Meditating on 1 Timothy 6:3-5.
The Elder, in his sermon to the church, used a quote from a renowned Christian, basically saying that if the church is not evangelising then the church is as good as dead (I’m sorry because I cannot remember the exact quote and I’m paraphrasing from memory) and I remember thinking, “That’s not what the bible says and that is not what our Lord, whose church it is, says. That is what a man said.”
In another church, a Pastor made a bold statement to the congregation, saying that the only reason for the existence of the church is evangelism.
How dare we say that the church of Jesus Christ must be this or must be that in our own voice or in the voice of another man, as if we have any right to determine what the church should be and do? The church is not ours to make out as we please. If we are going to say something like this we must say it in the voice of our Lord Jesus, or more generally in the voice of God, from Scripture.
One of the things I struggle with is the fact that it is so difficult to get across what is so simple and clear to me: those of us who teach teach the voice of Jesus and share his concerns. So often I hear opinions expressed as authoritative while the instructions of Christ, and the Word of God is no more than a launching pad. I don’t think we can ever avoid sharing our own voice and concerns but we must be careful to distinguish the two voices, especially if we are speaking from the pulpit, although to be honest, I think we should be careful in this way all the time, even when counselling.
Ellie Lau, my IFES staffworker from long ago taught me this from 1 Peter 5, where Peter called on the Elders to be shepherds but recognising that Christ is the Chief Shepherd. We must not “lord it over those entrusted to us” and I take it to mean that we must never act as if we are lords of the church; only Jesus is and all of us come under his authority.
It is in this context that I was excited to read in 1 Timothy 6, “These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing.” Our teaching and instruction must carry the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ and when we get it right, we will recognise godly teaching.
What has happened when Elders and Pastors and others who have the authority to teach put together ideas and notions that reflect their own thinking and priorities rather than be informed by “the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ”?
Paul in the Bible taught Timothy about Godliness and the practical expression of it in the Church and told Timothy to teach and insist upon these matters in the Church. This is what I have been meditating on the past few weeks. Godliness in the congregation must be the core concern of the Church and those who disagree are “conceited and understand nothing”. If nothing else, those of us who may think otherwise must pause and search the Scriptures to learn more. (In case you misunderstand, I think that godliness is to give expression in our lives the truth of God—the greatest command—and it will surely lead us to the second greatest command, to love our neighbour as ourselves; but it is a much broader command than evangelism.)
Conceit tempts us to think that what we think is what our Lord thinks thus luring us away from humbly being at the feet of Jesus. When we glory in the rightness of our own thoughts and attitudes, when we think that we should try to fix the problems of the church that we have understood from our own analysis, that is when we know nothing.
Paul goes on, saying that that is when we have this unhealthy interest in matters that do not concern our Lord: “constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain”.
What is this state of mind except to borrow from Paul’s words, “the corruption of the mind”? They have been robbed of the truth. It has been replaced by false truths but the mind is now unable to recognise that they are false. These are people who think of godliness in terms of numbers and external validation and they lead the church to chase after these false notions of godliness.
During my own reflection I realised that it is not my place to deal with minds that have been corrupted by conceit and robbed of the truth; it is not my role to jump in and create another controversy and challenge these and other notions that I disagree with; I must not participate in the constant friction that is already distracting the church from our Lord’s concerns. My role is, as Paul told Timothy, to teach the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and let Christ deal with his servants. And so my prayer, “Father, I feel so helpless but I understand that this is your domain and not mine, and my task is to, as Paul told Timothy, teach, and reveal the sound instruction of our Lord.”
May our Lord have mercy on his church.
(My reflections on 1 Timothy 4-6 include “Honour” as a life principle, The corruption of the mind, Godliness with contentment, and True spirituality.)