Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Timothy 3:14
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:
14 16. The importance of these directions based on the character of the Church and its Head
14. to come unto thee shortly ] The comparative adverb if retained will have the force given by Fairbairn ‘more speedily than I at one time thought or than would seem to call for more detailed communications,’ cf 2Ti 1:18, ‘very well,’ lit. ‘better than I need say.’ Westcott and Hort however with Lachmann follow mss. ACD in reading the substantive and preposition ‘with speed.’ As to the supposed inconsistency of this intention with Act 20:25; Act 20:38, St Paul certainly there bids the Elders of Ephesus farewell, saying that they will ‘see his face no more.’ But circumstances alter cases. The Spirit did not give him definite knowledge of what would befall him in every place; and it is sufficient to say that at the time he was expecting bonds and possible martyrdom and was impressed with the belief, a mistaken one, that he would not return.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly – That is, he hoped to come there to give instructions personally, or to finish, himself, the work which he had commenced in Ephesus, and which had been interrupted by his being driven so unexpectedly away. This verse proves that the apostle Paul did not regard Timothy as the permanent diocesan bishop of Ephesus. Would any Episcopal bishop write this to another bishop? If Timothy were the permanent prelate of Ephesus, would Paul have intimated that he expected soon to come and take the work of completing the arrangements there into his own hands? In regard to his expectation of going soon to Ephesus, see the notes on 1Ti 1:3; compare the Introduction to the Epistle.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. These things write I] That is: I write only these things; because I hope to come unto thee shortly.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I being now in Macedonia, or at Athens, or some parts thereabouts, have wrote to thee whom I left at Ephesus these precepts about the officers of churches, not being sure I shall, but hoping myself soon to come to Ephesus unto thee; which yet he did not, as we read, for he met Timothy at Troas, Act 20:5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. write I . . . hopingthatis, “though I hope to come unto thee shortly” (1Ti4:13). As his hope was not very confident (1Ti3:15), he provides for Timothy’s lengthened superintendence bygiving him the preceding rules to guide him. He now proceeds to givemore general instructions to him as an evangelist, having a “gift”committed to him (1Ti 4:14).
shortlyGreek,“sooner,” namely, than is presupposed in the precedingdirections given to him. See my Introductionon this verse. This verse best suits the theory that this FirstEpistle was not written after Paul’s visit and departure from Ephesus(Ac 19:1-20:38) whenhe had resolved to winter at Corinth after passing the summer inMacedonia (1Co 16:6), but afterhis first imprisonment at Rome (Ac28:17-31); probably at Corinth, where he might have some thoughtsof going on to Epirus before returning to Ephesus [BIRKS].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
These things write I unto thee,…. Concerning the offices of bishops and deacons, their several qualifications, and the rules of judging of persons fit for such service:
hoping to come unto thee shortly; at Ephesus. He could not tell whether he could come or not, and therefore makes no promise, but hoped he should; and since it was uncertain, he thought fit to write the above things for his instruction and use.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Mystery of Godliness. | A. D. 64. |
14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: 15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
He concludes the chapter with a particular direction to Timothy. He hoped shortly to come to him, to give him further directions and assistance in his work, and to see that Christianity was well planted, and took root well, at Ephesus; he therefore wrote the more briefly to him. But he wrote lest he should tarry long, that Timothy might know how to behave himself in the house of God, how to conduct himself as became an evangelist, and the apostle’s substitute. Observe,
I. Those who are employed in the house of God must see to it that they behave themselves well, lest they bring reproach upon the house of God, and that worthy name by which they are called. Ministers ought to behave themselves well, and to look not only to their praying and preaching, but to their behaviour: their office binds them to their good behaviour, for any behaviour will not do in this case. Timothy must know how to behave himself, not only in the particular church where he was now appointed to reside for some time, but being an evangelist, and the apostle’s substitute, he must learn how to behave himself in other churches, where he should in like manner be appointed to reside for some time; and therefore it is not the church of Ephesus, but the catholic church, which is here called the house of God, which is the church of the living God. Observe here, 1. God is the living God; he is the fountain of life, he is life in himself, and he gives life, breath, and all things to his creatures; in him we live, and move, and have our being, Act 17:25; Act 17:28. 2. The church is the house of God, he dwells there; the Lord has chosen Zion, to dwell there. “This is my rest, here will I dwell, for I have chosen it;” there may we see God’s power and glory, Ps. lxiii. 2.
II. It is the great support of the church that it is the church of the living God, the true God in opposition to false gods, dumb and dead idols.
1. As the church of God, it is the pillar and ground of truth; that is, either, (1.) The church itself is the pillar and ground of truth. Not that the authority of the scriptures depends upon that of the church, as the papists pretend, for truth is the pillar and ground of the church; but the church holds forth the scripture and the doctrine of Christ, as the pillar to which a proclamation is affixed holds forth the proclamation. Even to the principalities and powers in heavenly places is made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, Eph. iii. 10. (2.) Others understand it of Timothy. He, not he himself only, but he as an evangelist, he and other faithful ministers, are the pillars and ground of truth; it is their business to maintain, hold up, and publish, the truths of Christ in the church. It is said of the apostles that they seemed to be pillars, Gal. ii. 9. [1.] Let us be diligent and impartial in our own enquiries after truth; let us buy the truth at any rate, and not think much of any pains to discover it. [2.] Let us be careful to keep and preserve it. “Buy the truth, and sell it not (Prov. xxiii. 23), do not part with it on any consideration.” [3.] Let us take care to publish it, and to transmit it safe and uncorrupted unto posterity. [4.] When the church ceases to be the pillar and ground of truth, we may and ought to forsake her; for our regard to truth should be greater than our regard to the church; we are no longer obliged to continue in the church than she continues to be the pillar and ground of truth.
2. But what is the truth which the churches and ministers are the pillars and grounds of? He tells us (v. 16) that without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. The learned Camero joins this with what goes before, and then it runs thus: “The pillar and ground of the truth, and without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.” He supposes this mystery to be the pillar, c. Observe,
(1.) Christianity is a mystery, a mystery that could not have been found out by reason or the light of nature, and which cannot be comprehended by reason, because it is above reason, though not contrary thereto. It is a mystery, not of philosophy or speculation but of godliness, designed to promote godliness; and herein it exceeds all the mysteries of the Gentiles. It is also a revealed mystery, not shut up and sealed; and it does not cease to be a mystery because now in part revealed. But,
(2.) What is the mystery of godliness? It is Christ; and here are six things concerning Christ, which make up the mystery of godliness. [1.] That he is God manifest in the flesh: God was manifest in the flesh. This proves that he is God, the eternal Word, that was made flesh and was manifest in the flesh. When God was to be manifested to man he was pleased to manifest himself in the incarnation of his own Son: The Word was made flesh, John i. 14. [2.] He is justified in the Spirit. Whereas he was reproached as a sinner, and put to death as a malefactor, he was raised again by the Spirit, and so was justified from all the calumnies with which he was loaded. He was made sin for us, and was delivered for our offences; but, being raised again, he was justified in the Spirit; that is, it was made to appear that his sacrifice was accepted, and so he rose again for our justification, as he was delivered for our offences, Rom. iv. 25. He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, 1 Pet. iii. 18. [3.] He was seen of angels. They worshipped him (Heb. i. 6); they attended his incarnation, his temptation, his agony, his death, his resurrection, his ascension; this is much to his honour, and shows what a mighty interest he had in the upper world, that angels ministered to him, for he is the Lord of angels. [4.] He is preached unto the Gentiles. This is a great part of the mystery of godliness, that Christ was offered to the Gentiles a Redeemer and Saviour; that whereas, before, salvation was of the Jews, the partition-wall was now taken down, and the Gentiles were taken in. I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, Acts xiii. 47. [5.] That he was believed on in the world, so that he was not preached in vain. Many of the Gentiles welcomed the gospel which the Jews rejected. Who would have thought that the world, which lay in wickedness, would believe in the Son of God, would take him to be their Saviour who was himself crucified at Jerusalem? But, notwithstanding all the prejudices they laboured under, he was believed on, c. [6.] He was received up into glory, in his ascension. This indeed was before he was believed on in the world but it is put last, because it was the crown of his exaltation, and because it is not only his ascension that is meant, but his sitting at the right hand of God, where he ever lives, making intercession, and has all power, both in heaven and earth, and because, in the apostasy of which he treats in the following chapter, his remaining in heaven would be denied by those who pretend to bring him down on their altars in the consecrated wafers. Observe, First, He who was manifest in flesh was God, really and truly God, God by nature, and not only so by office, for this makes it to be a mystery. Secondly, God was manifest in flesh, real flesh. Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, Heb. ii. 14. And, what is more amazing, he was manifest in the flesh after all flesh had corrupted his way, though he himself was holy from the womb. Thirdly, Godliness is a mystery in all its parts and branches, from the beginning to the end, from Christ’s incarnation to his ascension. Fourthly, It being a great mystery, we should rather humbly adore it, and piously believe it, than curiously pry into it, or be too positive in our explications of it and determinations about it, further than the holy scriptures have revealed it to us.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Shortly ( ). Old idiom (locative case of , quickness, speed). See Ro 16:20. A pseudonymous writer would hardly have put in this phrase. Paul’s hopes were not to be realized, but he did not know that.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Shortly [ ] . The adverbial phrase once in Paul, Rom 16:20 : only here in Pastorals. Several times in Luke and Acts, and twice in Revelation. 105
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “These things write I unto thee” (tauta soi grapho) These inspired instructions Paul personally prepared for and to Timothy, pastor of the church at Ephesus, regarding church government, church order for services, and qualifications necessary for the bishop and deacons.
2) “Hoping to come unto thee shortly” (elpizon elthein pros se tachion) “Hoping, of my own accord, to come to thee hastily, shortly, or very soon.” This short book, Paul hoped, would help Timothy stabilize the Ephesian church’s growth until he could arrive to give further personal help. It was for this purpose Timothy had been left in Ephesus, 1Ti 1:3; 1Ti 1:18; 1Ti 6:13-21. This is a divine love letter, from an aged to a younger bishop, reflecting mature spiritual care for the welfare of the church which Jesus purchased with His own blood, Act 20:28.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14 These things I write to thee He holds out to Timothy the hope of his coming, partly in order to encourage him, and partly in order to repress the insolence of those who grew more haughty on account of his absence. And yet he does not make any feigned promise to Timothy, or terrify others through false presence; for he fully expected that he would come, as it is probable that he came, if he wrote this epistle at the time when he passed through Phrygia, as is related by Luke. (Act 18:23.) Let us look on this as a proof how great was his anxiety for the churches, when he could not endure to delay for a short time a remedy for a present evil. Yet immediately afterwards he adds, that he wrote this epistle for the purpose of informing Timothy, if it should happen that he were delayed longer than he thought.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Ti. 3:15. How thou oughtest to behave thyself.The language seems open to a double interpretation, as the R.V. showshow men ought to behave. Perhaps St. Paul meant that his letter should teach Timothy what men should be in office, as well as the officials themselves what manner of men they must be. The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.If the Church is here called the pillar and stay of the truth, the expression is one of the least Pauline, the most difficult and the most modern in these epistles. On the other hand, all difficulties vanish if we refer the words to Timothy, who is here bidden to bear himself as an upholder and supporter of the truth (Farrar).
1Ti. 3:16. And without controversy.Lit. confessedly. God was manifest.R.V. He who was manifested. Ellicott thinks it not at all improbable that we have a quotation from some well-known hymn, or possibly from some familiar confession of faith. Justified in the Spirit.As in 1Pe. 3:17, the Spirit seems to be contrasted with the flesh. Preached unto the Gentiles.R.V. among the nations. How inseparably St. Paul considered his own mission to be united to the purposes of God in giving His Son, this phrase makes evident. Received up into glory.The reference is to the event recorded in Act. 1:9, the assumption of our Lord.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Ti. 3:14-15
The Dignity and Stability of the Church.
I. The Church is the habitation of the living God.The house of God, which is the Church of the living God (1Ti. 3:15). The Church of God does not consist of massive buildings, however grandly designed or richly decorated, but is a congregation of immortal souls and of bodies, which are temples of the living God. How different from the lifeless idol Diana, in whose honour the Ephesians built a temple that was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world, and how different the worship and service! Gods house must have rules and regulations to preserve it from unseemly disorder and irreverence. The congregation worshipping the living God must have a constitution and laws to preserve it from faction and anarchy. Officers of such a Church must have the highest qualifications, and their behaviour be above suspicion. To them is largely entrusted the moral culture and destiny of living souls. As I was walking in the fields, writes MCheyne, the thought came over me, with almost overwhelming power, that every one of my flock must soon be in heaven or hell. Oh, how I wished that I had a tongue like thunder, that I might make all hear; or that I had a frame like iron, that I might visit every one and say, Escape for thy life! Ah! sinners, you little know how I fear that you will lay the blame of your damnation at my door!
II. The Church is the stay and defence of the truth.The pillar and ground of the truth (1Ti. 3:15). To the Church has been assigned a post of great responsibility. Truth in itself is self-evident and self-sustained; it needs no external support or foundation. But truth as it is manifested to the world needs the best support and the firmest basis that can be found for it. And it is the duty and privilege of the Church to supply these. Gods household is not only a community which in a solemn and special way belongs to the living Godit is also the pillar and ground of the truth. The Church is stable and enduring because it rests upon and is made up of unchanging truth: the truth it declares defends and preserves it. One of the red republicans of 1793 was telling a good peasant of La Vende, We are going to pull down your churches and your steeplesall that recalls the superstitions of past ages, and all that brings to your mind the idea of God. Citizen, replied the good Vendean, pull down the stars then.
III. The greatness of the Church needs special qualifications in its officers.These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God (1Ti. 3:14-15). As his hope of visiting Ephesus soon was not very confident, the apostle regards the work of governing the Church as of such vital importance that he provides for Timothys lengthened superintendence by giving him the preceding rules to guide him. Thus he commends the weight and dignity of the pastoral office, because pastors are stewards to whom God has committed the charge of governing His house. If any person has the superintendence of a large house, he labours night and day with earnest solicitude that nothing may go wrong through his neglect or ignorance or carelessness. If only for men this is done, how much more should it be done for God! St. Francis, reflecting on a story he heard of a mountaineer in the Alps who had risked his life to save a sheep, says, O God, if such was the earnestness of this shepherd in seeking for a mean animal which had probably been frozen on the glacier, how is it that I am so indifferent in seeking my sheep?
Lessons.
1. God is the life of His own Church. 2. The Church lives by being faithful to the truth.
3. No pains should be spared in acquiring efficiency in Church work.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ti. 3:15. The Christian in the Church.
I. The condition our subject supposes.
1. The Church comprises all the redeemed and sanctified people of God.
2. Frequently means a particular community or company of believers associated together for religious purposes.
II. The obligations we are under to enter this state.
1. Suitability.
2. Consolation.
3. Safety.
4. Usefulness.
III. The duties arising from the state.
1. Worship, in the use of the means of grace.
2. These duties in the use of the means regard the minister.
3. Your fellow-members.
4. The welfare and prosperity of the whole interest.W. Jay.
The Church the House of God.
I. The Church of God
1. Is any number of Christians meeting together.
2. All the Churches in existence on earth at the same time.
3. All the people of God of all ages.
II. The Church of God is a house.
1. It has a foundation.
2. The materials of the house are men. The materials differ from each other, and are prepared for the heavenly building before they go to it.
3. The putting of the materials together is done by union and mutual dependence on each other.
III. The Church of God is the house of God.
1. He is the builder.
2. The owner.
3. The inhabitant.C. Bradley.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF 1Ti. 3:16
An Epitome of the Gospel.
I. The incarnate God a mystery, but a fact.And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh. The oldest manuscripts and versions read, He who was manifest in the flesh. Paul speaks of the truth as the mystery of godliness, in order to express both the Divine and the human aspects of the Christian faith. On the Divine side the gospel is a mystery, a disclosed secret. It is a body of truth originally hidden from mans knowledge, to which man by his own unaided reason and abilities would never be able to find the way. The mystery of godliness has for its centre and basis the life of a Divine Person; and the great crisis in the long process by which the mystery was revealed was reached when this Divine Person was manifested in the flesh. Mystery in Christian theology implies something which once was concealed but has now been made known: manifest implies making known what had once been concealed. An historical appearance of One who had previously existed, but had been kept from the knowledge of the world, is what is meant by who was manifest in the flesh. The famous statue of Christ in the gallery at Stuttgart, by Dannecker, was produced after reading the words God manifest in the flesh, which led to the conversion of the sculptor. The subject he proposed to himself seemed too great; but as he reflected that others could preach and write on Christianity, which he could not do, he wrought out the statue as the expression of his faith.
II. The incarnate God was vindicated as Divine in His own spirit.Justified in the Spirit. His flesh was the sphere of His manifestation; His spirit was the sphere of His justification. It was in His spirit that Christ was affected when the presence of moral evil distressed Him. This spiritual part of His nature which was the sphere of His most intense suffering, was also the sphere of His most intense joy and satisfaction. As moral evil distressed His spirit, so moral innocence delighted it. In a way that none of us can measure, Jesus Christ knew the joy of a good conscience. His justification or vindication in respect to His spirit or higher being was effected by all that manifested that higher beingHis words, works, His Fathers testimony at His baptism and at the Transfiguration, and by His resurrection.
III. The incarnate God is a suggestive revelation to the angelic intelligences.Seen of angels. This manifestation of a perfectly righteous man was not confined to the human race. The angels also witnessed it, as well as His triumphant return to glory, and can bear testimony to the reality of both facts. Angels saw the Son of God with us, not having seen Him before. Not even they had seen His Divine nature, which is not visible to any creature, but they saw Him incarnate.
IV. The incarnate God is the theme of the gospel and the object of faith.
1. As such He was declared to the nations. Preached unto the Gentiles. What angels came to know by seeing, the nations learned by preaching. He is a new message to the one class as well as to the otherto the angels so near to Him, and the Gentiles so far off.
2. As such He was and is accepted by perishing men. Believed on in the world. Though many reject Him, many believe on Him. To reject Him is to perish; to believe on Him is to be saved.
V. The incarnate God is now reigning in heavenly glory.Received up into glory. At His ascension He was received up so as now to be in glory, carrying on His mediatorial work and ruling the universe, until all things shall be finally subdued unto Him. The revelation of the eternal Son, which imposes on those who accept it a holiness of which His sinlessness must be the model, is something awful and profound. But He does not impose a pattern for imitation without at the same time granting the grace necessary for struggling towards it. The sinlessness of Christ is immeasurably beyond us here; and it may be that in eternity the loss caused by our sins in this life will never be entirely cancelled. But having followed Christ on earth, we shall follow Him still more in heaven (Plummer, Fausset).
Lessons.
1. The gospel is the revelation of the incarnate God.
2. The fundamental facts of the gospel are well authenticated.
3. If we reject the gospel we shall be condemned by both earth and heaven.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ti. 3:16. Mysteriousness of Godliness.
