PAUL’S TEACHING AND CONDUCT

A. K. Turner

Acts 20: 28–35; 1 Corinthians 4: 14–17; 2 Timothy 3: 10–17

In the second scripture Paul speaks of Timotheus as putting the Corinthians in mind of his ways “as they are in Christ”. He says, “according as I teach everywhere in every assembly”. In Acts 20 we have set out for us by the beloved apostle himself his ways as they were in Christ.

In the third scripture we have the reference to his teaching and conduct, the two thoughts going together, as they do in Acts 20. Paul had reminded the Ephesian elders that he had not shrunk from announcing to them all the counsel of God. He had these great and glorious matters in his heart, the glad tidings of the grace of God, the preaching of the kingdom of God, and then all the counsel of God. But there was something additional to that—his ways as they were in Christ. He reminds them of how he had been among them, saying, “I have showed you all things”. The note says, Specially, ‘to show by example’. He also says, “Wherefore watch, remembering that for three years, night and day, I ceased not admonishing each one of you with tears”. He is speaking to the overseers, and I believe the Lord would exercise us, even those of us who are younger, as to the matter of being overseers as caring unofficially for the things of God. As we think of the assembly of God that He has purchased with the blood of His own, I think we would be encouraged to have our part in caring, according to our measure, for divine things.

In 1 Timothy 3 Paul raised the question of qualification for caring for the assembly of God, which, of course, is a challenging matter, an exercising matter, because clearly the Lord needs persons who can care for assembly interests down here. So Paul says, “Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God”. What a shepherd he had been—how he took character from his Master! His desire now was that others should shepherd the assembly of God of which he speaks in this affecting way, “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. How God values His assembly! It is a word that would appeal to our affections, “The blood of his own”, His own Son, His own Lamb, involved in the purchase of the assembly of God. We are in a broken day, which the last scripture has in mind, and I believe the Lord would encourage us all to fill out our part in this matter of shepherd care, shepherding the assembly of God. If we are to have any part in that, I think we need to see the character of what was set on by Paul. “I have shewed you all things, that thus labouring we ought to come in aid of the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said. It is more blessed to give than to receive”.

How Paul served! You think of how the Samaritan served, the loneliness involved, the insignificant title used as to him, “a certain Samaritan” (Luke 10: 33), over against all that was official, all that was of the lawyer character. Well, Paul says, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus”. As has often been said, you do not exactly find these words in Scripture, but clearly they are written on the pages of the gospels, “the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive”. So Paul served in the spirit of self-sacrificing love. Think of the Samaritan putting the man on his own beast. Apart from any typical application, the man was prepared in self-sacrificing love to serve that soul for his restoration and good. So Paul here is prepared in self-sacrificing love to serve the saints, “Remembering that for three years, night and day, I ceased not admonishing each of of you with tears”.

One hesitates in speaking of a chapter like this because of the glory of it, the glory of Paul’s ways as they were in Christ. It makes one feel so small and puny in relation to one’s affections and preparedness to sacrifice for God and for

Christ to think of the stature of Paul the beloved apostle, and to think of how his affections had been formed by the blessed God and by the Holy Spirit. His affections had been formed so that he could care for the saints in this attractive manner. He was not narrow in his affections, not self-centred. He was broad in his affections as shown when he speaks of the Ephesians having love to all the saints. How much love the apostle had for all the saints, bearing the burdens of all the assemblies. Then he says, “Who is weak, and I am not weak?”, 2 Corinthians 11: 29. Think of the beloved apostle caring for every saint. How near he was to Christ; how near he was to the Master! We can think about these things, however small our formation in love may be. My formation in love is very small, yet one can look at the beloved apostle, a man of like passions with ourselves, and see how he was formed in the divine nature and how his affections moved him in self-sacrificing service to the saints. We can think of him, as he says to the Corinthians, as a model, “I entreat you therefore, be my imitators”. I might be like a Corinthian, a party man, or just carnal, a babe in Christ with no formation spiritually, no formation in the divine nature, yet Paul would say, “I entreat you therefore, be my imitators”. He says, “For if ye should have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the glad tidings”.

Paul was not only a shepherd but a father, and he handed these things on to Timothy. His fervent desire was that Timothy should entrust things to faithful men. That is the way things have come down to us. Not only the teaching, but the ways in Christ, the conduct, are handed down on that line: these things “entrust to faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also”,

2 Timothy 2; 2. So Timothy had learned Paul’s ways as they were in Christ. What skill Paul used, what skill as a shepherd, what skill as a father, and Timothy was like him. “For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly”. So he sent a comparatively young man to Corinth where there was great need of fatherhood. I do not think the apostle would use these words if he did not really feel there was great need of fatherhood in Corinth, “Not as chiding do I write these things to you, but as my beloved children I admonish you”. In spite of conditions in Corinth he writes thus to them, his affections are so great.

