"This
charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to
the prophecies which went before on thee, that by them
thou mayest war a good warfare" (1 Timothy
1:18).
"Fight
the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life
eternal, whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess
the good confession in the sight of many witnesses" (1
Timothy 6:12).
"Suffer
hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus"
(2 Timothy 2:3).
If I
were taking any one fragment from these two letters which
really could be the key to them I think it would be in
that eighteenth verse of the first chapter: "This
charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy... that thou
mayest war a good warfare".
I want
that our time shall be used to consider something - it
will only be a little - of the significance of these two
letters to Timothy.
First of all, may I say what you already
know, but perhaps it is as well to underline it,
that Timothy was a young man, and, I suppose,
amongst the robust, and what we in our modern language
call 'the tough', he was one of the weaker young men,
physically evidently, and by all that the Apostle has to
say to him in these letters, very much needing a
stimulant in body and in spirit.
But I remind you of the tremendous things
that the Apostle puts on his shoulders as a young man.
These two letters contain some of the greatest things
that could ever be committed to any man, whether he be
young or old, and therefore the Apostle is not just
accommodating everything to his youth. He is pulling the
young man up to a very high level, seeking to make him
realize that the grace and power of Christ can make a
young man a man of very real stature.
The idea exists that you must bring things
down to the natural measure of people, whereas we find in
the Word of God that the Lord is always seeking to bring
people up from their natural level to one very much
greater, whatever they may be naturally. Now here, as we
shall see, Timothy is not being spoken to as a poor, weak
little thing who does not count for much, but he is being
spoken to in such language as to make any man feel: 'My,
what a thing it is to be a servant of Christ! What a
tremendous thing!'
That is said because there are a number of
young people, some of whom have only recently come to the
Lord: but it is also said for the benefit of all, however
long we have been on the road. These letters are a
tremendous challenge to stature, to rising to a high
level, because the Lord calls to it.
Having said that, let us get into this
message. We are dealing with the significance of these
letters, not the detail. This is not an exposition of the
letters, verse by verse, or even of the parts, but what
they signify for us, and we have to begin with the writer
himself, the Apostle Paul.
You will know that when Paul wrote these
letters he did so from prison, the last imprisonment of
several. The second letter brings us right up to the
point where the executioner's sword is, so to speak, in
hand. The Apostle says: "I am already
being offered, and the time of my departure is come"
(2 Timothy 4:6). The end of his life is reached with
the second letter to Timothy. It is generally believed
that there was a space between the two. The first letter
was in the first part of his imprisonment in Rome, then
he was released for a little while, after which he was
re-arrested and condemned to death. Be that as it may,
the fact is that Paul now is at the end of his earthly
course, imprisoned, and in the second letter, almost
alone. That we shall see as we go further.
The thing about these last letters of the
Apostle Paul that is so impressive is that he is still in
the glow and fire of the fight. Whatever the situation
and conditions are, the fire is still aglow in his heart.
It is the fire of the fighter. Notice all these words
about soldiers and fighting the good fight; and apart
from those actual words and phrases, the two letters are
just full of the old fighting spirit of this heroic
Apostle. It has not faded out, by any means, and he is
seeking to stir up that glow and fire of conflict in the
heart of this young man.
What a debt the Church, through twenty
centuries, owes to that heroic, fighting spirit of the
Apostle, that never surrendered, never gave in, though
wounded, sometimes battered and broken, and bearing many
scars of the long drawn-out battle! He is not giving up
and not going down under. And, I say, the Church owes an
immense debt to that spirit - and that is the spirit that
will always put others in debt, under a great obligation.
If you and I, as so often we are tempted
to do, let up, let go, yield, surrender, feel it is no
use trying to go on, we shall not only lose out
ourselves, but probably deprive many of the Lord's people
of something that they would have if we just fought on to
the last breath.
The Time Factor
The time, and the time factor, is one of
the very significant things about these letters. You
probably know that Paul had left Timothy at Ephesus,
where he was in a position of responsibility in the
Church, and Ephesus was the key to Asia Minor. Through
Ephesus the word went out into all Asia Minor, and
Ephesus was the first of the seven churches of Asia
referred to in the beginning of the Book of the
Revelation. It is very important to remember those
factors, especially in reading these letters, because
they do throw a lot of light upon what is in these
letters. It was a very significant time.
You see, Paul was executed in the year
A.D. 68. John wrote the Book of the Revelation, with
those letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor, in the
year 96 so that the conditions that are revealed in the
churches in Asia in the Book of the Revelation have come
about in the twenty-eight years between Paul's execution
and John's writing of the Book of the Revelation - and
what conditions! You think of all that the Lord gave
through Paul to those seven churches in Asia, all the
pouring out on that man's part to and for those churches,
and those wonderful letters from his Roman prison to
Ephesus, Colossae and Thyatira, and all the others, for
they were circular letters to those churches. But if you
took one letter only, the letter - so-called - to the
Ephesians, which was a letter to the churches in Asia,
and all that is in that letter, such depth as you and I
with the longest life that we could live will never
fathom - all that, and in twenty-eight years it is
practically all gone! You read those letters to the
churches in Asia and then the beginning of the Book of
the Revelation. Twenty-eight years! You say: 'Tragedy!
