Timothy: an example

Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1 Tim 4:11–16

Paul finishes this interlude of instruction to Timothy with a focused string of imperatives. In only 6 verses with as many sentences we find 10 commands to Paul’s fellow servant:

v. 11, command (these things)
v. 11, teach (these things)
v. 12, let no one despise you
v. 12, set an example (for the believers)
v. 13, devote yourself (to public reading)
v. 14, do not neglect your gift
v. 15, practice (these things)
v. 15, immerse yourself (in these things)
v. 16, keep a close watch (on yourself)
v. 16, persist in this (keeping a close watch)

the centrality of teaching

Paul’s string of commands has a very clear focus. As we would expect there’s a strong emphasis on Timothy in his public role as a leader in the church at Ephesus. He is to command, teach, set an example, be devoted to the public work of preaching and teaching. Almost everything Paul commands here is aimed at Timothy fulfilling his role in ministry. The only commands Paul gives that aren’t in this direction are “let no one despise you for your youth” and potentially “do not neglect the gift you have.”

Yet even these are slanted towards Timothy’s ministry and Paul minces no words to make his point clear.

”these things”

We find another “these things” starting off this section and we’ll find another part way through. Is this the same as the “these things” of 4:6? If not, then this “these things” would be referring to the content of vv. 6-10: the exhortation towards training and nourishment in godliness. I tend to think that Paul is emphasizing to Timothy the need for him to teach the practice of piety and godliness to the Ephesians.

Notice the differing way Paul introduces the commands around “these things”:

v. 6, “if you put these things before the brothers”
v. 12, “command and teach these things”

They are certainly both commands but the former is softened both in it’s verb (“lay down” or “make known”) and in it’s subjunctive delivery (“if you…”). We also see a bit of a difference between this instance and other parallel constructions:

1 Tim 4:11, “Command and teach these things”
1 Tim 6:2, “Teach and urge these things”
Tit 2:15, Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority”

Interestingly we see the imperative rendered as command/urge/exhort inverted in order here. Paul emphasizes the authoritative command. Why?

Timothy’s age

Paul tells Timothy to make an active effort to defend himself in regard to his age. Which naturally raises the question: how old is Timothy? We can’t be entirely sure but we’re most likely talking about a man between 30 and 40. This rings a little weird in my ears and may in yours as well. There wouldn’t be very many situations in which I would need to be told by a mentor, “don’t let anyone look down on you for your youth.” However, I think this is has more to do with our conceptions of and connections to age and aging than the content of Paul’s command.

new ideas are illegal because they are a form of ageism

I think the perception of age is broken in our culture. We not only over-value youthful appearance but also the performance of the youthful. Think of the example of Justin Beiber who started recording and performing professionally at the age of 13. I’m currently about three weeks away from having a 13 year old and the idea of putting that child in that situation is absolutely wild. This isn’t confined to the secular either. Anyone ever seen a kid put in the position normally filled by an adult in a church setting?

So the real question for us is how do we contextualize Paul’s command to Timothy? At the least we should note:

Timothy was qualified for his position
Timothy was authoritatively installed to his position
In Paul’s estimation, Timothy can be considered, like Paul himself, to be worthy of imitation

Note particularly, 1 Corinthians 4:14-17:

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church 1 Cor 4:14–17

Notice how consistently the ideas of imitation, example, and type recur. We spoke a few weeks ago about how from the beginning and at our root we are people in the image of God and that idea is not lessened throughout Scripture but serves as a constant pulse of exhortation to godliness. We ran through the many times in Leviticus alone that God’s people are commanded to be holy because he himself is holy. We talked about the Sermon on the Mount last week and how Christ reveals some really convicting truths about the law. At the tail end of those 6 antitheses he echoes the words of God in Leviticus, “You must therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48).

This ideas are only furthered in what we saw with the qualifications of leadership. Paul says if you want to verify that a man is worthy to serve the church in leadership you must at least look at his home. Why? Not to see whether he can iron-fistedly keep his kids in line, but because his home will always be the truest reflection of himself, and I’m not implying any sense of erasure of the rest of the family, particularly and especially of the wife. How can this be so? Because the two shall become one flesh. In marriage, God joins and man a woman and God’s own Son says don’t let anyone undo that. The husband is not his own, the wife is not her own.

