10 How to Train Yourself for Godliness (1 Timothy 4:6–5:2)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. What if the biggest threat to your spiritual growth is not obvious false teaching, but simply filling your mind with the wrong things? Paul tells Timothy to train for godliness with the same kind of seriousness an athlete brings to competition. In this episode, we'll look at what that training involves and how to tell a difference between spiritual progress and merely chasing the next idea. This is the tenth talk in my series on the book of 1 Timothy. Today we will study 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6, through chapter 5, verse 2. I'm glad you joined me today. We're going to finish chapter 4 today and get a little bit into chapter 5, but first a quick reminder of our place in the book. In this letter, Paul is concerned with two closely related themes: sound teaching that produces godliness, and how believers should conduct themselves as members of the church. In chapter 1, Paul focused on that first theme, how sound teaching should result in what he calls godliness. In chapter 2, he began talking about how believers should conduct themselves, and first he looked at how we deal with those who have authority over us, and then he looked at how people in authority should behave and what we should look for in our leaders. He concluded that section with a warning about false teachers who undermine the truth of the gospel, and he urged Timothy to continue teaching the truth. Well, in the section we're looking at today, Paul is continuing that instruction. Paul is instructing Timothy to exhort the believers in Ephesus to continue to follow the true gospel. And we talked last time about how Platonic dualism was a widespread belief at the time. Dualism was this idea that the physical world was evil and the spiritual world was good, and some false teachings were spreading that were arising out of that belief. Some teachers were beginning to teach things that contradicted the gospel, and they were contaminating the gospel with these beliefs that arise out of these other worldviews. And Paul has just argued that warning against such a false teaching is what a good servant of Jesus Christ would do, and he's continuing that thought as we pick up in chapter four, verse seven. I'm going to read chapter four, seven through eleven. Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, goodness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, for to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Well, I think this little section is primarily an exhortation to Timothy himself, but it applies to all of us. Paul ends this paragraph, command and teach these things. Well, Timothy is to teach others what Paul has taught him, and part of that teaching will be instructing those he teaches to also teach what they've learned. And so it's specifically to Timothy, but it has application to the rest of us as we hand down the training that we have been taught. And the idea here is to train yourself on the truth while at the same time avoiding filling your mind with lies and myths. Now, I personally love this little section of Timothy because it's one of the places in the New Testament that speaks directly to the importance of Bible study, which is a soapbox I love to stand on from time to time. He says, feed your soul with words of faith and good doctrine. Expose yourself to the truths of the faith. Meditate on those, think of those things. Avoid exposing yourself to silly myths or to shallow popular fictions. Instead, train yourself for godliness. People who need to recognize counterfeit money learn to do so by studying the real thing. And I think that's the same idea here. The more familiar you are with the real thing, the easier it is to spot a forgery. So instead of investigating all the false doctrines, immerse yourself in the gospel. The more you know what the Bible actually says and teaches, the more prepared you are to spot lies and twisted tales. Now, obviously, we had the New Testament, which Timothy didn't have yet, but Timothy had something we didn't. Timothy was mentored by Paul. An apostle of Jesus Christ taught him the gospel. As an apostle, Paul had been given an inspired understanding of the gospel, and he has been instructing Timothy for years. So as Timothy traveled with him and learned from him and listened to him debate in the synagogues, he learned faithfully from Paul, and Paul is simply reminding him, be nurtured by those truths that I've taught you over the years. Avoid silly myths and old wives' tales and irreverent philosophies. Now by myth I think he means anything that isn't true. We have this phrase garbage in, garbage out, and I think that's what lies behind this exhortation. Avoid filling your mind with garbage. Instead, fill your mind with truth. Don't spend your time exposing yourself to myth and speculation and false teaching. Instead, fill your mind with what is true and good. Well, how do we fill our minds with garbage? Well, today the obvious answer is we waste a lot of time doom scrolling on our phones. Many people have talked about that, so I'll leave that as an obvious answer. I think there's another answer, and that, in my good for nothing opinion, is that today's church has become way too fascinated with entertainment. When I was a new believer back in the Dark Ages, we used to bring notebooks and pens to Sunday services, and people would take copious notes, and the talk was tied to every word in the text. Worship was one guy with a guitar, and if he