives up to perfection. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Stop thinking that righteousness can be found through relationships with anyone you know or any organization you belong to. Righteousness is only found in Jesus. “He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him you might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

If you are reading this and you are a Christian, know that God has put you here for a mission. He sums it up in Matthew 28:18-20: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” That is our mission. Paul is telling Timothy that if the church at Ephesus and by extension the church as a whole (us) deviates from the truth, gets caught up in fables, and argues about who is more righteous we will be distracted from our true mission of spreading the Gospel.

There is good news for us though and his name is Jesus.

Because of Jesus we don’t have to soften the painful truth that we are depraved, dirtbag sinners but can instead rejoice in the truth because we know that he will give us “a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezek. 36:26-27) Because of Jesus we are no longer spiritually dead but instead “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17) Jesus referred to himself as “the truth” and said “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32).

Because of Jesus we don’t need to tell fables to make Christianity seem more mysterious or exciting. Think about the story of Jesus. He is God. He made everything that has ever been made. He sees the condition of man’s heart and loves him anyway. He leaves paradise in heaven and is born to a virgin teenager in a barn. He grows up as a union carpenter until it’s time to start his ministry. He turns the world upside down by challenging the leaders and rulers of his day. He tells the world that he is the Son of God and ironically being a carpenter, he is nailed to a piece of wood. His followers bury him in a tomb and three days later he rises from the dead and spends forty days walking around with holes in his hands preaching and teaching. He then ascends into heaven and sends the Holy Spirit who manifests himself in tounges of fire on the disciples who are then able to speak languages they have probably never even heard. His disciples are then eventually one by one killed for their undying faith in him. Fast forward two thousand years and I am here writing about the Jewish carpenter born in a barn. Like I said we don’t need fables. We need to actually read our Bibles.

Because of Jesus we don’t need to look to our family, friends, or church to justify our entry into heaven. We don’t need to appeal to any earthly relationship to gain righteousness. Righteousness is through Jesus and Jesus alone. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.”

Keep your attention off of useless arguments and stories and focus your attention on the mission that you have been given. Go.