Qualities of an Excellent Servant, Pt. 4
1 Timothy 4:13-14
Take your Bible now, if you will, I hope you have it with you. I not, you might find one there in the pew. But take one and look to 1 Timothy chapter 4. We are in a series in 1 Timothy 4:6 to 16. It's part of our ongoing series in this entire epistle. We find ourselves in the fourth chapter, looking at this one section from verses 6 to 16 which deals with the qualities of an excellent minister of Jesus Christ. And as I said at the very beginning, this is particularly preached to the preacher. This is to my own heart and all those who serve the Lord Jesus Christ in a preaching/teaching ministry because primarily it is Paul's instruction to Timothy about his ministry.
But, it has tremendous secondary implications to every believer because whatever it is that the preacher of God's Word is to be, he is to be that in order that he might be a model of what every believer is to be. And so no one is really off the hook in this passage. It's just that we have the greater responsibility to live out these principles in order to set the pattern for everyone else.
Now we've said a lot of things in an introductory way and I don't want to beg the issue, I want to move on to the next couple of points in our look at the text. But let me just review the basic structure that we're working with in this section.
In every passage of Scripture, there is usually a major emphasis. There's usually a major theme around which that paragraph or that section is built. And this is no different. If you look at verse 6, you'll be reminded that in the middle of verse 6 is this little phrase "Thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ." You can underline that, put a little asterisk by it. That is the significant phrase in this whole text because the text is built around that phrase. What does it mean to be an excellent minister of Jesus Christ? What are the marks, the qualities, the characteristics of someone who ministers in behalf of Christ with excellence? This, as I said, is for those who are in the role of a Timothy, teaching and preaching and leading in the church. And also filters down secondarily to everyone who names the name of Christ and who serves him in any way at all.
But let me remind you for a moment, we've looked at seven of eleven principles that I found in this passage that relate to being a good minister of Jesus Christ. Just by way of review, the first one in verse 6 was that an excellent minister warns his people of error. He warns his people of error. "If you put the brethren in remembrance of these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ." What things? The things referred to in verses 1 to 5, having to do with false teaching. So an excellent minister warns his people of error.
Secondly, an excellent minister is a student of Scripture. The end of verse 6, "You are to be nourished up in the words of the faith," that's the Scripture, "and of the good doctrine," that's what the Scripture teaches. So we are then not only to be warning of error, but we are to be feeding ourselves on the Word of God. We are to be nourishing ourselves up in the faith and the good doctrine.
Thirdly, an excellent minister avoids the influence of unholy teaching. He stays away from error and those things that only confuse. It says in verse 7, "Refuse profane and old women's fables." Stay away from lies and heresies and things that deviate from the truth that only bring questions and do not edify. An excellent minister avoids the influence of unholy teaching.
Then in verse 7 through 9, an excellent minister is disciplined in personal godliness. "Exercise yourself unto godliness." Verse 8 says bodily exercise only has a little profit for a little time. Godliness has profit for the time that now is and promise for the future eternal life. And this is a faithful or a true saying and worthy of all acceptance. Everybody would agree with this that that which pertains to eternity is far more significant than that which pertains to time. Therefore spend your hours in godly pursuit rather than in bodily exercise. So, an excellent minister warns his people of error, is a student of Scripture, stays away from the influence of unholy teaching and is disciplined in personal godliness.
Fifthly, an excellent minister is committed to hard work. Verse 10, "We both labor and agonize, strive. We do it because we trust in the living God, the one who is alive, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe." Because of God's saving work, because it is an eternally impactful work, we work with eternity in view and with eternity in view we work hard. An excellent minister works hard. He is committed to hard work because he knows what he does has eternal consequences.
Number six, an excellent minister teaches with a practical authority. Verse 11, "These things command and teach." Teaching has to do with the passing on of truth. Commanding has to do with the mode in which you do it. We pass on divine truth not as if it was that which you could select to do or not to do, but as obligatory and commanded. So, instruction comes in a command mode. We are telling you this is the law of God. So we must have authority, there must be a power in preaching and teaching that brings it to bear on the heart with great sense of obligation.
Then number seven, we noted last time, that an excellent minister is to be a model of spiritual virtue. Because Timothy was young by the standards of spiritual leadership in his time, Paul says don't let anyone look down on you because of your youth, gain their respect by being a tupos, a model, an example, a type of the believer in word‑‑that's speech, conduct‑‑that's life style, love‑‑that has to do with your spirit and your attitude, faith‑‑that has to do with being trustworthy and loyal, and purity‑‑that has to do with being morally clean. You are to be an example to the believers in every dimension of life.
These then are the qualities of an excellent minister of Jesus Christ. We could sum those first seven up in seven single words. Let me give them to you. First of all, when it says an excellent minister warns his people of error, we would say that is the quality of discernment...that is the quality of discernment. We are to have discernment regarding truth and error. An excellent minister is a student of Scripture, that is scholarship, or knowledge. We are to have a knowledge of the Word of God. Thirdly, avoiding unholy teaching, we could put the word separate. We are to be separate. We are to be apart from associations which with those things which would influence us toward unholiness. And then conversely, the fourth word, pursuing godliness, we are to be holy...holy. We are to have discernment, knowledge, separation, and holiness.
In the matter of hard work, the word diligence. In the matter of authority, teaching with authority, power. And in the matter of example, the word is integrity. So if you want seven words for those seven points: discernment, scholarship, separation, holiness, diligence, power and integrity. Those are the kind of characteristics that are to mark the man who serves in excellence in the service of Jesus Christ. They also are to be the kind of thing that mark all of our lives as well.
Now let's go on to number eight and nine for this time, and next Lord's day we'll finish up with ten and eleven. Numbers eight and nine...
An excellent minister has a thoroughly biblical ministry. An excellent minister has a thoroughly biblical ministry. Notice verse 13, I love this verse, I have been reading this verse. In fact, if you want to know, I have tried my best to build my own preaching ministry on this verse for all the years that I've been at Grace Community Church. This has really been behind the scenes, the verse most crucial to my own understanding of my preaching ministry.
It says in verse 13, "Till I come, give your attention to the reading, to the exhortation, to the teaching." Now you must understand what this means. It is so very important. The little phrase "till I come" implies that Paul was going to return to Ephesus and meet Timothy there again. In chapter 3 verse 14, he said that, "These things write I unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly. But if I have to tarry long," and he goes on to say then you need to know what to do.
So, here he says, "Until I come," until you receive any further orders, this is what I want you to do. I want you to give your attention to the reading, the exhortation, the doctrine, or the teaching. Now this is most important.
The verb "give attendance," prosecho is a present active imperative, that means it is a continuing command. I command you to continually be giving your attention to. This is to become your way of life. Guthrie, helping us to understand the indication of this verb, says, "The verb implies all that is bound up in the previous preparation necessary to these things." It isn't just "till I come read, exhort and teach," it is "until I come, give your whole attention to the reading, the exhortation, and the teaching." In other words, it isn't just the act itself, but the verb embodies all that is behind it. It assumes all of the commitment and all of the necessary preparation. In fact, the same verb is used in Hebrews chapter 7 verse 13 of the priest who goes to the altar and is fully absorbed at the altar, all of his thought and all of his energy is devoted to the work of the altar. And that's what he is saying here. Your whole attention, center and circumference of ministry, is to be involved in the reading, the exhortation and the teaching. That is the embodiment of your ministry.
Now what do these words mean? Let's look at them a little more closely, you'll find them interesting. First of all, he says give your attention continually to the reading. There's a definite article there in the Greek, it's not there in the English, it should be there, "to the reading." Now what does he mean by that? Well, that's a reference to the reading of Scripture. But it's more than that. The definite article isolates this out. This isn't just reading the Scripture, this is "the reading," quote/unquote.
What was "the reading?" During every service in the early church there was a time for the reading. And the reading was a reading of Scripture with an attendant exposition. In other words, it embodied a reading and an explanation of the Scripture. That was the reading. It implies when it's used with the verb "give your attention to" that if you're going to give your attention to the reading that means you are going to be very careful in the text you select. You're going to be very very careful in the correctness of your exposition. You're going to be very very cautious in all the matters regarding your preparation. You're going to give your whole attention to the matter of reading and explaining the Scripture.
To show you a little bit of an idea of how it worked in the early church, go back with me to the pattern which the church basically drew from, Luke chapter 4 is a good illustration...the pattern of the synagogue. In the synagogue, the Scripture would be read and then the Scripture would be explained. And here you have a perfect illustration of that in Luke 4:16. Jesus had been teaching in the synagogues, and it says in verse 15 that was what He typically did. He would go in, read the Scripture and then exposit or teach it. In verse 16 it says He came to Nazareth. And this was His ordinary custom, according to verse 15, He'd been doing it everywhere. He customarily would go to the synagogue on the sabbath day and so He did. And He stood up to read. He as a visiting rabbi was invited to read the Scripture.
So He stood up. Always they stood up to read. And that went all the way back to what we read last time about Nehemiah chapter 8, you'll remember, when they found the book of the law after rebuilding the wall of the city of Jerusalem. The people were excited. The book was taken out to be read and the whole congregation of the people of Israel stood all day long to hear the reading of the Word of God. And so typically, they would stand for the reading. And so Jesus stood up and He read.
"And the book was delivered unto Him from the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit," this is Isaiah 61, "of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel of the poor, He has sent Me to deal...to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord," and that's a Messianic passage. So there He stood and He read the Scripture.
Every synagogue service had the reading, the time for the reading of God's Word. Verse 20, note this, "And He closed the book, gave it back to the servant and sat down." Why did He sit down? Because the teaching posture in all synagogues was a sitting position. He stood to read. He sat down to exposit what He had just read. This was the typical manner of expressing the truth of God sabbath after sabbath in the synagogue. He was the guest expositor. He sat down. "And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him and He began to say unto them..." So He began to exposit what He had read from Isaiah. And the sum of it was, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
Now that's something that not every preacher has the privilege of saying. We preach a lot about future prophecy, never have I said, "This day is this prophecy fulfilled in your ears." That was a jolt to these people because what He was saying was I'm the Messiah. Now He said more than that, that was the sum of it. You say, "How do you know He said more?" Well, because in verse 22, they all bore Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. So He must have said more than that. He gave an exposition of that particular portion of Isaiah 61:1 and 2, and the sum of the exposition was it's Me...it's Me. Now that's a typical format for the place of "the teaching."
Now go with me to the fifteenth chapter of Acts for a moment and let me give you another illustration of this kind of expository model which was used in the synagogue and also in the early church. In Acts 15, remember the Jerusalem Council was meeting and they were discussing how they could be sure not to offend Jews in their evangelism to Gentiles as they go out into the Gentile world, they want to be cautious not to cause the Jews to stumble and they would be offended by things offered to idols, and fornication, things strangled, and blood and so forth. Be cautious about that. Verse 21 then says, "Because Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day."
Now what did they do in the synagogue? They met together. They took out the Old Testament, the book of Moses, they read it and then they preached it. They proclaimed it. They exposited it. They explained it. As I said, this basically goes all the way back to the eighth chapter of Nehemiah where you have the beginning of a model of expository preaching. It says in Nehemiah 8:8, "They read in the book of the law of God distinctly and they gave the meaning and caused them to understand...watch this...the reading." There's that phrase...they caused them to understand the reading, the exposition, the explanation of Scripture.
So now we go back to 1 Timothy chapter 4, and when we hear Paul say to Timothy, "Give your attention to the reading," we know what he has in mind is the reading and the exposition of the Word of God. It is the reading and the exposition.
You say, "What do you mean by exposition?" Simply, explanation, explanation. Now the New Testament epistles were certainly to be included also in such exposition. You will remember Acts 2:42, it says when the church was founded on the day of Pentecost, they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' what? Doctrine. So there would be an exposition of Old Testament passages, there would perhaps be an exposition of New Testament passages, the teaching of the Apostles. That, too, was obviously understood to be the Word of God and needed to be exposited.
In Colossians 4:16, Paul says, "And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you also rea