Thoughts on 1 Timothy: Affinity versus Enmity with God

In 1 Timothy, Paul speaks plainly even if we don’t. Our unwillingness to speak plainly is understandable in the current climate; but in the end I don’t see how we help our neighbors. The Scriptures, over and over again, draw distinctions, and make divisions. They present a great Either/Or culminating in a once-and-for-all division between sheep and goats: between those he heard his voice and are glad to have a shepherd, and those who only hear thunder and go the way of their choosing. And our hesitancy in simply repeating what is written doesn’t help our neighbor either. It’s hard, don’t get me wrong. Who wants to be shot through with criticism, accusation, and rejection? I do not.

But I am troubled by my own silence, and the implications for my neighbor as a result.

First, my leaping off point for this line of thinking:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Cor. 6:9-11. (note: there is a moral equivalence here that must be reckoned with)

I put the emphasis where it belongs “and that is what some of your were.” That is certainly true for me: a sinner outside of, and at enmity with, God, and with none of the inheritance Jesus has provided through his death, burial, and resurrection. None.

But that is not my present state; I am a different human being altogether. I have been washed, sanctified, and justified through Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior and through the active and present agency of the Holy Spirit. I know what I was, and I know what I am, and I have some sense of my inheritance in God.

So, I don’t want to condemn anyone, necessarily (and they have condemned themselves by these behaviors and conduct in all events); but I would like every one to turn to God, leaving off all the idols Paul delineates in 1 Corinthians 6. In sharp contrast to the present zeitgeist, our bodies were no made for sexual immorality as Paul affirms, and we must know if we are honest. The world’s and the church’s apostate divisions’ redefinition of sexual immorality is no answer at all to the confusion we are in. Limiting and constricting the definition of sexual immorality to one or two things may assuage your conscience for a time, but God has been abundantly and repeatedly clear throughout Scripture, and the Scripture hold that God will be abundantly clear in judgment.

We see yet another recitation in 1 Timothy of conduct whose origins are in the human heart, which are in harmony with the good news of Jesus Christ and that which is at enmity with God. In other words, nothing has changed; God has not lowered the bar for our entrance into the kingdom of God. Our inheritance has come at a very high price to God himself.

This behavior, this conduct, this heart attitude opposes God directly:

lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, those who strike their fathers or mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, human traffickers, liars, and perjurers—and whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God. (note: there is a moral equivalence here that must be reckoned with)

On the other hand this behavior, conduct, and heart attitude conforms to, identifies with, and reflects the gospel:

above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. Managing his own family well and seeing that his children obey him, in a manner worthy of full respect, with a good reputation with outsiders.

We either have an affinity for God, as child to father, because of Jesus Christ, or we are at enmity with God, rejecting his way of salvation from ourselves.

In a world marked by these things:

People are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

Do I say anything about the lemmings? I wrestle with this issue in this way. I imagine I am on the docks in Southhampton, England in 1912, watching everyone board the Titanic, young and old, men and women and children, rich and poor; and I know in 5 days will strike an iceberg and sink at great loss of life. Some will be saved, but not all. If I were standing there, would I say anything? Would I warn anyone? Would I lift my voice above the clamor and the crowd—despite being labeled mad? (Remember everyone thought the ship was unsinkable, it was an indestructible, pinnacle of human achievement).

I am not sure the issue is whether anyone would listen, or what they would call you for taking such an adverse position to human endeavor? You just know what will happen to them.

Ironically, Paul is addressing these issues to the local church, not the world—that should give us pause. The world is firmly rooted in the church in Ephesus, and subverting the truth and the lives of believers. And that is where Paul focuses his instruction in righteousness:

I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 

The larger lesson here perhaps is this: if the church has fallen off her foundation, there remains no present witness to the truth, and no call to repentance, and no distinction made between light and dark, truth and lie, or righteousness and unrighteousness before a loving, but Holy, God. Here, if the church is not a lampstand (as in Revelation 2), there is no hope for Ephesus.

Ar a minimum, we must watch our life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if we do, we will save both ourselves and our hearers. See 1 Timothy 4:16.

Grace be with you.