I. Godliness as it exists in the soul and character of man is a mystery.
1. It is mysterious in its commencement.
2. Mysterious in its own proper nature or in that in which it consists.
3. Mysterious to those who are themselves possessed of it.
4. A mystery to the world.
II. Godliness as it exists in the form of Christian doctrine is a mystery.
1. Because of its own intrinsic nature.
2. Because of the remoteness and invisibility of the things of which it treats.
3. Because of the untriedness of the state it describes.
4. Because of the inscrutable nature of many of the subjects of which it treats.
5. Because of the manner in which it is revealed.
6. Because of the character and capacities of man.Stewart.
The Mystery of Godliness.
I. The gospel a great mystery.
1. Because it could not have been known had it not been revealed.
2. Being revealed, it cannot be perfectly comprehended.
(1) Reason not to be the measure of faith.
(2) Disquisition of truth to be within the bounds of sobriety.
(3) Offence not to be taken at the difference of opinions among Christians.
II. Christianity a mystery of godliness.
1. In regard of its general scope.
2. Of the special parts of it.
3. In the means of conserving it. The best and surest means to preserve Christianity in its proper integrity and power is to season it well with grace, and be sure to keep the conscience upright.R. Sanderson.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
3.
IMPORTANCE OF INSTRUCTIONS 1Ti. 3:14-16
Text 3:1416
14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly; 15 but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.
Thought Questions 3:1416
101.
Why didnt Paul instruct Timothy before leaving him at Ephesus?
102.
What things are referred to in 1Ti. 3:14?
103.
In what way is the church the house of God?
104.
In what sense is the church the pillar and ground of the truth? What truth?
105.
Explain the use of the term mystery as used by Paul.
106.
When was Christ manifest in the flesh?
107.
Give the meaning of the expression, justified in the spirit.
108.
Give occasions when Christ was seen of angels.
109.
Why mention that He was, preached among the nations?
110.
Is the term world different from nations as used here?
111.
Was Christ received up into glory or in glory according to 1Ti. 3:16?
Paraphrase 3:1416
14 These things I write thee, although I hope to come to thee soon, to give thee more complete instruction concerning thy behavior.
15 Or if by any accident I am obligated to tarry long, I have written these things, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is neither the temple at Jerusalem, nor the temple of Diana at Ephesus, but the church of the living God, consisting of all believers, and which is the pillar and support of the truth.
16 Thou oughtest to behave properly in the church; for confessedly most important is the doctrine of the gospel which is kept therein; namely, that to save sinners by his death, the Son of God was manifested in the flesh; was justified through the Spirit, who raised him from the dead; was, after his resurrection, seen of the apostles his messengers; was preached to the Gentiles as their Saviour; was believed on in many parts of the world; was taken up into heaven in a glorious manner.
Comment 3:1416
1Ti. 3:14. Wherever Paul was when he wrote this letter he anticipated a visit to Timothy. We like to believe he had been in prison at Rome, then was released, and went into Macedonia from whence he wrote this letter. This letter seems to take on an official tone here. The words here written, i.e. from 1Ti. 1:1-20; 1Ti. 2:1-15; 1Ti. 3:1-16 are to be used in the place of the personal presence of the apostle.
1Ti. 3:15. In my absence, be it short or long, these instructions are to be read and followed. The student should note that the American Standard Version refers to the behavior of men, and King James Version to Timothy. The absence of the pronoun in the original makes either one of them correct. In either case the meaning turns out the same. Timothys behavior was to be a pattern for others. The household of God is alluded to in 1Ti. 3:5, and is here specified, It should not be necessary to say the expression house of God has no reference to a church building. In the New Testament the house of God. consistently refers to the people. We are a habitation of God in the Spirit. In contrast to the dumb, dead idols worshipped in Ephesus and Asia, this is the called out of the living God.
The difficulty in understanding the church as the pillar and ground of truth can be explained as: pillar, supporting the truth by defending it against its enemies; and the ground of the truth, in the sense of preserving it through the centuries.
1Ti. 3:16. Shall we connect this verse up with the truth of 1Ti. 3:15 b, i.e. pillar and ground of the truth? If so then 1Ti. 3:16 will be an enlargement of the truth. Or, shall we associate this with the work of the deacons and elders? If we do this, then what we shall say here in 1Ti. 3:16 is the motivation for the work of these officers, We prefer the latter emphasis. Some have thought this verse to contain the words of an early Christian hymn. The words of the hymn by common consent were accepted as expressing in few words the heart of the Christian faith. Here is more or less a statement of faith. The words mystery of godliness can be understood as meaningrevealed mystery of living like God wants us to. We explained mystery in 1Ti. 3:9. It is used in the same sense here.
Manifest in the flesh: Note please, the different phases of Christs life and work emphasized in these expressions: First the incarnation: Manifested carries the thought of unveiling, He who existed in the form of God chose to empty himself and be clothed with flesh. He was both concealed and revealed. God was seen in human flesh. Emmanuel was His name, God with us. It was the flesh He chose as a medium of manifestation. It was in the flesh He unveiled deity. We like to think of Bethlehem as associated with this expression; but we could not appreciate Bethlehem without a knowledge of the rest of the truth in this verse.
Justified in the Spirit: We take the word spirit to refer to the inward man, and not to the Holy Spirit. As to His flesh He was veiled and unveiled. It was a humble garment that scarcely concealed the glorious person. As to His spirit: He made claims of divinity that need vindication. He was not a liar. This vindication was provided by His miracles; but most of all He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4). Thus all that the inward man claimed was upheld or justified.
Seen of angels: We can not resist the desire to share with you the words of Simpson on this phrase: If Sheol was strangely moved at the arrival thither of the once resplendent son of the morning, little wonder that heaven was stirred by the descent to our sphere in voluntary self-abnegation of the only-begotten of the Father. With what tremulous interest must these legions of His have followed the steps of His humiliation from the throne of awful majesty to the cross of agonizing shame! And how, as the infernal plot against Him thickened, must they have witnessed with amazement the non-intervention of Omnipotence on His behalf! Far more than twelve legions of angels must have waited breathlessly for that signal to flash across the upper skies which should snatch heavens Darling from the power of the dog. Surely the resurrection daybreak dawned on them as well as on the dazed disciples like some sweet summer morning after a night of pain and the triumph of His re-ascension, escorted by their bright squadrons homeward, had been to them its meridian glow. But imagination must fold her fluttering wing, lest we incur the Colossians rebuke (Col. 2:18) for prying into angelology! Enough to know that these unseen spectators from another world have drunk in the vision of the Word made flesh and can be summoned to bear record to its supreme reality. (Ibid.)
Preached among the nations or Gentiles: If we attempt to follow the life of our Lord in these expressions, we will now say we are discussing the results of His mission on earth. He was born in Bethlehem or manifested in the flesh, He was active in a miraculous, model ministry, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection, thus justified in the spirit. All through His earthly advent He was seen by angels; The answer is: So He could be preached among the nations. How important then that we preach the gospel to all the nations, The Christians of Timothys day fulfilled our Lords purpose, We now are as provincial as the Jews of Pauls time. The Jews were accused of believing the Messiah was sent but for one people, and we deserve the same condemnation! We do not say it, but we do practice it!
Believed on in the world: We take the former phrase to refer to the cause, and this phrase to the result. We have read the learned discussions of these phrases, as divided up into couplets and formed into interrelating arrangements; we have felt that such discussions were rather arbitrary in their conclusions.
The exaltation of our Lord is surely seen in the response of men from every nation.
Received up in glory. Please note that this does not say He was received up into glory. This has reference to His home, not His home-coming. From the Mount of ascension Jesus returned to share the glory He had with the Father before the world was made.
Fact Questions
77.
Where was Paul when he wrote this letter?
78.
What indication of an official tone is here observed?
79.
What instructions are to be read and followed?
80.
Who is to know how to behave himself in the house of God?
81.
In what sense is the church the pillar and ground of the truth?
82.
How shall we relate 1Ti. 3:16 with 1Ti. 3:15? Show also its connection with 1Ti. 3:14.
83.
How shall we fit together the six phrases of 1Ti. 3:16; or should we attempt to see any order in this verse?
84.
Explain in your own words the meaning and relation of each of the six expressions,
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(14) These things write I unto thee.These things probably referred only to the directions respecting the special qualification to be sought for in candidates for the office of the overseers (presbyters) and deacons.
Hoping to come unto thee shortly.The participle here has a concessive form, though I hope, &c. I write these special urgent directions to you, though my hope is that I shall be with you sooner than such detailed instructions presuppose.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. In doctrine.
a. Timothy set as champion of the doctrine of the incarnation against the errorists predicted by the Spirit as about to appear, 1Ti 3:14 to 1Ti 4:10 .
14. These things Not only the precepts of Church order in 1Ti 2:1 to 1Ti 3:13, but including the entire charge against the heresies in chapter first. For as the charge is against their false doctrines, so the Church order, in possession of the true doctrine, is the stronghold against them.
Write I Place them on visible monumental records.
Shortly Greek, sooner; that is, sooner than his writing a letter naturally presupposed.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘These things write I to you, hoping to come to you shortly, but if I linger here long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and mainstay of the truth.’
‘These things I am writing to you –.’ This has in mind and refers back to, ‘This charge I commit to you –. (1Ti 1:18). He wants Timothy to be aware of what he has been telling him even if he is delayed from coming to see him, (although he hopes to see him shortly), so that as a result of it he will know how men ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and mainstay of the truth, in the light of the revelation of what Christ has accomplished.
‘The household of God’ (see Eph 2:19) is ‘the dwellingplace of God through the Spirit’ (Eph 2:22), the people of God. It is the church of the living God composed of all believers everywhere. And it is the pillar and mainstay of the truth, that is it supports and upholds it. And what is that truth? It is depicted in 1Ti 3:16. It is what the risen Christ has accomplished on behalf of His people.
‘Which is the church of the living God.’ Oh, listen Timothy. We are talking about the living God. And the church is His assembly, His people, through which this living God will act. And as the pillar and mainstay of the truth it must allow Him to do so, for He has no other plan. For the use of stulon (pillar) compare Gal 2:9. Hedraiowma probably means ‘mainstay’, indicating something which is ‘firm and steadfast’ and is a word found only here.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Paul Finishes The Section With An Emphasis On God’s Wondrous Purpose For The Church As It Acts As The Pillar And Mainstay For The Even More Wondrous Work Of Christ ( 1Ti 3:14-16 ).
Paul now brings out why the success of the war of 1Ti 1:18 is so important. It is because the church that is being established and made sure, and is taking its full part in that warfare, is the mainstay of the truth concerning God’s amazing intervention in history in Christ Jesus. That is why the behaviour of men within it is so important, and why it has to be so carefully and morally regulated. Through its prayers, and as a result of the integrity of its members, and especially of its leadership, whose behaviour is of such importance, the truth in respect of the great mystery of God which has unfolded in Christ, is being upheld and is going forward to conquer the world. In Paul’s words in Eph 3:9-11, ‘now to the principalities and powers in heavenly places’ is being ‘made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Defining the Role of the Church In 1Ti 3:14-16 Paul defines the role of the New Testament Church, which is to stand as the pillar of divine truth in pagan societies.
1Ti 3:14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:
1Ti 3:14
1Ti 1:3, “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,”
1Ti 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
1Ti 3:15
Timothy was to initially establish this church upon prayer (1Ti 2:1-15). This includes the role of women role in the church. In a new church with new converts, women can dress very immodestly, so Paul is telling Timothy to set these issues straight so that prayer is not hindered. (Note that Jesus set the temple in order by driving out the moneychangers and saying that God’s house must be established as a house of prayer [Mat 21:12-13 ].) Second, Timothy was instructed to appoint and train elders and deacons by giving them certain qualifications to meet (1Ti 3:1 to 1Ti 4:16). Finally, Paul gave Timothy guidelines on how to set in order additional church offices and the roles of each member of the congregation (1Ti 5:1 to 1Ti 6:19).
1Ti 3:15 “which is the church of the living God” Comments – According to Scripture, the true Church is made up of those who hold the sound doctrine, not those who are teaching man’s doctrine. Those teaching heresies are not the true Church of the Living God. Hence:
Joh 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:”
Scripture References – Note similar verses:
Eph 2:21-22, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
Heb 3:2-6, “Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
1Pe 2:5, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
1Ti 3:15 “the pillar and ground of the truth” Word Study on “pillar” – A pillar is the main support of a building. For example, Samson pushed the two pillars of the house and destroyed the building (Jdg 16:29). Also, God set Jeremiah in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation as an iron pillar to speak God’s truth (Jer 1:18).
Jdg 16:29, “And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.”
Jer 1:18, “For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar , and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.”
Word Study on “ground” – The ground is the foundation of a building or the mainstay (the main rope holding the main mast) of a ship (Mat 16:17-19).
Mat 16:17-19, “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Comments – In Eph 3:15 Paul declares that the church of the living God is the pillar and ground of truth. As J. Vernon McGee says so well, just because a congregation puts a steeple on top of a building, and a bell in the steeple, and a pulpit in front of pews, and has a choir singing the doxology, it does not mean that this is a church of the true and living God. [106] A true church must have certain identifying features. Paul writes to Timothy and Titus in order to establish these unique features.
[106] J. Vernon McGee, The First Epistle to Timothy, The Second Epistle to Timothy, and The Epistle to Titus, in Thru the Bible With J. Vernon McGee, vol. 5 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Pub., 1998), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 424 (Introduction).
In any neighbourhood, in any city, in any nation or society, the Church has served as an example of truth and godliness for the last two thousand years. This is how the lost man can understand the truth. If ever the world needs a place to go to hear the actual truth, it should be to the local churches. However, many times this is not the case because denominations and religious groups have made the truth difficult to distinguish from man’s doctrines. Nevertheless, the Church of the living God is still the best place for any person to go to and find the truth in this world of chaos, despite man’s failures to live up to their rightful authority as children of God. If someone is striving to find the truth, God will lead him to it in a local church. Thus, the Church is not striving to become the pillar and ground of truth for its local neighborhood; it already is by God’s definition. God is faithful to work in each local assembly to insure that the truth is made available to the hearts of those who seek the truth. This is what the local church was created to do; this is its destiny. However, we must still understand that as Timothy set the church in Ephesus in order, it was in a position to impact its local city in a much great way that if the church was weak and carnal.
1Ti 3:15 Comments – In 1Ti 2:1 to 1Ti 6:19 Paul discusses how one should behave himself in God’s house, which is mentioned in 1Ti 3:15. It contains a list of things that Timothy is to do in order to set the church in Ephesus in order. This order will follow a divine sequence of events in the life of a congregation. Timothy is to establish the church in corporate and private prayer, appoint and train leaders, so that the rest of the congregation will have role models by which to follow in order to live a godly lifestyle.
1Ti 3:15, “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”
1Ti 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
1Ti 3:16
Eph 5:32, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
Col 1:27, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:”
1Co 15:51, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,”
1Ti 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
The classical writers reveal that the concept of sacred mysteries being utters as divine oracles was practiced in the ancient world. Regarding the use of oracles, the ancient Greeks regarded divine oracles as a form of worship until the time of the Persian war (490-479 B.C.). [107] The temple of Apollo located at Delphi was famous in the ancient world for delivering oracles to men by those in a trance, or they interpreted dreams or patterns in nature. [108] The Greek historians Herodotus (484-425 B.C.) [109] and Plutarch (A.D. 46-100) [110] mention this place of oracles in their writings. While the Romans as a nation did not regard oracles as a religious practice, this custom continued within the Empire, but not without the contempt of the Romans. [111] This practice was later outlawed under the Roman emperor Theodosius (A.D. 379-385). [112] King Saul’s visit to the witch of Endor shows its popularity among ancient eastern cultures (1Sa 28:7-25). The damsel who prophesied over Paul and Barnabas in Philippi is an example of the proliferation of divination in the New Testament times (Act 16:16-24). The Sibylline Oracles, [113] a collection of Greek oracles compiled by Jews and Christians in the early centuries before and after Christ, reflect the widespread popularity that the Sibyl prophetesses held in ancient Greek and Roman history. Regarding the concept of “mysteries” ( ) revealed through oracles, Plutarch, writing about the Pythian priestesses who prophesied at Delphi, speaks of “interpreters of the sacred mysteries.” [114] Thus, when Paul refers to the mysteries hidden from the ages being revealed to the Church (Rom 16:25, 1Co 2:7, Eph 1:9; Eph 3:3-4; Eph 3:9; Eph 6:19, Col 1:26; Col 2:2; Col 4:3, 1Ti 3:9), or when Luke, Paul, and Peter speak of the “oracles” ( ) (G3051) of God (Act 7:38, Rom 3:2, Heb 5:12, 1Pe 4:11), they are speaking in a cultural language that the Greeks and Romans understood, where pagans frequently sought oracles through divine utterance at the temples to reveal hidden mysteries for their lives.
[107] C. H. Prichard, “Oracle,” in A Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 3, ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901), 629.
[108] R. F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), “Oracle.”
[109] Herodotus writes, “and he [Dorieus] asked the Spartans for a company of folks, whom he took away as colonists; he neither enquired of the oracle at Delphi in what land he should plant his settlement, nor did aught else that was customary” ( Histories 5.42) See Herodotus III, trans. A. D. Godley, in The Loeb Classical Library, eds. T. E. Page, E. Capps, and W. H. D. Rouse (London: William Heinemann, 1938), 46-47.
[110] Plutarch tells us that the Sibylline prophetesses of Delphi used poetic verses with their prophecies, saying, “for when we drew near that part of the rock which joins to the senate-house, which by common fame was the seat of the first Sibyl that came to Delphi from Helicon, where she was bred by eh MusesSerapio made mention of certain verses of hers, wherein she had extolled herself as one that should never cease to prophesy even after her death” ( Wherefore the Pythian Priestess Now Ceases to Deliver Her Oracles in Verse 9) He later writes, “but I am constrained to claim your first promise, to tell me the reason wherefore now the Pythian prophetess no longer delivers her oracles in poetic numbers and measuresand also the temple of Tellus, to which the oracle appertained, and where the answers were delivered in verses and song.” ( Wherefore the Pythian Priestess Now Ceases to Deliver Her Oracles in Verse 17) See William W. Goodwin, Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1911), 77, 86-87.
[111] The Roman poet Lucan (A.D. 39-65) reflects the contempt for such oracles by the Romans when he writes, “They had now come to the Temple, the only one which among the Libyan nations the uncivilized Garamantes possess. There stands Jupiter, the foreteller of destiny, as they relate; but not either brandishing the lightnings or like to ours, but Ammon with crooked horns.” ( Pharsalia 9.593-598) See H. T. Riley, The Pharsalia of Lucan (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853), 359.
[112] C. H. Prichard, “Oracle,” In A Dictionary of the Bible, ed. James Hastings (), 629.
[113] The Sibylline Oracles, translated by H. C. O. Lanchester, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books, vol. 2, ed. R. H. Charles (electronic edition), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004).
[114] Plutarch writes, “The interpreters of the sacred mysteries acted without any regard to us, who desired them to contract their relation into as few words as might be, and to pass by the most part of the inscriptions.” ( Wherefore the Pythian Priestess Now Ceases to Deliver Her Oracles in Verse 2) See William W. Goodwin, Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1911), 70.
Rom 16:25, “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,”
1Co 2:7, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:”
Eph 1:9, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:”
Eph 3:3-4, “How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)”
Eph 3:9, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”
Eph 6:19, “And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,”
Col 1:26, “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:”
Col 2:2, “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;”
Col 4:3, “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:”
1Ti 3:9, “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.”
