1 Timothy & Titus Lesson 6

Text:  1 Timothy 4

Please read this chapter through in your Bible and then respond to the following.

Assignment Questions

1 Tim 4:1-5

    1. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
    2. Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.
    3. Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
    4. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
    5. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

1 Timothy & Titus – Extensions of the Kingdom

Intro
Lessons
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13pdf download

    1. Summarize the teaching of verse 1, in your own words
    2. In your own words, summarize verse 2.
    3. Fill in the blank:  Your conscience is a trustworthy guide to right and duty when __________. (For help read the Spirit of Prophecy material appearing under 1:17-20, “c”.)
    4. What foods are referred to in verse 3a as being wrongfully abstained from?
    5. State in your own words the teaching of verses 3-5; support your answer.

1 Tim 4:6-16

    1. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
    2. but refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
    3. For bodily exercise profiteth little; but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
    4. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.
    5. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.
    6. these things command and teach.
    7. Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, and conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
    8. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
    9. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
    10. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that they profiting may appear to all.
    11. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

 

    1. How is the minister who is to feed others to be fed, in verse 6?
    2. In verse 7 we are to refuse . . . old-womanish tales – – for what?  What are old-womanish tales not to do for us?
    3. Fill in the blanks in the following for verse 8.  (Note that verse 7 and 8 go together!)  Bodily exercise is profitable for a little ______________, but piety______________ is profitable for the new life and the coming life.
    4. What has “promise of the now life and of the coming life” in verse 8a?
    5. What does “this” refer to in verse 9?
    6. What does “therefore” refer to in v. 10?  State the general teaching of verse 10 in your own words.
    7. What is Timothy to teach in verse 11?  What are “these things”?  (Make a summary list.)
    8. Does a preacher have to preach by his life according to verse 12?
    9. State verse 13 in your own words.
    10. What is Paul’s instruction to Timothy in verse 14a?  State it in your own words.
    11. It is sometimes suggested that in Scripture there is no distinction which separates clergy and laity.  Please include that issue as you summarize the instruction by Paul appearing in verse 14.
    12. If verse 15 is seen as the last half of a thought being expressed by Paul, what verse would be the first half.  (This question is subjective and may be difficult.)
    13. Summarize the message of verse 16.

Assignment Answers

1 Tim 4:1-5

  1. Implicit statements are those qualities of verbal communication where the message to be conveyed is capable of being understood from something else though it is unexpressed (see Webster).

    Explicit statements are verbal communications which are characterized by full, clear expression, being fully developed or formulated, unreserved and unambiguous (see Webster).

    In 1 Timothy 4:1 the first clause reads, “now the Spirit in words says. . . . “ “In words” is the translation of ratos, which means expressly or explicitly (Arndt & Gingrich, p. 743).

    In the phrase “attending to” in verse 1c the greek prosecho means to turn ones mind, or, pay attention to, or, give heed to (Arndt & Gingrich, p. 721).

    “Misleading” spirits means deceitful (Arndt & Gingrich, p. 672).

    1 Tim 4:1 simply states that the spirit explicitly says the latter times will be characterized by some people stopping listening to the voice of faith and giving their attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons or evil spirits; which teaching is philosophically, of course, false doctrine, or the doctrine of unfaith.

  2. 1 Tim 4:2 tells how the shift of faith described in verse 1 takes place.  To quote a translation from Arndt & Gingrich (p. 852), “By the hypocritical preaching of liars.”  Hypocritical here means pretense, or outward show (Arndt & Gingrich, p. 852)  The reason for men to act this way is given:  they have been branded with a red hot iron on their own conscience – – or their conscience has been seared (Arndt & Gingrich, p. 426).

    This action is presented with the perfect passive and may mean by implication that the ruined conscience is a necessary pre-requisite to the ability to teach what such people teach.