was lucky he had a microphone. But it didn't matter if he had a mic or not because the congregation sang so loudly that you could always follow the person next to you. The lights were on through the service and there were no screens whatsoever. Now you could argue that back in the day we went too far in how academic the service was, and the younger generation started swinging the pendulum the other way. Well, in my good for nothing opinion, I think the pendulum has swung too far, and we need to swing back some to the academic side. When people talk about a good teacher today, they often mean someone who is funny and entertaining, who tells good stories, and the stories make them laugh and cry. And we have these church services that are multimedia shows with a full rock star band and music and lights and these monstrous screens where you can see everything up close and personal, and the lights are dim and the music is so loud you can't hear the person next to you sing. Well, that can add up to a very moving emotional worship experience. But the question is, did the teacher impart any wisdom? And for many, that's not a question they even ask. They judge the sermon by the entertainment value, not by its scriptural content. And that's the very impulse that Paul wants Timothy to resist. There's nothing wrong with dessert, but if you eat nothing but dessert, eventually you're going to be malnourished. And some teaching today, some church services today are like spiritual dessert. They make us feel good for an hour and they motivate us to go out and love Jesus, but they don't really give us what we need to become wise. And Paul's saying gravitate toward that which makes you wise, not that which entertains you. I've lived long enough to see many fads sweep through the church. Every few years somebody writes a new book, and that book captivates the church's attention, and all the churches start following the advice of the book. And then a couple years later, that book gets replaced by some new book, and everyone starts following the dictates of the new book, and the cycles keep repeating. Well, if the books that are the fad are solid and grounded in biblical wisdom, those fads are great. They're not necessarily a problem. But oftentimes the books are just motivating, entertaining, cotton candy kind of fluff. And we gravitate toward them because they meet some emotional need or cultural zeitgeist, but not because they make us wiser. And I think we have to realize that every one of us is going to be tempted by entertainment and shallow thought, or what Paul calls irreverent silly myths. All of us are going to prefer an hour of entertainment to an hour of a challenging talk. And Paul's saying that's the normal temptation, and he's warning Timothy against it. The antidote is to nurture yourself on the word of God, the truth, not fads or fiction. Your goal is to become wise, not to have your emotions moved or to be entertained. Let me read seven through nine again. Have nothing to do with their reverent silly myths. 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. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. Train yourself for godliness. Now we've talked about what this word godliness means a lot in this letter. Godliness is a way of living right. It's a way of living your life that means I understand the gospel and I live like it's true. And Paul says, train for that the way an athlete trains for competition. Athletes make sure they work out every day, they watch what they eat, what they put into their body, they make sure they get enough rest, and they make sure their body is fit and physically at top shape for the competition. And Paul's borrowing that metaphor and say, train your mind the same way. Just as an athlete trains the body to make it fit for competition, train your mind on the gospel to keep it in top condition. Physical training is fine, it keeps you healthy, and that's a good thing in this present age, but it's not going to keep death from finding you. Eventually it's of no benefit. So physical training has some value in this earthly life, but training your mind in godliness now has eternal value. It will not only benefit you today, it will benefit you for the life to come. Why? Because the people who seek God will be granted eternal life in his kingdom. And that's the destiny we all want. People will go to the gym every day and get themselves in top physical condition, but they never apply that same discipline to Bible study. Instead, they come home and watch YouTube videos or doom scroll through TikTok for hours and hours on end. They aren't as committed to training their mind in truth or becoming as spiritually fit as they are physically fit. But we ought to realize that getting spiritually fit is of eternal value. He says in 10 and 11, for to this end we toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially of those who believe, command and teach these things. So we want to ask the question who is the we in this verse? If you've studied many of Paul's letters, you know that he frequently uses the first person plural pronoun to mean himself. And he could be doing that here, or he could mean himself and Timothy, or he could mean all believers. And I think this is one of the places where he means all believers, because he's just been talking about those who seek godliness will find eternal life, and that the rewards of eternal life await those who seek God. And the fact is, that's what all believers labor and strive for. We count on God to extend mercy to us because of the cross