Act 7:38, “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:”
Rom 3:2, “Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.”
Heb 5:12, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”
1Pe 4:11, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
The reference to pillars and foundations of the Church in 1Ti 3:15 suggests that Paul had in mind the ancient Greek and Roman temples with their practice of divination, and that he compares this pagan scene of worship to the New Testament Church and the Holy Scriptures, which serve as its pillars and foundation.
1Ti 3:16 “God was manifest in the flesh” Comments – The phrase “God was manifested in the flesh” (1Ti 3:16) is one of the clearest passages in Bible that Jesus Christ is God. Many people ask, “How can this be, God coming in the flesh?” Mary asked the same question (Luk 1:34). According to Luk 1:35, the angel gave the simple explanation that the cloud of glory would descend upon Mary and cover, or envelope, her. The divinity of Jesus Christ is in fact a great mystery. Other verses showing that Jesus is God manifested in the flesh (Joh 1:14, Col 1:15, Heb 1:3, 1Jn 1:2).
Luk 1:34-35, “Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
Joh 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Col 1:15, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:”
Heb 1:3, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”
1Jn 1:2, “(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)”
1Ti 3:16 “justified in the spirit” Comments – The Greek word “justified” ( ) (G1344) in 1Ti 3:16 is not used in the usual strict sense of the Christian believer’s position before God being made righteous through the redemption work of Christ Jesus on Calvary; but rather, it is the general sense that He was shown to be the Son of God by the agency of the Holy Ghost. Thus, BDAG translates it “proven to be right” in this verse. B. H. Carroll translates this phrase, “He was vindicated by the Spirit.” [115] Jesus proven to be the Son of God by the Holy Ghost through the miracles that He performed under the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Mat 3:16, Joh 1:33, Rom 1:4). This vindication of the Holy Spirit of the deity of Jesus Christ continued after the Resurrection by His outpouring and anointing upon the apostles and other New Testament saints. This vindication includes the entire work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and the New Testament Church.
[115] Malcolm B. Yarnell, III, ed., Southwestern Journal of Theology 51:2 (Spring 2009): 135.
Mat 3:16, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:”
Joh 1:33, “And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.”
Rom 1:4, “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:”
1Ti 3:16 “seen of angels” Comments – When are these angelic visitations recorded in Scripture? Angels were present at important events in Jesus’ life and ministry. Note:
At Jesus’ birth:
Luk 2:10-14, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Heb 1:6, “And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.”
After Jesus’ forty day fast:
Mat 4:11, “Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”
At the garden of Gethsemane:
Luk 22:43, “And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.”
At His resurrection:
Mat 28:2, “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.”
At His ascension:
Luk 24:4, “And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:”
Act 1:10-11, “And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
1Ti 3:16 Comments – Since 1Ti 3:16 declares the fundamental tenets of the early Church, it serves as an early Church creed, in which the fundamental events in the life of Jesus Christ and the Church establish the pillars of truth mentioned in 1Ti 3:15. This verse acknowledges that the divine work of redemption and its pillars of truth that it upholds in the Christian faith (1Ti 3:15) are a great mystery. Jesus’ virgin birth and the miraculous events surrounding His birth are a foundational truth to the Gospel, as well as the miracles that He performed under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The witness of angelic visitations is also a part of the Gospel; for at every key event in His life there were angels present to minister to Him. The miracles that accompany the preaching of the Gospel and the testimonies of souls that are converted also serve as a testimony to the truth of the Gospel. Christ’s ascension into Heaven is a testimony to His deity, where He now sits at the right hand of the Father. The fact that the Ascension preceded the preaching of the Gospel by the early Church supports the view that Paul is listing the fundamental tenets of the early Church. So, although it is a mystery in respect to man’s ability to understand Christ’s deity and in understanding the miraculous and the heavenly and angelic realm that exists around us, nonetheless, these events serve as a testimony that establishes the truth of the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
1Ti 3:16 Scripture References – Note a similar verse:
Rom 16:25-26, “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Training of the Leaders: A Sincere Faith The next stage in setting a church in order is to train those who have been called out as bishops and deacons. Paul first establishes the purpose and function of the Church on earth by saying that it is “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1Ti 3:15), placed upon this earth to reveal the “mystery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” (1Ti 3:16). Thus, 1Ti 3:14-16 establishes our faith. However, there are those who will depart from this foundation of faith in Christ because of seducing spirits that deceive men with doctrines of devils (1Ti 4:1-5). Therefore, Timothy is to teach sound doctrine by “reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (1Ti 4:6-16). It is in the continuation of teaching sound doctrine that a sincere faith is developed among the leadership as well as laity.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Defining the Role of the Church 1Ti 3:14-16
2. Warnings of Apostasy 1Ti 4:1-5
3. Exhortation to Teach Sound Doctrine 1Ti 4:6-16
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Purpose of Paul’s letter and a Doxology.
v. 14. These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly;
v. 15. but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
v. 16. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. The apostle here, as in 1Co 4:14, interrupts his discussions with a remark which concerns the entire letter in its purpose, and, as usual, adds a doxology in praise of God’s salvation: This I am writing you, hoping to come to you soon; but in case I am detained that you may see how men should conduct themselves in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, pillar and foundation of the truth. The apostle at the time of writing evidently had the object and the definite hope of visiting his beloved pupil soon. But in any event he wanted to write at least this much, send him at least this communication. Should the apostle then be detained, should unforeseen events cause him to postpone his journey, the instructions contained in this letter would at least enable Timothy to know how he was to conduct himself with all other believers in the house of God, which, as St. Paul joyfully calls out, is the Church of the living God. The office of pastor and overseer, which includes both teaching and pastoral care, is exercised in the house of God, in the Christian Church. Every minister’s work is among the members of the household of God, among the living stones that are being built up into a holy temple in the Lord. His work is done in the living God, the one and only Source of all true life, from whom all Christians continually receive strength and life. But the Church is not only the house and the temple of God, but also the pillar and bulwark of the truth. Just as the roof of a large building, the part which completes its exterior, is borne by the foundation as the bulwark of its stability and by the pillars which rest upon the foundation, so it is with the divine truth in the Church. The Church is bearer and home of the divine truth of the Gospel, which she has received as a precious gift. This truth she must guard and uphold against all tempests and against all the onslaughts of her enemies; and this she can do because her foundation is Jesus Christ, the Rock against whom the portals of hell cannot prevail.
As usual, the thought of the glory of the gifts which have been given to the believers by Christ causes the thoughts of the apostle to rise in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the great Lord of the Church: And admittedly great is the mystery of godliness: Who was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared to angels, was preached among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was received up in glory. The mystery of the Gospel-truth not only works regeneration, but also sanctification; its purpose is to work true godliness, the proper reverence and worship of God. The apostle now characterizes this mystery in a hymn which he either composed at this writing or which he quoted from the liturgy of the Church as then in use, a wonderful hymn in praise of the exalted Christ.
It was the second person of the Godhead, true God from eternity, who, in the fullness of time, was manifested in the flesh. He had not been visible to men before, they had not seen Him face to face. But He now appeared in the flesh, in the form and likeness of our sinful flesh, Rom 8:3; Joh 1:14; He became a true man like us, but without sin. As the representative of mankind, however, He was justified in the spirit, in the divine nature which was communicated to His flesh. According to both natures Christ carried out the work of redemption, bearing our sins, suffering and dying according to His human nature, reconciling the wrath of God and conquering death and hell according to His divine nature. God has accepted the redemption of Christ; the Redeemer has been declared justified before God and the whole world, 1Pe 3:18.
In the next verse of his inspired hymn, the apostle declares that Christ appeared to angels. Just as the good angels often served the Lord in the days of His humiliation, Mat 4:11: Luk 22:43, as they were present at His birth, after His temptation, at His resurrection, so He now permitted them to view the fullness of His glorification when He was making His triumphal entry into the halls of heaven. See Psa 47:1-9; Psa 24:7-10; Isa 63:1-19. The ascension of Christ incidentally marked the beginning of a new era in Gospel proclamation. Before that the Gospel had been preached to Gentiles only in individual cases, the chief work of Christ and the apostles having been confined to the lost sheep out of the house of Israel. But the ascension of Christ, with Pentecost, changed all this very decidedly. Now His servants went out into all the world and preached the Gospel to every creature, placed Christ before the face of all men as the Savior of the world. This work of preaching Christ to the Gentiles must continue till the full number of the elect has heard the glad message and the last day dawns.
That the preaching of the Gospel does not return void, the apostle proclaims in the last verse of his hymn: He was believed on in the world. Christ, the content of all Gospel preaching, is also the object of faith. Wherever the message of redemption is proclaimed, there faith is wrought. True, indeed, the great mass, the majority of men, reject Christ and His salvation; He is not believed on by the world. But in the world, in the midst of the sinners that have come short of the glory of God, there are always some hearts that are won for the Gospel of Christ, that believe in Christ as their Savior. And this faith of the Christians does not rely upon a mere man, still living in lowliness and humility in their midst, but upon Him who was received up into glory and in glory. Christ, according to His human nature, has now entered into the full use of the divine majesty, which was communicated to Him as man, in the state of humiliation. He is over all, God blessed forever! Amen.
Summary. The apostle discusses the qualifications and duties of the offices of bishops and deacons and concludes with a reference to the purpose of his letter and a splendid doxology addressed to the exalted Christ.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
1Ti 3:14-15 . The apostle has come here to a resting-point, since he has brought to an end his instructions regarding some of the chief points to be noticed in the affairs of the church; but, before passing to any new matter, he casts a glance back on the instructions he has given, and tells what was the occasion of his giving them.
] Bengel’s explanation: “ , i.e. totam epistolam,” in which Hofmann agrees, [136] is so far right, that refers rather to the instructions that precede (from 1Ti 2:1 onward).
] does not give the real (“hoping,” Matthies), but the adversative ground (Leo: Part. per seu similem particulam esse resolvendum, nexus orationis docet; so, too, Wiesinger, van Oosterzee, Plitt). The real ground is given by the following . Hofmann asserts, but does not prove, that this view does not accord with the following . Hofmann finds that only expresses an accompaniment of the act of writing, and that it was added “lest Timothy should infer from the sending of an epistle that the apostle meant to leave him for some time in Ephesus;” but in this he imports a motive of which the context furnishes no hint.
(comp. on this form, Winer, p. 67 [E. T. p. 81]; Buttmann, p. 24) is here taken by most expositors as a pure positive “soon;” the comparative sense (according to Winer, pp. 227 f. [E. T. p. 304]), though in the background, has not wholly disappeared: “sooner” (not “than the arrival of this letter,” or “than thou wilt have need of these instructions,” Winer) “than is or was to be expected.”
In spite of this hope, the apostle’s arrival might possibly be longer delayed, and this possibility had induced him to impart his instructions by writing, lest Timothy should be without them.
(the verb only here and at 2Pe 3:9 ), ] refers not so much to the Christian life in general, as to behaviour in church life, viz. in divine service and in church arrangements. This limitation is clearly indicated by the connection with what precedes, the referring us back (in opposition to Hofmann). Its subject is either Timothy, in which case is to be supplied (Luther: “how thou shouldst walk;” so, too, Wiesinger), or no definite subject should be supplied: “how one should walk.” [137] Both explanations are possible in language and in fact; but the second may be preferred, because Paul in the preceding part (to which refers) did not say what Timothy was to do, but what arrangements were to prevail in the church; Hofmann thinks differently, as he understands of the whole epistle. The expression denotes properly the temple at Jerusalem (Mat 21:13 ), then also the O. T. people as the church in which God had His dwelling (Heb 3:2 ; Heb 3:5 ); in Christian usage it is the N. T. people in whom the dwelling of God has been fully realized; Heb 3:6 (Heb 10:21 ); 1Pe 4:17 ; synonymous with it are the expressions: , Eph 2:22 ; , 1Co 3:16 ; 2Co 6:16 .
To elucidate the symbolic expression, Paul adds: ] The pronoun (= “seeing it”) makes the explanatory sentence emphatic, by indicating why there should be such behaviour in the house of God as Paul had prescribed (which Hofmann denies); and the reason is not simply that it is an , i.e. a church, and as such has necessarily certain definite ordinances, but still more definitely because it is a church of God, of the living God, who as such esteems highly His ordinances in His church.
There follow in simple apposition the words: ] These words are in apposition to . ., and as such are rightly explained by the older [138] and most of recent commentators (Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Beza, Mack, Matthies, de Wette, Wiesinger, Hofmann; now, too, by van Oosterzee, 3d ed. [139] ). Some Protestant commentators, however, influenced by their polemic against the Catholic idea of the church, have taken these words as the beginning of the following sentence (first, in the edition of the N. T. at Basel, 1540, 1545; later, Bengel, Mosheim, Heydenreich, Matt; formerly also van Oosterzee). The reasons against this construction are (1) That the new thought would be taken up in a very abrupt and sudden manner, while by connecting it with the previous words, the train of thought is suitable and natural; (2) That “grammatically the third defining term, simply adjectival, . , cannot well be placed in co-ordination with two predicates like and ” (Wiesinger, following Schleiermacher); and (3) That, whereas is nothing else than the , this construction would make the former designate the latter as . , which would clearly be unsuitable. There is manifestly nothing to be said for the opinion of some commentators, [140] that by . . . we are to understand Timothy. [141]
in the figurative sense occurs only here and at Gal 2:9 ; Rev 3:12 . The is called , inasmuch as the pillar supports and bears the roof resting on it (see Meyer on Gal 2:9 ), but not “inasmuch as it serves to elevate something and make it manifest” (Hofmann). The same idea is expressed by the second word: , the base, foundation (similarly , 2Ti 2:19 ), a word which is only used here in the N. T. The thought that the divine truth is supported and borne by the church, has nothing startling when we remember that the church, as the , has the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of truth; the Spirit of truth, therefore, is its indwelling, all-penetrating principle of life, by which it stands in closest communion with its head. [142] But if the church is set up to be the preserver of divine truth, it is all the more important that all should be well-ordered in it. These words stand, therefore, in close connection with what precedes; but, at the same time, they make the transition to what follows, where the apostle in a few brief characteristics gives the nature of the truth, that he may from this point return to his polemic against the heretics, and continue it further.
[136] Hofmann’s assertion, that the reference of to what precedes is forbidden by the present (for which we should have had ), is contradicted by 1Co 4:14 ; 1Co 14:37 ; 2Co 13:10 ; Gal 1:20 ; also by 1Jn 2:1 .
[137] The impersonal is usually joined with the accusative and infinitive, the infinitive denoting the thing, the accusative the person who must do the action expressed by the verb. More frequently the person is not named, but is easily supplied from the context, as e.g. in Mat 23:23 , where , in Luk 12:12 , where again , and in Luk 15:32 , where is to be supplied. Hofmann is therefore wrong in asserting that there is no linguistic justification for supplying here, where precedes. Sometimes, however, refers to no particular person; so Joh 4:20 : ; Act 5:29 : ; Act 15:5 : ; Tit 1:11 : ; the in that case corresponds to the English “one must.” It is arbitrary, with Hofmann, to supply here, and understand by it one who “has to govern a house of God.”
[138] Theodore of M. rightly says: , , . . , .
[139] Van Oosterzee is, however, inclined to conjecture that “there is here a corruption of the text which cannot now be restored with certainty.”
[140] Gregory of Nyssa ( de Vita Mosis ): , , , .
[141] Though Chrysostom construes rightly, he yet inverts the meaning of the sentence: ., .
[142] Wiesinger rightly calls attention to the distinction which should be made between “the truth as it is in itself, and the truth as it is acknowledged in the world,” and then says: “in the former respect it needs no support, but bears itself; in the latter, it needs the church as its support, as its bearer and preserver.” If the Catholic Church has drawn wrong conclusions from the apostle’s words, it has itself to blame, and not the apostle.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
VIII
Weightiness of the preceding admonition for the Church
1Ti 3:14-16
14These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: 15But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how7 thou oughtest [one ought] to behave thyself [ones self] in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: [,] God [Who] was8 manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Ti 3:14. These things write I unto thee. The Apostle does not mean here the whole Epistle, but only the admonitions which he has given in chaps. 2 and 3. Probably, before he parted from Timothy, he had left behind for him a general direction, but not special rules for each individual case. He now does this, hoping, &c. does not mean the cause of his writing, but is to be taken sensu adversativo, although I hope; see Winer, p. 214.To come shortly; properly, sooner;, in comparative; i. e., sooner than is expected, or perhaps than I think of. The various readings, , , or , are only expository corrections, against which we hold, difficilior lectio prferenda; for which reason Tischendorf has justly retained the Recepta. Besides, the comparative , Joh 13:27, is used in almost the same sense with .
1Ti 3:15. But if I tarry long, &c. It might happen that the expectation of Paul to return soon would be disappointed; and in order to prevent any embarrassment to Timothy, he writes him the necessary instructions. , the same word used 2Pe 3:9 of the promise of Christs coming. That Paul will meet Timothy in Corinth, to go with him to Macedonia (Otto), is a conjecture, only forced on the text to favor a pet hypothesis.How thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. The expression has a general sense, although it apparently refers to Timothy in particular. The explanatory has this degree of weight (Luther, too, reads, how thou shouldst behave); but critically the evidence is too weak to admit it into the text. See Tischendorf on this passage. means not Christian life in general, but here the life of the Christian officer, which belonged to Timothy and his fellow-episcopi. The scene of this is the house of God, the Christian community not exclusively in Ephesus, but in general.House of God, . It is well known how frequently this scriptural expression occurs in the other letters of Paul; most strikingly 1Co 3:917. If the temple at Jerusalem, as well as Israel itself, the Old Testament people, bore this name (Mat 21:13; Heb 3:2; Heb 3:5), it might certainly be used with greater truth of the Church of the New Testament. It is the house whose owner is God, since He built it, inhabits it, and will complete it in His own way and time (comp. Lisco, Parables of Jesus, 4th ed., p. 505). The conception of inward unity, as well as of indestructible steadfastness, is obviously expressed in this word. These attributes are possessed by the Christian church, because it is the house of the living God. Bengels remark is deeply spiritual: Ecclesia Dei viventis opponitur fano Dian Ephesiorum. Vita Dei fundamentum spei nostr, cap. i1Tim 1Ti 3:10, et fons veritatis, h. l.Pillar and ground of the truth. We have thus reached by degrees one of the most difficult passages in these Epistles. The words which are chiefly to be discussed offer nothing doubtful in a literal sense. is the support on which the roof of a house rests, its upholding pillar (comp. Rev 3:12; Gal 2:9). Wahl says very truly: Omne id, cui ut primario et pr ceteris insigni innititur aliquid. means the ground, the foundation (comp. , 2Ti 2:19), which is as necessary for the stability of the whole house. Pillar and ground of the truth can only refer to the religious truth personally revealed and manifest in Christ. But now the question is, whether these words are in apposition to just before, or belong to , …, just following them. Both constructions have been often defended and attacked with alternate success by learned and devout men. In De Wette and Huther may be found the names of the various champions of either view. Here, where we do not aim at strict exegetical discussions, but rather to give the results of our own inquiries, we shall simply state why the latter view, as is seen in our translation, seems preferable to the former. The statement of Pauls design in the preceding portion is already closed with 1Ti 3:15; and while the description of the church as the house of the living God has a good and valid sense, the following phrase, a pillar and ground of the truth, if it be considered as an addition to this figurative expression, is exceedingly dull and heavy. It is most improbable that the Apostle should in one breath describe the church, which he has called an , as also a . We cannot possibly expect such a violation of all sthetic rule from a man like Paul. The conception of the church as such a pillar and ground of the truth, is indeed quite explicable in a sound sense, yet it is in itself far from clear and as far from Pauline (comp. 1Co 3:11). But if the new proposition (1Ti 3:16) begins with the words . , then the copulative is entirely without a purpose, and a singular commencement, too, of a proposition. We need not here recall the misuse made by Romish interpreters of the idea: The church a pillar of the truth (comp. Calvin on this passage). A striking view of this conception of the church, as columna veritatis, in the Protestant light, is given by Melanchthon on this sentence.For all these reasons, we believe that we are right in beginning, with , a new proposition, which continues to the end of the chapter. It must be granted that the construction remains singular and hard: ; especially the article had best be removed, if, according to our view, . is the predicate of . . Yet we do not find this objection so overwhelming, as Grotius and others do, against our construction. The evolution of thought is rapid; the Apostle speaks so forcibly, that he does not painfully weigh and arrange his words. The representation of the ., …, in 1Ti 3:16, directly after, as not only a , but as likewise a . , the denial and opposition to which is fully noticed 1Ti 4:1, is entirely in the Apostles spirit; who, as we know already in earlier letters, gives a special importance to the essentials of the gospel. If a new chapter had been begun with the words, a pillar and ground of the truth, the whole connection would perhaps have been viewed in another light. The interpretation of . as referring solely to Timothy, deserves scarcely any notice save as an exegetical oddity. To exhort a pillar to behave itself (), sounds a little hyperbolical. Only three of the foremost Apostles are called , Gal 2:9; but never their associates.