That is terrible! A man could give all that, give himself
like that, they could receive all that, and then in
twenty-eight years the Lord have to write to those very
churches: "I have this against thee, and I have that
against thee, I know this and I know that." It is a
deplorable situation. Is it possible?' Well, you see,
that is the time factor, and it is a very significant
one.
Now the beginning, or beginnings, of that
condition found in the Book of the Revelation
twenty-eight years afterward are found in these letters
to Timothy. You will find in them the beginnings of that
slide downward, and in the attitude of the churches
toward the Apostle at the end of his life. What is their
attitude toward him, and toward his ministry? (Of course
- the man and his ministry are one.) Well, he says:
"All that are in Asia turned away from
me" (2 Timothy 1:15). That is comprehensive!
That is a change of attitude toward him and his ministry.
Then he speaks of some five men in particular who opposed
him and his teaching. There is Alexander the coppersmith,
of whom Paul says: "he did me much evil"
(2 Timothy 4:14). There are Hymenaeus and Philetus (2
Timothy 2:17) and Hermogenes and Phygelus (2 Timothy
1:15). Paul marks out these five men as being men who
opposed him and his ministry - "did me much
evil". That was their attitude, and apparently they
were influential men in the church. When Paul left
that church at Ephesus and met the elders, as he was
committing them to God, he said: "From among your
own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to
draw away the disciples after them" (Acts
20:30). Right inside there were those who were against
the ministry.
Then, almost as though it were with a sob,
Paul says: "Demas forsook me, having loved this
present world, and went to Thessalonica" (2
Tim. 4:9). Well, that is the tragedy of Demas. He
"went to Thessalonica". If you read the Letters
to the Thessalonians and the story of the Thessalonian
church, I think you will feel that poor Demas could not
have gone near the believers there. Those churches in
Thessalonica were most loyal and devoted to Paul, and
when Demas got there I do not think he would have been
very happy there. Paul says: "Demas forsook me"
... 'one and another have forsaken me' ... "Only
Luke is with me".
Here is a change, a big change of attitude
toward the man and his ministry to whom they owed so
much.
There is the evident need for Timothy to
be strengthened. "Thou therefore, my
child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus.... Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier"
- and the two letters are full of that sort of thing.
Timothy is having a hard time, perhaps because of this
change and because of his close association with the
Apostle, for Paul says to him: "Be not ashamed
therefore of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his
prisoner" (2 Timothy 1:8). You know, if someone
is a 'speckled bird', under a cloud of suspicion, people
who are not strong will avoid allowing other people to
know of their association with that one. They will hide
it all, and try to keep face by not letting it be known
that they are closely associated with that one under
suspicion. This is something that Timothy was evidently
having to face... "nor of me", says the
Apostle.
There is so much here with reference to
warfare, and to fighting, and all this indicates so
clearly that Timothy had to be strengthened, pulled
together, and enabled to stand on his own feet, for he
was in danger of weakening, letting go, because of the
influences of these strong men, Alexander the coppersmith
and the rest of them. Paul says: "Let no man
despise thy youth" (1 Timothy 4:12). You see
what Timothy was up against? He needed some help!
Behaviour In The House Of God
In the next place, the emphasis in these
letters, especially in the second one, is upon behaviour
in the House of God... "that thou mayest know how
men ought to behave themselves in the house of God" (1
Timothy 3:15), and then various things are gathered
around that. There are the elders, the deacons, and
matters concerning behaviour, position, office and
conduct in the house of God. Why all this? Because things
are beginning to go wrong. Evidently the whole situation
in the house of God needed tightening up, correcting,
strengthening, pulling together. If the letters signify
anything, they signify, as I have said, that the state
found in the letters to the churches in the Book of the
Revelation was commencing at the end of Paul's life, and
the decline would go on during the next twenty-eight
years. Paul was aware of what was beginning and how
things were going.
Because of the situation developing in the
churches, and the enemies within and without, we have
this repeated call to battle: "That thou mayest
war a good warfare... Fight the good fight of the
faith... A good soldier of Christ Jesus." There
is no place for sentimentalism in Christianity, nor for
smugness. The Church is not a recreation ground; it is a
training place for soldiers. It is an equipment place for
battle, and if there are wounded soldiers, it is a place
for healing them in order to get them back into the
fight. That is what these letters say about the Church.
