For the last week I've been reading through the Pastoral Epistles (PE) in my nightly reading routine. Several things continue to stand out for me:
1. About two years after I became a Christian I was being posted to Townsville in northern Australia (a divine punishment for making jokes about how fat pregnant women were). I was in a young church with a young pastor, but I was well discipled and the young pastor instilled in me a love for Christian learning . He introduced me to apologetics which lead in turn to theology and then of course to biblical studies (in other words, blame this guy for all my heinous crimes). I shall never forget that just before I was about to leave, I was given as a farewell gift a copy of Millard Erickson's Christian Theology. And on the inside was inscribed the words of 1 Tim. 4.16: "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers". Those words have stuck with me ever since and it is wise counsel to give any young person heading off from the watching eye of their parents, family, and church.
2. The PE are often regarded as about being about doctrine, doctrine, and doctrine. Now that is true to some degree, but love, faith, and godliness are all interrelated to the "right" belief as well. Illustrative of this is 2 Tim. 1.13 where Timothy is exhorted: "What you have heard from me, keep as the pattern of sounding teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus". Doctrine without love or faith is a cerebral cult of the mind.
3. The PE emphasizes salvation by grace. We all know Tit. 3.5 as the sola gratia proof text. But consider the wider context: "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good". The trinitarian framework here is most striking as is the link with "washing" which could denote regeneration or baptism (or both). We should note that doing what is good is one of the immediate goals of salvation by grace. I would also add 2 Tim. 1.8-9: "But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace." Again this is clearly teaching salvation by grace alone, but the call to salvation is also a call to a holy life. In my mind, all of this underscores the transformative power of grace, not just as something believed in, but something that is relied upon in our lives.
4. The PE have somethings to say about gender roles (e.g. 1 Tim. 2.11-15) and the inspiration of the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3.16), but the hinge upon which the theological and pastoral exhortation of the PE turn is the gospel (1 Tim. 1.11; 2 Tim. 1.8; 2.8). What was "entrusted" to Paul and is now given to Timothy and Titus is the gospel (1 Tim. 1.11; 6.20; 2 Tim. 1.14; Tit. 1.3). In my mind, the centre of pastoral ministry, Christian discipleship, and even evangelicalism is not a specific view of Scriptural authority (i.e. infallibility or inerrancy) or a specific view of gender (e.g. patriarchy or egalitarianism) but the gospel. The mark of the true Pastor is how he (or she) articulates, proclaims, guards, lives, and passes on the gospel of God.
5. My favourite verses in the PE has to be 1 Tim. 5.23: "Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses". At the end of a long week in the labour of the Lord I look most forward to a nice glass of Aussie Merlot on a Friday night.
There endeth the lesson!
4 comments:
Amen!
If 1 Tim was written to Timothy, as you seem to suppose, how do you explain 1 Tim 4:12, which says that Timothy was young? How can Timothy have been young at any time that 1 Tim could have been written?
Richard.
and on #2- it would seem that Paul's view of doctrine is less bifurcated than ours. There is a fuzziness that allows doctrine to be "love, faith and godliness." I think we too often think that doctrine is the data and things like love, faith and godliness is what we do with that data, but doctrine is something more than the credit we can give it.
Ethics is included in sound doctrine (1 Tim. 1:8-10) and sound doctrine "conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God..." (v. 11). So I ask: Would Paul consider his statements regarding men and women in 1 Tim. 2, 3 & et al as "sound doctrine"? Or, to put it differently, as applications of the gospel to the life of the church? If so, are they not tied to the gospel in some way? If not, by what other standard are we to benchmark Paul's teaching? Scripture is allergic to a cut and paste, canon-within-a-canon approach! Perhaps you can neatly snip out parts of Paul in order to make it comfortable for you to link to such organizations as Christians for Biblical Equality, but in the end your problem with Scripture's teaching on men and women will lead to problems with Christ's relationship with the church, which will lead to problems with Christ's relationship to the Father, which, as I come to think of it, leaves us in "gospel territory." I'm not saying you are sliding on this slope, but your thinking is on this slope - and anyone who has any feel for the historical and present trajectory of "christian" feminism, its hermeneutics, and overall approach to Scripture, is rather ignorant (as in "ignore") as to its outcomes. Un-tethering Paul's teaching on sexuality from sound doctrine and from the gospel has disastrous results indeed.
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