1Ti 3:16. And without controversy great, &c., . , … This must, as ., be regarded as the introduction of the summary statement ., … is the Pauline expression for that truth, before hidden, now brought to light (see Eph 3:3-5); . , that which is the object of ., like . . . (1Ti 3:9); whence it appears that the translation, a godly mystery (Luther), is somewhat arbitrary. This mystery is great, not wholly unfathomable (comp. Mat 13:12), deep in meaning, weighty (comp. 1Co 9:11), confessedly great, ; not strictly, made known (Luther), but rather in the sense of indubitable, secundum id quod in confesso est apud omnes. Summa; a mystery now revealed, whose weight and worth no Christian can doubt. What, now, is this mystery? The very thing called . . . The phrase lacks, indeed, in a degree, the climax which we might here expect; but this difficulty vanishes when we balance against it the fact that the Apostle has expressed his meaning first in a tropic, then in a literal mode; whilst the following clauses show now in their order what the subject is which was called improprie a pillar and ground, proprie a mystery of godliness. The remark of Wiesinger, following Schleiermacher, that the third adjective of definition, . , cannot grammatically be connected with two predicates like and , seems to us at least without any proof. [The reference of the pillar and ground to the church, is more strongly sustained by exegetical argument, both by writers of older and later times, than this view of our author. Huther, Schleiermacher, and Wiesinger, among many, hold the grammatical construction to point to . Alford has perhaps summed the evidence as concisely as any of our English expositors; and in his view the structure of the whole passage demands this application. His answer to the chief objection offered by our commentator, on the score of good taste, seems sufficient, viz., that the contains in itself pillar and basement. Conybeare is one of the few who apply the phrase to Timothy; but this sense seems frigid, and unworthy of this great passage. There is a striking suggestion of Arnold, which may well be added: If the words are to be applied to the church, they do not describe what it is de facto, but what it ought to be. Take care that no error through thy fault creep into that church, which was designed by God to be nothing but a pillar and basis of truth; Life and Letters, p. 31, 1Ti 5:2, Amer. ed.W.]God was manifest in the flesh [Who was manifest in the flesh, in the German version]. The translation given above expresses already our probable judgment on this well-known crux criticorum. We can with a good critical conscience wholly agree with the steadily increasing number who regard neither nor , but , as the original reading. See Tischendorf, N. T., ed. 7, on this passage; and compare the very valuable Excursus ad 1Ti 3:16 in his edition of the Codex Ephr Syri rescriptus, 1843. The Codex Sinaiticus has also confirmed the reading as the only true one. Paul might, indeed, from his Christological standpoint, have very justly written ; but it does not at all follow that he has done so. It is hardly credible that the original reading should have been changed to ; but very explicable that the original should have been changed to . Were the true reading (Matthi, Scholz, Rinck), it would be passing strange that such decisive proof-texts should never have been used by the orthodox church fathers in the Arian and other controversies; and, again, Cyril, in his reply to the Emperor Julian, who denied that Paul had ever called Christ , has not appealed in a word to this passage, as he would almost surely have done had he known the Lectio Recepta. Besides, we find in the following clauses several expressions (e.g., and ) which could hardly be used of God absolutely, but only of the . For all these reasons, the reading is not only critically but exegetically proved to be best; and the view often expressed, that it is an heretical corruption of the text, is quite exploded. To the question, whether we should supply an after before , or whether all the clauses following this refer to a subject not further named in 1Ti 3:16, we must answer by the latter opinion. The designation of the . . . has the character of a proposition, to which the apodosis is wanting; and this fragmentary style of the whole expression confirms yet more the conjecture, based on the metrical sequence of the words, and already affirmed by many, that we have here a part of an ancient Christian hymn. The unnamed subject of the proposition in 1Ti 3:16 can be only Christ; and although the reading , in our view, is not critically justified, the passage still contains, by the reading , a proof indirect but unquestionable of the Divine-human nature and dignity of the Lord. Manifest in the flesh can only be said of Him who, before His incarnation, was personally with the Father. Nay, more; it is possible to keep the reading , with Tischendorf, yet avoid all the difficulties which might possibly come from a surrender of the Recepta, if we consider the clause, . . , as a long parenthesis, and thus read the text, 1Ti 3:15-16 : ( !) , … This conjecture appears to us the simplest and most natural in the treatment of a passage so often interpreted and misinterpreted. If it be true, then the reading is critically untenable; yet it is a right exposition of the Apostles meaning, since reverts directly to . That the Apostle often uses long parentheses, appears, among several instances, from Rom 2:13-15. That he does it here, will seem less extraordinary when we consider the fulness and rapid succession of thoughts in this part of his letter. We readily grant, moreover, that objections may be raised against this view by those especially who regard . as in apposition with . . But this last view seems to us unsustained; and thus the only question is, in the choice of the many expositions, which has the fewest difficulties? We have from our point of view the double advantage, that we need neither violate our critical conscience, nor surrender a dictum probans for the divinity of Christ.Manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit. Six connected clauses, which, in the original especially, have a very euphonic and metrical character.Manifest in the flesh. Man is flesh; the Son of God is manifest in the flesh, since He came forth from the Father, with whom He personally pre-existed (1Jn 1:2). The birth of the Lord is the starting-point of this manifestation; its scene His whole earthly life. Bengel: Hc manifestatio dicit totam occonomiam Christi, oculis quondam mortalium conspicui. If the excellence of this Divine manifestation is misjudged and despised by many, yet God has confirmed it in the most undoubted way. ; He is proved to be the very Person He truly was (for this sense of justified, comp. Luk 7:35). He is by His divine glory known , not as Spirit (Baur), but in the Spirit, whereby this His is effected. The Spirit who dwells and works in Him, not by measure (Joh 3:34), and raised Him at last from the dead (Rom 1:3-4), reveals Him in His high nature and dignity. We have here, without any arbitrary severance of the connection, a reference to all by which His divine origin is made known (comp. Joh 1:14). In what way has this wondrous announcement of this wondrous manifestation been given? Paul answers in the two following clauses.Seen of angels, ; not the Apostles, which would not be the common use of the word, but the angels of heaven, who often ministered to Him in the days of His humiliation (Mat 4:11; Luk 22:43), and to whom, after His resurrection, He revealed Himself in His godlike glory. The power of Christ over these heavenly beings is not here meant (Mack), but the vision of His glory by those who wonder at the brightness which they have never before seen, or at least not in such perfection. Comp. 1Pe 1:12; Eph 3:10; Heb 1:6. Chrysostom: , . He alludes probably to a heavenly scene, the contrast of the descent into hell; De Wette. If we take as the subject of this clause, we may perhaps find expressed here the thought, that God, through His manifestation in Christ, has been revealed in a higher light before the angels. Whatever the truth of this, He who has thus revealed Himself in heaven, has not been forgotten on earth.Preached unto the Gentiles.., in a general sense, implying that the nations have received, through the preaching of the gospel, the same truth which the angels received by visionthe glory of Christ, the Lord. Wiesinger justly says: It is a new commandment to both; and the mystery lies in this union of heaven and earth around His person, in this wonderful blending of such entire opposites. It is not the contrast between Jew and heathen, but between human and superhuman beings, which the Apostle directly regards.The third couplet denotes, finally, the results of this whole manifestation, and its announcement. It had not been in vain. It was believed on in the world, . This last word must be here taken in an ethical sense, quite like 1Jn 2:15; 1Jn 5:19. Amidst the multitude of those who reject Him, the Son of God has found faith with many where He has been preached (comp. 2Th 1:10); and is finally received up into glory, . It is the most natural view to refer this to the ascension of the Lord (comp. Luk 24:40; Luk 24:51); nor is it any insuperable difficulty that the foregoing clauses in part allude to a period after His ascension, since the Apostle does not design to give a chronological view of the events in the life of Jesus. Meanwhile, we need not refer this last clause ( ) to the ascension exclusively, any more than the first ( ) to the nativity of Christ. We may embrace in the conception His whole heavenly life in glory, taking the expression per attractionem; , . Calvin: Ergo sicuti in mundo quoad fidei obedientiam ita et in Christo person mira fuit conversio, dum ex tam abject servi conditione erectus est ad dexteram Patris, ut illi flectatur omne genu. The three couplets thus bring before our vision the advancing glory of this Divine manifestation in Christ in a series of acts, whose beginning is the earth, whose closing is in heaven. It may appear, perhaps, an incidental feature, that the whole consists of two chief divisions, of which earth has two subdivisions; the first two embracing the events on earth, the third those of heaven (Huther). In any case, Paul has not arranged this division in such an order by any arbitrary rule of art. We probably, therefore, have, as already suggested by Winer, Wiesinger, De Wette, Huther, and others, in this whole passage the fragment of an ancient church hymn (as Eph 5:14), or a symbol of faith, which, when the praise was sung, perhaps in some strophe. no longer known to us, may have been as follows
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
All this is, in the Apostles view, the great mystery of godlinessthe pillar and ground of the truth, on which the house of God (1Ti 3:14) rests unshaken; and it is an apostasy from this in the bosom of the same church to which he looks forward (1Ti 4:1). Compare Rambach, Anthology of Christian Hymns in all Ages of the Church, i. p. 33, et seq.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The tone in which the Apostle here speaks to his friend and scholar Timothy, and the deference which he expects in the performance of his instructions, give us a fresh proof of his apostolic authority.
2. The tabernacle and temple of the old covenant, in which it is said that God dwelt in a special manner, were a type of the Christian Church with all its blessings; and Israel, the people of the elder revelation, a pattern of the kingly and priestly race of the new covenant.
3. It is the essential character of Christianity, that it does not rest on abstract conceptions, and inferences of reason, but on undeniable and changeless facts (1Jn 1:1-3). The whole sum of the Christian revelation is in the person and history of its Founder, which the Apostle here condenses in a few words. Each new proposition which he offers opens a new world of Divine wisdom and love. The creed here recorded is not the confession of particular churches, but of the one holy, catholic Church of Christ in all centuries; the oldest formula concordithe standard of the true Church against the unbelieving world, on which a higher hand has written, in hoc signo vinces.
4. The preceding words are most important, as clearly explaining to us the meaning of the . The older theology considered mysteries as dogmas, which lie wholly beyond and above the sphere of men, which are to all eternity unsearchable to the finite understanding, and therefore best veiled in a holy obscurity. Paul does not acknowledge many mysteries; he knows one only great mystery, whose chief truth is here revealed; and this is its specific characteristic, that it was before hid, but is now manifest. Yet there is no ground in such a view for the position of modern rationalism, that this mystery, now revealed, may be completely apprehended by man. Even a revealed mystery has its dark, hidden side. The sun, which has been long veiled by the clouds, and suddenly breaks forth in its full light, blinds the eyes as truly as the darkness. Mysteria quantumvis revelata, vel sic tamen obscura manent (comp. 1Co 13:11-12). When Paul presents the mystery as the object of the , he indirectly reproves their arrogance, who think with their bounded understanding to search the deep things of God, instead of keeping them in the sanctuary of a holy heart.
5. This confession of faith is only the fuller exposition of the testimony which the Lord (Joh 16:28) gave of Himself. The last words should not be overlooked, in which the question is answered, whether Paul taught or no the bodily ascension of the Lord Jesus.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Paul a pattern of tireless apostolic activity in speech and writing.Timothy, however rich in spiritual gifts, yet in his church duties directed by the authority of Paul.The minister of the gospel must above all know how to behave himself in the house of God.The Church of Christ a house of the living God: (1) Builded of God; (2) inhabited by God; (3) consecrated by God; (4) completed through God.The greatest blessings of the old covenant are not lost in the new, but lavished in fuller measure.The manifest mystery of the grace of God in Christ the essential fact we have in Christianity.The personal, historic, living Christ the ground of His Church.Gods glory in Christ: (1) Manifest; (2) declared; (3) crowned with the desired success.The Divine manifestation: (1) A mystery; (2) a mystery which passeth knowledge; (3) a mystery which the godly alone can understand and prize, and which alone can lead to godliness.The marvellous facts of the gospel history a chain, in which not a link is wanting.From these facts the preaching of the gospel must proceed, and to it constantly return.The minister of the gospel is not called to declare to the church the religious ideas of his time, but Gods eternal truths of redemption and salvation.
Starke: Anton: A Christian minister must not sit always in his study, but must go hither and thither.Hedinger: The Church may fail, but not fall.Anton: Behold the Church directly in your sight What it is in Gods eyes, let it be in yours.. This mystery is great: (1) In its origin, for it comes from the inconceivably and inexpressibly great love of the heavenly Father; (2) in its own character, for who can think or know how it is possible for One greater than all angels, yea, equal to the Father in power and glory, to have been manifest in the flesh; (3) in its purpose, which is the salvation of lost men, lying in the utmost ruin.The same: The gospel is full of mystery; it must be judged not by the reason, but by Gods revelation (2Co 10:5).Preachers, who carry into the pulpit an empty babble, which leads not to godliness, are not gospel teachers (1Ti 1:4; 1Ti 4:7).The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, received in faith and shown in godliness, leads to eternal glory (1Ti 4:10; Act 16:30-31).Heubner: Each Christian community must be a community of the living God.All Christians must agree in the essential truth of the Christian faith.Christianity is the holiest and worthiest revelation of God.The spread of the gospel is an outward enlargement of the glory of Jesus; the greater the number of His worshippers, the greater His kingdom.
Lisco: The inmost kernel of the Christian doctrine of salvation.The confessedly great and blessed mystery of the Incarnation: (1) A mystery; (2) the godly power which renews our life.
[Bishop Hall, Mystery of Godliness: He that should have seen Thee, O Saviour, working in Josephs shop, or walking in the fields of Nazareth, would have looked upon Thee as mere man; neither thy garb nor countenance betrayed any difference in Thee from ordinary men. It was Thine all-working and co-essential Spirit, by whose mighty operations Thy divinity was made known to the world.
Bishop Andrewes, Resp. ad Bellarminum, 1Tim 14: We reject not the voice of the Church; nay, we all do venerate it. But the Church to us meaneth not the Pontiff, or the Roman curia; nor, unless you have so prejudged it in your mind, will this title of the Church much advantage you. It is the pillar of the truth, yea, verily; not that the truth is sustained by it, but itself by the truth. This pillar truly hangeth not in the air; it hath a basis: but where, save in the word of God?W.]
Footnotes:
[8]1Ti 3:16.See the exegetical explanations. [There are difficulties here both in the proper reading and in the translation. is easily convertible into . In the Oriental Church the powerful Christological interest might easily have overlooked an alteration in the text, which was the result either of inadvertence, or of a design to give greater emphasis to the doctrine of the Incarnation here enunciated. We find that the reading in the Lectionaries, in Chrysostom, Theodoret, John of Damasc., cumenius, Theophylact, and others, was ; but this was not the reading of the great uncial MSS. Bishop Pearson has an elaborate note upon this text (Creed, Am. ed., p. 194), in which he assumes, however, that the Greek copies all read , which is an error. It is not denied that many of the Greek fathers read ; the question is, what is the evidence that it is the true reading? The reader is referred to the authors critical remarks.Nor is the translation easy. Our author is ingenious here, hut not convincing. He brackets the following words: (Ein Pfeiler und Grundfeste der Wahrheit, und anerkannt gross ist das Geheimniss der Gottseligkeit) = a pillar and ground of the truth, and confessedly great is the mystery of godliness. He thus connects the clause, great is the mystery of godliness, with what precedes. It has, indeed, a connection with the foregoing, but not in the way of grammatical structure. We can, with the modern critical editors, place a full period at the end of the 15th verse. Then we can find the logical connection thus: the mystery of godliness is the truth just referred to; the especial substance of that truth is then expressed in the words that follow: Who was manifest, &c. Yet creates the greatest difficulty in the way of structure. But it may (so Huther) be regarded as referring to a subject not yet named expressly, but which, of course, must be Christ. Then, if we regard the passage as taken from a current Christian hymn, the difficulty disappears in a measure.E. H.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
V
THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH
1Ti 3:14-16
Our last discussion closed with 1Ti 3:13 , on the officers of the church, their qualifications and duties. The closing paragraph of the chapter is devoted to setting forth the mission of the church in relation to the truth and what the elements of the truth. Since the contention that there is now existing a universal church is based upon the broad statement applied to the church in the letter to the Ephesians, I am glad that in the passage now to be considered, and in the address of Paul at Miletus to the elders of the church at Ephesus (see Act 20 ), we see the broadest of these terms applied to the particular church at Ephesus.
Now, let us read: “These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, but if I tarry long thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Here “the house of God,” “the church of the living God,” “the pillar and ground of the truth,” “the flock,” “the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood,” are statements just as broad as we can find in the letter to the Ephesians, and yet all these broad terms are expressly applied to the one particular church at Ephesus, for he is discussing the heresies in that church, the prayer services in that church, and the officers of that church.
The reader will notice that when Paul wrote the first letter to Timothy, it shows that on this last tour of his, after his escape from the first Roman imprisonment, he had been in Asia and at Ephesus, and now expresses the hope to speedily return. In 2 Timothy, we find evidence that he did return to Ephesus, and had a very stormy time.
The word “behave” in 2Ti 3:15 refers to more than mere proprieties. It includes worship and service how church members should conduct themselves in the church assemblies. Right behavior on the part of both men and women in the worship and service of the public assembly is based on three great reasons:
1. The assembly is the church of the living God. The institution is not of human origin. It is not a Greek ecclesia humanly devised for the transaction of municipal or state business. It is not a political gathering.
