WORD OF GOD IN LIFE OF THE BELIEVER
(I Tim. 4:6)
OVERVIEW OF I TIMOTHY 1:1 to 4:6
1:1-2 – Overview of Christian Faith based on His names and blessings.
1:3-4a False teaching in Ephesus and how humanistic philosophy effects us today.
1:4b-6 – Commanded to love. (Loving God, fellow Christians, the non-Christian world)
1:7-8 – The law’s deterrent, punitive and educative purposes
1:8-11 – “Whatever else …” The Gospel Ethic. (Law-Philia University)
1:11 – Our Relationship with “The Blessed God.” (Causing God pain or joy)
1:12-16 Why Paul considered himself the worst of sinners.
1:12-16 Conversion of the apostle Paul.
1:12-16 Paul’s call to ministry.
1:17 Paul’s doxology of praise for his conversion.
1:18-20 How to avoid shipwrecking our faith.
2:1-3 The Christian is to pray for all men.
2:4,6 Comparison of Calvinism & Armenianism.
2:5-6 The man, Christ Jesus, the only mediator.
2:1-7 The vision, the message, the means.
2:8-15 Treatment of women in the ancient world, the early church and the Bible.
2:8-15 Three key hermeneutic principles to follow when studying the Bible.
2:8 Praying Men with Peaceful Hearts
2:9-10 A First-Century Christian Woman’s Dress and Deeds
2:11-12 Does Submission Demand Silence?
2:13-15 Paul’s Logic for Requiring Women to Be Silent in The Ephesian House Churches.
3:1 Why Aspiring to Church Leadership Can Be a Good Thing.
3:2 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder – Teaching
3:2 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder – Hospitality
3:4-5 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder –Leadership
3:2-7 Ethical Demands of the NT and the Ethics Tests for Elders
3:2-7 Ethical Qualities Required of an Ephesian Elder
3:8-13 The Ever Present Danger of Ethical Disconnect in a Christian’s Life
3:8-13 The Ministry of Deacons in the Early Church
3:9 Keeping Hold of the Deep Truths of the Faith
3:11 An Official Deaconesses in the NT Church?
3:14 Results That are Better Than Answered Prayer
3:15 God’s New Community – The Church of the Living God
3:15 God’s New Community – God’s Household
3:15 God’s New Community – The Pillar & Foundation of the Truth
3:16a Introduction to the Hymn in I Tim. 3:15 – The Mystery of Godliness
3:16a The Mystery of Godliness – A Life Focused on Christ
3:16b The Incarnation – He Appeared in a Body
4:1-2 How False Teaching Enters the Church
4:3-5 Common Grace
4:6 Word of God in Life of the Believer
If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed (I Tim. 4:6)
INTRODUCTION:
1. In I Tim. 4:1-2 Paul explains that Satan works through “hypocritical liars” to penetrate the church with false teaching. In I Tim. 4:3-5 he deals with two of the “things taught by demons,” e.g. forbidding people to marry and restrictions on eating certain foods.
2. Paul now turns to say some things to Timothy personally.
3. “Point these things out” could mean everything from 2:1 to 4:5 (Instructions on worship, role of women in the church, elders, deacons, foundation of the church) or it could mean just 4:1-5 re: the doctrine of demons.
I. WE ARE TO BE CONSTANTLY NOURISHED IN THE WORD OF GOD.
1. The word “brought up / entrepho” is a Greek word in the present tense used for child rearing. Synonyms are: constantly nourishing, nurturing, feeding, sustained by, trained by …
2. To be constantly nourished on the Word one must read it, study it, meditate on it and master its contents.
3. Timothy knew the law, the OT Scriptures, from childhood:
“It was the glory of the Jews that their children from their earliest days were trained in the law. They claimed that their children learned the law even from their swaddling clothes and drank it in with their mother’s milk. They claimed that the law was so imprinted on the heart and mind of a Jewish child that he would sooner forget his own name than he would forget it. So from his earliest childhood Timothy had known the sacred writings.” (Barclay, pg. 199)
4. Timothy’s Jewish mother and grandmother (“…sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice… (II Tim. 1:5)” would have begun to teach Timothy the Scriptures from his fifth year onwards, as all Jewish parents did in obedience to Deut.11:18-21, “Teach thee words of mine to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
“And how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 3:15).
