After I got out of the Navy at the end of 1976, I worked at a gas station for several months. I didn't have any training as a mechanic, so my duty was to pump gas, check oil and wash windows (there weren't many self-serve stations yet, so those things were expected as part of the deal). One day I was filling a man's tank and I saw on his bumper a sticker that said, "Read Your Bible." I was hoping for a few minutes of fellowship while the pump was running, so I asked him, "are you a Christian?" And he jumped, turned, and said (very aggressively), "yes... why?" I was so startled by the harshness of his response that I just muttered something and walked away. I think he was startled too; he thought I was ready to pounce on him for identifying himself as a Christian and he wanted to be ready to fight back, if necessary.
I thought about that man after he drove away. Why did he react the way he did? And if he was so easily threatened, why did he put that bumper sticker on his car? I suspect he struggled with the very thing Paul has been warning Timothy about since verse 8: "Do not be ashamed of the gospel." He didn't want to be ashamed, so he hoped that sticker would provide him with opportunities to speak openly to the world. But his basic outlook was still one of huddled defensiveness. It's easy, in a world that rejects the gospel, to slip into a defensive mentality.
We saw, earlier in chapter one, that Timothy is in danger of becoming ashamed of the gospel. That's why Paul is putting so much emphasis on this in these verses. Timothy, by nature, tended to be reserved; he seems to have been easily intimidated. And, as a minister of the gospel in the Roman empire, there's good reason why he might be nervous and defensive. In a world that worships power and success, Timothy's mentor is wasting away in prison and His Lord had died in apparent powerlessness and defeat.
So Paul tells Timothy, "don't be intimidated." The value of the gospel can't be measured by the priorities of this world. Those who rejected Jesus will also reject us when we speak in His name. Those who value power and wealth and status will see the gospel as foolishness (or they'll try to twist it into something more consistent with what they want). Paul is saying, "don't be ashamed of this seemingly foolish message, and don't be ashamed of your association with me, a prisoner for the Lord – an apparent failure; be faithful in exercising your spiritual gifts in Jesus' name, and join with me in suffering for the gospel." That's the main thing Paul is saying in this chapter.
The danger is not only that Timothy will feel personally intimidated or that he will react defensively when someone asks him a question. The danger is that, if he gives in to the temptation of shame, Timothy will begin tampering with the message. He'll try to adapt it into something more respectable, something less at-odds with the mentality of the surrounding culture. This is what Paul is thinking of when he writes to the Galatians: "It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised – only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ" (6:12). He's saying that the false teachers are motivated by their shame of the gospel, so they've distorted the message. They've turned it into something more respectable, less at-odds with their society.
So Paul urges Timothy, in verse 13: "Hold to the standard of sound teaching," and in verse 14: "Guard the good treasure entrusted to you." Timothy is a steward. He's been entrusted with something that doesn't belong to him. This deposit, or treasure, that Timothy's been entrusted with includes two things: the content of truth, and the gospel lifestyle rooted in the truth. Paul has both of these things in mind when he urges Timothy, "guard the good treasure." We need to keep these things together, because there's a strong temptation to separate them. On the one hand, there's the anti-theology approach: "I'm not interested in all that stuff; just tell me what I need to do to get to heaven. I don't care about creeds, or the teachings of the Church; I've accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior and that's all that matters." But the other extreme is no better. It sees Christianity as an interesting collection of ideas to think and talk about. Several years ago, I read a very good book on the theology of Paul, and on the dust jacket there was a comment from a prominent New Testament scholar saying "these things need to be thoroughly discussed." Well, yes, there's a place for sitting down and discussing ideas, but if those ideas are true we need to do a great deal more than talk about them. One day we're going to stand in God's presence, and He's not going to ask whether we thoroughly discussed all the ideas He gave us. He's going to ask, "how is it that you knew all these things and didn't put them into practice?"