2. It is a house for divine habitation. The letter to the Ephesians expresses the thought. (See Eph 2:21-22 .)
3. Because of its mission, being “The pillar and ground of the truth.” The ground of a thing is the foundation upon which the superstructure rests. A pillar is a column upholding a superstructure. The attitude of the church toward the truth is that’ it supports and upholds the truth which teaches these doctrines. The Bible alone would not save the world. There must be an organization back of the Book, an organization that has in it the elements of perpetuity, otherwise the truth would go to pieces. If there was no competent body to exercise discipline, to insist upon the gospel elements of the truth in preaching, and to exercise jurisdiction over the preachers of that doctrine, then there would be all sorts of preaching, all sorts of doctrines, and there would be no conservation of the truth.
I now answer the question: How does the church, as a pillar and foundation, uphold the truth?
1. By proclaiming it through its ministry. They carry that truth to the end of the world.
2. By exhibiting it pictorially) through the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Wherever water flows) wherever it stagnates in pools, wherever it masses in lakes, bays, or oceans, there in the yielding waves of baptism the church pictorially represents the central truths of the gospel.
3. They uphold the truth by vindicating it in their discipline. If a man comes teaching for the gospel that which is not the gospel, if a man lie and contradict the gospel, the church upholds the truth by refusing to hear, receive or in any way give him countenance. Yea, the church must expose his heresy.
4. It upholds the truth by illustrating it in all its practical life. Every Christian father and mother, brother and sister, boy and girl, every Christian citizen, is upholding the truth by illustrating it in the life.
I would not have you forget these four points by which the church upholds the truth:
1 Proclaiming it through its ministry.
2 Pictorially representing it in its two ordinances.
3 Vindicating it in discipline.
4 Illustrating it in life.
The next matter we have under consideration: What is the truth which the church is to uphold? Here we have a summary of the truth so far at is relates to the mystery of godliness. It, of course, is not a summary of all the truth, but it is a summary of the truth as it relates to the mystery of godliness and these are its six elements:
1. “God was manifested in the flesh.” It is immaterial to the sense whether we read “God was” or “who was.” Both teach the incarnation of Deity. The incarnation of the Word that was with God and that was God. Incarnation includes all that he did in that incarnation, his personal obedience to the Law, his teaching of the fulness of the New Testament law, his expiation for sin on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead. A church that does not uphold that, ought to be discountenanced and disfellowshipped as a church. That is the purport of John’s testimony. (See 1Jn 4:1-3 .)
2. “Justified in the Spirit.” Does the Spirit here mean Christ’s own human spirit, or the Holy Spirit? The revisers evidently understood it to mean Christ’s human spirit as contrasted with his flesh manifested in the flesh and justified in his spirit. Their contention is based upon the absence of the article before “Spirit” and the apparent parallels between “flesh and spirit.” The “Cambridge Bible” thus paraphrases to bring out the rhythmical effects of the several pairs in the verse: Who in flesh was manifested, Pure in spirit was attested; By angels’ vision witnessed, Among the nations heralded; By faith accepted here, Received in glory there.
This presentation is grammatical, plausible, and strong. If it be the right interpretation, the sense of “justified in spirit” would be that because sinless in his inner man, and because none were able to convict him of sin, he was justified or acquitted on his own personal life.
But the author prefers, as more in consonance with the line of thought and far more feasible, to understand it to refer to the Holy Spirit. The line of thought would then be:
1. God assumed human nature in his incarnation for the salvation of men.
2. In this incarnation the Holy Spirit justified or vindicated his Deity and its claims.
3. The angels recognized the Deity in the flesh.
4. As God in the flesh he was proclaimed to all nations.
5. Wherever thus proclaimed and attested he was accepted by faith, i.e., the truth so proclaimed and attested was credible.
6. The Father’s reception of him into glory after his resurrection was a demonstration of his Deity in the flesh and a vindication of all his claims while in the flesh.
Here we have one great proposition embodying a mystery, God was incarnated, supported by five successive evidences: The attestation of the Holy Spirit; the recognition by angels who had known him before his incarnation; the fact of its publication to all nations; the credibility of the publication, evidenced by the fact that men all over the world believed it, and the Father endorsed it all by receiving him into original glory and crowning him Lord of all.
There mere rhythm of the parallel, proverb style can never be equal in force to this line of thought. The insistence on making “spirit” mean “his human spirit” not only is redundant and tautological, since a human spirit is already stated in his being made flesh flesh meaning full human nature but in a similar construction, 1Pe 3:18-19 , such interpretation teaches most awful heresy and indefensible foolishness. Therefore, I totally dissent from the thought of the revisers. It means that when God was manifested in the flesh, he, so manifested, was vindicated justified by the Holy Spirit. If the reader asks when did the Holy Spirit justify the Deity in his incarnation, my answer is:
(1) At his baptism. Nobody could otherwise know that he was the Christ. John the Baptist could not, except by certain action of the Holy Spirit. “I knew him not,” said John, “but he that sent me to baptize gave me this sign: Upon whom thou shall see the Spirit of God descend, he is the Messiah.” And so at the baptism of Jesus Christ, as he came up out of the water, he prayed that this demonstration might take place and in the form of a dove the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him. Unenlightened men who looked at him in his humanity would say, “This is no God. This is Joseph’s son; we know his brothers and sisters.” But the Holy Spirit vindicated him in that manifestation; justified him, as did also the Father’s voice: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
(2) If the reader again asks me how next the Holy Spirit justified him, I will say that all his teachings and miracles were by the Spirit resting on him without measure.
(3) The sacrifice he made in his body for the sing of the world was through the Holy Spirit. When he made that sacrifice, according to the letter to the Hebrews, that offering was through the eternal Spirit. If man counts not that a sacrifice, the Holy Spirit did.
(4) In raising his body from the dead. They had denied his messiahship and his divinity, and demanded a sign to prove it. The sign was that God would raise him from the dead on the third day, and according to this apostle in another connection: “He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, even Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 1:4 ).
(5) Now, the fifth way that he was justified by the Holy Spirit was in the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost to accredit and give power to the church whose mission was to proclaim this truth. This was the promise and the sign without whose fulfilment the church dare not preach that mystery. The coming of another Paraclete to abide with them till the return of the absent Lord, was the supreme justification of their preaching that God was manifested in the flesh. See Joh 14:16-18 ; Joh 14:26 ; Joh 15:26 ; Joh 16:7-10 ; Joh 16:13-15 ; Act 1:4-5 ; Act 1:8 .
And so on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down and the church was baptized in that Spirit, that was his vindication.
Let’s restate the five points in which the Spirit justified him:
First, in his baptism.
Second, through whom all his teachings and miracles were wrought.
Third, in offering himself for sin.
Fourth, in raising him from the dead.
Fifth, in his coming on the day of Pentecost to abide with the church until his final advent.
That is the second element of the truth the church must ever uphold. Let us see the third element.
He was seen by angels. Men heard with indifference that a babe was born at Bethlehem. Nobody would pay any attention to such an incident as that. That babe surely was not God. But the angels who knew him up yonder in heaven recognized him in his incarnation. The flesh could not veil him from their sight. But when did the angels so recognize him? When did he have their attestation of the Godhead in his humanity?
Go back to that announcement to the shepherds, where they told the shepherds that unto the world was born a Prince and Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, and that this would be the sign: they would find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. They recognized him there.
When else did they recognize him? Just after his baptism, when he was tempted of the devil. As the first Adam was tempted, so the Second Adam was now tempted, and after triumphing in that temptation the angels recognized him, and came and ministered unto him.
The third time was when he was in the garden of Gethsemane, going there in anticipation of the awful horrors of death, as a malefactor at the hands of man; death, as a sinner at the hands of God; death, in passing into the power of Satan. When he triumphed in that temptation the angels came and ministered unto him.
And the angels will further bear witness to him when he comes to judge the world. They will come in execution of the divine will in gathering his elect, and in gathering up the tares to be burned. Man may see no divinity in that Babe of Bethlehem, but the angels recognized him, and I may add that the devil recognized him, and all the evil angels. Whatever infidelity may have existed in the minds of Pharisee or Sadducee, the evil angels made no mistake. On one occasion they said to him: “We know thee, who thou art, thou Holy One of God.” The next element of this truth is a universal gospel, to be preached among all nations. This appears from the Great Commission Mat 28:16-20 ; Mar 16:15-20 ; Luk 24:46-47 ; Joh 20:22-23 ; Col 1:23 .
This commission was not limited to Jews: “Go ye unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” “Make disciples of all nations.” That preaching was done in Paul’s time. He said the gospel was preached unto every creature under heaven, and it has been done since, generation by generation. We are doing it now. We do not limit our missionary work to America. We go to Mexicans. Brazilians, Italians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Russians, the Germans, and the Swedes, telling them how God was manifested in the flesh, was justified by the Holy Spirit, and so manifested he was recognized by angels. That is the theme of universal preaching. That this truth was believed appears from the history of its preaching.
Three thousand Jews were converted at Pentecost, and before the close of that big meeting near unto 144,000 Jews were converted. Some of the Jerusalem sinners believed on him. His great persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, believed on him. Then his gospel was carried to heathen Antioch, Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, the ends of the earth, and wherever this gospel has been faithfully preached it has been accepted and believed. It is not a gospel of empty sound. That is an element of the truth that the church is to uphold. That Jesus was received up into glory appears from this vision of him there by Stephen, Paul, and John.
But we need not go back to Pentecost and apostolic times for proof. Nor need we rely on persistent monumental evidences baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Day. Fresh evidences abound now, and we are his witnesses. If Jesus be now alive in glory he can now manifest that life. The continued work of the Holy Spirit in the call of preachers, in regenerating and sanctifying sinners, attests it. Every new convert has the witness in himself. Every prayer heard, every sad heart comforted, attests it. It is just as credible now as when first preached, and its saving power as evident.
My old-time teacher in Latin and Greek became an infidel. Our personal friendship continued till his death. He said to me once: “I like to hear you. You always interest me, but what you preach about the incarnation, its miracles, its vicarious expiation, cannot be believed. It is unscientific and therefore incredible.” I replied, “Doctor, I oppose your dogmatic affirmation, not by argument, but by the fact that it is believed, and has been believed wheresoever in the world it has been preached. Earth’s noblest, best, and wisest have believed it. Washington, Gladstone, Lee, Jackson, Chief Justice Marshall believed it. Your own mother believed it. Greenleaf, the greatest international authority on the Law of Evidence, declares it legally provable and proved. Whenever it is hid, it is hidden to those who are spiritually blind. The difficulty in its acceptance is not intellectual, but an alienation of heart from God.”
That is one of the things the church ought to uphold, one of the truths concerning godliness; that when he is preached to the world he will be believed, he will be accepted.
It has been said, if this mystery of godliness be so credible, why do not Jews, his own people, accept it? The answer is (1) Many of them did accept it. (2) Some of them now accept it. (3) In later days all of them will accept it.
Paul explains why some of them rejected it then, and most of them now reject it (2Co 3:15-16 ; Rom 11:7 ; Rom 11:10 ; Rom 11:25 ).
He foretells when and how the whole nation will one day accept it (Rom 11:11-12 ; Rom 11:26 ). In this he agrees with their ancient prophets (Isa 66:7-8 ; Ezek. 36-37; Zec 12:8-13:1 ).
Let us look at the sixth-element: “Received up in glory.” If God had not received him, all of his claims would have been set aside; but the record tells us that the last time the disciples saw him he was going up into the clouds. A prophetic psalm tells us what happened as he approached heaven, shouting: “Lift up your heads, oh ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in. Who is this King of glory? I, the Lord, mighty to save.” And when he was received up into glory, the test he gave them that he would be received was the descending of the Holy Spirit. The point is just this: If Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended up into heaven, he is alive now. That is what he says: “I am he that was dead but am alive.” If Jesus is alive he can right now manifest that life just as well as when he was alive and walking the streets of Jerusalem. Arguments on a monument are very poor things when compared with arguments based upon present evidences that Christ, the living God, is King of kings and Lord of lords.
Paul, elsewhere, gives summaries of the truths that the church is to uphold, some of them very much like this. For instance, in Romans, “It is Christ that died, he is risen again, he is exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high, he ever liveth to make intercession for us,” or as he puts it in another passage: “I delivered unto you that which I also received; how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he is risen, and that he was recognized when raised.” But these six elements here are limited to the mystery of godliness.
QUESTIONS
1. Upon what is based the contention that there now exists a universal church?
2. How does this passage written concerning the church at Ephesus and Paul’s previous address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus (Act 20 ) disprove it?
3. What the meaning of “behave themselves” in 2Ti 3:15 ?
4. On what three reasons is the exhortation to “behave” in the church assembly based and what the force of the first?
5. Prove the second from the letter to the Ephesians.
6. Explain “pillar and ground” in the third.
7. What would be the result if there were no church to uphold the truth?
8. In what four ways does the church uphold it?
9. What the one great truth the church must uphold?
10. What the six elements of the mystery of godliness?
11. How much is included in the first element, “God was manifested in the flesh”?
12. What the testimony of John on this point?
13. What should be our attitude toward a man or a so-called church denying this truth?
14. In the second element “justified in Spirit” what the controversy?
15. Give the argument and paraphrase supporting the view that it means Christ’s human spirit and ‘then the meaning of the phrase.
16. Give the author’s line of thought in support of the contention that it means the Holy Spirit.
17. Where do we find a similar construction and what heresy and foolishness result from making “spirit” in that connection mean “Christ’s human spirit”?
18. If the author’s contention be right when did the Holy Spirit justify God incarnate?
19. Explain “seen of angels” and its bearing on the line of thought.
20. When this recognition by angels?
21. Cite proof that the devil and his demons recognized God in the flesh.
22. On what three occasions did Satan himself assail God in the flesh and what the result in each case?
23. What proof in the next chapter that the demons fight this truth?
24. Where do we find embodied the next element a universal gospel?
25. What the historic evidence of the next element, “believed on in the world”?
26. What the monumental proof?
27. What the proof of today?
28. Relate the incident in this connection concerning the author’s infidel friend.
29. Where the only difficulty in its universal acceptance?
30. If it be incredible to any what the cause? Quote Paul.
31. Why do not Jews believe it? Quote Paul.
32. When will they believe it? Quote Paul and cite the prophets.
14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:
Ver. 14. Hoping to come unto thee ] And to be an eyewitness of thy diligence, whereof I doubt not, joying in the mean while, “and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ,” Col 2:5 .
14 16 .] CLOSE OF THE ABOVE DIRECTIONS by a solemn statement of their object and its glorious import . These things (the foregoing precepts, most naturally: hardly, as Bengel, ‘totam epistolam’) I write (expressed in the epistolary aorist, Phm 1:19 ; Phm 1:21 ; but in the present, 1Co 14:37 ; 2Co 1:13 ; 2Co 13:10 ; Gal 1:20 . ( 1Jn 1:4 ; 1Jn 2:1 , &c.)) to thee, hoping (‘though I hope:’ “part. per seu similem particulam esse resolvendum, nexus orationis docet.” Leo, cited by Huther) to come to thee sooner (than may seem ) (on the comparative, which must not be broken down into a positive, as it is by almost all the Commentators, see Joh 13:27 note, and Winer, edn. 6, 35. 4. Also Act 17:21 ; Act 25:10 ; Act 27:13 ; Heb 13:19 ; Heb 13:23 , which last is exactly parallel with this. Some supply it, before this Epistle come to thee: or, before thou shalt have need to put these precepts into practice: but the above seems simpler, and suits better the usage elsewhere): but if I should delay (coming ) (from to may be regarded as parenthetical, the belonging immediately to ), that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to conduct thyself (reff. Huther would take generally, ‘ how men ought to behave themselves ;’ alleging, that in the preceding, there is no direct prescription how Timotheus is himself to act, and that if we supply (as D 1 in digest), we confine the reference of to the Ephesian church. The latter objection need not detain us long. If the church in general is the house of God, then any portion of it may clearly partake of the title and the dignity. To the former, we may reply, that in fact, the whole of what has preceded does regard Timotheus’s own behaviour. He was to see to all these things to take care that all these precepts were observed) in the house of God (see reff. also Heb 3:2 ; Heb 3:5-6 , and notes: 1Co 3:16 ; 2Co 6:16 ; Eph 2:22 : that congregation among whom God dwells, by His Spirit); for such (the house of God: the brings out into prominence the appository explanation, and specially applies it to the antecedent) is the congregation ( , , . Theod.-mops.) of the living God (thus designated for solemnity, and to shew his personal and active presence among them), the pillar (see below) and basement (= , 2Ti 2:19 ; ‘firmamentum.’ It is a climax, not as Bengel, “instar unius vocubuli solidissimum quiddam exprimentis:” the is the intermediate, the the final support of the building: as Wahl, “omne id, cui ut primario et pr ceteris insigni innititur aliquid”) of the truth (these latter words are variously referred: being (1) by Camero, ErSchmid., Limborch, Le Clerc, Schttg., Beng., Mosh., Rosenm., Heinr., Wegsch., Heydenr., Flatt, al. (see in Wolf. Not Chillingworth, as stated in Bloomf.: see below), joined with the following sentence, putting a period at , and proceeding . . . . To this I can only say, that if any one imagines St. Paul, or any other person capable of writing this Epistle, able to have indited such a sentence, I fear there is but little chance in arguing with him on the point in question. To say nothing of its abruptness and harshness, beyond all example even in these Epistles, how palpably does it betray the botching of modern conjectural arrangement in the wretched anti-climax (rising in solemnity) , (what grander idea, after the basement of the whole building, does the reader suppose about to follow?) ! These two last words, which have (see below) their appropriate majesty and grandeur in their literal use at the emphatic opening of such a sentence as the next, are thus robbed of it all, and sink into the very lowest bathos; the metaphor being dropped, and the lofty imagery ending with a vague generality. If a sentence like this occurred in the Epistle, I should feel it a weightier argument against its genuineness than any which its opponents have yet adduced.
(2) by Gregory of Nyssa (de vita Mosis: vol. i. p. 385, , , , ), Chillingworth (Religion of Protestants, &c., ch. iii. 76: but he allows as possible, the reference to the Church: “if you will needs have St. Paul refer this not to Timothy, but to the Church, I will not contend about it any further, than to say, Possibly it may be otherwise”), by others mentioned in Wolf, and in our own days by Conybeare, it is taken as referring to TIMOTHEUS: “ that thou mayest know how to conduct thyself in the house of God, which is &c. as a pillar and basement of the truth .” In the very elaborate discussion of this passage by Suicer (s. v. ), he cites those fathers who seem more or less to have favoured this idea. Of these we must manifestly not claim for it those who have merely used the word or columna of an Apostle or teacher, or individual Christian, as that is justified, independently of our passage, by Gal 2:9 ; Rev 3:12 : but Greg. Naz. applies the very words to Eusebius of Samosata (Ep. xliv. 1, vol. iii. (Migne) p. 39), and to Basil (Orat. xviii. 1, vol. i. p. 330): and Basil in the Catena says, , , : and in the Epistle of the churches of Lyons and Vienne, Euseb. 1Ti 3:1 , it is said of Attalus, . Other cognate expressions, such as (Chrys., of St. Peter, Hom. xxxii. vol. v. p. 199; and Basil, of Eusebius, as above), (Greg. Naz., of Basil, Or. xviii. as above), (Thl. on Luk 22 , of St. Peter), (of Pastors, Nicephorus Hist. vii. 2), are adduced by Suicer. The principal modern reasons for adopting this view have been (a) polemical as against Roman Catholic infallibility of the Church, or (b) for uniformity of symbolism, seeing that in Gal 2:9 , Rev 3:12 , men are compared to pillars (see this very copiously illustrated in Suicer). On both of these I shall treat expressly below.
