The Epistles to Timothy and Titus, while written to individual servants of Christ, have a special value to us of these times, in setting forth the character and principles of true service in the Church of God. For whatever changes time has wrought, the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. The Spirit here gives His counsels to furnish those who serve in God's house, into which disorders and dangers were, even at this early time, advancing. Here are truths to preserve those whose feet are in the path, and to correct and recover such as have departed from it. There are errors and evils, but the Spirit by the apostle here admonishes and rebukes in order that He may restore, while He watches in patience. But if His instructions and admonitions are unheeded, the Lord may deal in chastisement as well as rebuke (Rev. 3: 19) with those who are still the objects of His love.
1 Timothy.
In 1 Tim. 1 the apostle is very earnest in magnifying the grace of God. Salvation is said to be all of this. He writes of God as Saviour and Christ Jesus our hope. The honours of each of the Persons of the Godhead he knew well how to maintain in their due place. Here it is God revealing Himself as Saviour, and this revelation of God is here associated with the blessing of the creature. The soul that receives His salvation as made known in the Gospel is blessed, but where refused that soul is unblessed: it is "without God" (Eph. 2: 12), and will be judged as one who knows Him not (2 Thess. 1: 9).
In verses 8-10 the apostle turns to the law and its use. It is not for salvation: its place is not in the Church, but outside in the world, there doing its appointed work. And the saint who is within, looks out from the place of security upon the evil and sees the law at work among those who are named as acting in contrariety to the Gospel of the blessed God. The apostle--thus declares the law to be "good" and doing a needed work in its own sphere, but when he turns to the Gospel his heart bums, and his spirit breaks forth over it as "the glorious Gospel of the blessed"--or as it is in the original" the happy God." It is as Giver that God is presented in the Gospel, and it gladdens His heart to give, for it was of the mind and heart of God that the Lord Jesus spake when He said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
In verses 12-16, he magnifies the mercy that met him in his guilt as an ignorant and insolent sinner,--as in Phil. 3 he had disclaimed all trust in his own righteousness and in the fleshly advantages he had acquired,--his salvation being all of grace and his righteousness in Christ alone. In verse 17, he looks into the distant future and seems to catch a glimpse of the inbringing of his own nation--of whose conversion his own was the pattern--and as he sees them brought in, his spirit breaks forth in a beautiful doxology, "Now unto the King Eternal,"--not now only "God our Saviour," but as King on His rightful throne reigning. It is good for the soul to follow on in such a blessed path, beginning with grace and ending in glory.
1 Tim. 2. The way into the house having been made clear in chapter 1, the ordering of that house and the occupations of those who are in it follow here, for it is after we reach the inside that we breathe its atmosphere and learn our responsibilities to others who are there. First, it is acceptable as well as comely with "God our Saviour" to pray for "all men," for it is the will of God that all should be saved. And there is one Mediator--not for the Jew alone, but for all--"between God and men," whose ransom avails for all. Then the woman is set forth as a figure of the Church in her subjection to Christ as Lord, learning in all subjection and ordering herself becomingly in this position.
1 Tim. 3 gives the character and order of all service in this house of God, for where the habitation of God is, all must be according to His mind, for even redeemed man is not left to determine his ways as a worshipper or a servant. All is provided for by the Owner of the house. Willingness in worship is always right and acceptable to God, but wilfulness He will not suffer (Lev. 10: 1, 2; 1 Cor. 11: 28-32). The last verse of this chapter sets forth the "mystery of godliness," God manifest in the flesh,--in His mission to our earth to form a link with a redeemed and called people whom He might draw up after Him to His glory. "justified in spirit" tells of that which belonged to Christ alone. He was personally pure and spotless, but we can only be justified by His blood (Rom. 5: 9). "Seen of angels." What a sight for them to look on and learn (1 Peter 1: 12), but they could but gaze. We are the subjects of His redeeming work, and our interests are bound up with it and with Him, as now "received up into glory."
