O V E R S E E I N G T H E C H U R C H Paul's First Letter to Timothy Paul's first letter to Timothy was written when Paul had been imprisoned. Paul may still have had some hope for eventually being released; in 3:14, for example, Paul is still hoping to travel to visit with Timothy. Meanwhile, Paul is concerned that the oversight of the church be continued by Timothy. GOD'S MISSION FOR PAUL AND TIMOTHY 1:1-2 Paul opens his letter by greeting Timothy as his "true child in faith". Timothy has been loyal to the gospel Paul preaches; now Paul asks Timothy to continue to be true to the mission God has set for him. 1:3-11 Timothy's task is to protect the church from impure doctrine. Paul sees the church threatened by wallowing in pointless theologizing. Apparently, too much attention is being given to personal heritage and detailed legalities of faithfulness. Paul wants a simple faith that is true to the good news. In part, Paul may be reacting to the institutionalization of the Christian movement. Forming an institution seems to be a necessary step in the life of every movement, but one that is always painful to the charismatic founders of the movement. On the other hand, Paul gives Timothy instructions to achieve this very institutionalization. The essential point is not whether or not an institutional structure is needed, but whether it will support selfless, Christian love or wander off into self-absorption. 1:12-17 Paul's personal mission helps to explain the mission of the church, which Timothy is to maintain. Paul calls himself the foremost of sinners. But Christ entered into this world for the purpose of saving sinners; so Christ took Paul and turned him into the foremost preacher of the good news. This is the mission which Christ left to the church: not to argue about who is saved but to reach out in love to those who need love. 1:18-20 Paul now entrusts this mission to Timothy, who must accept his role with confidence. Apparently, prophetic words about Timothy's leadership had been spoken long ago. Timothy is now to take these words to heart. If he tries to put them aside, he risks being put aside himself - as the unhappy examples illustrate. (This thought is expressed more happily in 2 Timothy 2.) CHURCH ORGANIZATION Organization of worship There is no question but that the church must be organized and supervised. The question is how this should be done in view of the church's mission. Paul begins with worship, which may be considered the most important of the church's tasks. 2:1-8 Men should pray. They should pray for everyone, since God clearly wants all to be saved; we aren't in the business of cutting people out of God's grace. For this reason, too, the leaders of prayer should be men who can focus on God and God's will, who won't pollute their prayers with prejudice and animosities. 2:9-15 Women should clothe themselves in useful work rather than ostentation. Women should also keep quiet and defer to the men. If Paul meant this to respond to a specific problem in the church in Ephesus, where Timothy was, or if it was meant to respond to the times and social situation, Paul failed to make that clear. The distinction Paul makes here between women and men seems even to contradict Paul's own words in other places. Oversight and leadership Paul has admitted that there must be oversight provided to keep the church pure. Now he offers instruction on how Timothy can insure that there will be good leadership. 3:1-7 Overseers are to be selected based on their own personal spirituality. (The word is the same as later used for "bishops", but the term seems to be used in more general sense in this letter.) The criteria indicate a man who will be respected without question within the church. Equally, the leader should not be subject to reproach from people outside the fellowship. The only specific skill which Paul notes is the ability to teach. All the other items are personal qualities. Paul shows a repeated concern for good order in the church and in the personal lives of the church's leaders. It is interesting that Paul expects the church's leaders to be married and have a family. Even though the precise meaning of the title is not entirely clear, Paul obviously anticipated the church to be led primarily by married men. 3:8-13 Helpers (or "deacons") should be selected using similar standards. Paul is concerned that the character of the leaders should be examined before they begin their service; this suggests a worry that the church could be harmed by poor leadership. This might be the damage they do directly, by their own bad behavior, or the damage which could come indirectly from a bad reputation. The women (mentioned verse 11) could be female church workers, but based on the nearby verses most understand this to be a reference to the wives of the deacons. 3:14-16 Paul concludes his discussion of church organization with a reminder of the importance of the church. The church is God's home and family, the foundation of reality, the focus of the great mystery of God's revelation. PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS Fighting false teaching Paul has made it clear already the Timothy is going to have to be a fighter; here Paul addresses one of his major worries, the invasion of the church by false teachings. 4:1-5 Timothy will need to deal with specific errors in doctrine. Even though such straying is expected, that doesn't make it less harmful. Paul is particularly upset about restrictive religious teachings. Anything that God makes available to us may be used, provided only that we use it as a gift from God. Paul is saying that marriage is a good thing, not that it is necessary. Paul himself never married. The mistake is in claiming that celibacy, or marriage, or eating, or abstaining is necessary for salvation. The story of creation tells us that God made everything and that everything God made is good. It is not our place to declare God's good gift immoral. 4:6-10 In order to resist the false teachers, Timothy needs to keep in shape spiritually, staying away from stories that aren't useful and staying focused on the goal. Paul's frequent use of track & field metaphors may suggest that Timothy was something of athlete; Paul would then be trying to relate Timothy's "high school" athletic training to his new career in the church. 