03-28-08 BCCC Friday Bible Study: 1 Timothy 4: 1- 16

1 Timothy 4:1-5 The Service of God or the Service of Satan:

One of the expected things of the last are was heresies and false teachers. (Matthew 24:11; Mark 13:22; 2 Thessalonians 2:4).

It is Christian teaching that the true Christians does not serve God by enslaving himself with rules and regulations and insulting God’s creation; he serves God by gratefully accepting God’s gifts and remembering that he lives in the world where God made all things well, and by never forgetting to share God’s gifts with others and to offer God the thanks of his heart for them.

1 Timothy 4:6-9 Practical Advice for Timothy, for teachers or any servant of the Church who is charged with the duty of work and leadership in the Church:

(i) It tells us how to instruct others.

The guidance which is given in gentleness will always be more effective than the bullying instructions which are laid down with force.

(ii) It tells us how to face the task of teaching.

A man must ever feed his own mind before he can feed the minds of others; he must daily know Jesus Christ better before he can bring Christ to others. To bring others to the faith a man must himself feed upon the faith.

(iii) It tells us what to avoid.

It is always necessary to remain at the centre of the faith. It is on the great central truths and realities that a man must ever feed his mind and nourish his faith.

(iv) It tells us what to seek.

Training in godliness, in goodness, develops the whole man in body, mind and spirit, and its results affect not only time, but eternity as well.

(v) The goal of the Christian life is God.

It is because a man hopes in God, it is because he sees God at his journey’s end, it is because life is lived in the presence of God and ends in His still nearer presence, that the Christian is willing to endure as he does. The greatness of the goal makes the toil of the struggle worth while.

1 Timothy 4:10-16

The Only Way To Silence Criticism:

The word that is used for youth (neotes) can in Greek describe anyone of military age, that is up to the age of forty. The advice that was given to Timothy is the hardest possible advice to follow, and yet it was the only possible advice. The advice was that Timothy must silence criticism by conduct.

(1)First, there was to be love. Agape, the Greek word for the greatest of the Christian virtues , is a largely untranslatable word. The real meaning is unconquerable benevolence. If a man has agape, no matter what other people do to him or say of him, no matter how other people treat him, he will seek nothing but their good. He will never be bitter, never resentful, never vengeful; he will never allow himself to hate; he will never refuse to forgive. Christian love is more than a thing of the heart; it is a thing of the will.

Christian love is that conquest of self whereby we are enabled to develop an unconquerable caring for other people. So then the first authenticating mark of the

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Christian leader is that he cares for others, no matter what others do to him. Thai is something of which any Christian leader who is quick to take offence and prone to bear grudges should constantly think.

(2) Second, there is loyalty. Loyalty is an unconquerable fidelity to Christ, no matter what that fidelity may cost. It is not difficult to be a good soldier when things are going well. But the really valuable soldier is the soldier who can fight well when his body is weary and his stomach is empty, when the situation seems hopeless and when he is in the midst of a campaign the movements of which he cannot understand. The second authenticating mark of the Christian leader is a loyalty to Christ which defies circumstances, which is true whatever light may shine of shadow fall.

(3) Third, there is purity. Purity is an unconquerable allegiance to the standards of Jesus Christ. The Christian pledge was to a life of purity. The Christian ought to have a standard of honor and honesty, a standard of self-control and chastity, a standards of discipline and consideration, that are far above the standards of the world. The simple fact is that the world will never have any use for Christianity, until the Christian Church can prove that it produces the best men and women in the world. The third authenticating mark of the Christian leader is a life lived on the standards of Jesus Christ, and not on the standards of the world.

The Duties Of the Christian Leader Within the Church:

(1) There should be the reading and the exposition of scripture. Men ultimately do not gather together to hear the opinions of a preacher; they gather together to hear the word of God. The Christian service is Bible-centered.

(2)There should be teaching. The Bible is a difficult book, and therefore is has to be explained. The Christian preacher is the man who has given many years of his life to gain the necessary equipment to explain the faith to others. He has been set free from the ordinary duties and tasks of life in order to think, to study and to pray that he may better expound the word of God. There can be no lasting Christian faith in any Church without a teaching ministry.

(3)There should be exhortation. The Christian message must always end in Christian action. After any preaching of the word there must be something to be done. It is not enough to present the Christian message as something to be studied and known and understood; it has to be presented as something to be done. Christianity is truth, but it is truth in action.

(4)There is prayer. The whole gathering meets in the presence of God; it thinks in the Spirit of God; it goes out in the strength of God. Neither the preaching nor the listening during the service, nor the consequent action in the world is possible without the help of the Spirit of God.

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The Personal Duty Of the Christian Leader:

(1) He must remember that he is a man set apart for a special task by the Church.

The Christian leader does not make sense apart from the Church. His commission came from the Church; his work is within the fellowship of the Church; his duty is to build others into the Church. That is precisely the reason why the really important work of the Christian Church is never done by any itinerant evangelist, but is always done by the settled ministry of the Church. Without the Church the Christian leader is a meaningless figure.

(2) He must remember the duty to think about these things. The great danger of the

Christian leader is intellectual sloth and the shut mind. The Christian leader must be a Christian thinker or he fails in his task; and to be a Christian thinker is to be an adventurous thinker so long as life lasts.

(3) He must remember the duty of concentration. He must find his whole life in the

things he teaches. The danger of the Christian leader is that he may dissipate his energies on many things which are not central to the Christian faith. He is presented with the invitation to many duties; he is confronted with the claims of many spheres of service; but his only duty is concentration on the task for which he was set apart. Concentration is a prime duty of the Christian leader.

(4) He must remember the duty of progress. His progress must be evident to all men.

The Christian leader pleads with others to become more like Christ. The Christian leader’s prayer must first be that he may grow more like to Christ, for only thus will he be able to lead others to Christ.

In His Ministry-

Zauya Lahpai