3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Timothy 1:3–5 (ESV)
The following excerpt is by Pastor J. Ligon Duncan. He preached the message entitled The Goal of Christian Ministry June 20, 2004 when he served as Sr. Minister at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS, He currently serves as Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, MS where he continues to teach in the department of Systematic Theology. The biblical text is I Timothy 1:3-5.
I Timothy is a book about the church. If we ask the question “What is the Church supposed to be like?” this is one of the best books in the Bible to go to, to find the answer. Of course, its companion letters in the Pastoral Epistles, II Timothy and Titus, all address very specifically the questions of, “What the local church ought to look like?” “What should the local church be doing?” “What should be the priorities of the local church?” “How should the local church be ordered and
administered?” “How should the local church focus its resources?” and “How
should we relate to one another, in the life of the local congregation?
If you had four pages to write a young preacher to give him a theology of ministry that would last a lifetime and impact literally millions, where would you start? What would be the first thing that you would say to him? I’ll bet you it wouldn’t be what Paul said to Timothy. Now, I can see you starting off by saying, “Now Timothy, love your people. Love them like they’re your own, love them with all your heart.” That would be good counsel. That would be biblical counsel. Paul’s going to give that counsel to Timothy elsewhere, but that’s not how he starts.
You could say, “Timothy, whatever else you do, pray for your people. Love them so much that you’re praying for them constantly. Lift them up before the throne of God in prayer. Realize that your intercession for them will be crucial in their growth in grace” That would be good counsel for you to give a young minister. It would be biblical counsel. Paul’s going to give that counsel to Timothy later on, but that’s not how he starts.
First, we must actively check false teaching as a regular part of our ministry.
Paul starts in such a surprising way, doesn’t he? He says something that you and I never would have started with! We might have put it in somewhere down the line, but we wouldn’t have started there. Just shows you how important the truth is to Paul that he starts where he starts.
I want you to see in these three verses a negative exhortation and a positive exhortation. Paul starts with a negative exhortation in verses three and four; then he moves to a positive exhortation in verse five, which summarizes his whole approach to Gospel ministry. And I want to look at both parts of his exhortation.
His negative exhortation is this: “Timothy, teach them not….instruct them not…to teach falsely or to listen to false teachers.” He begins by calling Timothy to actively check false teaching as a regular part of his ministry. It’s the last place that you would expect Paul to begin. Now, here’s your first key to ministry, Timothy. Oppose false teaching. You see, it just shows you how important truth is to Paul. Paul knows that false teaching ruins lives, because false doctrine always leads to
error in living. Whereas true doctrine, the truth of God’s word, is designed to
flower forth in the life of the Christian and the congregation with a rich,
biblical experience of God’s grace and walk with God. And therefore, false
teaching hurts people.
This shows us how important the truth is to Paul, in ministry.
The disaster of false teaching is that it always sidetracks people from the
central elements of Christian discipleship, and so Paul knows that it is vital
to a minister to distinguish truth from falsehood, and to protect his people
from falsehood.
Second, we must minister with a view to the apostolic goal of ministry. But the second thing is what I want to focus on in verse five. In verse five, Paul is giving us a glorious summary of the goal of his discipleship program. He tells you here that in the local congregation the ministry of truth aims for this goal in you: love. The ministry of truth is not designed simply to get you to sign a card or pray a prayer. The ministry of the truth in the local congregation is not simply to arm you with Bible facts. The ministry of the truth is not simply designed to get you to believe certain things, although the design of truth is that you would believe and embrace biblical things. The ministry of the truth is more than that. It is to produce in you, love. Of course, ultimately the ministry of truth all aims to do what? Bring glory to God. But in you, the aim of the ministry of truth is to produce a heart of love. Is that not glorious?
Paul sets it over against the false teachers, and he says you show
me a false teacher and I’ll show you a guy who’s trying to do two things. He’s
trying to get you to follow him, (a); and, (b) to agree with him. He’s not
really…he doesn’t really care about your life. He’s not really interested in
transforming grace. He wants you to believe speculative things that he teaches,
and follow him. That’s what he’s after. And Paul says to Timothy, “that’s not
what we’re about. What we’re about is seeing the truth so worked in the hearts
of people that they live the life of love to God and love to neighbor.” Isn’t
it glorious? He says the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
So, what are we aiming for here at First Presbyterian Church? Is our
goal, when we preach to you, that you would know more stuff than any other
Christians in Jackson? We do want you to know more Bible truth than any other
Christians in Jackson! We want to spoil you rotten with Bible teaching! But
that’s not our ultimate goal. We want that truth to be so wrought in your
heart, Christians, that your lives are transformed so that your neighbors and
your friends say, “that brother, that sister knows the Bible and knows God, and
loves like the God of the Bible.” So that you are fully embracing the truth of
God, and fully living a life characterized by the love of God. Our goal in
discipleship is that transformation of union with Christ by faith that leads us
as a congregation to love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a
sincere faith. May God bring that about in our discipleship in this
congregation.
Let’s pray. Our Lord and our God, do this work of grace in us not so
that we would be saved by love, for our own love will never save us. Only Your
love can save us, only Your Christ can save us, only Your free pardon can save
us. Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to Your cross we cling. But, O God,
You have created us in Your grace in Christ Jesus for good works that You have
prepared beforehand. So we pray, O God, that You would cause those good
works–Your love, love to God, love to neighbor–to abound in our lives by grace,
and that we, thought never trusting in them for one iota of our salvation or
resting our assurance upon them, would nevertheless live in them for Your glory.
We ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.
May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a blessed day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
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