4:11-16 Timothy must not only be spiritual but must be seen to be spiritual. A leader must be humble, but never falsely humble. Timothy is called to lead and to teach; he must say openly what God wants said, he must show his own loyalty to God so that others can copy him. Showing respect 5:1-2 Speaking confidently does not imply disrespect. There are good and helpful ways to approach people which will help to establish good order in the community without tearing it apart. In this section, Paul provides Timothy with some very specific suggestions on how to maintain respect within the church community. 5:3-8 Widows who have no one to support them deserve special consideration. The church should not be supporting either a widow or a widow's family in abandoning their responsibilities. Doing so would encourage disloyalty to God and alienate the church from its unconverted neighbors. 5:9-16 These general considerations lead directly to the rules for ordering the Widow's Service Corps. We can't be sure just how organized the widows were; there was a membership list and it appears that they made some formal commitment and visited the Christian homes. It is not appropriate to open this life to women who have other opportunities. Paul repeats his concerns with public opinion and financial burden, even more clearly than in the preceeding section. As general advice, this looks rather worldly. However, this letter was written to Timothy as he was taking on the role of overseeing the church. One can understand Paul as suggesting simple ways to deal with the secular aspects of church life so that Timothy can lead the church spiritually. 5:17-25 A church leader, particularly the preachers and teachers, deserve double respect. There will always be accusations made against teachers and leaders, especially against those who strive to do their jobs properly; such a charge should be viewed more skeptically than a similar charge against someone else. The pay of a leader consists more in deference than in remuneration. But if a charge is proven, the condemnation should be the same for leader or follower; further, it should be seen to be the same, so that everyone will have respect. It helps to take enough time to evaluate whether a person is well suited for a leadership role in the church. (The remark about drinking a little wine seems out of place. Perhaps it is just a personal note that Paul thought of after he said that Timothy should keep himself pure; there doesn't seem to be any other connection to the ideas or the vocabulary of the surroundng text. It could even have been a note that someone else wrote on a copy of the letter, but I know no evidence to support that idea.) 6:1-2 Slave-holders, too, should be given respect. If a slave is a Christian, that doesn't eliminate the duty for obedience. Obedience is put in a new light because of the Christian's relationship to God. The argument could be easily extended to modern employment. The Christian is not allowed to disrupt the employer's business. (Perhaps you would be obligated to leave employment if the work is morally wrong and if change is possible for you.) Again we see the concern for public relations. On the one hand, there is the practical issue of what the powerful slave-owners might do to the church if they see it as socially disruptive. On the other hand, the job of the church is to bring everyone together in Christ. This letter is not a theological essay, but practical advice. The problem of interpretation is that Paul could give the same advice whether the question at hand is institutional survival or spiritual purity. RICHES AND PROFIT 6:3-10 Religion is often used as a means of showing off or obtaining personal recognition or even making money. If you understand the real message of the gospel, you realize that you already are rich enough. Loving wealth more than God is a sin itself and also turns us toward more sin. (These verses form a contrast to the thoughts on slaves. which may be why the early editor placed those verses in the same chapter with these. In addition, the advice to slaves is balanced by the advice to rich people at the end of this chapter. Paul's letters typically flow from thought to thought and can be divided in a variety of ways.) 6:11-16 Timothy's own religion should never be twisted in this way. Timothy has his own promise and Paul's command to live up to, and his athletic training and the promise of the gospel to encourage him. 6:17-19 People who are already rich should be instructed to invest for the longer term and build up a different kind of wealth. The analogy is provocative, but it may obscure the deep difference between putting faith in things you control and putting faith in the relationship between yourself and God. We find that we can't control relationships with other human beings (though most of us do keep trying); basing our future on our relationship with God can be scary. This is especially true for those who have become accustomed to being in charge and having the social and economic clout to control much of their own lives. Poor people often are more accustomed to depending on others and therefore they may be less in need of instruction on this point. 6:20-21 Timothy has been given the riches of the gospel. It is his assignment to conserve this treasure. Paul closes the letter as he opens it with reference to false doctrine. This indicates that the practical instructions in the letter were probably aimed primarily at disarming the depredations of those who were trying to intellectualize the good news. The claim of special knowledge, along with Paul's attention to worthless arguments, suggests that the false teachers were attempting to turn God's word into nothing more than another subject for academic study. This would give the power in the church to the intellectuals, recreating the class structure of the secular world. Further, it might allow the insiders to believe that they could control the good news, in effect turning God's Word into a private magic. It is difficult to know precisely what was being taught. We have to guess from how Paul replied to them and from the later arguments which seem to follow the same pattern. Much of what Paul answers in this letter is found in "Gnosticism" over the next centuries. This fits with Paul's closing advice against "falsely named knowledge". December, 1994