What Am I Supposed to be Doing?
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Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a privilege to share the Word of God with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church and praise His name together.
A few weeks ago, on Sunday Evening, we took a look at what is called moral proximity. We were looking at the reality that Christians are called to love their neighbors. Such love requires sacrifice, care, time, effort and energy. We truly are to go out our ways to show love to other people. Through the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus explains that our neighbor is anyone in our proximity with whom we can share God’s love. Our neighbor is not just the person who lives next door. Our neighbor are not just the folks who look like us. So when we understand the scope of neighbor extends far beyond just across the street, we see that we are to show love to everyone. If we as a church seek to “compassionately serve at the point of need”, and from there realize that anyone and everyone is our neighbor, that can leave us feeling a great burden because there are so many hurting people in this world. Where do we begin with our help?
If we compassionately serve at the point of need and everyone has needs, how are we possibly going to do it all? The natural reaction to this great weight can take two forms. We are tempted to either burn ourselves out and stretch ourselves so thin that we wither away in exhaustion, OR we see there are simply too many needs in the world so we ignore them all to focus solely on our own problems. Neither of these are spiritually appropriate nor healthy responses. To combat this temptation we looked at the idea of Moral Proximity. That is that God has designed us to have a greater responsibilities towards those He has placed in closest relationship to us. This concept is seen in Scripture in the responsibilities given to Israel, they were give particular care to their families, then clans, then tribe, then national Israel, and then strangers and outsiders. It’s seen in the New Testament particularly in how in how we are strictly commanded to take care of our families, but we MAY share financial resources with other churches. If you missed that Sunday evening, but want to learn more about Moral Proximity and Christian Ethics, reach out to me or Troy and we can send you a link to our discussion that evening.
But the reason I bring up this concept of Moral Proximity this morning, is because it is a helpful way for us to process some of what we should actually be doing to steward our lives for the glory of God.
If I were to ask random people on the street what they thought Christians should be doing with their lives, I would get a wide range of responses.
Many expect Christians to be actively involved in charitable activities, community service, and outreach efforts, demonstrating love and compassion towards others.
In today's world, there is a growing expectation for Christians to be involved in social justice issues, advocating for the marginalized, oppressed, and disadvantaged.
There may be an expectation for Christians to demonstrate personal transformation and growth, striving to become better individuals through their faith.
In many cases, people expect Christians to stay out of their business!
If we aren’t careful, we can be sucked into the world’s expectations and be tossed to and fro by the winds of human cunningness and morph living out our faith into something that is incongruent with the Bible’s presentation of living the Christian life. We get caught up in this burdensome, guilt-laced legalism.
So with the understanding that God has called us to steward our lives for His glory, knowing the crazy expectations that the World has on us, while also understanding that we are a finite, limited creature, we have to ask ourselves, “What are we actually supposed to be doing in this life as Christians?”
Kevin DeYoung said, “If we need 50 hours in every day to be obedient, we’re saying more than the Bible says.”
So let’s see this morning what the Bible says we actually ought to be doing to live our lives for the glory of the Lord.
If you have not already, open your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4. Today we are going to pick up in verse 6. If you weren’t with us last week, we walked through the first 5 verses of Chapter 4 and discussed how it is the present reality that people will leave the faith. What is particularly interesting for our topic this morning, is that the folks in Ephesus whom Paul was warning Timothy about were leaving the Christian faith because they had greater faith in their own legalism than in Jesus Christ. They were listening to teachers who taught people could obtain their righteousness through following a specific diet and refusing marriage. Both of these are rejecting the good things that God has created for human flourishing and His own glory.
Where we are picking up this morning, Paul is reiterating to Timothy what kind of teaching should be brought before the church. For our practical application, this both shows what I and any one else teaching within the church should be presenting to the congregation, but it also shows us what we as members of the congregation should be receiving. All of this will help us answer the question, What am I supposed to be doing?
Let’s begin in 1 Timothy 4:6
6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.
Now, first we must remember that no verse of the Bible comes to us in a vacuum. This verse is part of the greater context of the whole letter of 1 Timothy. When Paul writes, “if you put THESE THINGS,” the “things” are the truth of Scripture as compared to the extrabiblical restrictions the false teachers had been presenting to the Congregation. People started throwing out specific dietary restrictions, Paul appeals to the creation account to show that God’s gifts are good. People try to restrict marriage, Paul appeals again to creation to show that God designed marriage for good purposes.