To the grammatical construction of the sentence thus understood, there is no objection. The nominative after would be not only allowable, but necessary, if it expressed, not a previous predicate of the understood , but the character which by the he was to become or shew forth: cf. Plato and Demost. in Khner, 646, 2 anm., who however has not apprehended the right reason of the idiom.
But to the sentence itself thus arranged and understood, there are weighty, and I conceive fatal objections: to wit, (c) if . . . had been meant to apply to Timotheus, it would hardly have been possible that should be omitted. He would thus be the prominent object in the whole passage, not as now the least prominent, lurking behind to make way for greater things. (d) I can hardly think, that, in this case, would have been anarthrous. Though ‘a pillar’ might be the virtual meaning, , , or , , would certainly be the Greek expression. (e) In this case also, the which follows would most naturally refer, not to the great deposit of faith in Christ which is entrusted to the church to keep, but to the very strong and unusual expression which had just been used of a young minister in the church, ‘and confessedly great is the dignity of the least of the ministers of Christ: for,’ &c. (3) The reference to THE CHURCH is upheld by Chrys. ( . . This inversion of the sentence may have arisen from taking as a genitive of apposition), Thdrt. ( . . , ), Theodor.-mops. (as cited above, on , as far as , then he proceeds, , ), Thl., c., Ambr., Pel., the Roman Commentators, Luth., Calv. (“nonne Ecclesia mater est piorum omnium, qu ipsos regenerat Dei verbo, qu educat alitque tota vita, qu confirmat, qu ad solidam perfectionem usque perducit? eadem quoque ratione columna veritatis prdicatur: quia doctrin administrand munus, quod Deus penes eam deposuit, unicum est instrumentum retinend veritatis, ne ex hominum memoria pereat”), Beza, Grot. (“veritatem sustentat atque attollit ecclesia, efficit ne labatur ex animis, efficit ut longe lateque conspiciatur”), Calov., Wolf, &c. De Wette, Huther, Wiesinger, al. And this interpretation agrees with 2Ti 2:19 ; see note there. But there is brought against it the objection, that there is thus introduced confusion of metaphor. The , which was the above, now becomes , a part of the . This is not difficult to answer. The house contains in itself both and the pillar and the basement both belong to the house. Why may not the be taken collectively? the very word , occurring since, has pluralized the idea the building consists of the , who are so many why should it not in the aggregate be described as the ? This seems to me far better than, with some in Suicer, to suppose a monumental pillar, or base of an image, to be meant. The way in which the congregation of the faithful is the pillar and basement of the truth is admirably given by Thdrt. and Calvin above: viz. in that it is the element in which and medium by which the truth is conserved and upheld).
1Ti 3:14-16 . These general directions will serve you as a guide in the administration of the Church until you see me. Your charge is one of transcendent importance. The Church is no human institution: it is the household of God, and also the means whereby the power of the Incarnation is available for man’s use.
1Ti 3:14 . This verse makes it clear that Timothy’s position was a temporary one; he was acting as St. Paul’s representative at Ephesus to “put them in remembrance of his ways which be in Christ” (1Co 4:17 ).
has a primary reference to the preceding directions regarding public prayers and Church officers; but it naturally includes the following supplementary remarks. For this use of , in place of the epistolary aorist, see especially 2Co 13:10 , also 1Co 14:37 , 2Co 1:13 , Gal 1:20 .
is parenthetical; and expresses at once an excuse for the brevity and incompleteness, from one point of view, of the directions, and also an expectation that they are sufficient to serve their temporary purpose.
: , which is read by Tisch., is, according to Blass ( Grammar , pp. 33, 141, 142), an instance of the intensive or elative use of the comparative: cf. 2Ti 1:18 . This view is rejected by Winer-Moulton ( Grammar , p. 304) and Ellicott; but their explanations are far-fetched: “More quickly, sooner, than thou wilt need these instructions,” “sooner than I anticipate”. See also J. H. Moulton, Grammar , vol. i. pp. 78, 79, 236.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Ti 3:14-16
14I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; 15but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. 16By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.
1Ti 3:14-15 Paul plans to visit Timothy in Ephesus. The Spirit directed that he write so that God’s will expressed in 1 Timothy might bless and direct His church throughout time.
These verses confirm the interpretive context of chapters 1-3 as relating to public worship (as do 1 Corinthians 11-14). I also think that these chapters are reactions to and qualifications based on the presence of the false teachers. This is not a neutral setting!
This same theological situation is seen in Leviticus. The book is not a collection of hygienic laws or customs so much as a reaction to Canaanite culture. Just as many of the specific laws were written to keep Canaanites and Israelites as far apart socially and religiously as possible, these passages separate the Pastoral Letters and the Jewish/Gnostic false teachers.
1Ti 3:15 “in case I am delayed” This is a third class conditional sentence, which means potential action.
“in the household of God” Paul uses many powerful corporate metaphors to describe the church, such as “body,” but the family/household is one of the most insightful (God as Father, Jesus as Son, believers as children).
“church” Ekklesia is a compound Greek word from “out of” and “to call.” This was used in Koine Greek to describe any kind of assembly, such as a town assembly (cf. Act 19:32). The early Jewish Church chose this term because it was used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the OT, written as early as 250 B.C. for the library at Alexandria, Egypt. This term translated the Hebrew term qahal, which was used in the phrase “the assembly of Israel” (Exodus; Num 20:4). The NT writers asserted that they were the “divinely called out ones” who were the People of God of their day. The early Jewish believers saw no radical break between the OT People of God and themselves, the NT People of God. Believers, therefore, assert that the Church of Jesus Christ, not modern rabbinical Judaism, is the true heir to the OT Scriptures. See Special Topic at 1Ti 3:5.
“of the living God” The OT asserts that there is one and only one God (see SPECIAL TOPIC: MONOTHEISM at 1Ti 2:5, cf. Exo 8:10; Exo 9:14; Deu 4:35; Deu 4:39; Deu 6:4; Deu 32:39; 1Sa 2:2; Isa 40:10-13; Isa 44:6-8; Isa 45:5-7). The adjective “living” comes from the covenant name (cf. 1Ti 4:10) for God, YHWH, which is from the Hebrew verb “to be” (cf. Exo 3:14; see SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY at 2Ti 1:2).
“the pillar and support of the truth” This may be an allusion to Isa 28:16, God’s foundation is Jesus the cornerstone, which is also alluded to in 2Ti 2:19. This is the third in a series of descriptive phrases linking God and the church.
1. “household of God” (1Ti 3:15)
2. “the church of the living God” (1Ti 3:15)
3. “the pillar and support of the truth” (1Ti 3:15)
The term truth (altheia) is very common in Paul’s writings (and John’s). It usually refers to gospel content (cf. Rom 1:18; Rom 1:25; Rom 2:2; Rom 2:8; Rom 3:7; Rom 15:8; 1Co 13:6; 2Co 4:2; 2Co 6:7; 2Co 7:14; 2Co 13:8; Gal 2:5; Gal 2:14; Gal 5:7; Eph 1:13; Eph 4:21; Eph 5:9; Php 1:18; Col 1:5-6; 2Th 2:10; 2Th 2:12-13; 1Ti 3:15; 1Ti 4:3; 1Ti 6:5; 2Ti 2:15; 2Ti 2:18; 2Ti 2:25; 2Ti 3:7-8; 2Ti 4:4; Tit 1:1; Tit 1:14). See Special Topic: Truth in Paul’s Writings at 1Ti 2:4.
1Ti 3:16
NASB”by common confession”
NKJV”without controversy”
NRSV, NJB”without any doubt”
TEV”no one can deny”
This is the Greek term usually used for one’s profession or confession of faith (see SPECIAL TOPIC: CONFESSION at 1Ti 6:12). It is a literary marker that the following lines are an early creedal affirmation.
“great is the mystery of godliness” “Mystery” in Paul’s writings often refers to the Gentile mission (cf. Eph 2:11 to Eph 3:13), which may be a key to 1Ti 3:16. See Special Topic at 1Ti 3:9. For “godliness” see Special Topic at 1Ti 4:7.
This introduces an early confessional statement or a Christian hymn. Another of these is found in 2Ti 2:11-13. The structural pattern might be
1. A B C D E F (revealed truths about Christ)
2. AB, BA, AB (contrast between earth and heaven or humiliation and exaltation)
3. ABC, ABC (revealed truths about Christ and His church)
Chiastic Patterns within the Bible are becoming more apparent to modern scholarship. The Companion Bible published by Kregel in 1990 and Kenneth E. Bailey’s Poet and Peasant use this approach extensively.
Paul seems to quote one verse of an early hymn or possibly church liturgy. This verse emphasizes Jesus’ humanity and His world-wide ministry. It does not contain Paul’s three major theological emphases: (1) the cross; (2) the resurrection; and (3) the Second Coming. Paul quotes several sources in I, 2 Timothy and Titus which explain the unique vocabulary and distinct use of theological terms used differently in either Pauline writing.
NASB”He who was revealed in the flesh”
NKJV”God was manifested in the flesh”
NRSV”He was revealed in flesh”
TEV”He appeared in human form”
NJB”He was made visible in the flesh”
This speaks of the Incarnation (birth) of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem: His life, teachings, death, and resurrection, which fully reveal the Father (cf. Joh 1:14-18). There is also the strong inference of His pre-existence (cf. Joh 1:1-5; Joh 8:57-58; 2Co 8:4; Php 2:6; Col 1:17). This is the central truth of the Gospels about Jesus Christ, that He was fully God and fully human (cf. Joh 1:14; Php 2:6-8; Col 1:14-16; 1Jn 4:1-6).
There is a later Greek manuscript variant in which the relative pronoun hos (MSS , A, C, F, G; UBS4 gives this an “A” rating [certain]) is changed to theos. This later change may have occurred
1. with the confusion over OC (the abbreviations in uncial Greek for who) read as H C (the abbreviation in uncial Greek for “God”) or
2. as a purposeful theological change by later scribes (cf. MSS c, Ac, C2, and D2) wanting to make the text more specific against the adoptionist heresies (cf. Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, pp. 77-78)
SPECIAL TOPIC: FLESH (sarx)
NASB”Was vindicated in the Spirit”
NKJV, NJB”Justified in the Spirit”
NRSV”vindicated in spirit”
TEV”was shown to be right by the Spirit”
This phrase has been understood in several ways.
1. Does it mean vindicated or justified (i.e., shown to be just)?
2. Does this mean that the Holy Spirit was active in Jesus’ ministry (NASB)?]
3. Does it mean that Jesus’ spirit was affirmed by the Father (cf. Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5) while Jesus lived as a human being (NRSV)?
Some theologians see “Spirit” as referring to Jesus’ divinity, which was vindicated by His resurrection (cf. Rom 1:4; 1Pe 3:18).
“Seen by angels” The angels longed to know what God was doing with fallen mankind (cf. 1Co 4:9; Eph 2:7; Eph 3:10; 1Pe 1:12). However, it may refer to the angels’ ministering to Jesus, either at His temptation experience (cf. Mat 4:11; Mar 1:13), in the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. Luk 22:43, which is a questionable text), or immediately after the resurrection (cf. Luk 24:4; Luk 24:23; Joh 20:12).
This phrase is so short and ambiguous that several theories have been offered by commentators and all are merely speculation:
1. angels ministering to Jesus (above)
2. angels beholding His ascension (godly angels and/or fallen angels cf. 1Pe 3:19-20; 1Pe 3:22)
3. angels beholding His exalted heavenly enthronement
“Proclaimed among the nations” This is the worldwide preaching of the gospel (cf. Luk 24:46-47) which would have been extremely shocking to the Jews of the first century, but this is really the whole point (cf. Mat 28:18-20). This is the mystery of godliness (cf. Eph 2:11 to Eph 3:13).
NASB, NKJV”Believed on in the world”
NRSV, TEV,
NJB”believed in throughout the world”
Not only was it a universal message, but there was a universal response, and now the Church is made up of both Jew and Gentile (cf. Eph 2:11 to Eph 3:13). This has always been God’s plan. The one true God has fulfilled His promise of Gen 3:15. Personal repentance and faith (see Special Topic at 1Ti 1:16) in the gospel now, in this life, opens heaven for “whosoever” (cf. Joh 1:12; Joh 3:16; Rom 10:9-13). See Special Topic: Paul’s Use of Kosmos at 1Ti 1:16.
“Taken up in glory” This seems to refer to His ascension. It is surprising that Jesus’ death, resurrection, and return are left out, but if this was a Christian hymn, quoted possibly only in part, then it is understandable. Also, exactly which rhythmic (chiastic) pattern is followed determines one’s interpretation (cf. 1Ti 3:16). This hymn/creed linked to the opening statement would powerfully refute Gnosticism. The man Jesus was glorified (cf. chiastic pattern #2)! However, following the NRSV the last three lines may refer to the Church (cf. chiastic pattern #3). For a fuller note on “glory” see 1Ti 1:17.
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE ASCENSION
unto. = to.
unto. App-104.
14-16.] CLOSE OF THE ABOVE DIRECTIONS by a solemn statement of their object and its glorious import. These things (the foregoing precepts, most naturally: hardly, as Bengel, totam epistolam) I write (expressed in the epistolary aorist, Phm 1:19; Phm 1:21; but in the present, 1Co 14:37; 2Co 1:13; 2Co 13:10; Gal 1:20. (1Jn 1:4; 1Jn 2:1, &c.)) to thee, hoping (though I hope: part. per seu similem particulam esse resolvendum, nexus orationis docet. Leo, cited by Huther) to come to thee sooner (than may seem) (on the comparative,-which must not be broken down into a positive, as it is by almost all the Commentators,-see Joh 13:27 note, and Winer, edn. 6, 35. 4. Also Act 17:21; Act 25:10; Act 27:13; Heb 13:19; Heb 13:23, which last is exactly parallel with this. Some supply it,-before this Epistle come to thee: or, before thou shalt have need to put these precepts into practice: but the above seems simpler, and suits better the usage elsewhere): but if I should delay (coming) (from to may be regarded as parenthetical, the belonging immediately to ), that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to conduct thyself (reff. Huther would take generally,-how men ought to behave themselves; alleging, that in the preceding, there is no direct prescription how Timotheus is himself to act, and that if we supply (as D1 in digest), we confine the reference of to the Ephesian church. The latter objection need not detain us long. If the church in general is the house of God, then any portion of it may clearly partake of the title and the dignity. To the former, we may reply, that in fact, the whole of what has preceded does regard Timotheuss own behaviour. He was to see to all these things-to take care that all these precepts were observed) in the house of God (see reff. also Heb 3:2; Heb 3:5-6, and notes: 1Co 3:16; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:22 :-that congregation among whom God dwells, by His Spirit);-for such (the house of God: the brings out into prominence the appository explanation, and specially applies it to the antecedent) is the congregation ( , , . Theod.-mops.) of the living God (thus designated for solemnity, and to shew his personal and active presence among them), the pillar (see below) and basement (= , 2Ti 2:19; firmamentum. It is a climax, not as Bengel, instar unius vocubuli solidissimum quiddam exprimentis: the is the intermediate, the the final support of the building: as Wahl,-omne id, cui ut primario et pr ceteris insigni innititur aliquid) of the truth (these latter words are variously referred: being (1) by Camero, ErSchmid., Limborch, Le Clerc, Schttg., Beng., Mosh., Rosenm., Heinr., Wegsch., Heydenr., Flatt, al. (see in Wolf. Not Chillingworth, as stated in Bloomf.: see below), joined with the following sentence, putting a period at , and proceeding . … To this I can only say, that if any one imagines St. Paul, or any other person capable of writing this Epistle, able to have indited such a sentence, I fear there is but little chance in arguing with him on the point in question. To say nothing of its abruptness and harshness, beyond all example even in these Epistles, how palpably does it betray the botching of modern conjectural arrangement in the wretched anti-climax- (rising in solemnity) , (what grander idea, after the basement of the whole building, does the reader suppose about to follow?) ! These two last words, which have (see below) their appropriate majesty and grandeur in their literal use at the emphatic opening of such a sentence as the next, are thus robbed of it all, and sink into the very lowest bathos; the metaphor being dropped, and the lofty imagery ending with a vague generality. If a sentence like this occurred in the Epistle, I should feel it a weightier argument against its genuineness than any which its opponents have yet adduced.
(2) by Gregory of Nyssa (de vita Mosis: vol. i. p. 385, , , , ), Chillingworth (Religion of Protestants, &c., ch. iii. 76: but he allows as possible, the reference to the Church: if you will needs have St. Paul refer this not to Timothy, but to the Church, I will not contend about it any further, than to say, Possibly it may be otherwise),-by others mentioned in Wolf, and in our own days by Conybeare, it is taken as referring to TIMOTHEUS:-that thou mayest know how to conduct thyself in the house of God, which is &c. as a pillar and basement of the truth. In the very elaborate discussion of this passage by Suicer (s. v. ), he cites those fathers who seem more or less to have favoured this idea. Of these we must manifestly not claim for it those who have merely used the word or columna of an Apostle or teacher, or individual Christian,-as that is justified, independently of our passage, by Gal 2:9; Rev 3:12 :-but Greg. Naz. applies the very words to Eusebius of Samosata (Ep. xliv. 1, vol. iii. (Migne) p. 39), and to Basil (Orat. xviii. 1, vol. i. p. 330): and Basil in the Catena says, , , : and in the Epistle of the churches of Lyons and Vienne, Euseb. 1Ti 3:1, it is said of Attalus, . Other cognate expressions, such as (Chrys., of St. Peter, Hom. xxxii. vol. v. p. 199; and Basil, of Eusebius, as above), (Greg. Naz., of Basil, Or. xviii. as above), (Thl. on Luke 22, of St. Peter), (of Pastors, Nicephorus Hist. vii. 2), are adduced by Suicer. The principal modern reasons for adopting this view have been (a) polemical-as against Roman Catholic infallibility of the Church, or (b) for uniformity of symbolism, seeing that in Gal 2:9, Rev 3:12, men are compared to pillars (see this very copiously illustrated in Suicer). On both of these I shall treat expressly below.
To the grammatical construction of the sentence thus understood, there is no objection. The nominative after would be not only allowable, but necessary, if it expressed, not a previous predicate of the understood , but the character which by the he was to become or shew forth: cf. Plato and Demost. in Khner, 646, 2 anm., who however has not apprehended the right reason of the idiom.