And this is practically obvious as well. To use a trivial example, I used to respond to every “have a good day” with “you too” while my wife would always say, “you as well.” Now we are switched. But non-trivially, I’m a kinder person than I was because of her, more compassionate, and more patient.

The point is made clearly here as elsewhere. Imitation is at the root of Christian belief and practice because it is at the root of humanity as originally created. Just as Timothy expresses Paul’s own true character and belief to the Corinthians, he’s commanded to do the same for the Ephesians.

the preaching and life connection

Supporting the teaching-centered commands are the exhortations to live uprightly. In v. 12 Timothy is told to set an example in 4 categories:

speech
conduct
love
faith

Timothy is in effect told to speak well, act well, relate to the community well, and relate to God well. Does the absence of any of these invalidate the others? Potentially. At the very least, Timothy’s ethos before the community is degraded if he lacks any of these aspects of virtue.

In addition to these, Timothy is told to “keep a close watch on himself [first!] and the teaching” (v. 16). Paul’s command focuses first on Timothy’s personal ethical uprightness and secondarily on the teaching which he’s charged to administer. This is what we should expect if indeed godliness must be embodied.

remembering as worship

remember how you got here
remember who you are
stay faithful

remember how you got here: remembering in the OT

What things stand out in your mind about important events in your life? What do you remember about your wedding? What comes to mind when you think of the birth of your first child? Almost inevitably, when we recall important events in our past we recall specifics. This is in fact exactly what we see happening in the life of God’s people as well.

Gen 9:12-15, God sets his bow in the clouds for remembrance
Gen 28:18-22, Jacob remembers his first encounter with God and his promise
Gen 31:45-50, Jacob and Laban setup a pillar as witness between them
Gen 32:32, After Jacob wrestles with God, Israelites remember this by not eating the sinew of the thigh
Gen 35:9-15, The second renaming of Jacob, he sets up a pillar
Num 15:37-40, Tassels are a remembrance of the commands of God
Josh 4:1-9, Joshua commands that a pile of stones is laid in the middle of the Jordan where the priests waited with the ark until the people passed over the Jordan
1 Sam 7:3-12, Samuel judges Israel and God saves them from the Philistines, the Ebenezer

We see this more generally in passages like the Shema (Deut 6:8-9) where Moses instructs God’s people to keep his commands as a “sign on their hand” and as “frontlets between [their] eyes” and to write them on their doorposts and their gates. On a large scale too that’s the function of the meeting places that God instituted. The Tabernacle in the desert and the Temple later on after the kingdom of Israel was established served as the physical reminder of God’s presence with his people. We might be tempted to over-spiritualize this some because the message of the New Testament is abundantly clear that the meeting place between God and his people is no longer a place but a person. 100% true. But we do not move beyond remembering. We see this in Paul’s instruction to Timothy.

Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.

Paul makes a somewhat enigmatic statement about the gift that Timothy received when the Ephesian elders laid their hands on him. We don’t really know when this occurred. There’s a chance that this was during the parting between Paul and the Ephesian elders recorded in Acts 20:17-38. Paul was headed towards Jerusalem with the knowledge from the Holy Spirit that he was heading into imprisonment and affliction and he wanted to give parting words to the Ephesian church. While we don’t know when or where we know how.

remember how you got here: laying on of hands

The gift Paul commands Timothy not to neglect was administered to him through the laying on of hands. This is a concept we see in several different contexts throughout scripture.

Lev 1:4/3:2, the priest lays his hands on the burnt offering
Lev 16:21, the priest lays his hands on the scapegoat
Lev 24:14, similarly the witnesses to blasphemy would lay their hands on the blasphemer before their execution
Num 27/Deut 34, Moses lays his hands on Joshua in blessing
Matt 19:13-15, Jesus lays his hands on the children who come to him to bless them
Acts 28:8, Paul heals the father of Publius by laying his hands on her
Acts 6:6, the ordination of the first deacons
Acts 19:6, Paul lays his hands on the disciples of John in Ephesus after which the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they speak in tongues and prophesy