Paul is telling Timothy, as the presenter, the minister of the Word of God in the church, set the table with God’s Word.
Have you ever seen the show, “Is It Cake?” It is just incredible what they can do with some flour and frosting these days! They have these hyperrealistic artists create objects or even other foods completely out of cake. They’ll take a cake made to look like a cheeseburger, place it beside 4 real cheeseburgers, and then contestants have to try to guess just by looking, which one is the cake. After the guesses are in, the host will walk by with a butcher nice and take a big slice out of the burger that is actually a cake. The people are always shocked and amazed and sometimes stumped by how they could have been duped into thinking a real item was a cake or vice versa.
Now all of that makes a fun television show to have on in the background while you take your Sunday afternoon nap. But if we were to consistently have our real food swapped out for cake, eventually we’d be really unhealthy!
When someone comes into the church and starts preaching legalism, at first it can look a whole lot like the teaching we’re accustomed to, so we let it stick around. Eventually we may cut in and see that its not what we thought it to be, but we may even enjoy it, I mean who doesn’t like cake! But eventually, the sugar will rot away our teeth and wits.
A good pastor, a God-honoring minister, will not intentionally spoil the congregation with false teaching that is palatable to the eyes, but of no spiritual value. Instead the good Pastor provides the church with the nourishing Word of God! A Word that he too is consuming!
Reread verse 6: 1 Timothy 4:6 “6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.” The verb “being trained” is singular. Paul is talking to Timothy and saying as you are trained up in the Word, you will be able to present the Word to the congregation, and it is a dedication to God’s Word that makes you a good servant of Christ Jesus.
Church, while this guidance is certainly given to Timothy and by extension all those in pastoral ministry, this is simply excellent advice for all who have faith in Christ as Lord.
To be trained in the words of the faith, means to be brought up in, the greek root of the word is “to eat”. Good pastors are consistently consuming the Word of God, but thankfully, that feast is not limited to just pastors! The Bible is a buffet of benefit set at the table of God’s grace, and the invitation to the meal is open to all!
I cannot recommend to the church enough, the importance of being in the Word consistently. If you are not currently following a Bible Reading Plan, come find me after the service. We can pick one out together. It is crucial that we are all training in the Word consistently.
1 Peter 2:2 “2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—”
Matthew 4:4 “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ””
2 Timothy 3:16 “16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”
Time and time again throughout the pages of Scripture, we are reminded of it’s value, it’s worth, and the sustenance it gives to God’s people. May we all seek to be consuming and training in the Word of God. Not so that we may become the World’s loftiest theologian, but so that we can regularly live out it’s truth and goodness. I can tell you this with full certainty: Living to honor God in accordance with His Word will release you from burden and guilt while inspiring you to do good for the glory of God. God’s Word is good. It is good to ring out from the pulpit. It is good to be repeated on the podcast. It is good to start our day. It is good to finish our evenings. It is good to be saturated in the Word of God.
Let’s look at the alternative in the next verse from 1 Timothy 4:
7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;
The good pastor and the faithful follower of Christ saturates their daily diet with God’s Word, and is now told to have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.
In a rather scathing tone, Paul is plainly cutting down false teaching. As we’ve seen throughout the letter of 1 Timothy, these teachers were caught up in a whole bunch of extrabiblical nonsense. They were listening to crazy stories built upon fanciful and symbolic interpretations of ancient genealogies. Paul calls these things irreverent and silly.
They are irreverent because they are opposed to God’s Word and treat it as something lesser than it ought to be. God’s Word needs no addition, no supplement. Sure, we can use a good commentary in our studies, but the commentary is only supposed to help us better see what is in the text, not add to it. God’s Word doesn’t need us to make it into something that it isn’t. Not only is in unnecessary, its actively working against God. The book of Revelation ends with a warning that anyone who adds to words of prophecy book, God will add plagues to him and if anyone takes away from the words of this book, God will take away his share in the tree of life and the holy city. Now that statement is directly referring to the Book of Revelation, but the wording implies that all Scripture should be guarded as sacred, and never tampered with.
Early, we mentioned the narrative of creation, think for just a moment about the narrative of the fall. In the exchange between Eve and the ancient serpent, Eve adds to the word of God by saying they weren’t allowed to even touch the fruit. Then the serpent takes away from the Word of God by saying they surely will not die. Then from this exchange would be the Fall of man, a curse indeed for all parties involved. We must not attempt to make God’s Word anything less than it is, nor should we speak beyond where it speaks.