of Christ. We count on him to forgive us because of our faith in Jesus and give us life in his kingdom. That's what it means to have our hope fixed on the living God. We're counting on the one and only true God to show us mercy because of the cross of Christ. That's our confident hope. Jesus promised that those who seek God will find him, and that those who ask for faith and mercy will receive it. So we're training our minds on those truths. We're striving to live in light of them. And that's what life is about right now. Now he adds this phrase, who is the savior of all people, especially of those who believe. What's he saying there? I don't think he's teaching universal salvation. Universal salvation is the idea that every human being will be saved regardless of what they do with Jesus. That's not what he means. I think what he's saying is God is the savior with respect to every human being. If anyone is going to be saved at all, if anyone is going to be given eternal life, it will be because God is going to give it to them. He is the only source of salvation. And in that sense, he's the savior of all people. He's the only source of salvation. Now, only believers are going to benefit from him being the savior. Nonbelievers are not going to be forgiven and granted eternal life. Only believers will be forgiven and rescued, but nonetheless, God is the only place to find that rescue. And then Paul ends the paragraph, teach and command these things. Everything that he's been exhorting Timothy, study your Bible, don't have anything to do with shallow popular fictions. Focus on the truths and wisdom that you find in Scripture and on the teaching of Jesus and concern yourself with that. Spend your time on that. And then he says, command and teach exactly the same thing to everyone who believes. Now, if I have properly understood Paul here, I think this is the most explicit exhortation to study your Bible in Scripture. I don't know that there's anything else in the New Testament that is as direct. It's implied, it's encouraged in many places, but this is the most direct. In this passage, we see Paul considers studying the Word of God to be an integral part of training ourselves for godliness. Now, as we said, godliness means coming to the truth, embracing the truth, and living it out, and it means training our minds on the truth in a way that an athlete would train his body. And one of the primary chief ways we do that is by studying the Word of God. I think this section implies that godliness is not primarily worship, it is not primarily religious piety, it's not social justice, it's not service to other people, it's not going into full-time ministry. Now there's a time and a place for all those activities, but the real essence of what it means to follow Jesus is training our mind on the truth and embracing that truth with our heart and living it out. And the way we do that best is by studying scripture. You can study it yourself or you can listen to someone teach it to you. But you can't get there without understanding the Bible. Why would you possibly hamper yourself like that? So, what does it mean to fix our hope on the living God? It means we center our lives around the truth and knowing the truth and trying to live it out. And therefore, we need to know what the Bible actually says and what it doesn't say. Now, since you're listening to this podcast, I suspect I'm probably preaching to the choir. So I will stop my rant. 412. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity. It's always struck me as odd that Paul says, let no one look down on your youthfulness. Because if I were Timothy and he said that to me, I'd say, Well, don't tell me. Tell them. They're the ones looking down on me. Tell them to cut it out. So I think what Paul's saying here is don't give anyone cause to look down on you for your youthfulness. Don't be as immature as your chronological age. Instead, act more mature than the people your same age. Because look at what he says next. No one is to look down on your youth, rather in speech and conduct and love and faith and so forth. Be an example. He's saying don't be young in your speech. Don't be immature in your conduct. Don't be immature in how you treat people and how you love them. Don't be young or useful in your purity. Instead, act like someone who's mature in all these things, someone who's older and wiser in these things. Be an example. That way people won't have reason to say, oh well, he's just so young. When they look on your life, they will actually be able to follow your example rather than dismissing you as just some immature kid. So don't act like an immature kid. Don't give them an excuse not to listen to you. He tells Timothy he wants him to be an example to those who believe in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity. Speech and conduct are fairly straightforward. He wants Timothy to speak well and treat others well. But how is Timothy to be an example in love and faith and purity? I'm inclined to think he means something similar to what he describes as the fruit of the spirit in Galatians, and I have a whole series on that. I think the idea is be an example in the ways that you love God and love your neighbors. Be an example of single-minded trust in God. Love as a fruit of the Spirit is the way we treat people. It's an action. Believers choose to treat our neighbors well because the Spirit has taught us some fundamental truths about who we are before God. Love as the fruit of the Spirit is this active forgiveness and patience and compassion