It is with a bit of anxiety that we have this worship series on the Pastoral Epistles (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus). It is a part of the Bible that I don’t really like. These books of the Bible have been used to support sexism, racism, and slavery – in fact just about every ‘ism there is today. These books can also create so many rules and expectations for virtuous living that Christianity can become a faith that leaves no room for fun; and is very judgmental.
Some people make these books the
core of their faith. Some, among them
the mainline Protestant denominations, basically ignore them. Or they become apologetic about them. Or they try to assign them as relics of the
ignorant past. But all such approaches
are dangerous. Christianity the world over
recognizes the Bible as a closed canon of scripture. You cannot add to it. You cannot take anything away from it. As my one seminary professor said of the
Pastoral Epistles, “They are scripture.
They’re authoritative. Deal with
them!” (Rev. Rick Carlson)
So, how do we, “deal with them”?
I believe that if we approach them
with an open mind and an understanding of their context we can arrive at an
understanding that will be a blessing to our lives and deepen our faith. That being said, I know that comes from my
own life context. I know that if I were
a woman who had been denied any number of opportunities or possibilities
because the Bible says that women are fundamentally inferior to men then I
would probably have a different attitude.
I don’t want to make light of how many people have been hurt by these
books.
I also want to say that we are fools
if we think they are products of the ignorant past, and that today we have a
better understanding of the truth. Such
a conclusion, while common, is ridiculous.
C.S. Lewis said that every generation thinks that it has achieved a full
and accurate understanding of things over and above previous generations.
We’ll get to more of that in future
chapters. Today as we look at 1 Timothy
1 we are engaging the basic question of what this new religion of Christianity
looks like? How is to be practiced? What is its core?
If
1 Timothy is written to the people of the city of Ephesus late in the 1st
Century then there are a number of things to keep in mind. Christianity was not the only new religion in
the area. There were new religions from
Egypt, most of them about Isis. From the
east there was a resurgence of Mithraism.
And there was the established official religion of Ephesus, the religion
of Artemus. Judaism was also around.
Today I hear people say that all
religions are different branches of the same tree. I completely disagree. I don’t say that with arrogance or anger or
ignorance. I say it out of respect for
the world’s belief systems, and I say it because Christianity is fundamentally
distinct from all the others.
What makes Christianity so distinct
is its foundation, which is grace. Grace
is unmerited favor from God. It is that
God loves you even though you haven’t earned that love and can never earn it.
Grace is a dangerous concept to
build a religion on. What does it look
like? Where are its boundaries? How do you determine orthodoxy or heresy? These are all good questions.
And
just to remind us of how radical the idea of grace is, consider this. How many times does the Bible record Jesus
using the word “grace”?
Zero.
Never. Not once.
How many times does it appear in
Matthew’s gospel? Zero.
How many times does it appear in
Mark’s gospel? Zero.
How many times does it appear in
Luke’s gospel, which we just read? Zero.
How many times does it appear in
John’s gospel? Four times in chapter
1. And it never comes up again. Jesus never says it.
What do we do with this? Is this not the foundation of faith yet our
foundational stories don’t do anything with it?
I ask those questions just so you
realize how difficult a time the followers of Jesus had late in the first
century. It is St. Paul who gives us the
concept of grace. He uses it over 100
times.
That concept of grace comes about
from his conversion experience, which is referenced in 1 Timothy 1. That is there, even though the readers knew
it, because it is so foundational to everything that follows.
While there is a lot going on in 1
Timothy 1 it is the conversion reference that is central to everything which
follows. It is this conversion which is
Paul’s core to building a Christian life.
You’ll remember that Paul was
originally a persecutor of the followers of Christ. He would travel around capturing Christians
and turning them over to the Jewish authorities for punishment.
So what happened that turned Paul
around completely? You’ll remember that
he originally went by the name of Saul, and then changed his name when he
become a follower of Jesus. Saul was
traveling to Damascus to capture the Christians there when he suddenly sees a
blinding vision. As a part of that
vision he hears Jesus ask him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” To which he replied, “Who are you,
Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, who
you are persecuting. But get up and
enter the city, and you bill be told what you are to do.” He looses his sight for several days. He is taken to a follower of Jesus and his
conversion begins.
To Paul this was pure grace. Nothing, nothing about him merited such
choosing by God. He deserved the reverse
for trying to stop God’s will. And only
by the will of God was he changed. Thus
the concept of grace becomes the foundational understanding of what it means to
be a Christian.
It doesn’t matter that Jesus isn’t
recorded as saying it. It doesn’t matter
that the gospels don’t use it. (And
remember the gospels were written after Paul’s letters.) Grace is an excellent way to understand how
God works.
Early in 1 Timothy the author
reminds the readers that it is God’s grace that is the foundation upon which
everything else is built. And it is the
concept of grace by which everything else is judged as being orthodox or
heresy.
Christianity was then, and is now,
an incredibly innovative and free faith.
That freedom often ran the early Christians amuck. Did grace mean that anything goes? Did grace mean that there were no rules?
Putting shape to a community based
on grace is that the Pastoral Epistles are trying to accomplish.
I’m not going to get into the
details of Chapter 1 other than to note this, the curious bit at the end where
Paul says he has turned over Hymenaeus and Alexander to Satan. We read that and think Paul has damned them
or called some curse down upon them. But
that is not at all the case.
A more literal translation would not
say that Paul has turned them over to Satan.
It would say that Paul has turned them over to “the” Satan. Remember, in many places in the Bible Satan
is seen as a part of God’s divine court whose role it is to bring people back
to orthodoxy. Thus, for Paul to turn
someone over to Satan was to turn them over to God’s gracious corrective
power. It was not punishment or
damnation.
Such is the understanding of grace
that the readers are receiving. That
they are wrapped in God’s love coming and going. Even being reprimanded by God for errors was
done with the spirit of love.
In future weeks we’ll be looking at
how grace comes to shape the church.
We’ll learn about church structure and authority. We’ll learn the qualities church leaders are
to have. And we’ll learn how Christians
are supposed to live.
Today we’ll leave it with this. The author says, “I am giving you these
instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophesies made earlier
about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, having faith
and a good conscious.” (1 Timothy 1,
18-19a)
Though we do not do literal physical combat, we are to see our faith as not an easy going along with the world around us. We are to realize that faith is a challenge. God’s grace, wonderful as it is, is contrary to how the world works. But God’s grace is powerful. It is to shape us, and to shape all those whom God brings to the truth of his love.
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