We don’t think about this often enough but mishandling the Word of God is irreverent! If we are to submit to God through obedience to His Word, then twisting His Word into something more palatable to our fancies is a great offense to God! When we add or take away from God’s Word, we are in all practicality saying that He obeys us!
That is why we seek to affirm everything we do by the Word of God. Rightly handling and applying God’s Word is a sign of reverence. It says God, I respect who You are and know that Your ways are higher and better than anything I could come up with on my own. It’s also why I’m not overly concerned with trying to squeeze everything we say into a particular theological label. I prefer to dive into a text and get to the heart of what God is saying in it. Highlight what God has emphasized, and support with the whole of God’s Word.
We are warned here to have nothing to do with such an irreverent handling of Scripture, but then were also told to reject “silly myths.” A more literal translation of this would be reject, “old wive’s tales”. Now I know there can be lots of tidbits of knowledge passed through the ages. But there can also be a lot of foolishness. We’ve all heard sitting to close to the TV will cause you to go blind. Some research has been done on the topic and while watching TV for too long or staring at a screen in general has some negative effects, long term blindness is not one of them. Now, don’t get me wrong here. I don’t really care if you want to [put an onion in your socks or under your bed every time your sick because your grandma said it sucked the sickness away.] We just cant be preaching that stuff like its the gospel! In fact, this is a bit of a rabbit trail, but I’ve heard a lot more people talk about their homebrew cure for COVID than I have heard them talk about the Bible given cure for sin, and that’s a shame! I want you take all the vitamin D and zinc you want to, but I’m more more worried about your eternal condition!
Church, may we not get caught up in silly stories, wives tales, and godless myth. “Rather, train yourself for godliness.” v 7.
Let’s talk about Godliness for a moment because a clear picture on godliness gives us a clear picture on what we are supposed to be doing as Christians. Godliness is used nine times in the letter of 1 Timothy. I like the way that R Kent Hughes describes godliness, “For Paul godliness is no static, stained-glass word. It is active—kinetic obedience that springs from a reverent awe of God. It is the Isaiah-like action that has a man, awestruck by God, rise from his face saying, ‘Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Awe—then action! Godliness is not piety as we generally think of it—upturned eyes and folded hands. Godliness cannot be cloistered. The godly among us are those people whose reverent worship of God flows into obedience throughout the week. Only God-struck doers of the Word can rightly be termed godly.” As we learned when we looked at the end of chapter 3, Godliness is rooted in awestruck appreciate and affection of Jesus Christ. When we see what He did to save sinners like us, we are compelled out of love not obligation to do what He commanded us to do.
This morning I have told us that we should all leave here today participating in some form of Bible reading plan. I say that not so that we earn our good points by checking off a daily reading goal, but rather because the Bible contains the Word of Christ that show us who He is, why He’s worthy to served, and what He wants from us in this life! If you are struck in awe of your Savior, then feast with joy on His Word! That is where you will be trained for godliness!
And it is important to be trained! Look at verse 8:
8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
We can all recognize, at least intellectually, the importance of physical fitness. While I have been out of my regular workout routine recently, I implicitly know that there is value in training the body. You can read study after study about the positive benefits of physical training.
In verse 8, Paul is saying training of the body certainly has some value. He’s not saying that we should all give no consideration to physical health at all but rather is saying that while physical health has some benefit, our spiritual health is even more important! Its even more important than physical fitness because it has benefits for right now and in the life to come! This body is gonna fade away. My physical fitness may extend my life to some degree, but it will have zero effect on my glorified body in the world to come.
It is good to have a disciplined approach to our spiritual life! It is good to strive to grow in knowledge of the Word of Truth. It is good to schedule time in your day to have focussed and intentional prayer time. It is good to use a model to guide your prayer and ensure you are adoring God, confessing sin, giving Thanks, and making supplication. It is good to spend your free time memorizing Scripture. It is good to learn evangelistic techniques and practice sharing them with friends and family.
If I could point out a problem I see in American Christianity it is that we are either so intense in our discipline that we drift into legalism or that we are so convinced that God’s grace is so cheap that we have no regard for discipline at all, that is antinomianism. True godliness stands in the middle and says, “by the grace of God I have been redeemed and thus I will seek to follow the Lord to the best of my abilities. When I am successful in my efforts, to God be the glory. When I fail, I praise God for His grace.”
