1 Cor. 11:17-22, Don’t Let Anyone Despise Your Youth!

We now move to 1 Tim. 4:12.  The first verb is a negative: let no one despise your youth.  It means, of course, to think little or nothing of someone or something.  With only 9x in the NT we can easily get a sense of this.  Hang on because I think it is important for Timothy to hear Paul say this.

·       Mt. 6:24: You cannot serve two masters; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. Cf. also Lk. 16:13.

·       18:10: Don’t despise these “little ones” for their angels behold My Father’s face.

·       Rom. 2:4: Do you despise the riches of God’s goodness, forbearance, longsuffering, not knowing His goodness leads you to repentance?

·       1 Cor. 11:22: Believers despise the church of God when they mistreat their brethren at the Lord’s Table.

·       1 Tim. 4:12 (our passage about young Timothy) and 6:2: Servants with believing masters should not despise them because they are brethren.

·       Heb. 12:2: Jesus despised the shame of the cross (thought little of it).

·       2 Pt. 2:10: Among other things, false teachers walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.  Jude 1:8-9 explains this, that the authorities are angelic/demonic.  Don’t think little of or underestimate them.

What do we learn from this?  I have had to deal with this in my life.  There are pastors who have world-wide or nation-wide or church-wide reputations.  And that’s not necessarily bad.  In the first century there were the Paul’s and Peter’s and Apollos’s and so forth.  But the fact that Timothy did not have their standing (how could he; he must say as they all must say, “by the grace of God I am what I am?) did not mean he did not have an appointment by Christ to what he was doing.  Paul reminded Timothy of this (4:14).  If someone came along and said because he was young they did not have to respect his ministry he should not listen to them. 

I experienced this a lot in my ministry.  I would often hear from people how great so-and-so was that they watch on TV Sunday morning before coming to church, or to such-and-such a Christian author who had better ways to say it than I did.  It was not something I felt or responded to out of pride because I was the type of person who might have my own self-doubts.  But then I would do as Paul told Timothy to do.  I would remind myself that my appointment was of Christ.  He put me in the position of shepherd in this particular church.  John MacArthur or David Jeremiah (good men in my view) were not pastor of this church, no matter how great their preaching.  They did not know the people as I did.  They were not going to show up in their homes as I was.  As I yielded myself to the Head of the Church He would enable me to shepherd this flock, and the sheep would be foolish to despise my not-so-famous ministry.  There! Got that out of my system. 😊

Col. 1:28-2:10, Timothy: Command and Teach This (2)

As we consider Paul’s use of the verb “to teach” I should mention there are also nouns to identify what is taught and to describe the teacher.  Those we will save for another day as we are concerning ourselves with the verbs of 1 Tim. 4:11-16. 

·       Rom. 2:21: You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? In the Church a teacher must explain but also model what he teaches.

·       12:7: One of the seven spiritual gifts is “teaching.”  One with the gift excels in this ministry but others without the gift might teach in support of their gift.

·       1 Cor. 4:17: Timothy reminded the Corinthians of what Paul taught everywhere.

·       11:14: Nature also teaches about “long hair” on a man.

·       Gal. 1:12: No one taught Paul the mystery of Christ but Christ revealed it to him.

·       Eph. 4:21: What Paul taught was originally taught by Christ.

·       Col. 1:28: Paul’s preaching involved two things: admonition (warning) and teaching in all wisdom.  This ministry will bring believers to maturity.

·       2:7: The believers needed to be rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught. This was what Paul taught.

·       3:16: The teaching and admonishing (cf. above, 1:28) is also done through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.  The music must teach!

·       2 Thess. 2:15: Paul exhorts them to stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.  Teaching of the word undergirds the traditions or applications.  The teaching can come in various ways.

·       1 Tim. 2:12: A woman was not to teach or have authority over a man.  This brings out the authority of teaching; if it is anchored in God’s word it comes with God’s authority.

·       4:11: These things command and teach. 6:2: Teach and exhort.  The “exhort” term refers to what we might call counselling.  Counselling also needs to be anchored in the teaching of the word.

·       2 Tim. 2:2: Timothy was to pass on truth to faithful men who could teach others.

·       Titus 1:11: Elders/pastors, by sound doctrine, need to stop others from teaching things they ought not to teach, things they teach just to get rich.

·       Heb. 5:12: These believers were stunted in their growth; they should be teachers but were in need of someone to still teach them the basics.

·       8:11: Under the New Covenant believers do not need to be taught to “know the LORD,” as by faith Christ has been revealed in their hearts.

·       1 Jn. 2:27: This is similar to the previous passage.  Having the Holy Spirit (the anointing) there is no need to be taught to know the Lord.  This is fundamental New Covenant teaching.

