
We continue with DMW's study of 1 Timothy…
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
¶ To Timothy, my true child in the faith: ¶ Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
¶ 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.”
(1 Timothy 1:1–4 ESV)
To Timothy, my own son in the faith.
Paul's close relationship with Timothy shows here and his affection for him and his trust in him as a faithful son.
The close relationship between these two men is clear.
While I tried over the years to develop close relationships with the men I worked with, I found that the culture we live it simply eats up so much of our time to just survive, and the way the church is organized made it all but impossible.
What are the problems we see today in the church that are a direct result of the lack of close relationship between leadership, and between each other?
Grace, Mercy and Peace
This is different than when he wrote to churches to which he would say grace and peace, but when he wrote to an individual he included mercy.
Why do you think Paul would include mercy when speaking to an individual and not use it when he addressed a church?
To remain in Ephesus
Paul's would at times leave either Timothy or Titus for the follow up work when a church was established and go there. Notice that he besought him to stay there he didn't command him… were grace prevails there is no need to command.
Ephesus was a church that went from a condition that when Paul wrote his letter to them, there was no rebuke or correction. It is a letter that was all positive. But just twenty years later in the Book of Revelation Jesus had a strong rebuke. They had left their first love.
Twenty years is not a very long time. It should be a strong warning to all leaders to not take it for granted that just because they had a good start, and were blessed in a mighty way, that it can be lost in just twenty years. It almost seems like it is unavoidable.
Can you name any great revival where God did a mighty new work that the work continued to the next generation?
Is it possible that we should just shut down and start fresh every 20 years?
I know that is nuts. But there are times that it seems like a good Idea.
The Old Guard almost always seems to get in the way of the new leaders. I have seen it with my own eyes. After a very short time I have watched a wonderful move of God, follow down a path that those who were there in the beginning desire to protect and keep it going, but their efforts always seem to be in the direction of more and more human control over the church and less and less liberty in the Spirit.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
(2 Corinthians 3:17 ESV)
That you may charge some to teach no other doctrine.
Paul gets right down to business with this letter. Don't give heed to fables and endless genealogies.
The first thing he charges Timothy to do, is to stand against other doctrines
No other Doctrine
There is a lot of false or wrong doctrines floating around today.
No Fables
We must be on the look out for people who make things up.
Stories about life changing powers of walking a labyrinth for one thing. There are some things that simply do nothing for the building up of a church.
We are prone to fall into those things that are not for edification— which is faith — simple trust in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Some men love to argue — they are contentious
I think that it was Vance Havner that once said that a bulldog could take a skunk any day of the week but some things just aren't worth it.
You can always find someone who loves to argue and pick over some small doctrine.
They are like dogs chewing on bones… while they enjoy it there is little nourishment in it.
Some of you may know of Michael Spencer, a teacher in eastern Kentucky who is probably best known as the "Internet Monk". His blog of the same name has a high readership among Christian blogs.
How to Believe
There going to be another internet storm soon…and J.I. Packer is going to once again be taken to task.
After a tough weekend reading about the lack of moral and ethical accountability in some Calvary Chapels, I have found out what the unforgivable sin is to Costa Mesa.
What did you teach?
It's all yours today…
The conference was about John Calvin, but outside the lectures the name most often on peoples lips wasn't Calvin's it was… "The Doctor".
I saw the strangest thing on Twitter this morning…Rick Warren and Mark Dever messaging back and forth.
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