TIMOTHY EXEMPLIFYING CHRISTIANITY
[p. 379] TIMOTHY EXEMPLIFYING CHRISTIANITY
Acts 16: 1 - 3; Philippians 2: 19 - 22 1 Corinthians 4: 17; 1 Timothy 3: 14, 15
In reading these scriptures I have in mind to bring forward one who is a concrete example and expression in measure of Christianity, and in using the word Christianity I refer to what it is essentially; that is, in persons. It is not a mere system of teaching, but a system of ways and qualities in persons. It is, therefore, to be distinguished from all other religions — I use the word ‘religion’ because it is in a sense a religion, in the sense of what is pure and what is in love. It has this distinction that it is expressed in qualities, in characters, in ways. I think it right to make these remarks at the outset so that we may all have in mind that we belong to what is to be taken account of in the sense of personalities, in the sense of persons; not merely of doctrines or principles but of persons. And, of course, persons come and go. We are told that one generation passes away and another comes, and as each one comes we have to take notice of the qualities that there are, and how much the Spirit of God has had to do with them, for this is the whole point — what is effected by the Spirit of God. It is really a most wholesome and interesting study that Christianity is thus constituted — not set up as, say, for one thousand years and the same people continuing on in it. There will be something like that in the millennium, and, of course, in the eternal state of things that is all that there will be. There will be no generations coming and going there. It will be a happy state of things in which love will find its rest; in which God will find His rest. But now we have the coming and going, and hence the constant exercises, for we cannot say that any two or any four or any great number of persons must be alike and [p. 380] must be of the same age. We are all different, and the difference is taken up in many forms. Indeed, it is to be marvelled at that there is such variety and yet in a certain sense all are alike. It is what is very suggestive that we all with unveiled face look as in a glass and are made alike; changed into the same image. “We all”; that is, Christians; yet that does not imply that there are no differences, nor, indeed, that there are any two alike any more than it has often been remarked there are no two blades of grass alike. That may be a very strong statement but it is well supported and it shows what a Creator we have. We are to remember Him. “And remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth”. For that is when you get the right impressions. We are more impressionable in our youth.
I have taken up Timothy because the Spirit of God has taken him up and because he was taken up in a crisis. Christianity is largely composed of crises. Some of us may pass through them without knowing they are there, but those who are with God know, and it is essential that we all should know what the nature of the crisis may be and why and whether we are contributing to it, or whether we are alleviating it. And so Timothy came in at a crisis. Indeed, he had a companion in service, a most likeable man. He is one of the best examples, we might say, of the early servants; a most likeable man; a most valuable man; that is, Barnabas, a man that was ennobled, I may say, knighted by the apostles. I use the word ‘knighted’ because it is a well understood title. It is a matter of title because of merit. Timothy was like Barnabas but Barnabas was older, more experienced. He had a great place with the apostles and used his influence too, to help others. That is another point I would seek to make, that whatever influence I have, not to hold it for myself or use it for myself but use it [p. 381] for others, to promote the spiritual growth of others. And so Barnabas took Paul to Jerusalem and introduced him to the apostles, and when there was a great servant needed he went and sought out Paul. He did not promote his own interests or offer his own nomination or promote it. He went to Tarsus and sought out Saul; not Paul yet but Saul, and he found him; not that he was hiding like his namesake of olden times, he was hidden among the stuff. That was Saul of David’s time, or at least, of the time of the kings. He was the first king of Israel; he was hid among the stuff. It was no great recommendation for him to be king, for the idea of a king is the man that is able, and he needed to be able to overcome the Israelites’ antagonists in those days, but he was hid among the stuff. But Saul of Tarsus was not hid among the stuff; not that he was in the front to promote his interests. He was away in Tarsus and that was all the more creditable, that Barnabas went afield to find Saul and he found him and brought him to the field where the work was going on. There he and Barnabas laboured for a year. I should like to have been a companion of Paul or Barnabas in those days. It was not my lot to know much of the earlier servants but I did know a little. It is a great advantage to know the servants of God. So it was that Paul and Barnabas toiled for a whole year in Antioch; that is, Antioch of Syria outside Israel. And they taught the assembly. The assembly needs teaching and they taught the assembly for a whole year. No doubt it was the basis of the usefulness later of the assembly at Antioch.