Don’t lose sight of our context.  These things relate to the ministry of one who is an elder/pastor/shepherd of the flock, the people of the Body of Christ.

Acts 20:18-32, Timothy: Command and Teach This (1)

First, Timothy was to “command” things that were being passed along from Christ, perhaps and likely through Paul, to the Church at Ephesus.  Sometimes local churches get into controversies that dishonor Christ because those who are to shepherd the flock are not willing or able to declare the will of Christ for their fellowship.  Timothy had an “imperative” to command.  But along with that, he had an imperative to teach.  Let’s consider this so we can put these together.

This verb (didaskō) is used 93 times in the NT, so we will be a little less detailed in our explanations here.  First, here is Strong’s definition: to hold discourse with others in order to instruct them, deliver didactic discourses; to impart instruction, instill doctrine into one, to explain or expound a thing, to teach one something.  What you see in this is that while Timothy was to command certain things, it was to be joined with teaching, explanations (from Scripture) that would provide context for the commands.  Teaching takes more effort but is essential so that it is understood that the commands are only given because they are from the Head!

Of the 93x in the NT,  58x it is in the Gospels, 16x in Acts, and twice in Revelation (2:14 and 2:20 of Balaam and Jezebel, false teachers).  That leaves 21x from Romans to 1 John which will occupy our attention.  For this post let me share a few uses from the Gospel and Acts that in my view are important for the Church.

·       Mt. 4:23: Jesus taught in all the synagogues of Galilee. 7:29: He taught with authority, not like the scribes.  15:9: The Jews were teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.  28:20: The Great Commission, to teach the things I have commanded you.  Here we have the two words together that are in 1 Tim. 4:11. The subject of the Apostoles teaching was commanded by Christ.

·       Mark 6:34: Jesus saw the crowd as “sheep without a shepherd, so He taught them.”  The sheep are lost without the teaching.  8:31: Jesus taught the disciples of His upcoming suffering.  He did not just predict events; He put it in the context of Scripture. 

·       Luke 5:17: Jesus was teaching and power to heal was present.  The main thing for Jesus was to teach; the accompanying signs came from His Father but were not to obscure the teaching.  Thus, He often told those healed not to broadcast it.

·       Acts 1:1: Luke wrote his gospel about all that Jesus began to do and teach. Now he wrote Acts to continue the story.  4:2: The apostles taught and preached Jesus daily and in every house.  This brings together two terms: the teaching that searches Scripture and gives explanation, and the preaching that announces the conclusion and calls people to repentance.  18:11: For one and a half years Paul was in Corinth teaching.  He was 2 years in Ephesus using the school of Tyranus as his teaching center (19:10-11).  20:20: Paul kept back nothing that was helpful but taught publicly and from house to house.  He “declared” the whole counsel of God (20:27).  The flock needs a stead diet of God’s word.

1 Timothy 6:11-21, Timothy: Command and Teach This

In the Gospels Jesus is described this way.  He sent out the Twelve, commanding them not to go into the way of the Gentiles of Samaritans (Mt. 10:5). He commanded the Twelve not to take anything for the journey except a staff (Mk. 6:8). In Mk. 8:6 He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground (we noted that Matthew used a different term, indicating that the command was from Jesus, while Mark’s term indicates the command was passed along by the Twelve).  He commanded the leper who was healed to tell no one but go show himself to the priest (Lk. 5:14).  He commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man in Lk. 8:29, the parents to tell no one about the raising of their daughter (Lk. 8:56), and His disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ (Lk. 9:21).  Some of these commands seem strange, but if we understand that Jesus was passing along a command from His Father you do understand that this was the Father’s will.  It fit with the grand purpose that Christ must go to the cross.

We see this several times in Acts.  Jesus told the disciples not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise (1:4).  The Jews commanded the apostles not to speak nor teach in the name of Jesus (4:18), reminded them of this later (5:28), then commanded them the same again (5:40).  But Peter told Cornelius that God had commanded the apostles to preach and testify (10:42).  Some in the Church wanted to command believers to keep the law of Moses (15:5).  Paul commanded the spirit to come out of the young girl in Philippi (16:18).  The Philippian jailor was commanded to keep Paul and Silas securely (16:23).  Ha!  Paul told the Athenians God now commanded all men everywhere to repent (17:30).  The commander commanded Paul’s nephew not to tell anyone what he had revealed (23:22) and then commanded Paul’s accusers to make charges before Felix (23:30).