and seeking the welfare of another. Likewise, faith as a fruit of the Spirit is this transformative worldview change. We come to believe the gospel is true and that changes the way we think and we act and we treat each other because our values, our goals, and everything about us has changed. And by purity, he could mean chastity, but I'm more inclined to think he's talking about pure of heart, that phrase as a fruit of the Spirit, a pure heart is a heart that is cleansed and free and clean of rebellion to God. It's not divided, it's not hypocritical, it's not double-minded. Instead, it has a single-minded, focused devotion to God. I think that's kind of thing he's talking about. And then he says in 13 through 16, Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourselves and your hearers. So books were very expensive at the time Paul was writing. It took many hours and a lot of valuable material to create a book, and only the very rich had access to them. The typical believer did not own a copy of the Old Testament, and of course the New Testament has not yet been collected as Paul writes this, although copies of his letters and the writings of the apostles were circulating. So how would they know their scriptures? Well, they met together, and the one person who owned a copy of the book would read it aloud. So they They met together and someone would read it aloud, and through that constant reading of scripture they came familiar with it. And it appears that after reading scripture, somebody who was appropriately gifted would explain what had just been read. And so he says, Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching. Read the scriptures you have and then explain the meaning of them after you've read them. If in explaining that meaning there's something that's appropriate for you to exhort them about, then exhort them. Now, why is Timothy to give attention to reading exhortation and teaching? I think because that's his gift. This is what God has called him to do. Remember in chapter one, Paul talked about the prophecies that were made about Timothy. He refers to it again here. At an event when they laid hands on Timothy, when I think probably when they were sending him off with Paul that first time, during that ceremony, Paul or one of among them prophesied about Timothy and how God would use him. We don't know exactly what was said, but we have some clues from the text, and it sounds like God revealed that Timothy was going to be a teacher and a student of Scripture. That was his gift. And Paul says, Timothy, attend carefully to these things. This is the role God has given you to play. This is the gift he's given you. Focus on it, attend to it, don't ignore it or take it for granted. This is part of the service God has given you, so be diligent in your pursuit of it. Train yourself in the scripture and attend carefully to developing the gift God has given you. Today we often think of a gift, especially a spiritual gift, as something that's static. You either have it or you don't. But I think Paul is looking at Timothy's gift and encouraging him to make progress. The more he studies, the more he strives to understand, the more he teaches, the more progress he'll make. He's going to improve and mature. Now, by progress, Paul does not mean Timothy is going to grow and mature and become so sophisticated in his understanding that he grows beyond the gospel and leaves it behind. That's not progress. The progress that Paul is talking about never deviates from the gospel. Deviating from the gospel, changing it, adding to it, that is turning away from the faith. Progress is becoming more clear and more precise in your understanding. Progress is being able to put more and more of the scriptural puzzle pieces together so that the picture emerges more fully and clearly. At first, when you pick up a Bible and try to study, you may only have a couple of pieces. You may know only that Jesus died for sinners and God loves you. But the more you study, the easier it gets. The first passage is the hardest, and everyone you add to it gets easier. You begin to understand why the cross was necessary, how the Old Testament points to Christ, what the resurrection means, how all of that changes your life in specific ways. You don't outgrow the original picture. You just begin to see more of it and see it more clearly. And then he says, persevering in these things will save both yourself and those who hear you. You will benefit from learning, and everyone else will benefit from your teaching. Well, notice the implication of what Paul is telling Timothy here. Bible study is instrumental in salvation. It's instrumental in those who study, and it's instrumental in the salvation of those who hear the results of the study. Now, I'm not saying you're saved by knowledge, but don't go that far. Keep all this in the context of which we've been talking about. We want to train our minds on godliness, and the primary way we do that is through knowing the scriptures. Now, God can save us in whatever way and however he wants to save us, and if we never pick up a Bible, God can still find a way to save us if that's what he chooses to do. But when we talk about seeking him and following him, one of the best things we can do is train ourselves in his word. So once again, I think we see how important knowing the word of God is. Okay, he goes on the next two verses, 5, 1, and 2, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity. Some people think this is the start of a new section, but I think it fits better with the