I feel sometimes that when a problem arises amongst us the lawyer mind comes up. Of course, we should, and must, cling to divine principles, but then there is this other side of Paul’s ways in Christ, shown in how he cared for these Corinthians because they were his beloved children. “I write these things to you ... as my beloved children I admonish you”. He loved them; he was not going to part with them easily. In his skill, with the help of the Spirit of God, and in wisdom, he was used of the Lord to bring them round; even the one who had to be withdrawn from was recovered. One hesitates to speak of these things because of the stature of the man; he was so near to Christ. The Lord says, “As to those whom thou hast given me, I have not lost one of them”, John 18: 9. He had kept them think of how He loved them! The Lord set out this parental thought of care for His own. Then Paul set it out, and now he has a child who is like him, “For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord”. It has often been remarked that he did not send Titus;

he sent Timotheus. Timotheus would be tender in spite of the conditions. It is “in the Lord”, of course, but there would be the spirit of fatherly care in Timotheus in Corinth, “who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ”—these ways are not in Adam; they are not in the flesh; his ways were in Christ. We cannot work up to them in any human way, it must be as we are near to the Father and to the Lord Jesus, and as we are formed by the Holy Spirit that we can have any part in shepherd care or in fatherhood as set out in Paul. I think that as we cultivate links with divine Persons that then we shall develop in features of shepherd care and fatherhood.

So in the last scripture Paul says to Timothy, “Thou hast been thoroughly acquainted with my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings”. So, as in Acts 20, it is not just the teaching. Teaching is first, and how important it is. Paul says, “Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. Who would want in any sense to set aside right teaching? It is fundamental. But then as well as teaching there is “conduct, purpose, faith ...”. So what a man Paul was; how he had been formed in the knowledge of God, formed through suffering, so that his conduct set out his ways in Christ. Really, Christ was being set out in Paul; it is the “way of more surpassing excellence”, 1 Corinthians 12: 31. Now he is passing all this on to Timothy, against a background of departure, and difficult times. He lets him know that “in the last days difficult times shall be there; for men shall be lovers of self” (2 Timothy 3: 1, 2). There is no care of the saints in that. “Lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, evil speakers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful”. Then Paul says

specifically, “But thou hast been thoroughly acquainted with my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love”—not half acquainted, but thoroughly acquainted. In contrast we have all the other features of the last days, “Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3: 4)—men’s hearts gone off into idolatry, far from God, not having been secured by the glad tidings to love Him.

Over against this we have a man not only understanding the teaching but understanding the conduct that was appropriate to the teaching. As someone said recently, it is not only to talk about the truth, but to walk in the truth. That is what Paul did, and Timothy had been thoroughly acquainted with both his teaching and his conduct. So Paul goes on, “But thou, abide in those things which thou hast learned, and of which thou hast been fully persuaded, knowing of whom thou hast learned them”. He had learned them from Paul, and Paul had learned them from Christ. We have no hesitation in saying that. If we speak as to our on day we would not speak of a Paul now; there has been only one Paul. But Paul was an imitator of Christ. Timothy learned the teaching and the conduct from Paul—“Knowing of whom thou hast learned then; and that from a child thou hast known the sacred letters”. So we would encourage the children. Get to know the Scriptures while you are young. They are “able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. So all this has in mind the matter of care. The saints are to be cared for. They need all these things. If I am to have any power in caring for them I must know the Scriptures. So how important it is that there should be the reading of the Scriptures in the household, and by the children themselves, in view of

our being formed and taught so as to care for God’s interests in days of difficulty.

Now I just mention in closing a word in the next chapter. Paul says, “Alexander the smith did many evil things against me. The Lord will render to him according to his works. Against whom be thou also on thy guard, for he has greatly withstood our words” (2 Timothy 4: 14, 15). It is just that word “guard” that is in mind. That is another feature of care, guarding. There are certain historical matters, such as this, that Paul does not forget. Paul is not rendering it to Alexander; he says that the Lord will render to him according to his works. Well, this is a feature of care. What Paul is handing down to Timothy is not only the positive side of care, of helping souls, but also this feature of guarding, which we must not overlook. This man had been an opposer; he did many evil things against Paul. These are things that we may need to remember. Certain persons have been withdrawn from, and rightly withdrawn from, who may have had a history in what was wrong. We just have to be on our guard, particularly with leaders, without setting aside the spirit of the dispensation, or the Lord’s sovereign rights in recovery. Paul says, “The Lord will render to him”. I do not think it alters Paul’s spirit at all, but there is just this word of warning. There had been a course in what was wrong in this man Alexander and there was the need to be on guard. So this is a feature of care that Paul passes on to Timotheus, and he would, in turn, hand it down to us; that is the way that things have come down to us these things “ entrust to faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also” (2 Timothy 2: 2). We are to come into the “others also”. So there is this feature of guarding what is due to the Lord, guarding the rights of the Lord. There have been assembly judgments that God has honoured and we need

to respect them. We need to guard what is pleasing to God and to the rights of the Lord.

May we be encouraged by these thoughts. Unless we are near to God, unless we are formed in the divine nature, I do not think we can have any part in the care of divine interests, but I believe God would encourage us. The Lord Jesus is available, and what an example He has given—“He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive”. Let it move us in this line of self-sacrificing love in the care of the saints, which the Lord Jesus Himself has set on—“ … our Lord Jesus Christ … for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched”, 2 Corinthians 8: 9. It was self-sacrificing love in view of the care of the saints. Paul set it out in his ways in Christ and he passed it on to Timothy. Timothy displayed it and he passes it on to “faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also”. May we come in there, beloved brethren, in this administration of divine care and supply. And then there is just this thought of guarding which we must remember, else we shall lose what the Lord has preserved amongst us in its preciousness. It does not mean that our spirits are to be harsh toward anyone, but we should be careful and we should respect assembly judgments. May the Lord bless the word.

Address at Barnet
24 May 1975