The good deposit that Timothy is to guard is not only a collection of ideas. It's not only a body of doctrine. It is that, but this body of doctrine is not given just to inform us intellectually. Paul makes this clear by two phrases he adds in verses 13 and 14: "Hold to the standard of sound teaching... in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus" (v. 13); and "Guard the good treasure... with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us" (v. 14). Paul is talking about the body of truth that he taught in the Church and the way of life he both modeled and taught. I used to work in the home office of a mission organization. The business manager was a man who'd been trained at Wharton; he'd spent most of his adult life in the business world, then he had joined this mission. He was very conservative theologically; he was concerned to always fellowship in "Bible-believing churches" that were rooted in God's Word. But in the office, he was critical, unkind to co-workers, autocratic and overbearing. One man who'd known him in church before he came to work for him was shocked at the difference. This man was concerned about holding to "the standard of sound teaching," but he hadn't allowed that teaching to affect the way he treated other people in the workplace. Paul is saying that these things need to be kept together. Timothy has heard Paul's teaching and he's seen Paul embody a lifestyle consistent with that teaching. Now that Paul's near the end of his life, he reminds Timothy to do the same, not by the power of his own determination but "with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us."
In verse 15, Paul shows that this danger isn't just something he dreamed up. When we're in difficulty, as Paul is at this point, our perception can become clouded. We can imagine that everyone is against us and that things are worse than they really are. We can overstate the danger and become paranoid. After Elijah had his great moment at Mt. Carmel, he fled from Jezebel because she threatened to kill him. And when he was praying about his situation, he told the Lord, "I'm the only one left, and now they are seeking to kill me." But God corrected him: "I have kept 7,000 for myself who have now bowed the knee to Baal; you're not the only one." Elijah's perception had become clouded. He'd lost his sense of perspective.
But that's not the problem with Paul. He says, in verse 15: "You are aware that all who are in Asia have turned away from me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes." Many of his co-workers are deserting him at this point. The question is, why have they deserted him? Barnabas, years before, had separated from Paul over a disagreement. But Barnabas had continued to faithfully preach the gospel. Paul was difficult to work with, I suspect. But something different is going on here. Remember what Paul is emphasizing throughout this section: he begins with "Do not be ashamed... of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God" (v. 8). And we can see that he still has this in mind by what he says a little later, about Onesiphorus: "he was not ashamed of my chains." He's contrasting Onesiphorus with these others from Asia, because they did the very thing he's been warning Timothy about: they turned away from Paul because they were ashamed of his suffering. But they weren't only ashamed of Paul; they were also showing that they were ashamed of the Lord Himself: "Do not be ashamed... of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner." They were ashamed of Paul, not as a person, but as a "prisoner of the Lord." They had stayed with him until he was thrown in prison, then they left.
It's not that they were embarrassed to be associated with him because of some defect in his personality. William Barclay has a good description of what was going on: "When Paul was imprisoned his friends abandoned him – most likely out of fear. The Romans would never have proceeded against him on a purely religious charge; the Jews must have persuaded them that he was a dangerous troublemaker and disturber of the public peace. There can be no doubt that in the end Paul would be held on a political charge. To be a friend of a man like that was dangerous; and in his hour of need his friends from Asia abandoned him because they were afraid for their own safety" (The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, p. 155). They were afraid for their safety and were unwilling to "join with [Paul] in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God."
Then, in verses 16-18, Paul encourages Timothy with a positive example. He's saying, "yes, there are these who've turned away in fear, but look at Onesiphorus; he exemplified the very things I've been talking about." It seems likely, from the language Paul is using, that Onesiphorus has died: "May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus," followed by references to him in the past tense." In v. 18, Paul says, "may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day." He seems to be speaking here about someone who's no longer living.
Onesiphorus had taken a considerable risk in seeking out Paul. All these others from Asia had departed in fear, but Onesiphorus "searched hard for me until he found me." This would have put him in danger, asking questions about a convicted criminal (especially one who, very likely, was held on a political charge). He "wasn't ashamed of [Paul's] chains." Then, when he found Paul, he "often refreshed" him. But that seems to have been a consistent pattern in his life, because Paul goes on to say, "You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus." Onesiphorus modeled the things Paul is concerned about in these verses, so Paul encourages Timothy by pointing to his example. The author of Hebrews, writing to people who were suffering and who were tempted to turn away, said: "Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life [these also seem to be people who've already died], and imitate their faith" (13:7). When we're in difficulties, it's helpful to think about others who've faced similar things and who have persevered in faith.