section we just talked about. I think this is still in the context of Timothy exercising his gifts as a teacher and a Bible student. Paul said, Command and teach these things, be an example in your speech and your behavior. Don't neglect using the gift of teaching which you've been given. And how do you go about doing that? Well, don't rebuke the older men. Treat the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, the younger women as sisters. Do not rebuke the older men. That word is literally do not strike the older men. Clearly it's metaphorical. I think the idea is don't exhort him in a particularly harsh or public way. Respect his age and maturity and speak to him as you would a father. So imagine your father is about to make a serious financial mistake. Well, you don't want to remain silent simply because you respect him. That wouldn't be loving, but neither do you want to humiliate him in front of the family and announce that he's an old fool who doesn't know what he's doing. You want to correct him respectfully. You want to speak to him from a place of humility and dignity and allow him dignity and respect. So I don't think Paul is telling Timothy to soften the truth, but he's telling him, let that relationship shape the manner in which you deliver the truth. Treat him with respect, don't humiliate him or treat him condescendingly. To the same end, exhort younger men as if they were your brothers, older women as if they were your mothers, and younger women as sisters. So you wouldn't want to belittle them or treat them in a condescending way. You want to show them the same honor and respect that you would show a beloved family member. So treat them the way you would behave if they were genuinely your family, if you had the love and affection and commitment to them that you had for any member of your family. So yes, you're exhorting them, but you're exhorting them in a particular manner, in a manner that shows respect and affection. Now he adds this phrase, impurity. What's he talking about there? And again, we've seen this word before in the letter. And this is one of those places where understanding the theme of the letter helps us narrow down the options. Think about what this section is all about. It's about grasping the truth of the gospel and staying away from the ideas of false teachers and any ideas that are contrary to the gospel. So it's about believing that which is true and avoiding or rejecting anything that is false. And when you believe what is true, you believe that out of a pure and undivided heart, a heart that is singly committed and singly focused on wanting to know the truth from God and wanting to live your life in light of that truth. That's the kind of purity Paul has been talking about throughout this letter. And I think that's what he's still talking about here. Exhort older men to pursue that kind of purity, that kind of single-minded devotion to God. Younger men the same, older women the same, younger women the same. Make that your goal among the community of believers and your flock. So, what does all this mean for us? Paul's instructions to Timothy come down to a remarkably simple priority. Know the truth, live by the truth, and help other people do the same. Now that's going to require time and intention. Paul describes it as training and striving and practice the way an athlete strains and practices and strives. We don't just drift into wisdom or godliness through osmosis. We train ourselves by filling our minds with what is true, by learning to understand the scriptures more clearly, and then ordering our lives around what we've learned. And that's a process we never outgrow. Christian maturity does not mean moving beyond the gospel to something newer or more enlightened and sophisticated. It means understanding the gospel more clearly, more deeply, and seeing how all of Scripture fits together and becoming more consistent as we live out those truths. And Paul also reminds Timothy, the truth is not something we wield against other people. We don't bludgeon them to show them that we're spiritually superior to them. We teach them as someone whose life demonstrates love and faith and maturity. And when correction is necessary, we gently and humbly speak the truth out of a position of love, treating that other person like family with honor, affection, patience, and respect. And that gives us a really useful picture of Christian maturity, becoming increasingly devoted to what is true, becoming increasingly shaped by what is true, and becoming increasingly skilled at teaching others and helping others see and live by it. Because knowing the truth matters, and how we live in response to that truth matters. And helping another one persevere in that truth has consequences that reach all the way to eternity. So pick up your Bible and start studying. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. The blog version of this episode is on Wednesdayintheword.com slash 1 Timothy 10 or 1 Timothy 10. If you want help in how to learn to study the Bible, I have lots and lots of resources on how to study on my website, WednesdayInTheWord.com, including a free seven-day Bible study bootcamp. It's a fun way to get started and learn the principles of how to study scripture, and it's free. You can find it on my website Wednesdayintheword.com. If this podcast has blessed you, please consider following it so you never miss an episode. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by ReggieCoach. You can hear Reggie's music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.