But to the sentence itself thus arranged and understood, there are weighty, and I conceive fatal objections: to wit, (c) if … had been meant to apply to Timotheus, it would hardly have been possible that should be omitted. He would thus be the prominent object in the whole passage, not as now the least prominent, lurking behind to make way for greater things. (d) I can hardly think, that, in this case, would have been anarthrous. Though a pillar might be the virtual meaning, , , or , , would certainly be the Greek expression. (e) In this case also, the which follows would most naturally refer, not to the great deposit of faith in Christ which is entrusted to the church to keep,-but to the very strong and unusual expression which had just been used of a young minister in the church,-and confessedly great is the dignity of the least of the ministers of Christ: for, &c. (3) The reference to THE CHURCH is upheld by Chrys. ( . . This inversion of the sentence may have arisen from taking as a genitive of apposition), Thdrt. ( . . , ), Theodor.-mops. (as cited above, on , as far as , then he proceeds, , ), Thl., c., Ambr., Pel., the Roman Commentators, Luth., Calv. (nonne Ecclesia mater est piorum omnium, qu ipsos regenerat Dei verbo, qu educat alitque tota vita, qu confirmat, qu ad solidam perfectionem usque perducit? eadem quoque ratione columna veritatis prdicatur: quia doctrin administrand munus, quod Deus penes eam deposuit, unicum est instrumentum retinend veritatis, ne ex hominum memoria pereat), Beza, Grot. (veritatem sustentat atque attollit ecclesia, efficit ne labatur ex animis, efficit ut longe lateque conspiciatur), Calov., Wolf, &c. De Wette, Huther, Wiesinger, al. And this interpretation agrees with 2Ti 2:19; see note there. But there is brought against it the objection, that there is thus introduced confusion of metaphor. The , which was the above, now becomes , a part of the . This is not difficult to answer. The house contains in itself both and -the pillar and the basement both belong to the house. Why may not the be taken collectively? the very word , occurring since, has pluralized the idea-the building consists of the , who are so many -why should it not in the aggregate be described as the ? This seems to me far better than, with some in Suicer, to suppose a monumental pillar, or base of an image, to be meant. The way in which the congregation of the faithful is the pillar and basement of the truth is admirably given by Thdrt. and Calvin above: viz. in that it is the element in which and medium by which the truth is conserved and upheld).
1Ti 3:14. , these things) The whole epistle.-, hoping) Paul, however, did not put off necessary admonitions.-, to come) ch. 1Ti 4:13.
1Ti 3:14
These things write I unto thee,-This has reference to the foregoing instructions, especially to those relating to the qualifications of elders and deacons.
hoping to come unto thee shortly;-Although he hopes to be with Timothy again, he nevertheless will not allow matters of such gravity to await his return to Ephesus. For this hope may be frustrated.
Chapter 8 The Mystery of Godliness
1Ti 3:14-16
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory, (vv. 14-16)
These words immediately follow instruction given as to the appointment of certain brethren for official position in the church of God. The Apostle was hoping to rejoin Timothy, but in the meantime, by divine inspiration, he wrote: These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now Paul was not telling Timothy how to act when he went to church! Timothy was not a mere child who had to be instructed as to his behavior among a congregation gathered to worship God.
When the Apostle uses the expression house of God, he is not referring to a material building. Men may speak of a building dedicated to the worship and praise of God as the house of God, and there is a sense in which it is perfectly correct to so speak. It is important that Sunday school teachers and those who have the instruction of children impress upon their hearts the necessity of reverent behavior when they come into the building that has been set apart as a place where we come together to worship and sing praises to God, to lift up our voices in prayer, and for the ministry of His holy Word. It is most unbecoming for boys and girls-little ones and older ones, too-to be running around through the halls, giving vent to loud laughter, and various noises that disturb and distress others. We should realize that there is a certain demeanor that should characterize us when we enter such a building.
We Protestants have much to learn as to this from Roman Catholic and other ritualistic churches. They would not think of permitting their children to run around noisily through the building which they consider most sacred. Neither would they give themselves to loud conversation, or even whispering that disturbs those who are gathered to worship God. I think we should be concerned about these things. One of the crying evils of our generation is that of irreverence or lack of respect for the things of God.
But when the Apostle used the expression the house of God, he was not referring to a material building. The house of God with him is the church of the living God, a spiritual building, made up of all those who are born of God, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph 2:22). Again and again, both in Pauls epistles and Peters first epistle, the church of God is looked upon as being made up of living stones cemented together by the Holy Spirit, and in that building God dwells. We need to learn how we ought to conduct ourselves as members of the assembly of saints; how we ought to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground [bulwark] of the truth. The only way we can learn this is through the study of the Scriptures, which tell us of the behavior that should characterize those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Chris, and recognize Him as Head of the body, the church.
This church is the pillar and ground or foundation of the truth. A pillar is for display purposes; the foundation is that on which the superstructure rests. The church was intended by our blessed Lord to be the pillar proclaiming the gospel of His grace while resting on the great foundation truths of the Word of God. We have no right to play fast and loose with revealed truth. We may be liberal with that which belongs to us, but this is Gods truth, and we are to stand firmly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
In the next verse the Apostle speaks of the mystery of godliness, or, as it might be rendered, the secret of piety. When the children of Israel marched through the wilderness from Sinai on to the Promised Land, they carried with them the ark of the covenant which typified the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ-the meeting place between God and men. We today are responsible to maintain this sacred truth concerning our blessed Lord to which the Apostle refers as the mystery of godliness. The term mystery does not necessarily mean something which is, in itself, mysterious, but a secret revealed only to initiates. It is the will of God that the church should understand this secret, should know the truth concerning the Person of our Savior. This mystery is that of the incarnation-that God came down to earth, taking into union with His Deity a human body, a human spirit, and a human soul, so that He was both God and Man in one blessed, adorable Person.
God was manifest in the flesh. Some of the early manuscripts omit God and render it the mystery of godliness: which was manifest in the flesh. That is probably more correct than the later manuscripts, but the thought is clear that it was God Himself who came down into this scene and was manifested in the flesh. Jesus is both God and Man.
We read in the gospel of John, No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (1:18) or, told Him out. Again we read, The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (Joh 1:14). And so God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them (2Co 5:19).
In the second place we read that He was justified in the Spirit. He who was God manifest in the flesh was absolutely the righteous One conceived without sin. After His baptism in the Jordan, where He publicly dedicated Himself as the One who had come to fulfill all righteousness and so to settle the sin question, God the Father opened the heavens above Him, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and the Fathers voice was heard declaring, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mat 3:17); or, in whom I have found all My delight. Thus He was justified in the Spirit. There was no taint of sin in Him. He was absolutely holy. As such He was the suited Substitute to take the sinners place and to endure the judgment that our sins deserved.
In the third place-and this is to me most interesting-we read, He was seen of angels. He is called elsewhere the Image of the invisible God. Did you ever stop to think of this? Before God became incarnate in Jesus Christ He was invisible to created eyes. God the Father was invisible; God the Son was invisible; God the Holy Spirit was invisible. Angels could look only upon the glory of God but could not see the invisible One. But when the Lord Jesus Christ came down to earth, when the Babe was born in Bethlehems manger, He who was God from all eternity had become visible. As angels hung over that crib and gazed upon the face of that little Babe, they knew they were looking into the face of the God who had created them. As He walked on earth angels were beholding the wondrous works wrought by God manifest in flesh. And you and I shall see Him in all the blessed reality of His Manhood as well as His Deity throughout all eternity.
Preached unto the Gentiles. The word rendered Gentiles is the word elsewhere translated nations-that is, the time had come when God no longer was to have one people separated from the rest of the nations, but His love could go out to all mankind. So our Lord Jesus Christ is preached unto all nations. The message preached to the nations everywhere is that all may be saved who will turn to Him in faith.
Next we read, He was believed on in the world. After twenty centuries there are untold millions in unbelief. In fact, there are millions who have never heard His name. That ought to stir our hearts to increased missionary activity and missionary giving. But even among those who have heard His name there are vast throngs who refuse to trust Him. But, thank God, all through the centuries since the cross vast numbers have believed. Today millions believe on Him and find in Him not only a Savior, not only the One who gives comfort and rest to their consciences, but they find also a loving, tender Friend who gives peace to the heart in the midst of the perplexities and toils of life. To believe on Him is to put your trust in Him, to claim Him as your own personal Savior.
Last of all we read, He was received up into glory. Paul was not giving a chronological account of the incarnation and life of our Lord Jesus Christ, but he was bringing out one truth after another in the measure of its importance. He who left the Fathers house came down to earth where He lived a sinless life. He who was the absolutely holy and spotless One went to the cross to die for our sins. He who was preached unto the Gentiles and who has been believed on in the world, He, the Man Christ Jesus, has been received up into glory. He is the very same Person in heaven today that He was when He was here on earth.
Many seem to have the idea that after the ascension of our Lord He ceased to be the Man Christ Jesus and became some kind of a spiritual being, so that they imagine they will never see Him as He was when He left this scene and returned to the Father. But the angels on Mount Olivet said to the disciples, Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven (Act 1:11). He is absolutely unchangeable: The same yesterday, and to day, and for ever (Heb 13:8).
When we behold Him we will know Him by the print of the nails in His hand. When He descends the second time to take His kingdom and appear to His own people Israel, their eyes will be open to recognize Him. They will say to Him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends (Zec 13:6). When at last we look up into His blessed face, we will see the marks of the thorny crown. As He lifts those loving hands, we will behold the scars left by the wounds, and we will say, This is my Lord and my God, even as Thomas said when he fell down in worship at the Saviors feet.
hoping: 1Ti 4:13, 1Co 11:34, 1Co 16:5-7, 2Co 1:15-17, 1Th 2:18, Phm 1:22, Heb 13:23, 2Jo 1:12, 3Jo 1:14
Reciprocal: 1Jo 2:1 – these Rev 1:20 – and the
1Ti 3:14. Timothy was at Ephesus and Paul was at Laodicea when he wrote this epistle. Hoping to be with him before long, he would have waited to instruct him personally. However, due to the uncertainty of making the journey for quite a while, he thought it best not to risk the welfare of the church too far, hence he wrote the instructions we have been considering.
1Ti 3:14. Shortly. Literally, sooner than was expected. It would seem as if St. Paul had left Ephesus for Macedonia, and wrote giving directions for a probably lengthened absence. Then something like a change of plan suggests itself. He could not tell whether it will be possible. We cannot tell whether it was carried into effect.
As if the apostle had said, “I do hope to come to thee very shortly; but if I tarry long, or be prevented at last, as I am uncertain, I write these things to thee, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to converse in the house of God, in the church of the living God, in which thou art a pillar and firm buttress of the truth.”
Some, by the pillar here, will understand the church, as being the foundation on which the truth is built, and giving it authority; but she is therefore the church of Christ, because she holds the truth, and it is essential to her being to maintain and teach all necessary truths; she holds it forth, and publishes it to the world, sustaining it, and supporting it as a pillar doth the king’s proclamation. The truth receives not its authority from the church, but the church receives authority from adhering to the truth.
Others, by the pillar, understand Timothy; and that St. Paul is here exhorting, that according to his office Timothy should be a pillar and buttress of truth in the church.
Hence, Gal 2:9 James, Cephas, and John are said to be pillars there, as is Timothy here; a pillar in the church, signifies a man that is well rooted and grounded, and strong in the faith; this he exhorts Timothy to be.
Observe here, 1. The church’s surpassing dignity: she is called the house of God, in which he dwells. God is present in all places, even in hell itself, by the immensity of his being; but the church is his palace, the place of his peculiar residence.
Observe, 2. The ministers of the church’s important duty, namely, as pillars to support, maintain, and uphold, the divine truth against all those that seek to corrupt and suppress the same. Be thou, O Timothy in the church of God as the pillar and ground of truth.
Personal Instructions to Timothy
Paul hoped he would soon be able to visit with Timothy in person about the organization of the church and actions of those who make it up. However, he knew travel was uncertain and plans could suddenly be changed. Timothy needed this information to carry out the charge he had from Paul. If he was delayed in coming, Paul wanted Timothy to know the things comprising proper behavior in the church. He described the church as God’s house or dwelling place (compare 1Co 3:5-17 ). The apostle may have also intended to represent the church as God’s family. The church is a dwelling place for a living God, which is in stark contrast to the dead gods many worshiped during Paul’s day. A pillar serves as undergirding or support. In this case, the church is said to support the truth, and, if we fail to do that, we fail in our primary mission ( 1Ti 3:14-15 ).
There can be no argument as to the great importance of the gospel, which is the mystery. It shows man the way to piety or reverence toward God. Jesus was God incarnate, that is, God in the flesh ( Joh 1:1-3 ; Joh 1:14 ; Rom 1:3 ; Heb 2:14 ; Heb 5:7 ; 1Jn 3:5 ; 1Jn 3:8 ).
Jesus was declared by the Spirit to be righteous. This was done at his baptism ( Mat 3:13-17 ) and in his resurrection ( Rom 1:4 ). Of course, the Spirit also declares his righteousness in all the words of the Bible which point to Christ as God’s Son. Angels attended to the Lord’s needs while he was here on earth ( Mat 4:11 ), so we might say they saw to his needs. Jesus’ name has been and must be declared to all the nations, which certainly includes the Gentiles ( Isa 2:1-4 ; Mat 28:18-20 ; Col 1:23 ). Such preaching, received into honest hearts, has caused many to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ( Act 8:37 ). Christ’s ascension was the last great physical proof of his deity ( 1Ti 3:16 ; Act 1:9-11 ; Mar 16:19 ; Luk 24:26 ; Luk 24:50-53 ).
1Ti 3:14-16. These things Concerning the character of persons fit to be intrusted with the office of bishops or deacons; I write, hoping to come to thee shortly It seems evident from hence, that Paul intended to have come back to Timothy at Ephesus in a little time, but was providentially called another way; but, as Doddridge observes, it can by no means be concluded from hence that Paul wrote this epistle to Timothy after his imprisonment at Rome. But if I tarry long If I am hindered from coming, I give thee these instructions in the mean time; that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself That is, how to discharge thy office properly; (which is the scope of the whole epistle;) in the house of God In which thou hast the honour to bear so high an office, even in that house, or family, which is the church of the living God Where he is worshipped in spirit and in truth by his believing people, manifests his special presence, and bestows peculiar blessings. The tabernacle first, and afterward the temple, obtained the name of the house or habitation of God, because there the symbol of the divine presence resided, 1Sa 1:7; Mat 21:13; Mat 23:38. But under the gospel dispensation no material building or temple is called the house of God. That appellation is given only to the church of God, or to those societies of men who profess to believe in Christ, and join together in worshipping God according to the gospel form. The pillar and ground Or support, as signifies; of the truth That is, of the whole system of gospel truth. Some commentators think Timothy is called, in this passage, the pillar and support of the truth, for the same reason that Peter, James, and John are called pillars, (Gal 2:9,) and that the particle , as, should be supplied before these words, and the clause translated thus: That thou mayest know how thou ought to behave thyself, as the pillar and support of the truth in the church, of the living God. But, not to insist on the harshness and irregularity of this construction, it must be observed, that seeing the interpretation of the passage hath been much contested, a word, which entirely changes the apostles meaning, should by no means be inserted in the text on mere conjecture, because in that manner the Scriptures may be made to speak any thing which bold critics please. Macknight. According to the common reading, the church of God is evidently here called the pillar and support of truth. And since the apostle must be understood as speaking, not of any particular falsely pretended, fallen, or corrupt church, but of the true, genuine, catholic church, or, as he expresses himself, the church of the living God, consisting of all the true churches of Christ throughout the world, and comprehending all true believers and lovers of God, all who hold the mystery of faith in a pure conscience; (1Ti 3:9;) this church, so constituted, may with perfect propriety be termed the pillar and support of the truth, as preserving, from age to age, the Holy Scriptures, which attest the truth, and as always believing and maintaining the great fundamental articles of the Christian faith. Bengelius, however, and many others, adopt a different reading, so far as to end the sentence with the church of the living God, and to begin the next with the words following, thus: The mystery of godliness is the pillar and ground of truth, and confessedly a great thing. And this reading is approved by Witsius, Whitby, Doddridge, Wesley, and many other eminent commentators. According to this interpretation, by the mystery of godliness we are to understand that wonderful and sublime doctrine which is revealed in the gospel, and immediately specified in six articles, which sum up the whole economy of Christ upon earth.
God was manifest in the flesh Namely, the Word that was in the beginning with God, and was God, was incarnated, (Joh 1:14,) in the human nature of Jesus, conceived by a miracle in the womb of the virgin, and born of her, to whom, therefore, the divine names of God, Lord, and Jehovah, are repeatedly given in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; as also the divine titles of the true God, 1Jn 5:20; God over all blessed for ever, Rom 9:5; Jehovah of hosts, Isa 8:13-14; Hos 12:5; the Lord of glory, 1Co 2:8; the Holy One and Just, and the Prince of life, Act 3:14-15; the first and last, Rev 1:17. To him divine attributes are ascribed; omnipresence, Mat 18:20; omnipotence, Php 3:21; omniscience, Rev 2:23. And divine works, namely, those of creation, Joh 1:3; preservation, Col 1:17; Heb 1:3; redemption and salvation, passim, and judging all mankind at the last day, Mat 25:31-32, &c. And to him, as we have very often seen in the course of these notes, divine worship was frequently paid by those divinely-inspired persons, who could not be mistaken, particularly in a matter so momentous. He was manifested in the form of a servant, in the fashion of a man, for thirty-three years, his divine glory frequently breaking forth through the veil of his humanity, especially in the wisdom of his discourses, in the power of his miracles, in the holiness of his spotless life, and in his unspeakable and never-ceasing benevolence, beneficence, and other divine virtues, and in a peculiar manner when he was transfigured on the holy mount, 2Pe 1:16-17. Justified in the Spirit The Lord Jesus appeared on earth in all the infirmity and frailty of mortal flesh, poor, despised, persecuted, and at last put to death as a blasphemer; yet he professed and maintained a high claim, the highest possible, even that of being the Messiah, the Son of God in a peculiar sense, and one with his Father, Joh 8:58; Joh 10:30; Joh 10:36. Now how could he be justified in making this claim? He was justified in, or by, the Spirit Namely, the Holy Ghost; 1st, That Spirit had moved holy men of old, (2Pe 1:21,) to utter many predictions concerning him, and these were all exactly fulfilled in him. 2d, The Spirit descended upon him in a visible form at his baptism, and pointed him out as the person, whom the voice from heaven declared to be Gods beloved Son; and this Spirit he possessed without measure in its gifts and graces, as his doctrine, life, and miracles showed. 3d, By this Spirit he was raised from the dead, (1Pe 3:18,) and thereby powerfully demonstrated to be the Son of God, Rom 1:4. 4th, He baptized his disciples with this Spirit, particularly on the day of pentecost, according to the prediction of the Baptist, (Mat 3:11,) and his own often-repeated promise, and thereby convinced of sin those that did not believe in him, whether Jews or Gentiles, and showed them to be inexcusable in resisting such evidence; giving full proof, at the same time, that he himself was righteous, Joh 16:7-10.
Seen of angels However regardless men might be of this astonishing mystery, this manifestation of God in the flesh, the angels viewed it with deep and constant attention and great interest, as a most astonishing and instructive spectacle, more mysterious than any work of creation, or dispensation of providence, and giving them such views of their Makers justice and grace, and especially of his love, as they had not had before, 1Pe 1:12. Accordingly they worshipped him at his entrance into the world, Heb 1:6; celebrated his birth, Luk 2:9-13; ministered to him in the desert, Mat 4:11; and in his agonies, Luk 2:43; were present at his resurrection and ascension, Luk 24:4; Act 1:10.