There are some who question whether Onesiphorus was dead, and it is true that Paul doesn't come right out and say that he is. His language sounds that way, and most of the commentators I consulted believe he was dead at the time of Paul's writing. The main problem is in verse 18: "May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day!" If Onesiphorus is dead, it sounds like Paul is offering up prayers for the dead. We don't have time to go into this in detail, but it doesn't seem to be a terribly serious problem. Surely it's appropriate to express such wishes in God's presence, whether a person is living or dead: "May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day" (he's looking forward here to the future day of Judgment). William Barclay's comments are helpful: "This is a subject on which there has been long and bitter dispute; but this one thing we can and must say – if we love a person with all our hearts, and if the remembrance of that person is never absent from our minds and memories, then, whatever the intellect of the theologian may say about it, the instinct of the heart is to remember such a one in prayer, whether he is in this or in any other world" (p. 157). Paul is grateful for the memory of Onesiphorus, so he lifts him up in God's presence. We don't need to sort out all the theological questions connected with this; we're free to bring those we love – living or dead – into God's presence in prayer. We don't need to feel theologically bound to exclude from our prayers those who've passed out of this life. "May the Lord grant that [they] will find mercy from the Lord on that day."
So Paul's message to Timothy, in this first chapter, is "do not be ashamed... of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God." Part of that involves holding firmly to the body of truth he received from Paul the apostle and living in the light of that truth. Satan's goal is not just to embarrass him or make him feel stupid and foolish; Satan's goal is to destroy him, and in destroying him to also destroy the faith of those under his spiritual care. Satan wants to make him ashamed of the gospel, so that he'll tamper with it and make it into something more palatable, something less offensive to sinful, rebellious people (and also, something different from the true gospel). Timothy needs to be aware of the danger, and he needs to exercise diligent care, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit.
We don't live in the Roman empire, as Timothy did, but we still live in a world that, by its very nature, is hostile to the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We still live with the temptation to be intimidated and to begin twisting the gospel into something more consistent with what we (and others) want. How do we resist that temptation? 1) By reminding ourselves often that the gospel doesn't belong to us. It's something we received. We've been entrusted with a precious treasure. Our business, in the Church, is to be faithful stewards of this message we've received. 2) By seeking to order our lives in obedience to the gospel. Disobedience to the truth is just as serious as refusal to believe the truth. It's not insignificant that in the book of Acts, Christianity is referred to as the Way: "Meanwhile Saul... asked... for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way... he might bring them bound to Jerusalem" (9:1-2). Christianity is not just a content of belief; it's a way of life. Faithfulness to the gospel includes holding firmly to the doctrines we've received and ordering our lives in the pattern revealed in the New Testament. 3) Look for negative examples and learn from them. Take note of those who've fallen away and ask, "how can I avoid falling into the same trap? Are there things in my life that, over time, will lead me in the same direction?" 4) Look for positive examples to follow. We need more than biblical principles to learn how to live a Christian life. We need to see the gospel embodied, or incarnated, in the lives of real people. Spend time with people like that; read biographies of godly people; spend time meditating on some of the great examples in Scripture. If your immediate response is, "I don't want to do that sort of thing," recognize that as the sin of sloth, repent of it, and stir yourself to obedience.
J.I. Packer, near the beginning of his book, Knowing God, says this: "I walked in the sunshine with a scholar who had effectively forfeited his prospects of academic advancement by clashing with church dignitaries over the gospel of grace. ‘But it doesn't matter,' he said at length, ‘for I've known God and they haven't.'" Obedience to the truth had cost him something. Those who commit their lives to the gospel, who seek to be faithful stewards of this treasure, do not look back with regrets, even when faithfulness to God results in great personal cost. Paul is writing this letter very near the end of his life, and he's saying to Timothy, "it's worth it to keep going; do everything within your power to hold firmly to the gospel of grace, but do it all looking to the Holy Spirit for strength; don't be ashamed or intimidated by the sufferings I'm enduring." Those who make it their aim to be faithful to God in both thought and action, and who persist in this till the end of their lives, don't get to the end with regrets. They're able to say, as Paul says near the end of this letter, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing" (4:6-7). May God grant us grace to hold firmly to the unspeakable treasure He's given us.
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