  3.  Your conscience is trustworthy when “it is under the influence of divine grace” (4 RH 33), col. 2, Para.3).
  4. “Foods which God created for partaking.”  The word partaking is a translation of metalampsin with the dictionary meaning of sharing, taking, or receiving (Arndt Gingrich, p. 512).
  5. To forbid to marry is the teaching of one whose conscience has been ruined (v. 2c & 3a).  To bid someone to keep away from foods which God created for receiving is to have the same problem with one’s own conscience, because “anything created by God is good”  (v. 2c & 3b & 4a) (Arndt and Gingrich, p. 457).  The word here translated “created” (v. 4a) is ktisma, meaning “that which is created.”  The ma is a result ending added to the word ktizo, meaning, create.  A ktisma is therefore the result of God’s exercise of His ability to create.  This of course includes the animals, or “creatures,” the Sabbath, the earth, etc. – – everything God created, but in the context of our verses (vv. 2b-4a) the ktisma, that which God created, is specifically marriage, and foods God created to be (for the purpose of) being eaten – – when received with thanksgiving by those knowing the truth (v. 3c).  The phrase in verse 4, because each (pan) thing God created (ktisma) is good, recalls Genesis 2 – – and God saw all He had made and it was good – – but our statement occurs some 4000 years after the entrance of sin into the world, so Paul qualifies his declaration adding that nothing which God created is to be rejected (apoblation) [if] being received with thanksgiving by those who know the truth – – the ones who know what God declared to be eatable (v. 3c).

    Just as Paul does not say ‘everything works together for good’, saying rather, ‘everything works together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose’, so in verse 4 Paul does not say, ‘everything God created is now good’, saying rather, ‘everything God created is good and not to be rejected or cast behind you, when it is something that is received with thanksgiving’, (thanksgiving, eucharistias, is a result attitude and never functions in the New Testament as an agent for cleansing), for it is sanctified through (dia) a word of God and petition (verse 5).  It should be noted that this sanctification is specific and not general because, In the case of food for example, the general acceptability of the food is based in the believers knowledge of the teaching of Scripture; a conclusion which is evidenced by the qualifications set forth in verses 3-5 – – those who believe and know the truth, that that which is sanctified in verse 5 (agiazetai) is that which is the created (ktisma) of verse 4, while the ‘a word of God’ of verse 5 is the pronouncement implied by “good” (kalon), in verse 4 (everything created of God is good, cf. Gen 2); while the “petition” (enteucheos)  of verse 5 is a reference to the “thanksgiving”  of verse 4, or, by implication is a request for the necessities for which one offers up thanks to God – – that which is understood here is that what God gives in response to the request for that which will meet one’s need is that which He has already prepared (v. 3c).  (Remember the “request” does not make clean unclean food.  Eucharistea does not have that function in the New Testament.)

    In summary:  To teach with a seared conscience is to command what God has not forbidden (we are not forbidden to be single), and to end up forbidding what God has commanded (we are “commanded” to marry so as not to be alone).  (I think I plagiarized that from Mrs. White!).

    We are commanded to eat what God created for us to eat so as to be healthy (he who destroys the temple of God – – our body – – God will destroy). A prohibition to eat that which God created to be eaten therefore equals a prohibition to do what God has commanded.

    Conclusion:  These verses state that to teach after having had you conscience seared is to teach that which is directly opposed to God’s expressed will.

1 Tim 4:6-16

    1. By the words of “The faith and the good teaching”  which the minister suggests to the brethren (v. 6a) and which he himself has followed (v. 6c).
    2. We are to refuse “old-womanish tales” (v. 7a) for nourishment.  They are not to feed, or “nourish” 9verse 6) the ministry.

      Note:  Ellen White comments that God never intended for us to be nourished of the atmosphere of praise and flattery.

      The soul does not become more and more like Christ by beholding evil, but like the evil which it beholds. . . . We become changed into the image of that upon which we dwell (3RH 73).

      The evil done to us by another must remain unresented, unavenged (3RH 29).

      Praise and flattery of one another is forbidden in the Scriptures.  It is an offense to God, and is an injury both to him who gives and to him who receives praise.  It is a snare to them; for it separates the soul from God (2 RH 552).