Well now, having said that about Barnabas, he and Paul had a feeling between themselves. The word ‘feeling’ is used and, dear brethren, it is well that those of us, at any rate, who do any special service, should watch for feelings arising in our hearts toward each [p. 382] other. They are most baneful even if they be in a Paul or in a Peter or in a Barnabas. And they were separated; they separated from one another, and it was because Barnabas would have his nephew John Mark go with him in the service; whereas John Mark had left the work. He had gone into it and left it. He was restored, thank God, and so was Barnabas, but for a while they were divided and these things are written of them so that we might learn as in relation to our fellow-labourers and fellow-brethren so that we may have right feelings toward each other and have not any atom of adverse feeling or feeling of rivalry. And so it was that they were separated and Paul was left to labour with Silas as far as we see, but presently he found Timothy and the verses I read in chapter 16 are to show what a find it was. He was a young man whose father was a Greek; he had this disadvantage. His mother was a Jewess. There is something said about his grandmother too; something very worthy is said of her and it was a great advantage to Timothy that he had her as a grandmother. So he is spoken of thus and he was well spoken of among the brethren, which is another important matter if we are dealing with young brothers, as to what the brethren think of them. What is the brethren’s estimate of them? Especially if they are to be used as he was — a gifted man but a young man. He got his gifts from God but he got gift through Paul too; a remarkable thing. Gifts were in those days, in the rich times of the dispensation, through others; in Timothy’s case by the laying on of Paul’s hands, which would mean that he would leave some impression on this young man, and doubtless the young man would not be slow to take on what he saw in the elder brother, in the more able. But I am speaking now of him coming in in a crisis and filling up a gap, a void that had taken place, and that would have caused some weakness in the [p. 383] work in those parts were it not that Timothy was found. Paul found him and set him up. So I am speaking thus to young brothers and sisters that you are to be on the lookout for voids created, because there is always a danger in a void. Hence, if a brother or sister dies, if the Lord is pleased to take a brother or sister, we are told something about one baptised for the dead. It is an expression that we have to understand, which would mean that if a brother or a sister dies there may be a void, as I said. There may be a loss sustained in the service. And so each of us is to be on the alert to come forward and do what can be done, so that there may be no weakness caused by the departure of a brother or a sister. A departure, of course, is not their own doing — departing to be with Christ. The Lord takes us one after another and how interesting all that is. One generation passes away, the Lord taking them, and another coming. Presently they will be taken and another one coming; but then the voids come in in those cases. One is taken out of Plainfield, one is taken out of Philadelphia, and one is taken out of Baltimore. There are voids created in the present generation, I may say, and we have to rush, as it were. Nature would do so in our bodies to meet a crisis and so it is that in the body of Christ there is, as it were, what would rush to meet the need. It is a question of life. That is, the void is to be filled out by what is living, because it is a question of the body of Christ and that requires what is living.
So, as I said, we have this and that one falling out, dying, as was remarked, but some departing, turning away as if they knew better than all that came into the assembly since Pentecost and they turn away; a most solemn thing. But then if they do turn away there is a void and the point is to fill that void; not with the one that left or one like him, because if he [p. 384] were right he would not leave. If he belonged to the assembly characteristically he would not leave. God has set certain in the assembly. Why should I leave my post my position?
Then the next thing is, as I said, how the thing is to be met, and so Timothy is the best example I can set out, or one of the best, and especially because he is a young man, and this passage contemplates him, as you might say, converted and well spoken of; not simply one foot in the meeting and the other out; he is well spoken of. He is a good brother already; he is worthy of mention. And so we have him in this passage, and Paul goes on with his work. There is no void, so to speak. That is what we find in chapter 16: “who had a good testimony of the brethren in Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have go forth with him, and took him and circumcised him”. Notice he was not begging Timothy; he would have him; it was urgent according to the wording. He was to be Paul’s companion. Well, that is enough to set us on our way in this inquiry, for we can visualize the great apostle in the height of his labours left by Barnabas and Barnabas’ nephew, or cousin. And Paul finds Timothy. He would see a lovely picture; a lovely tiro; a young brother taken up and well spoken of by the brethren in the place and Paul would have him to go with him. What an honour — a young man such as he, that he is honoured to be a companion of the great apostle Paul! Well, you can see that these are things to be sought after, to be desired, and if we seek after such an honour then there must be something else. There must be a purchasing to ourselves a good degree and much boldness in the faith. That is to say, one has to turn to himself and see what he is able to do and fill out what is needed. So that he is not a detriment to Paul nor to the company because it is said of Paul, “Paul and his company” as if God would [p. 385] honour Paul. He is mentioned in chapter 13 as having a company. When his name is changed to Paul, which means ‘little’, I understand he is honoured by heaven and heaven says he has a company. That does not mean he had a party or that he was a party man. He had persons that were like himself, lovable persons, useful persons. And so they had a place in Paul’s company. I hold that up as well as I can to make it shine forth for that is the idea. I want to make the thing shine so that we may come into it and covet it, to join such a cause, such a society, such a fellowship, such honour. And it is open to us, dear brethren.