It is not the place just to have a nice, happy, pleasant
time. We are in a terrible battle, and, mark you, this is
not something that ended in the year 96, when John wrote
the Apocalypse. This is the sort of thing we are in
today.
What, then, were the particular occasions
for this battle to which the Apostle calls Timothy?
The Battle In The Unseen
We must say here, as Paul said in his
letter to the Ephesians, that this is not with 'flesh and
blood', that is, it is not with man and not with things.
You notice, even when Paul speaks so strongly about
Alexander the coppersmith, he says: "Alexander
the coppersmith did me much evil; the Lord reward
him" (2 Timothy 4:14; AV). Paul might have come
out very vindictively and bitterly against that man. He
might really have drawn his sword, for Paul was capable
of using strong language if he wanted to. He did to the
Galatian detractors: "Let him be anathema" -
or 'let him be accursed' (Galatians 1:8). But
no - 'Alexander the coppersmith did me personally much
harm. The Lord will reward him. I will leave him in the
Lords hands.' And again Paul says: "I pray
God that it may not be laid to their charge" (2
Timothy 4:16; AV). He is not fighting with men. He is not
out against flesh and blood. This is a spiritual warfare,
and we must note that as we just pick out some of the
things which lay behind this appeal to rise up anew to
conflict.
(a) Against Lowering The Spiritual
Level
Quite obviously, there was to be a
strenuous determination and strong attitude against the
down-grading and lowering of the spiritual standard, of
spiritual life. It is always a peril of the spiritual
life of the Church - the declension, the decline, the
lowering of standard, the down-grading of things.
Sometimes it is said, in plausible language: 'Let us
return to the simple Gospel!' That is only another way of
saying: 'Let us not try to rise to such heights! Let us
be content with something easier, something more
pleasant!'
Now, you see, alongside that, the Apostle
says: "For the time will come when they will not
endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will
heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts" (2
Timothy 4:3). That is: 'Oh, say nice, pleasant things
to us; soothe us in your way of speech; remove the
irritation of this constant appeal to something higher
and greater. Modify; lower.' That, you see, was the thing
that landed those seven churches into that awful reproach
of the Lord twenty-eight years later. What the Apostle is
in effect saying is: 'Look here, Timothy, have none of
that. Gird yourself! The warfare is not with flesh and
blood. It is against this terrible peril and tendency to
down-grade the spiritual life, to take a lower level.
Have none of it', he is saying, 'maintain your high
standard to which you were called.'
(b) Against Loss Of Spiritual Measure
Next: 'Watch against the sacrifice and
forfeiting or letting slip of the fullness which has been
made known to you, which has been revealed, to which you
have been called.' There is no doubt about it, the
Apostle Paul did to all his converts - churches and
fellow workers - present the FULLNESS of the
divine calling in Christ, which is VERY full and
very great.
Here the tendency has begun to sacrifice,
to forfeit some of that measure, to let it slip away, and
so he says: "Fight the good fight of the
faith". And what the faith was to the Apostle
Paul - well, you need to read all his letters to find
that out. The faith was something very great, very full.
The peril which is ever present, as much today as ever,
is to let go something, to sacrifice something, to
forfeit something of the great fullness of Christ to
which we were called.
(c) Against Formality
Next: Against the supplanting of
spirituality and life by mere form and ritual and
officialdom.
Does it not seem perfectly clear, when
Paul here has so much to say about elders and what they
ought to be, the kind of people they ought to be, their
abilities, their capacities, their standard of life and
their gifts, and what he says, moreover, about the
deacons, who are the servants of the church in the
general matters - he says quite a lot about them, their
standard of life and the kind of men they should be - and
of other matters which go to make up the life of the
Lord's people together - their corporate life - that it
can be taken for granted that he was calling back from
something? And what was it? From mere officialdom. Elders
becoming officials, deacons becoming officials, perhaps
desiring office and prestige more than sacrificial
service. He is seeking to arrest a course which is
letting go life and real spirituality in all these
matters and allowing just form to settle down in their
place. What Paul means, if we read him aright, is this:
An elder is not just an official. He is
not just put into a position because he is a man of
intellect or of means, or of social standing, or popular.
The danger is to make men officials on those grounds.
They have public position, they have money, they are
something amongst men, and therefore you put them into
office. Paul is saying 'NO! An elder is a spiritual man,
or he is nothing. These things must be safeguarded by
spirituality and not allowed to drift into something
else.' It is the same with the others who have position.
The Church is not just an organized thing with a set
form. The Church is a spiritual body, a living expression
of the Lord Jesus, or it is nothing.
I would like to put in there quite a lot
about the New Testament Church. You know, there is a lot
being said and written about New Testament churches. I
wonder what they are! That is not just a joke! For over
fifty years I have been studying this matter, and today I
have to say: 'I wonder what a New Testament church is!'
