1 Timothy 4.16-5.2-Paul Addresses Timothy's Proper Conduct With Respect To Himself And Older And Younger Men And Women In The Christian Community
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday July 24, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 4:16-5:2-Paul Addresses Timothy’s Proper Conduct With Respect To Himself And Older And Younger Men And Women In The Christian Community
Lesson # 96
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4:16.
The apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 4:16 issues Timothy two commands that address his personal walk with God and the function of his spiritual gift.
1 Timothy 4:16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. (NASU)
“Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching” is used with respect to Timothy’s personal conduct and character as well as his teaching.
Thus, Paul is commanding Timothy “to pay attention” to himself in the sense that he is manifest Christ-like character and exemplify godliness or the way of godly living.
He is to stay in fellowship by appropriating by faith his union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session.
This will result in obedience to the commands and prohibitions that Paul issued Timothy in this epistle and that are found throughout the Word of God.
Timothy is also to pay attention to himself by keeping short accounts with God by confessing his sins immediately so as to be restored to fellowship, and which fellowship is maintained by obedience to the Word of God, i.e. the gospel, which is the direct result of exercising faith in the Word of God, i.e. the gospel.
Paul is also commanding Timothy to pay attention to what he taught the Ephesian Christian community.
He was to pay attention to the content of his teaching in the sense that it was to strictly adhere to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles which would of course specifically refer to adhering strictly to Paul’s apostolic teaching.
Paul’s statements in 1 Timothy 1:3 and 4:6 imply that Timothy was carrying out everything he wrote in this epistle including this command here in 1 Timothy 4:16.
“Persevere in these things” indicates that Paul is commanding him to persevere in exemplifying godliness by paying attention to himself, i.e. his conduct and character.
It also indicates that he is commanding his young delegate to persevere in teaching sound doctrine by paying attention to the content of his teaching.
“For as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you” is a causal clause that presents the reason for the previous command and teaches that by obeying the previous command Timothy would enable himself to experience his salvation.
This causal clause also refers to those who adhere to Timothy’s teaching experiencing their deliverance from sin and Satan as well.
They will experience this deliverance if Timothy obeys the second command in 1 Timothy 4:16 to continue making it his habit of persevering in teaching sound doctrine.
The verb akouo means “to obey” and refers to those who are responsive hearers thus it denotes a Christian who obeys the gospel.
The word does not merely refer to hearing the gospel but to responding to it with obedience.
Further indicating this is that the Christian does not experience his deliverance over sin and Satan by simply hearing the gospel but by hearing and obeying it.
Paul is speaking with reference to Christians who obey his teaching and not those who are unsaved obeying the gospel to get saved since in context he is addressing Timothy’s conduct with respect to the Ephesian Christian community.
In 1 Timothy 5:1, Paul instructs his young delegate Timothy as to how to conduct himself with regards to both older and younger men.
1 Timothy 5:1 Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers. (NASU)
“Do not sharply rebuke an older man” denies any idea of Timothy sharply reprimanding an older man in the Christian community.
In Paul’s day, an “older” man was someone who had reached his forties or was forty-six years of age or older.
Paul’s statements in 1 Timothy 1:3 and 4:6 imply that Timothy was carrying out everything he wrote in this epistle including this prohibition.
Thus, the prohibition here in 1 Timothy 5:1 is simply a reminder to Timothy to continue doing what they talked about before Paul left for Macedonia.
Furthermore, Paul would not have delegated Timothy such a difficult task as the one in Ephesus unless he felt confident that his young delegate could carry out everything he required of him.
“But rather appeal to him as a father” is presenting an emphatic contrast with Timothy severely reprimanding an older Christian man and that of his treating older Christian men as if they were his father, with all honor and respect.
Paul wants Timothy to appeal to the older Christian men when they are conducting themselves in an ungodly fashion in the sense of bringing to their attention that such behavior is wrong but doing so by treating them with honor and respect so as to illicit a positive response to such an appeal.
“To the younger men as brothers” refers to Christian men who have not reached the age of forty or forty-six which marked an older man.
It is not referring to men younger than Timothy but those who were younger in comparison to those who were considered older by Graeco-Roman and Jewish society.
Paul wants Timothy to treat younger Christian men as his peers and not as inferiors.
This however, does not diminish his authority as a pastor or as Paul’s delegate to the Ephesian Christian community.
The apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 5:2 continues his thought from 1 Timothy 5:1 by addressing Timothy’s proper conduct with respect to older and younger women in the Christian community in Ephesus.
1 Timothy 5:2 the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity. (NASU)
“The older women as mothers” denotes Timothy asking earnestly older Christian women to abandon ungodly behavior in contrast to severely reprimanding them for this behavior.
It denotes therefore, that when the need arises, Timothy asking earnestly older Christian women to abandon ungodly behavior in contrast to severely reprimanding them.
It denotes that he is to ask earnestly younger Christian women to abandon ungodly behavior in contrast to severely reprimanding them.
He is to “appeal” to older Christian women as if they were his own mother and younger Christian women as if they were his sisters.
When the need arises, Timothy is to appeal to the older and younger Christian women when they are conducting themselves in an ungodly fashion in the sense of bringing to their attention that such behavior is wrong but doing so by treating them with honor and respect so as to illicit a positive response to such an appeal.
Paul’s statements in 1 Timothy 1:3 and 4:6 imply that Timothy was carrying out everything he wrote in this epistle including this command in 1 Timothy 5:2.
Thus, this command here in 1 Timothy 5:2 is simply a reminder to Timothy to continue doing what they talked about before Paul left for Macedonia.
Furthermore, Paul would not have delegated Timothy such a difficult task as the one in Ephesus unless he felt confident that his young delegate could carry out everything he required of him.
Therefore, the command is simply a reminder to Timothy to continue doing what Paul told him to do before he left for Macedonia.
“And the younger women as sisters” is referring to Christian women who have not yet reached the age of forty or forty-six, which marked an older women.
It is not referring to women younger than Timothy but those who were younger in comparison to those who were considered older by Graeco-Roman and Jewish society.
He was to treat them as if they were his own biological sisters.
The idea behind the word is that Timothy is to treat younger Christian women as his peers and not as inferiors.
This however, does not diminish his authority as a pastor or as Paul’s delegate to the Ephesian Christian community.
“In all purity” refers to Timothy conforming his behavior to the holy standards of the gospel with regards to women in the Ephesian Christian community.
It refers to conforming one’s behavior to the holy standards of the gospel with regards to sexual behavior.
It denotes that sexual purity was the manner in which Timothy was to conduct himself with respect to younger Christian women.
Paul wants Timothy to perfectly embody sexual purity with respect to younger Christian women.