QUESTION: Who was nourished in the Word from childhood by a godly parent? What did they do to nourish you?
5. Timothy was twice blessed for he was brought up in “the truths of the faith” and also received “good teaching” from Paul.
The “truths of the faith” and “the good teaching” are basically the content of the Gospel message.
What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus (II Tim. 1:13).
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others (II Tim. 2:2).
You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance … (II Tim. 3:10).
APPLICATION: Some have been nourished in the Scriptures since infancy, most of us have been nourished by Bible teachers and pastors up to the present time. We need to make sure we continue to be nourished.
QUESTION: What can keep us being “nourished” by the Word even though we are being exposed to it through teaching and preaching?
II. WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT HIS WORD
If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in THE TRUTHS OF THE FAITH and of THE GOOD TEACHING that you have followed (I Tim. 4:6). … I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also (I Tim. 1:5) …. continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ALL SCRIPTURE IS GOD-BREATHED and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (II Tim. 3:14-17).
A. The Word is God-breathed
“When God breathed into the body of man, man became a living being (Genesis 2:7). When God breathed into the words of men they became living words, the Word of God. This is not some abstract and not very useful theological theory. They come from the Lord our Creator. The Scriptures are useful and of great practical importance. (Michael Griffiths, pg. 205)
B. God uses metaphors to describe the potency of His Word.
Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money).
Let my teaching fall like RAIN and my words descend like DEW, like SHOWERS on new grass, like abundant RAIN on tender plants (Deut. 32:2).
They (God’s words) are more precious than GOLD, than much pure GOLD; they are sweeter than HONEY, than HONEY from the comb (Psalms 19:10).
Send forth your LIGHT and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell (Ps. 43:3).
The law from your mouth is more precious to me, than thousands of pieces of SILVER and GOLD (Ps. 119:72).
As the RAIN and the SNOW come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isa. 55:10-11).
“Is not my word like FIRE,” declares the LORD , “and like a HAMMER that breaks a rock in pieces (Jer. 23:29)?
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on BREAD alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)
To make her (the church) holy, cleansing her by the washing with WATER through the word (Ephesians 5:26).
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-¬edged SWORD, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb. 4:12).
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need MILK, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But SOLID FOOD is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Heb. 5:12-14).
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a MIRROR and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does (James 1:23-25).
For you have been born again, not of perishable SEED, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (I Pt. 1:23).
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual MILK, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation (I Pt. 2:2).
C. The Scriptures are “useful,” a key to Timothy’s success for they will equip him for every good work.
…that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (II Tim. 3:16).
They enable him teach the truth, avoid error and inculcate ethical behavior.
My Life Verse: Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful (Joshua 1:8).
III. ONE WAY GOD’S WORD SHOULD IMPACT OUR LIVES
A. Berkeley translates “the good teaching you have followed” as “the good teaching to which you have been conforming.”
B. One of the great goals of Bible reading and Bible study is to see that our mind is renewed.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will (Rom. 12:2).
Various translation for “Renewing of your mind” … new ideas, new attitudes, a new mind, a new way of thinking, changing the way you think, new ideas that mold your mind, remolding your mind.
QUESTION: How has the Word of God “specifically” changed your mind, the way you think and thus the way you live?
SO WHAT????
1. A free paraphrase of I Tim. 4:16:
If you explain the concepts above to the believers you will be doing your duty as a servant of Christ, and at the same time continue to constantly feed and nourish your soul on the Word of God, the Word you have learned from childhood along with the instruction I have shared – in fact keep conforming your life to all you have learned and are learning about God.
2. We need to make sure we hold as high an opinion about God’s Word as He does … light, honey, milk, food, water, mirror etc.
3. God’s Word is our best source of spiritual nourishment but, if we are not careful, we can be exposed to God’s Word without being nourished by it.
4. Are our minds being renewed? Are we changing the way we view life, see things and is this remolded mind affecting the way we live? Can you put your finger on one change in your life that has been caused by new thinking because of the impact of the Word of God in your life?