We really do not know all that happened in the New
Testament churches. There are certain things, of course,
which are basic and which must obtain, but what I am
saying is this: The thing then was a SPIRITUAL matter,
not a formal ritual, a set way of going on.
The Apostle implies that everything is
degenerating fast into formalism, legalism, officialism.
'Oh, Timothy, stand against that! Fight this thing. Fight
for spirituality: fight for life... "Lay hold
on life eternal, whereunto thou wast
called"'.
(d) Against The Loss Of Spiritual
Fervour
Then, further, the conflict against the
loss of this glow, this fire, this dignity that is the
true character of the Lord's people and the Lord's
servants. Here Paul says: 'Stir up the gift that is in
thee', and the thought there is: 'Stir the fire, get the
fire aglow again. Things are fading out, things are
dying, the glow is going', and you know that when it
becomes merely a form the glow has gone. Is that not
true? You go through a form, but there is no glow in it,
no fire. It has lost that element that speaks of what is
great, what is grand, what is fine, and what we have
called dignity. How much these letters of Paul to Timothy
stress the necessity for there being about him a dignity,
a high standard, something that is infectious. 'Stir
up... stir up... fight against the loss of spiritual
glow.' In another letter he has actually used those words
in the original. Our translation is: "Fervent in
spirit; serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11), which
is a good one, but the original says: 'Maintaining the
spiritual glow'. I think it is Moffat that gives us that
translation. That is what Paul is saying to Timothy -
'Stir up! Don't lose the fire; don't lose the glow.
Resist everything that would have that tendency.'
(e) Against Loss Of
Responsibility
Finally, the fight against the loss of a
sense of vocation and responsibility. That, of course,
comes in when Paul says: "That good thing which
was committed unto thee guard" (2 Timothy
1:14). Again I think it is Moffat who translates that
more accurately: 'The trust with which you have been
entrusted' ... 'That trust, which, being committed to
you, guard against this loss of a sense of vocation!'
This is a word for every one of us. The
youngest to the oldest should have this strong, deep
sense of vocation, of responsibility. It is not optional
at all, whether we like it or do not like it, whether it
pleases us or does not please us. There is no option
about this: it is obligation. It is responsibility. It is
a trust that has been put into our hands. Drawing from
Ezra, you will remember that when they started out on
that long trek back to rebuild the city, they took the
treasure, the gold and the silver, from Babylon, and they
had to deposit it in Jerusalem, safe, intact and without
any loss - and they did. They called upon the Lord for
safeguards in order that they should get it through, and
at last, we are told, they brought it and delivered it in
the house of the Lord. There was nothing lost by the
way. It was a deposit, a trust.
Dear friends, you and I have been
entrusted with the testimony of Jesus in fullness,
entrusted with a great revelation of Christ. It has been
committed to us. Christianity has become, and is, I am
afraid, becoming more and more generally a matter of
whether you like it or not, something that you like, that
pleases you. No, here is a challenge which says: 'Look
here, if it costs you everything, even your very life,
you have got to see that there is nothing lost.' It is
not a case of whether it pleases you, of your having a
good, happy time, but whether, through every adversity,
you are determined to land this treasure intact at last
at the feet of the Master and say: 'Here you are, Lord.
Here is that which is Thine. Nothing is lost. You gave. I
return.' To use the Lord's parable of the talents, the
return is with interest, with increase.
Go back to these letters and you see that
all this call and challenge to Timothy, as a
representative member of the Church, is that there shall
be no loss whatever of a sense of vocation, of a high and
holy calling, of real responsibility - 'I am a
RESPONSIBLE member of Christ, of His House, of His
Church. I am not a passenger, not just someone to be
carried and fed, but someone taking responsibility, with
a sense of trust.' There has been given to each one of us
a deposit by Jesus Christ, and at the end He will look to
see what we have done with it.
Now, you see, this is the significance of
these letters, and I think you will agree that all this
is familiar to us today, this tendency to lower, to
deteriorate, to decline, to lose something. It is a real
battle, is it not, to maintain the high standard, to keep
things on a high level, to maintain spiritual fullness.
There are the pressures, the discouragements, the
heartbreaks, the treacherous Christians; there is
Alexander the coppersmith.
So, to
end where we began, we note that the conflict is from the
beginning to the end. Paul's life, from conversion to
execution, was marked by conflict, and there was
no let-up at the end. If the testimony of Jesus is truly
and deeply bound up with a life or a people, it is only
logical that the forces of evil will not abandon their
antagonism to what is predestined to be their doom, and
anyone or any company called into that destiny will be
marked for that antagonism. The warfare, therefore, will
continue as long as we "Stand, withstand, and,
having done all, stand".
The Lord
help us so to do!
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec 1965, Vol. 43-6.