1 Tim. 4 - 6. Here, grave departures from the faith in its purity, and from godliness in its integrity and simplicity, are foreseen and provided for. In some it is by giving heed to "seducing spirits" (1 Tim. 1) who seek to corrupt the truth, and in others by the perverse teachings of men of corrupt minds who are destitute of the truth altogether (1 Tim. 6: 5). Amid these pravities, the saint is called to walk in purity, keeping that which he has from God (the doctrine which is according to godliness), living unspotted and unrebukable, in view of the appearing of the Lord (1 Tim. 6: 14), Who will fully estimate the worth of such service and reward it accordingly.
2 Timothy.
In the time of the active labours of the apostle, "the mystery of iniquity" (2 Thess. 2: 7), and the leaven of evil doctrine which had been introduced (Gal. 5: 9) secretly at an early period, were already manifesting to his anointed eye the varied forms of corruption which were to spread themselves abroad. It is to instruct and guard Timothy in the midst of these, that his second Epistle is written. He deals especially with the features of "the last days" (2 Tim. 3: 1), and warns Timothy as if he were already in the midst of them. This has a special value to all who walk amid the fully-developed corruptions now spread throughout Christendom. The opening words are very affecting, full of personal affection. Timothy was his true child in the Gospel. He had been his faithful co-worker too, as a son with a father (Phil. 2: 19-22), and was now standing as a witness for God and the truth amid abounding corruptions. The heart of the apostle goes forth in great warmth toward his "dearly beloved son." He had not allowed his personal sorrow, nor the disappointments which had come from the Churches whose welfare he carried as a care upon his heart daily, to shut itself up. No indeed. His affection was as great and earnest as before, and if he cannot spend it over those who in earlier years had claimed it, he will let it flow toward this true labourer for God.
There may have been the temptation with Timothy to despond, to regard all as hopeless. It is a common temptation in a day of relaxation. But Timothy is not to yield to this. He has a gift from God, and he is to stir it up for use, doing what service he can in the midst of existing conditions. He had the example of the apostle and the full expression of his confidence in that faith of which he was the steward, and of the Lord's testimony he was not to be ashamed come what may.
In 2 Tim. 2 he proceeds to encourage and arm him for his service and conflict. He had already read to him in 2 Tim. 1 his title to confidence in the power that would preserve him and bring all to final victory in the day of His power and glory, even as at His resurrection He had abolished death and brought life and immortality to light. Here in 2 Tim. 2: 1, he is to be "strong in grace" and at the same time to accustom himself to "endure hardship" as a soldier on service, and to go on labouring in patience and in hope, not expecting to see the full fruitage until the day of harvest, remembering that the Lord as David's Seed received His reward in resurrection, a truth which the teaching of Hymenaeus and Philetus denied. For if "the resurrection was past already," then the "form of godliness" might well be the religion of a corrupt church which had embraced the world. It was a time of religious corruption and of man's infidelity and independency, casting off all fear of God and reverence of His Word to do his own will and walk in his own path. In the midst of these conditions, it remained for Timothy to "study," to show himself as one approved of God, "rightly dividing the Word of truth." He was to hold fast to the doctrine which he had learned and to make full use of the Holy Scriptures which he had known since his childhood and proved in his salvation, and which were sufficient to furnish him in all his service. It only remained for the apostle, now at the end of his course, with the crown full in view, awaiting martyrdom, to give his last counsels with due solemnity and set his hope on view of the coming day of recompense before God's servant and steward with a fine closing testimony to the Lord's faithfulness which had continued toward him to the end.
Titus.
In this brief Epistle, the order and ministries of the house of God, with the moral characteristics becoming all who belong to it, are set in due place. This outward form was derived from the Holy Ghost, whose presence was also its power. It is a happy thing when form and power are thus found together, and when the inworking of the Spirit in the Church gives it its outward form ordered by the "truth which is according to godliness" as the apostle here speaks. When these things become separated, the outward form will in the eyes of some be held in honour with little of the power which ought to accompany it. The "spirit of love and of power and of a sound mind" will preserve from this. And yet the doors of this house of God are to be jealously guarded, its avenues kept clean, and its order and ministries regulated according to the will of Him Who dwells therein. If any of the guests in this house of the Lord act contrary to the law or holiness of the house, they must be dealt with, for all must be according to the mind of the Lord of the house. Each servant is to know his own proper service under the distribution or gift he has received, and use all for the edification and help of fellow members of the household.