With these examples in mind we might class the laying on of hands as something very specific and special and there’s certainly a sense in which that holds true. As far as I know, I’ve not administered healing from God to anyone by touching them. Yet at the same time, Colleen and I spent a good amount of time doing door-to-door evangelism and I’ve had my hands on a number of people during prayer that were giving lives over to Christ. Were they receiving the Holy Spirit through my act touching them? That seems like a weird question to ask. But certainly in that moment I was an instrument of God’s choosing in the same way as any other believer would be.

a question of degree not category

It seems then that we should see this as a question of degree more than a explicitly defined category. In Matt 9:18-26, a ruler asks Jesus to heal his daughter by “laying his hand on her”. The ruler specifically requests healing through the laying on of Jesus’ hands. However, when Jesus arrives at the house he raises her how? By “[taking] her by the hand”. This goes for all of our embodied practices not just physical touch. Is there something particularly holy about kneeling during prayer? Probably not necessarily. But can kneeling during prayer be particularly instructive? Absolutely. And importantly, it’s manifesting in the body what is true in the soul.

I’ll also take this moment to point out that those things are also not categorically separated. That’s one of the errors of the Ephesian false teachers. What is true in the soul will always be manifested in the body. This is what Jesus means by good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit. It’s what he means when he says it’s out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. What is inside is always making its way outside.

who you are: what’s the gift?

Similarly, we might ask what is the gift that Paul is talking about. Does it refer to the Holy Spirit as the language might indicate (“the gift within you”) or is it as the immediate context may suggest related to teaching? I suggest to you that the answer is yes. The spiritual gifts which Timothy had, the spiritual gifts that you have, are not in fact separate from the Holy Spirit himself. They are the exact expression of the Holy Spirit in you for the church. The inside is always making its way outside.

But remember the context here. Paul is commanding Timothy not to neglect but to recall the gift he has which was mediated through the laying on of hands. What does this call to mind for Timothy? He’s likely recalling the actual weight of the hands of the Ephesian elders. He’s probably remembering the feeling in his stomach and in his chest in that moment. What were your hands doing when you made your wedding vows? You know, don’t you? The inside doesn’t just come out but the outside makes its way in.

Consider what Paul is saying to Timothy. He’s reminding him of how he got there, the path he took to end up serving the Ephesian church. And it’s not just a call to remember for it’s own sake, and it’s not a command for Timothy to remember who he is in Christ and by the Spirit, but it’s a call to faithfulness in each of those. Paul is telling Timothy, “God placed you here through the ministry of his church. He equipped you for ministry to that church. Go be a faithful minister.”

Practice

The “practice these things”, only used elsewhere in Acts:

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus. Acts 4:24-26

We also find from related words that the concept captures the idea of “concerning yourself with something.”

The first command of v. 15, “practice” is the positive side of the command in v. 14, “do not neglect”. This suggests that Timothy’s role as teacher in Ephesus might be primarily in view. This is supported by the additional reference to “these things”.

Paul’s next command furthers this idea and it’s interestingly translated:

ESV, “immerse yourself in them”
NASB, “be absorbed in them”
NRSV, “devote yourself to them”
NIV, “give yourself wholly to them”
HCSB, “be committed to them”
NLT, “throw yourself into your tasks”

Literally, it’s “be in these things” which I kind of like. The translations already noted certainly give the correct impression but this literal rendering can emphasize other aspects that are important. First, similar to the ESV’s “immerse yourself”, “being in” something is a nice spatial metaphor of surrounding yourself with what’s important. I personally think that we don’t face any problems today that weren’t faced by people hundreds or thousands of years ago. As people we prefer the easy, convenient, and entertaining. The particular shape this problem takes in our own time and place is that of ability.

Humans have always been makers. In that way we are living out the image of God. Creating something, anything–a business, a pie, a painting, home–is reflecting God’s nature to the world. And all our creation extends our own agency, our own ability to accomplish what we intend. So where we find ourselves now is in a society that has optimized the easy, the convenient, and the entertaining. Which would be fine if we had infinite time, energy, and attention. Alas, we do not. Where ever we put our focus and energy we are necessarily using that focus and energy for something else. So this idea of “being in”, immersing yourself, or surrounding yourself is the language of value and priority. Be in, be close to those things that are actually important to you.