This term is used twice in 1 Cor. (7:10 and 11:17), once in saying “I command, yet not I but the Lord” concerning divorce, and then in the matter of the Lord’s supper (the NKJV calls these “instructions”).  In 1 Th. 4:11 Paul commanded them to lead a quiet life, etc.  In 2 Thessalonians 3 we see the word 4 times: concerning specifics about lifestyle (3:4), to withdraw from disorderly brothers (3:6), that those who did not work should not eat (3:10), that they work in quietness and eat their own bread (3:12).  All these have to do with “details” of the Christian life.

This brings us to 1 Timothy.  Paul told Timothy to charge some that they teach no other doctrine (1:3); to command and teach (4:11); to command instructions for the care of the widows (5:7); and to command the rich not to be proud or to trust in riches (6:17).  In everything, especially in 6:11-12), he told Timothy: I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate.  He commands details of the Christian life, but it is all in the context of living our lives before God our creator and Christ who faithfully passed on the message He had, even before Pontius Pilate!

1 Timothy 4:11-16, Timothy’s Pastoral Imperatives

We are continuing in “word studies,” but I want to take a little different tack for a while.  This is for my benefit, but as everything I am involved with in studying the word of God seems to turn into a “blog post” I will be sharing it with you.  You need to know these things if you are a believer and therefore part of a local church.  The plan is to study the verbs in 1 Tim. 4:11-16, Paul’s instructions to Timothy as he had a pastoral role at Ephesus.  Most of these verbs are imperatives (commands) but even those that are not are instructive.  There are 11 of these verbs.  So, it will take us some time.  The value for you, if you are not in a pastoral role, is that you will know what your pastor needs to be free to do, not so you can judge or criticize him but so you can support him.  These are God’s priorities for pastors.

There are two imperatives in 1 Tim. 4:11: command and teach.  In Greek, both are present tense (do this now, and again tomorrow, regularly each day), active voice (this is your work to do from God Timothy, pastor; don’t get side-tracked), imperative (as we said, commands; this comes from the Head of the Church), and 2^nd person (this is not to be delegated to others).  I am giving you this detail because it is not hard, it is important to understand, and most of the verbs have this same PAI2 (present, active, imperative, 2^nd person) form. 

The first verb is “command” (v11).  This is one of those compound Greek words (parangellos, the preposition “to, together with” and “messenger, angel”).  Literally it is “to transmit a message along from one to another, to declare, announce; to command, order, charge.”  This should not be confusing if you remember that in Rev. 2-3, in the seven letters of Christ to the churches, that each is addressed to “the angel of the church.”  Many consider that this “angel” is actually the pastor(s) of each church.  Christ is the Head of the Church.  The role of a pastor is to declare what Christ has said, “to transmit a message along from Christ to the believers.”  In Rev. 2-3 what Christ said came in the form of letters.  In 1 Tim. 4 what Christ said will be gleaned from the word of God, as 4:13 makes clear: Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

There are other “command” words in the NT but there are distinctions to be observed.  In Matt. 28:19-20 (all things that I have commanded you) are commands from someone who is invested with the office or position to make the command.  In Matt. 15:35 (He commanded the multitude to sit on the ground) the commands are verbal orders from a superior.  In Matt. 28:16 (the disciples went into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them) the term means to place in a certain order, to arrange, to assign a place, to appoint.  Paul does not use any of these other terms of pastors/elders in the churches.  I hope you understand what we have here.  Paul is telling Timothy to pass on what he receives from Christ, the Head of the Church.  That is what pastors are to do.  They do not develop their own messages but rather give heed to Scripture so as to relay Christ’s word/words to His Church!

Psalm 118

We hope you enjoyed reading this magnificent Psalm.  It begins and ends the same, with the familiar call to praise: Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.  And no Psalm gives the proof of God’s goodness and mercy any better than this one.  And if you will allow one of your slightly misguided worship songs to be properly redirected, you will see what I mean. 

Do you sing that little chorus, This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.  I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it?  It is commonly sung as an encouragement to thank God for today, sung in the morning so we get a good start.  But I am sure you noticed that this song comes from this Psalm (v24).  And I hope you noticed as well: it refers to a particular day.  ONE DAY IN HISTORY.  The day the builders rejected the Stone who then became the Chief Cornerstone. 

It is a passage quoted often in the New Testament (Mt. 21:42; Mark 12:10; Lk. 20:17; Ac. 4:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Peter 2:7).  It speaks of the day of Jesus’ death (the Stone rejected but thereby He became the Chief Cornerstone).  Reminisce with me for a moment.  Jesus referred to that day as your hour and the power of darkness (Luke 22:53).  It was a sad day, a difficult day, a time of the most severe affliction.  But Jesus also said, My Father loves me because I lay down My life that I may take it again (John 10:17).  Jesus willingly obeyed His Father.  He knew Psalm 118 (several of the quotes listed above were by Christ), that His Father is good and forever merciful; that He was on His side and for Him (118:5-7), that He could be trusted (118:8-9), that there would be total victory in the name of the Lord (118:10-12), that the cross and the bearing of our sins was the gate of the Lord through which the righteous shall enter (118:20).

So should we sing the praise of 118:24 early in the morning, at the start of every day?  Sure!  Absolutely!  But keep it Christ-centered.  It is the day of the cross that after three days would issue in the resurrection and after 40 days would take Him to the Father’s right hand and after 50 days would see the coming of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the establishment of a New Covenant.  If that day resulted in eternal goodness from God then certainly your day can count on no less.  Sing it at the outset of a day that you anticipate will be filled with trouble; your troubles will be nothing compared to those of the day of the death of our Lord.  Face today rejoicing over the day the Stone was rejected.  This was the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes (118:23).  As Christ was the willing sacrifice, bound to the altar of His cross (118:27) so you enter this day by willingly presenting your body as a living sacrifice, bound on the altar of the cross you have taken up as you follow Christ!

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!  For His mercy endures forever.

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I want to add a note concerning verse 27. I have not changed the blog but we do recognize that verse has some challenges with respect to interpretation. There is nothing in the Law nor in the historical books of the Old Testament that speak of binding a sacrifice to the horns of the altar. So what are we to understand with respect to that part of the verse? Each of the verses around it have a synonymous parallelism so I do think that whatever the last half of verse 27 means it should connect in some way with the first half. I also see the entire psalm as fitting for the Messiah. It is fitting to connect the light given to us by the Lord as the light of the world who is Jesus. And Verse 26 is certainly Messianic in the sense it was used on the day of Jesus royal or triumphant entry into Jerusalem. So with respect to the binding of the sacrifice to the horns of the altar there are a couple of possibilities. Jewish interpretation of the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 refers to it as the "Binding of Isaac". Is it possible that our passage is dealing with the "Binding of Jesus", for Whom Isaac is a type? Or is it possible that all other sacrifices became unnecessary with the sacrifice of the Messiah so that those sacrifices should just be tied to the horns of the altar and the worshipers turn their attention to Christ? However we understand it, it does seem to me that in some way it must speak of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Where is another edition to thinking about this Psalm. I have often seen a connection between Psalm 118 and Romans 8:31-39. I'm not saying that Paul was making the connection but that there is certainly a devotional connection which I'll share with you.

118:5-9 = 8:31-34

118:10-14 = 8:35

118:15-18 = 8:36

118:19-21 = 8:37

118:22-24 = 8:38-39

118:25-28 = Rom. 9-11

Isaiah 30:1-17, The God of Help

Having seen the context of God’s intended help for Israel, let us now meditate on the rest of the OT references that promise His help.

·       Psalm 20:2: God’s help comes from the sanctuary.  In other words, His help is joined to our relationship with Him.  We draw near to God and we are open to His help, as the people in Samuel’s time turned from their idolatry and found God to be true to His word.

·       Psalm 33:20: Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.  Note the connection, “help and shield”, of God’s help in dealing with the enemy.

·       Psalm 70:5: Here God is “my help and my deliverer” for the poor and needy one.  “Deliver” (to bring into security, deliver) fits the warfare theme.

·       Psalm 89:19: In the previous post we saw in Deut. 33:7 that God would be a help for Judah, the tribe from whom would come the Messiah.  This Psalm fits that promise as it speaks of God’s help for “one who is mighty,” referring to David, the one the LORD chose from the people.

·       Psalm 115:9,10,11: First Israel, then the house of Aaron, and then all who fear the LORD are called to trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.

·       Psalm 121:1,2; 124:8: In the Pilgrim Songs (Songs of Ascents) the pilgrim lifts his eyes to the hills and wonders, from whence comes my help?  The answer is: My help domes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.  As he sets out on his pilgrimage, facing a time when men have risen up against him, repeats this truth: Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

·       Psalm 146:5: This echoes Deut. 33:29: Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God.

·       Isaiah 30:5: Israel put their trust in Egypt but were ashamed, disappointed, as they could not be a help or benefit.

·       Ezekiel 12:14: In a similar context, Ezekiel prophesies that God will scatter all around Israel who have promised to help her.

·       Daniel 11:34: Again, this is a time between the OT and NT when Israel will receive little help from those around her.

·       Hosea 13:9: This last reference in the prophets is fitting: O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me. 

Let me conclude with Hebrews 4:16 where we also are called to come to the LORD for help: Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.