      We should not narrow our circle of friends to a few favorites because they pet and flatter us by their professed affection. . . . One draws upon the other for strength, and the praise, flattery, and affection one receives of the other, supplies the place that should be supplied by the grace of God. . . . (YI, p. 129).

      Though the provision of divine grace we may attain almost to the excellence of the angels (1 RH 325).

      Those who . . . allow the mind to come down to the superficial and unreal, are placing themselves on Satan’s ground, and are doing his work (1 RH 248).

    3. Bodily exercise is profitable for a little time, but piety exercise is profitable for the now life and the coming life.
    4. Exercising piety in daily life.
    5. The counsels of verses 3-8.
    6. That people will be able to see that what is being taught by Paul and Timothy is of faith and worthy of acceptance or approval, is the “therefore” for which they labor and suffer reproach (v. 9b).

      The general teaching of verse 10 is that Paul’s faith in God’s will to reward men for what they do was the motivator which gave daily direction to his general life – aim; to go to heaven and be with God, his Savior.

    7. Verse 1-10.
    8. Yes.  Timothy is to be a “pattern” (tupos) – – a visible impression, a copy, or an image or statue – – as in images of the gods (cf. Arndt and Gingrich, p. 837)
    9. Do the work in my absence I would do if I were where you are.
    10. Verse 14a states that the results of grace (charismates) in the life of Timothy he was to take care of. 

      The habitation of the body should be tenderly guarded; for it is the habitation of God, the property of God, and it is to be preserved in soundness. . . .

      When the world holds control over us, the atmosphere we breathe is of a dark, murky character, and body and soul deteriorate.  The soul becomes diseased, and spiritual life is infected with spiritual consumption (YI, p. 147).

    11. In verse 14 Paul states that Timothy had received a gift, a result of grace, through the channel of the laying on of the hands of the presbuteriou and through (dai: by means of, Arndt & Gingrich, p. 179), or by means of, prophecy.  This gift he was to take care of.

      Presbuteros, according to the dictionary, designates an older of two persons, or an official (see Arndt & Gingrich, Presbuteros, 1., 2.; p. 706).  In 1 Tim 5:1 timothy is counseled by Paul not to reprove, to rebuke, a presbuteros.

      This word occurs some 62 times in the New Testament as a noun, and is sometimes used by Paul to designate himself.  In Luke 22:66 the contextual definition is that of a group of elders, or as Stegenga translates it, an estate of elders.

      The passage above referred to in Luke 22 is of course from the story of Jesus trial where we read that He is led into “their” council – – “their” being explained as the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people (KJV); greek – – presbuterion – – probably indication a group of leaders.

      Presbuteros also is used in the New Testament to designate the Senate who commissioned Paul to his trip to Damascus (see Acts 22:5).

      These few observations on the use of presbuteros in the New Testament makes it clear that the word often designates a person or persons holding a position without which that person or persons would not be presbuteros.

      In my opinion the New Testament clearly shows a dichotomy of its people – – the leaders and those led.  This principle is clearly set forth in Acts 13:2 where the Holy Sprit makes the distinction using the word separate or set apart (aphorize), and in addition naming the specific ones to be so distinguished.

    12. Verse 12.

 

  1. Don’t just preach; take care of your own spiritual life.  The result: you and your hearers can be saved.

    “Take heed unto yourself, and unto the doctrine.”  Thyself needs the first attention.  First give yourself to the Lord for sanctification to His service.  A godly example will tell more for the truth than the greatest eloquence unaccompanied by a well-ordered life.  Trim the lamp of the soul, and replenish it with oil of the Spirit.  Seek from Christ that grace, that clearness of comprehension, which will enable you to do successful work.  Learn from Him what it means to labor for those for whom He gave His life.  The most talented worker can do little unless Christ is formed within, the hope and strength of the life (RH Aug 19, 1902) (7SDABC 916).

 

1 Timothy & Titus: intro | lesson 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13pdf download