Secondly, there’s a sense of identity in this. We naturally identify with whatever it is that we do. When we introduce ourselves it’s very often as our profession, and that’s not really a bad thing. We talked just a couple of weeks ago about the interesting application of the title “our Savior” to God in the pastoral epistles whereas it’s more often attributed to Christ in the rest of the New Testament. We won’t rehash that now, but notice the connection between who God is for us and what he does for us. He is in his being our Savior because he in actuality saves us. Likewise, Timothy is surrounding himself in the work of the ministry, because he is himself a teacher and preacher.

In some ways this is painfully obvious. But we often miss the connection and its importance. What we choose to set our hands to do will unfailingly shape us. It shapes our identity whether intentionally or not, this is why Paul commands us in Col 3:17 to approach everything that we do, whether in word or deed, not as if doing it for the sake of Christ, but actually in the name of the Lord Jesus. Which means your job is never just your job but an opportunity to expand the kingdom. Not necessarily in the sense of evangelical opportunity for witness but simply in the act of doing it.

What we see here then is that these ideas of commitment and identity form a bracket with the Paul’s initial commands: “set an example”. And regardless of Timothy’s specific role in the Ephesian church this is perfectly consistent with Paul’s instructions about the qualifications for church leadership.

What progress is Paul talking about?

Notice the inherent assumption in Paul’s words. If Timothy is to live before the Ephesian church as an example so that they might see his progress that requires at least two things. Timothy is progressing or getting better which requires (1) he used to be worse, and (2) the church knows it. This serves to highlight something we are not often comfortable with: the necessity of vulnerability. Before we talk about this more I want to clarify the relationship of what I’m about to say to what Paul is saying. I don’t think Paul is primarily talking about the body of the church in general here. He’s speaking to Timothy and to Timothy’s specific situation which is to say Paul is speaking of the need for accountability and vulnerability in church leadership. Clearly this doesn’t only apply to leadership though in the same way that the qualifications for eldership are unique to elders.

With that understanding we need to recognize how essential vulnerability is to life. That’s life period. Not only life as a believer, although I think there is heightened importance for the believer.

Vulnerability is rare and precious.
Vulnerability implies relationship. This applies in multiple directions.
A relationship will only be as deep and meaningful as the vulnerability of its participants. We should be thinking of marriage here but also relationships with family and friends. In marriage we should see the replaying of the scene in the Garden of Eden as it should be. For the man and the woman to be naked and unashamed is quintessentially vulnerable and the original purpose of God.
Vulnerability implies relationship in the sense that it invites relationship.
You don’t need to be vulnerable with everybody, but if you’re not vulnerable with somebody you’re a target of the enemy and he’s not an enemy you can withstand.

There’s another aspect to this and that’s accountability. Consider the well-known passage from James:

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:13–16

Notice the concern of the passage in the question it asks. Are you suffering? Are you cheerful? Are you sick? The implied, have you sinned? And the point here is there’s an appropriate response for those especially for restoration to physical and spiritual suffering. The appropriate response for sin is confession. It is an integral part of the war on sin. And we should not forget that there’s not option to opt-out.

Vulnerability is the willingness to expose the sensitive portions of your heart and soul to another person. Accountability is the willingness to hear their response. The need for accountability for the Christian is the very reason why you must be discerning with whom you are vulnerable. It would be unwise to enter into deep vulnerability with the unwise. However, there are degrees to this and context matters.

Any time we confess sin we are placing ourselves in a position of vulnerability. And you may have noticed that you don’t only sin against people who are wiser than yourself. There have been not a few times that I’ve had to confess my sin to my kids because it was their forgiveness that I needed. I am certainly accountable to them for my parenting. But I also will not take their parenting advice.

There’s danger in situations like this too: sometimes in an attempt to be open or honest with their children parents are too vulnerable with them. In essence, looking to their children for emotional and spiritual validation. This is the exact opposite of what’s intended. Children are not yet fully formed people. Most of us don’t reach the place of knowing who we are and being settled in it until well into our 20s or even our 30s. Kids are just not there and it’s an abuse of the relationship to treat them as if they are.

The nature of sanctification is one of personal moral effort (Philippians 2) that in the Christian view requires a vulnerability and accountability to the community. This is what we see Paul exhorting Timothy toward. “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.” Accountability to the Ephesian elders is certainly part of this as implied by the recalling of the laying on of hands earlier. Paul also is pointing out Timothy’s responsibility to the Ephesian church at large. They are in need of orthodox teaching and the stakes are high.