Church, there is a way to put forth genuine effort birthed by joyous affection for the Lord, that does not have to result in legalistic paranoia.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:10 “10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
The antinomian says, I can do anything and God will still love me. The Legalist says I am afraid if I don’t do everything God won’t love me. The godly Christian says I work hard at pursuing righteousness BECAUSE God loves me.
If you know Jesus Christ as Lord and desire to follow Him than you have experienced the deep immeasurable grace of God. Like Paul we are to respond with effort, not to keep God’s grace, but because we have received it! Such effort has genuine benefits here and in eternity!
In the here and now you are equipped to live your life for the glory of God! You will have greater discernment when situations arise and decisions are made. You will forge deep relationships with other believers. You will grow in knowledge and recall the beautiful truths of Scripture in times of need. You will be able to pray with folks at their moment of desperation. There are countless benefits to being disciplined in our lives now, and even more so in the life to come. I may not be able to be as specific here, but the Word tells us that we lay up treasures in heaven. I can’t tell you everything its gonna be, but I know that those who know the Lord will receive the inheritance as their reward and it’s gonna be good. Better than anything I could begin to postulate on. Paul really wants us to know this too. Look at verse 9
9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.
This is that phrase we’ve seen repeated a few times throughout 1 Timothy. He said in 1:15 speaking of the salvific mission of Christ. Again in 3:1 talking about the good desire to lead the church. And here in 4:9 most interpreters agree that Paul is using it to reiterate the truth that training in godliness is good and beneficial in this life and the next.
That means that we can take it to the bank. Maybe you thought that Christian discipline didn’t matter. Today is your wake up call! We glorify God with how we steward our lives! Be joyously disciplined! Dive in to His Word. You will not be disappointed! This is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.
Now we come to our final verse that helps us see what we ought to be doing in our lives as Christians.
1 Timothy 4:10
10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
In the theological world, this is a hotly contested verse. I am going to do my best to break it down for us all in congruence with the whole of God’s Word. I’d like to first break down the theological debate and then conclude with two practical applications from this verse.
The theological debate circles around what is known as universalism. Some believe that that because this verse says that God is the Savior of all people, that all people are saved. Further does that mean that if all people are not saved that this verse is lying? Are believers saved in some special way, while everyone else is saved in some different manner?
In light of the whole testament of Scripture, this verse cannot be suggestion universalism. In Paul’s other letter to the Thessalonians he tells them that they turned from idols to serve the Living God and have been delivered from the wrath to come. Also, in just last week’s sermon we learned of the great danger in Apostasy, if everyone is unilaterally saved regardless of belief, then it would make no sense to care about apostasy. No, 1 Timothy 4:10 is not presenting universalism. It is important to know that “all people” “anthropos” can refer to mankind in general, referring to every tribe, nation, and tongue. And also the word “especially” is also translated “namely” or particularly. We can then read the end of this verse as saying God is the Savior of all types of people, specifically those people who believe in Him through faith in Christ Jesus. God saves believers. This is a humbling, glorious, and gracious truth. A truth that has direct impact on the applications of this verse.
Let me quickly walk through the two fold application:
We are to toil and strive. The Christian life rests salvation in the arms of the Savior, but it is not an idle life. Church, we can get to work for the glory of God! What are we toiling and striving to do? Share the good news of Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world in desperate need of salvation. Christ died on the cross to pay the cost of the sins of everyone who so ever would believe in Him. He has called us to share this truth with the rest of the world so that others may come to know Him and like the church in Thessalonica, turn from their idols to the Living God and be spared from the wrath to come.
We live with Hope. We know because Christ rose from dead the promises of God are true. Though our lives on this side of glory may not always be easy, any efforts put forth in good faith and godliness are not done in vain. Our God is alive, the tomb is empty, we serve a risen Savior. Because He lives, we can face tomorrow. Because He lives all fear is gone. Because I know He hold the future, this life is worth the living just because He lives.
Jesus Christ lives! He lived, He died, He rose again, and He did so to save sinners like you and me from an eternity of wrath rightly deserved by our own sin. By God’s grace through faith in Christ we are reconciled to God and given these lives to steward for His glory. Do you know Christ as your Savior? If you never have before but are beginning to today, make that known by coming forward during this next hymn of response.
And dear Christian, what are we supposed to be doing with our lives?We are to train up in godliness with joyous discipline. Setting our minds on the things that are above and living out the truth of God’sWord. May we take this seriously, reverentially, and joyously as we live in response to the grace that we have received.
Let’s pray.
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