Preached to the Gentiles This also is termed a mystery Eph 3:4-6; Col 1:25; where see the notes. And if we consider how the Gentile world was sunk in idolatry and vice of every kind, and that whoever preached the gospel to them must testify against their abominable practices in strong terms, and therefore had every reason to expect the most violent opposition and ill usage, even to imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom, we must allow both that God manifested astonishing grace in sending his apostles to preach the gospel to them, and that these his messengers displayed amazing fortitude in going so willingly to preach it. Believed on in the world This was a still greater mystery; 1st, That a poor, mean, and persecuted man, crucified as the vilest malefactor, should be believed on as the Messiah expected by the Jews and all nations the Son of God the Saviour of the world. 2d, That his gospel, so simple and unpromising in appearance, preached without wisdom of words, and by men who had not the advantage of wealth, power, or learning to recommend them, and whose doctrine condemned the reigning idolatry, should be believed in as a revelation from God: especially as, 3d, It could not prevail but it must evidently overthrow the heathen idolatry, established and revered for ages, and bring all the esteemed doctrines of the philosophers into discredit, and therefore would certainly be opposed and persecuted by the three classes of people of the greatest power, the priesthood, the philosophers, and the Roman emperor, with all subordinate kings and magistrates. 4th, Whoever believed it were under an indispensable obligation to confess it; and whoever did so was in danger of suffering the loss of all things, imprisonment, torture, and death. But notwithstanding all these obstacles in the way, Jesus and his gospel were believed on in the world. This undeniable fact, of which the evidence remains at this day, is mentioned as a part of the mystery of godliness, because it is a strong proof of the truth of Christs resurrection, and of the spiritual gifts and miraculous powers by which the apostles and their assistants are said, in the Christian records, to have spread the gospel through the world. For, to believe that the multitudes, not only among the barbarous nations, but among the learned Greeks and Romans, who forsook their native religion and embraced the gospel, were persuaded to do so merely by the force of words, without the aid of miracles and spiritual gifts, is to believe a greater miracle than any recorded in the gospel history. Macknight.
Received up into glory When his ministry on earth was completed; when he had fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies, and answered the ancient types; taught the whole truth belonging to his new dispensation, and confirmed it by miracles; had set his followers a perfect example; expiated sin by dying, broke the power of death by his resurrection; giving his disciples clear proof thereof by frequently appearing to them, as well as by showing them that the ancient prophets had foretold these things; and had given them their commission and all needful instruction; He, who had so long tabernacled in our frail nature in a state of poverty, reproach, and suffering, was received up into glory: that is, as the eternal Son of God, he resumed the glory he had with his Father before the world was; (Joh 17:5;) his human nature was transformed and glorified, and in his complete person, as God and man, he was placed at the head of the whole creation for the good of his church, (Eph 1:20-22,) invested with all authority and power in heaven and on earth, and constituted the final Judge of men and angels.
(c) 1Ti 3:14-16. The Aim of the Instructions.The purpose of such directions, written lest Pauls visit be delayed, is to teach men proper behaviour in Gods household (cf. Heb 3:6), the Church, by which the truth is upheld and protected against error. And how great is that revealed truth with which our religion is entrusted! It is nothing less than Christ Himself (Joh 14:6, Col 1:27), who was manifested in the Incarnation and vindicated by His Resurrection (Rom 1:4), who was made known to angels and men; and whose work received its consummation both on earth and in the heavens.
1Ti 3:15. men: better than the Western reading thou (AV).
1Ti 3:16. mystery: cf. 1Ti 3:9*.He who: the famous reading God (AV) is unquestionably mistaken. These rhythmical sentences are probably part of an early Christian hymn (or creed); cf. 1Co 15:42, 2Ti 2:12. Ramsay, however, views them as examples of Pauls lyrical expression . . . in moments of emotional and mystic enthusiasm (Exp. VIII, iii. 359).manifested: pre-existence is implied.angels: by the Incarnation their knowledge of the Sons Person was intensified (cf. 1Pe 1:12).
CHAPTER 18
When I was in high school, I worked summers in construction for a small contractor. He was a Christian and became involved in a small Bible church. Later the church wanted to build a building and asked him to be the contractor.
Their church was designed and the foundation was to be poured. Now, this is back in the days of yore afore they had delivery of wet cement but this contractor had a state of the art cement mixer. It had a big hopper that came down where you tossed in the cement and then shoveled in the sand. When the mixer was empty, you would hit a lever and up the hopper would go and the mixing would begin.
The problem with this machine was that every time that hopper emptied it returned to the ground to be filled. Since I was the low man on the totem pole, I was elected to fill it – and fill it – and fill it – and fill it – and fill it – the entire day I filled it and filled it and filled it again. Got the picture?
Anyway we poured concrete into the ground all day to lay the foundation for the church. The foundation needed to be strong because they were going to build a large timber framework to support a very heavy roof made of four by four roofing.
I might add after filling and filling, I could have used a foundation myself to hold me up!
We want to look at foundations in this study.
1Ti 3:14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: 1Ti 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
All right, we see that Paul looked to the future with desires to accomplish things! Now, what can we do with that little piece of information for ourselves? I personally believe that God allows us to look to the future and make possible plans and to seek to bring those plans to pass – as long as we allow for God’s intervention to change our minds.
Remember that word that he used – hoping. I again personally believe that this is a hope that can get us through those terrible times of drudgeries that happen onto most of us from time to time. There were many years in which the only hope I had was that God would use me in some way – that hope carried me through those very difficult years.
We don’t know if Paul ever made it to Ephesus or not. In Titus he requested that Titus meet him and most agree that Paul would have met with Timothy first while on his way to Titus.
3:14 {6} These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:
(6) Paul purposing to add many particular things pertaining to the daily office of a pastor, speaks first a word or two concerning his coming to Timothy, that he should be so much the more careful, lest at his coming he might be reproved of negligence.
D. The nature of the local church 3:14-16
Paul explained his reason for writing this epistle and, in particular, what he had just said. He also prepared for what he would yet say. He did so to impress on Timothy a view of the church that was foundational to all his instructions in this letter.
"It is now generally recognized that this paragraph is the heart of the Pastoral corpus . . ., which puts the instructions of the corpus into proper perspective." [Note: Mounce, p. 214. Cf. Guthrie, p. 87.]
Paul wrote that he hoped to join Timothy soon.
"A pseudonymous writer would hardly have put in this phrase. Paul’s hopes were not to be realized, but he did not know that." [Note: Robertson, 4:575.]
In view of the context, Paul evidently was thinking of the local church when he spoke of it as a household and as a pedestal. [Note: See Robert A. Carlson, "An Evaluation of 1 Timothy 3:15 as a Pauline Description of the Nature and Task of the Local Church" (Th.M. thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 2002).] The first (domestic) figure is common in Paul’s writings (2Ti 1:16; Tit 1:11; cf. Tit 1:5; cf. Tit 1:12). The local church is a family of believers (cf. 1Ti 5:1-2). It should, therefore, conduct its corporate life as a family rather than as a business, a country club, an entertainment center, a military group, or some other organization.
"This metaphor served to elevate the community of believers as the ’location’ of God’s presence on earth. The church has become His base of operation in the world." [Note: Bailey, p. 354.]
The second (architectural) figure is of a pedestal that supports something set on top of it. "Pillar and support" is a hendiadys for "supporting pillar [foundation]." Each local church supports the witness of each believer in it and holds that testimony up before the world in which untruth abounds. Paul did not elaborate how it does this here, though the models suggested by the terms "shepherd" ("pastor"), "elder," "overseer," and "deacon" provide some clues. [Note: See A. Duane Litfin, "The Nature of the Pastoral Role: The Leader as Completer," Bibliotheca Sacra 139:553 (January-March 1982):57-66.] What the believer proclaims is the "truth," the whole truth God has revealed in His Word, but especially God’s redemptive plan.
Chapter 12
THE RELATION OF HUMAN CONDUCT TO THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. – 1Ti 3:14-16
ST. PAUL here makes a pause in the Epistle. He has brought to a close some of the principal directions which he has to give respecting the preservation of pure doctrine, the conduct of public worship, and the qualifications for the ministry: and before proceeding to other topics he halts in order to insist upon the importance of these things, by pointing out what is really involved in them. Their importance is one main reason for his writing at all. Although he hopes to be with Timothy again even sooner than might be expected, he nevertheless will not allow matters of this gravity to wait for his return to Ephesus. For, after all, this hope may be frustrated, and it may be a long time before the two friends meet again face to face. The way in which Christians ought to behave themselves in the house of God is not a matter which can wait indefinitely, seeing that this house of God is no lifeless shrine of a lifeless image, which knows nothing and cares nothing about what goes on in its temple; but a congregation of immortal souls and of bodies that are temples of the living God, Who will destroy him who destroys His temple. {1Co 3:17} Gods house must have regulations to preserve it from unseeming disorder. The congregation which belongs to the living God must have a constitution to preserve it from faction and anarchy. All the more so, seeing that to it has been assigned a post of great responsibility. Truth in itself is self-evident and self-sustained: it needs no external support or foundation. But truth as it is manifested to the world needs the best support and the firmest basis that can be found for it. And it is the duty and privilege of the Church to supply these. Gods household is not only a community which in a solemn and special way belongs to the living God: it is also the “pillar and ground of the truth.” These considerations show how vital is the question, In what way ought one to behave oneself in this community?
For the truth, to the support and establishment of which every Christian by his behavior in the Church is bound to contribute, is indisputably something great and profound. “By the admission of all, the mystery of the Christian faith is a deep and weighty one; and the responsibility of helping or hindering its establishment is proportionately deep and weighty. Other things may be matter of dispute, but this not. Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.”
Why does St. Paul speak of the truth as “the mystery of Godliness?” In order to express both the Divine and the human aspects of the Christian faith. On the Divine side the Gospel is a mystery, a disclosed secret. It is a body of truth originally hidden from mans knowledge, to which man by his own unaided reason and abilities would never be able to find the way. In one word it is a revelation: a communication by God to men of Truth which they could not have discovered for themselves. “Mystery” is one of those words which Christianity has borrowed from paganism, but has consecrated to new uses by gloriously transfiguring its meaning. The heathen mystery was something always kept hidden from the bulk of mankind; a secret to which only a privileged few were admitted. It encouraged, in the very center of religion itself, selfishness and exclusiveness. The Christian mystery, on the other hand, is something once hidden, but now made known, not to a select few, but to all. The term, therefore, involves a splendid paradox: it is a secret revealed to every one. In St. Pauls own words to the Romans, {Rom 16:25} “the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations.” He rarely uses the word mystery without combining with it some other word signifying to reveal, manifest, or make known.
But the Christian faith is not only a mystery, but a “mystery of godliness.” It not only tells of the bounty of Almighty God in revealing His eternal counsels to man, but it also tells of mans obligations in consequence of being initiated. It is a mystery, not “of lawlessness,” {2Th 2:7} but “of godliness.” Those who accept it “profess godliness”; profess reverence to the God who has made it known to them. It teaches plainly on what principle we are to regulate “how men ought to behave themselves in the household of God.” The Gospel is a mystery of piety, a mystery of reverence and of religious life. Holy itself, and proceeding from the Holy One, it bids its recipients be holy, even as He is Holy Who gives it.
“Who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, received up in glory.”
After the text about the three Heavenly Witnesses in the First Epistle of St. John, no disputed reading in the New Testament has given rise to more controversy than the passage before us. Let us hope that the day is not far distant when there will be no more disputing about either text. The truth, though still doubted, especially in reference to the passage before us, is not really doubtful. In both cases the reading of the A.V. is indefensible. It is certain that St. John never wrote the words about the “three that bear witness in heaven”: and it is certain that St. Paul did not write, “God was manifest in the flesh,” but “Who was manifested in the flesh.” The reading “God was manifested in the flesh” appears in no Christian writer until late in the fourth century, and in no translation of the Scriptures earlier than the seventh or eighth century. And it is not found in any of the five great primary MSS., except as a correction made by a later scribe, who knew of the reading “God was manifested,” and either preferred it to the other, or at least wished to preserve it as an alternative reading, or as an interpretation. Even so cautious and conservative a commentator as the late Bishop Wordsworth of Lincoln declares that “the preponderance of testimony is over whelming” against the reading “God was manifested in the flesh.” In an old Greek MS., it would require only two small strokes to turn “Who” into “God”; and this alteration would be a tempting one, seeing that the masculine “Who” after the neuter “mystery,” looks harsh and unnatural.
But here we come upon a highly interesting consideration. The words that follow look like a quotation from some primitive Christian hymn or confession. The rhythmical movement and the parallelism of the six balanced clauses, of which each triplet forms a climax, points to some such fact as this. It is possible that we have here a fragment of one of the very hymns which, as Pliny the Younger tells the Emperor Trajan, the Christians were accustomed to sing antiphonally at daybreak to Christ as a God. Such a passage as this might well be sung from side to side, line by line, or triplet by triplet, as choirs still chant the Psalms in our Churches.
“Who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.”
Let us assume that this very reasonable and attractive conjecture is correct, and that St. Paul is here quoting from some well-known form of words. Then the “Who” with which the quotation begins will refer to something in the preceding lines which are not quoted. How natural, then, that St. Paul should leave the “Who” unchanged, although it does not fit on grammatically to his own sentence, But in any case there is no doubt as to the antecedent of the “Who.” “The Mystery of godliness” has for its center and basis the life of a Divine Person; and the great crisis in the long process by which the mystery was revealed was reached when this Divine Person “was manifested in the flesh.” That in making this statement or quotation the Apostle has in his mind the Gnostics who “teach a different doctrine” (1Ti 1:3), is quite possible, but it is by no means certain. The “manifestation” of Christ in the flesh is a favorite topic with him, as with St. John, and is one of the points in which the two Apostles not only teach the same doctrine, but teach it in the same language. The fact that he had used the word “mystery” would be quite enough to make him speak of “manifestation,” even if there had been no false teachers who denied or explained away the fact of the Incarnation of the Divine Son. The two words fit into one another exactly. “Mystery,” in Christian theology, implies something which once was concealed, but has now been made known; “manifest” implies making known what had once been concealed. A historical appearance of One Who had previously existed, but had been kept from the knowledge of the world, is what is meant by, “Who was manifested in the flesh.”
“Justified in the spirit.” Spirit here cannot mean the Holy Spirit, as the A.V. would lead us to suppose. “In spirit” in this clause is in obvious contrast to “in flesh” in the previous clause. And if “flesh” means the material part of Christs nature, “spirit” means the immaterial part of His nature, and the higher portion of it. His flesh was the sphere of His manifestation: His spirit was the sphere of His justification. Thus much seems to be clear. But what are we to understand by His justification? And how did it take place in His Spirit? These are questions to which a great variety of answers have been given; and it would be rash to assert of any one of them that it is so satisfactory as to be conclusive.
Christs human nature consisted, as ours does, of three elements, body, soul, and spirit. The body is the flesh spoken of in the first clause. The soul (), as distinct from the spirit (), is the seat of the natural affections and desires. It was Christs soul that was troubled at the thought of impending suffering. “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” {Mat 26:38; Mar 14:34} “Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour”. {Joh 12:27} The spirit is the seat of the religious emotions: it is the highest, innermost part of mans nature; the sanctuary of the temple. It was in His spirit that Christ was affected when the presence of moral evil distressed Him. He was moved with indignation in His spirit when He saw the hypocritical Jews mingling their sentimental lamentations with the heartfelt lamentations of Martha and Mary at the grave of Lazarus. {Joh 11:33} It was in His spirit also that He was troubled when, as Judas sat at table with Him and possibly next to Him, He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me”. {Joh 13:21} This spiritual part of His nature, which was the sphere of His most intense suffering, was also the sphere of His most intense joy and satisfaction. As moral evil distressed His spirit, so moral innocence delighted it.
In a way that none of us can measure, Jesus Christ knew the joy of a good conscience. The challenge which he made to the Jews, “Which of you convicteth Me of sin?” was one which He could make to His own conscience. It had nothing against Him and could never accuse Him. He was justified when it spake, and clear when it judged. {Rom 3:4; Psa 51:4} Perfect Man though He was, and manifested in weak and suffering flesh, He was nevertheless “justified in the spirit.”
“Seen of angels.” It is impossible to determine the precise occasion to which this refers. Ever since the Incarnation Christ has been visible to the angels; but something more special than the fact of the Incarnation seems to be alluded to here. The wording in the Greek is exactly the same as in “He appeared to Cephas”; then to the twelve; then He appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; then He appeared to James; then to all the Apostles; last of all, as to one born out of due time, He appeared to me. {1Co 15:5-8} Here, therefore, we might translate “appeared to angels.” What appearance, or appearances, of the Incarnate Word to the angelic host can be intended?
The question cannot be answered with any certainty; but with some confidence we can venture to say what can not be intended. “Appeared to angels” can scarcely refer to the angelic appearances which are recorded in connection with the Nativity, Temptation, Agony, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ. On those occasions angels appeared to Christ and to others, not He to angels. With still greater confidence we may reject the suggestion that “angels” here means either the Apostles, as the angels or messengers of Christ, or evil spirits, as the angels of Satan. It may be doubted whether anything at all parallel to either explanation can be found in Scripture. Moreover, “appeared to evil spirits” is an interpretation which makes the passage more difficult than it was before. The manifestation of Christ to the angelic host either at the Incarnation or at the return to glory is a far more reasonable meaning to assign to the words.
The first three clauses of this primitive hymn may thus be summed up. The mystery of godliness has been revealed to mankind, and revealed in a historical Person, Who, while manifested in human flesh, was in His inmost spirit declared free from all sin. And this manifestation of a perfectly righteous Man was not confined to the human race. The angels also witnessed it and can bear testimony to its reality.
The remaining triplet is more simple: the meaning of each one of its clauses is clear. The same Christ, who was seen of angels, was also preached among the nations of the earth and believed on in the world: yet He Himself was taken up from the earth and received once more in glory. The propagation of the faith in an ascended Christ is here plainly and even enthusiastically stated. To all the nations, to the whole world, this glorified Savior belongs. All this adds emphasis to the question “how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God” in which such truths are taught and upheld.
It is remarkable how many arrangements of these six clauses are possible, all making excellent sense. We may make them into two triplets of independent lines: or we may couple the two first lines of each triplet together and then make the third lines correspond to one another. In either case each group begins with earth and ends with heaven. Or again, we may make the six lines into three couplets. In the first couplet flesh and spirit are contrasted and combined; in the second, angels and men; in the third, earth and heaven.
Yes, beyond dispute the mystery of godliness is a great one. The revelation of the Eternal Son, which imposes upon those who accept it a holiness of which His sinlessness must be the model, is something awful and profound. But He, who along with every temptation which He allows “makes also the way of escape,” does not impose a pattern for imitation without at the same time granting the grace necessary for struggling towards it. To reach it is impossible-at any rate in this life. But the consciousness that we cannot reach perfection is no excuse for aiming at imperfection. The sinlessness of Christ is immeasurably beyond us here; and it may be that even in eternity the loss caused by our sins in this life will never be entirely cancelled. But to those who have taken up their cross daily and followed their Master, and who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, will be granted hereafter to stand sinless “before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple.” Having followed Christ on earth they will follow Him still more in heaven. Having shared His sufferings here, they will share His reward there. They, too, will be “seen of angels” and “received up in glory.”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary