Look at the Book
How Shall the Servant of Christ Be Trained? 1 Timothy 4:6–10, Part 1
[music] This is part one on 1 Timothy 4, 6 to 10. If you put these things before the brothers, the things that you immediately in the preceding paragraph were instructing about, and I think probably everything up till this point in the letter that Paul has urged Timothy to teach. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Being nourished in the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths, which we saw back in chapter 1, verses 3 through 7. Rather, train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. And we'll stop right there. Father, as we ponder Paul's instruction to Timothy here to be a good, a deacon, a good servant by putting these things before the church, grant us to see the relevance of all of this for us in the way we nourish ourselves in the way we exercise ourselves for godliness. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. The first thing to see here is that Timothy is to put all that Paul is teaching him before the brothers, that is before the church. So if you've ever had the idea enter your mind that first and second Timothy and Titus are specialized books in the Bible written for pastors and the church doesn't need to read them, this line right here should take that idea out of your mind because Timothy is instructed precisely to do what he's doing, namely read this letter to the church and teach them what Paul is teaching him about what it means to be a pastor, how the church is to be structured. Everything that Paul teaches Timothy, Timothy is to put these things before the brothers. So we should be doing precisely what we're doing, reading and studying, absorbing, being shaped by first Timothy. You'll be a good servant if you do that, Timothy. And the reason that's striking is because the word servant here is deacon, it's the same. And you remember deacon can have a specialized meaning of an office in the church as it did back in chapter 3, verses 7 following over against the overseers in verses 1 through 6 of chapter 3. But the fact that Paul here is calling Timothy the overseer, the leader of the church, a good deacon, strikes us because back in, where is it? 1 Timothy 3, those who serve well as deacons, serve well as deacons. That same language is right here in well deacons, a well-serving deacon. And so you can't help but realize that Paul really is putting all of us who have a supervisory or governing, ruling, leading, overseeing role in the church, putting us in our place by saying remember, even the highest authorities in the church, including the apostles, are but deacons of Jesus Christ. So the office of deacon in the church is the deacon of the overseers. They are the assistants of the overseers to free them up to do the work of the word in prayer, but all of us are deacons of Jesus Christ, including the apostle Paul, as we saw once before in 1 Corinthians. What then Paul says is, what is Paul? This great authoritative representative of Jesus Christ, what is Paul? He is a deacon, a deacon, a deacon through whom you believe, a servant through whom you believed. So Timothy, as a good deacon or servant of Jesus Christ, is to expand himself in putting all the teachings before the brothers, explaining them and applying them to his church situation, and here's how he is to do it. Being nourished, sometimes translated, trained, but I think that's a little confusing, because this word is also translated "train", and they're not the same words. "Gonadze" and "itrefominos" are not the same words. If you translate both of them, "train", you're going to give the impression to the English reader that the same word is being used, so I think the NASB, the King James Version, are right to translate this "nourished". This has the word "nourished" in it. So, trained in the sense of practicing a certain food regimen, and this trained in the sense of practicing a certain exercise regimen, but nourish is a good word to get that across. Lay these things before the brothers by being nourished in the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed. In other words, as you put the words of faith before the brothers, as you serve this meal, eat it. If you command the teaching that you are offering them as good, cherish it, eat it, love it. This is really crucial. So, these words here are basically saying, "Look, Timothy, don't become a salesman, don't become a professional. We all know what he's talking about here. You've all heard professional religious people, pastors or some other teacher, and you get the impression when they're telling you about sacred things. They're just products. This isn't this man's life. This isn't his daily food. He's not feeding off of what he's teaching me. He's just selling it to me. There's a difference between a product that you command and a life that you embrace and eat and live and are nourished by. So, basically, the teaching here is, and it's so crucial, is eat what you serve, pastor. You serve something up to your people. Let them know you feasted on it this week, and it nourished you. You have good teaching for them. Let them know that you really believe it's good. You have eaten this teaching. It has made you strong for your ministry. You're not just doing your work with wares. That's really crucial, isn't it? Then sandwiched between these two. Train yourself, and nourish yourself. Don't have anything to do with irreverent, silly myths. They're not going to make you strong. They're not going to build you up. They're not going to nourish your soul. They are destroying people, misleading people, and he's talked about them elsewhere. We may come back to that later to put more definition on it, but we've seen it numerous times, especially back in chapter 1, verses 3 to 7. These myths that are just causing speculations rather than the household plan of faith that God wants, namely, faith and good teaching, not silly myths that are irreverent. But now he comes back to the issue of the condition of Timothy. So do your work here, putting these things before the brothers. Do your work by being nourished on the very things you're teaching, and train yourself for godliness. And the word "train" here is different than being nourished or being trained as a kind of diet, regimen, food regimen. This word is, you can hear the word "gumnadse gymnasium". This is the actual workout. So train yourself for godliness means don't just teach these things, obey them. When they're hard, do the hard thing. When it's costly, bear the cost. Train yourself in the very things that you are commending to others. You can see this meaning of the word "train" in this regard in Hebrews. Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. This kind of training involves the obedience of the word, doing the very things you call upon others to do. Here it is again in Hebrews 12. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, namely discipline. The kind of hard things you have to undergo Timothy in the ministry. Take your share of suffering, bear the lumps, do the necessary work to fit yourself for godliness. Now we'll come back next time to more on godliness here and this argument for why this is so crucial because of its effect on the present life and the life to come. But for now, remember, we are to read first Timothy. It's not just for the pastor, it's for all the brothers. And the pastors are to eat the very things they're teaching and love them and be strengthened by them. And they are to bear all the lumps, take all the discipline, do the necessary obedience. That fits them and grows them up into godliness. [Music] You
Healthy pastors not only communicate the word of God — they love it. They both serve the meal and eat it. They are coworkers in joy.