Well now, the next thing I want to bring before you, this being so, is what Paul says of him in the great epistle to the Philippians. I am confining myself to the verses I read; there are others I could read only I tried to reduce the text as much as possible. I do not like to use too much scripture. A little of it goes a long way. Let scripture speak for itself. You do not want to read out yards of scripture, because scripture can do a lot in a little time and with a little of itself. So I read these verses one by one, and the second one is written to the Philippians. I need not comment on them. They are one of the most delightful circles of brethren that we have in the Scriptures. I scarcely put any before them. Their history is unique. But I am not going to be diverted by that, but Paul is writing to them. This is one of the letters that we spoke of today; one of the three letters that have a unique place in the scriptures. They are the finish; Paul’s letters are the finish of scripture; in fact, he says so. He says in Colossians that God had given to him to complete the word of God and he did complete it. He completed the scope of scripture, and these three epistles — first Ephesians, then Philippians and then Colossians are especially to be noted, as [p. 386] filling out the idea of scripture. This thought has come to mind, I might say, lately. I commend it to the brethren, that we must read everything from the standpoint of the epistles, especially the Pauline epistles. If you look into them you will see that Paul is asserting that what he has written is final; even the gospels are not final in the sense in which his letters are final. The gospels are, of course, more copious and luminous but not so final as Paul’s letters.
And so he is writing to these Philippians, and he is telling them about his beloved Timothy, and he does not hesitate to use the word ‘beloved’. Paul had a beloved brother. I would conclude that at any time Paul would look around — Is Timothy there? That is the way I feel about it. He would say, where is Timothy? That is the way I would understand that Paul would feel about this young man. How valuable he was; how useful he was. And so he says here (this is a good opportunity to speak about Timothy): “But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus to you shortly”, as if it were a great matter in his mind and calculations that his beloved Timothy should be sent to a certain company of Christians, and that company were the Philippians. And so the reading is, “But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus to you shortly, that I also may be refreshed, knowing how ye get on”. You ask, Why did he say that? Why is he going to be comforted by sending Timothy? Timothy will not be with him when he is sent to the Philippians, but he will be comforted because the Philippians will be comforted. They needed the comfort more than Paul did and they get it in Timothy. That is what I want to point out, and I urge on the brethren to be able to comfort their brethren, old and young. How much comfort can we extend to our brethren, because that is what he says about Timothy. “That I also may be refreshed, knowing how ye get on”. He [p. 387] would be comforted because he would get the word from Timothy. I want to be like that. If I am going across to England as I hope to, I want to be like that; doing a little in the sense of comforting the brethren. They need it over there; they do indeed. You can hardly realise what our brethren have been through for the last five or six years. It is hard to keep from weeping at times according to what one saw and heard, and so the need of comfort. Therefore Paul says, “that I also may be refreshed, knowing how ye get on”. When I came back to America last December I found three brethren turning away from the meetings in New York. They did it themselves. They did not tell us why. Well, is that Christianity? It is not. Not that I am belittling the brethren. But I am telling you the truth. There is no Christianity in that; there is no comfort in it. Paul says, “that I also may be refreshed, knowing how ye get on”. That is to say, one knows, and Paul did know the state of the Philippians and they had a good reputation. We might say, you do not need to ask about the Philippians, but Paul needed to ask about them. That is what he was accustomed to do. When the Thessalonians were converted he says he was afraid that Satan would hinder them. Satan is ever ready to damage when there is a convert. Paul thus regards the Philippians. He was concerned, and so he would like to know their state and wanted Timothy to go and comfort them and bring back a report to comfort him, which he did. Then he goes on, “For I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on”. He says, “For I have no one”. Why did he not say the Lord did not have another? But he did not say that; he is speaking of himself and Timothy — the beautiful links that were between himself and Timothy; links which belong to Christianity, which ornament Christianity and are [p. 388] descriptive of Christianity; yet there was no jealousy not even as regards Paul’s feelings and affections for his beloved Timothy.
Well now, I go on to the next passage and that is 1 Corinthians 4. Now he is writing to the Corinthians and they were not the equals of the Philippians nor of the Ephesians nor even of the Colossians. I need not say a word to belittle the dear Corinthians, but the apostle says enough to enable us to judge there was a very, very low state there. And so Paul says, I cannot go myself but I am sending Timothy. If I could I would go myself just to show you what Christianity is and what it should be in your circumstances. And so I say this to this meeting here in Plainfield. I have to consider Plainfield as to what their Christianity is, and New York, and all the places where there are meetings. It is a question of the Christianity we are going on with, whether it has enough in itself to be a testimony to heaven and to earth. The Corinthians did not have that; they did not, indeed. Some of them were falling asleep; some were actually dying because of their conduct; a most solemn thing to have to say. “On this account many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep”. 1 Corinthians 11: 30. They did not all die; all the refractory ones did not die, thank God. No doubt they were held and recovered not only physically but spiritually too. But still they were dying. How terrible that was, and how sorrowful too; but it only reminds us of what we were saying today. It was a large assembly; it was a great result as to numbers, but numbers are not all. But yet the numbers came to something in Corinthians because the second epistle shows that great results in the way of recovery had taken place. The second letter is most encouraging. So happy was Paul about it that he says, I am speaking about you everywhere. In effect [p. 389] who in any sense are in his position and have gift and that is what he says. The restoring work of God had brought about such an effect in that assembly, and Paul says exultingly, I am speaking about you everywhere. You say, how do you know he said that? Well, I do know; You are in my heart, he said, and you are known and read of all men because of what is in my heart about you. I tell the brethren; I love to do it. At dinner tables or tea tables, I am sure it often came out in Paul’s remarks. He would love you to go to Corinth. He would say, a great change has taken place there; and a great change had taken place. He says, there are others who have not judged themselves yet, but I am waiting until your obedience is entirely completed and then I will deal with them.
And so here in our chapter 4 he says, “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”. See how he spoke of him again; how refreshed he would be as he thought of Timothy when he would write such letters as these to Corinth. “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”. Now notice, dear brethren, “of my ways”. He could hardly say anything about their ways in any praiseworthy sense. He would say it at times: I do not praise you here — I praise you here. That is the way he wrote to them, so careful he was and so fair too, in his judgment about them.
Well now, here he says, “who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly”. What I want to say about that is as to a brother like Timothy — any of us ability and means to get about, whether he is able to correct conditions among the brethren and whether he [p. 390] is able to correct them authoritatively, to point out what is wrong and to show why he is saying it is wrong. These are the most important things I know of in brethren who minister and who go about among the saints, and whom Paul would, if he were here, entrust with messages. So that it is not as it is now, that a brother can go about and say what he likes. Pardon me, but there is a good deal of this. We are saying too much without consulting scripture. The apostle would not have sent Timothy to Corinth to correct Corinth and to show in Corinth what his ways were elsewhere if he did not count on Timothy going by scripture and giving scripture for everything. And so he sent Timothy, “who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ”. It is not a question of Timothy’s ways but Paul’s ways; the one that Paul had entrusted with the truth. In fact, later we are told that Paul had committed the truth to Timothy to be entrusted to faithful men, able to instruct others also — such confidence he had in him. Although a young man, he could rely on him to hold to the truth when he ministered as Paul ministered, because he would minister just as Paul did in a way. He and Timotheus and Silvanus preached the Son of God. I might venture to say that if I were there and could have, perhaps, three nights there, I might find Paul preaching the first night, Timotheus the second night, and Silvanus the third night and they would all preach the Son of God. They would all have the same points to insist on. There would be no divergence, no disunion in the ministry. Indeed, we are enjoined in Philippians to say the same thing; not only saying the same thing but thinking the same thing. That is the point in ministry. And so Paul would have every confidence that if he sent Timothy to Corinth, whatever came up, whatever matter might come up for discussion in a meeting in Corinth,
[p. 391] Timotheus would insist on the truth as taught by Paul. I can visualize the position, and I think it is right that we should visualize what Scripture presents to us so that we might realize the thing now and work it out now amongst each other.
So he says, “who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly”. Not simply his ways, Paul’s ways, but what he taught, what Paul taught everywhere in every church. That is, there is no divergence. His doctrines were always the same. I would say, of course, he would get new thoughts, but all would be in keeping with what he had before. It is quite right to have new thoughts. It is a characteristic of a Christian’s ministry that it is fresh, but not necessarily different from what has been done before. I am stressing this. We do not need to go in for novelties in order to make our addresses important. There is nothing in that at all; nothing to be relied on either. It is a question of the truth. The thing must be according to truth. Paul speaks expressly of persons who love the truth, and love of the truth is, I might say, as important as love of the brethren; I would say, of more importance — love of the truth. Well, Timothy could be trusted, as Paul would say, for this matter: Paul’s ways in the truth as they are in Christ.
And then Paul’s words in his letter to Timothy himself; it is 1 Timothy 3 and I will read it. “These things I write to thee, [p. 392] hoping to come to thee more quickly”. That is another thing with Paul. He was always holding out the thought that he would come. Sometimes he almost suggests that the Lord was coming. And, indeed, He does come; even if He does not come corporeally he comes into the assembly in the power of the Spirit. He comes Himself, too. So here he says, “These things I write to thee,
hoping to come to thee more quickly”. I have often thought of Samuel. He went around everywhere; he had a circuit and you can understand if he were coming to a place they would have some fear about the great prophet Samuel. Indeed, they would fear when they heard that he was coming, and so here Paul says, “hoping to come to thee more quickly; but if I delay”. He may delay and you may get weary of waiting as Saul did of Samuel. He got weary waiting for Samuel. But I do not want to get weary waiting for the Lord, or ministry either, because ministry will come if we are patient. It may come next year if it does not come this year, but the Lord is fresh and full and loving. He has plenty and deals it out to us, as we are told in the gospels, “Blessed is that bondman whom his lord on coming shall find doing thus”. Matthew 24: 46. To minister a portion of meat to the household; a ministry to the household of Christ. The Lord has great store set on that, and when He comes He will set us over all that He has if we are doing that. And so we have to be on our guard as to what the Lord finds us doing, as to whether we are serving the saints a portion of meat in due season.
So Paul says, “but if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth”. That is the last word I have to quote. It is a matter of waiting for the Lord to come. That is really what is meant. If he delay that you may know in the meantime how to behave yourself in the house of God, even Timothy. That is what the apostle meant — that his beloved Timothy should not be misbehaving when the Lord came. We are apt to slip into misbehaviour, especially young people — and old ones, too. The Lord is looking out; He is watching. “What I say to you I say to all, Watch”. He has a great lookout. The prophet Habakkuk says, “I will stand upon my watch”, and he says, “though it tarry, wait for it; for it will surely come, it will not delay”. That is a passage quoted two or three times in the New Testament. It is a word for us, that the Lord will come. “Yea, I come quickly”. He means that, but we are to understand what He means by the words. It is eighteen hundred years now and yet it is true that He is coming quickly. I speak now to the young men and young women to behave in the meeting, to behave at the desk, to behave at the workshop, to behave in the house. “What I say to you I say to all, Watch”. And then the apostle says here again, “but if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth”. How serious it is to misbehave there. I have already pointed out that people died because they misbehaved. You say, that is serious. Well, it is serious. If they were Christians they went to heaven. It does not mean they were unbelievers; not at all. The application to unbelievers would be when the Lord comes, Anathema Maran-atha, 1 Corinthians 16: 22. That is, a curse will be pronounced when the Lord comes. It is not while He is away; it is while He is away we may be taken to be with Him for misbehaviour, as 1 Corinthians tells us. I do not proceed further. May the Lord bless the word.