Paul has just finished giving Timothy the pastor commands about correcting teachings that contradict the Gospel in his church. He is to function as Christ’s representative, caring for his people, celebrating that they are saved by his death and resurrection – not by secret knowledge or rules. Timothy is to do this by being nourished by the Scriptures.
(7a) And have nothing to do with godless, silly myths…
We should first observe that there are godless, silly myths. What are they? Well, we should first observe that they are not from God. They are false, being myths. And they’re stupid.
If we go back to the first part of the chapter, we see that they’re satanic in origin.
And if we look at verse 6, we see that they contradict the words of the faith and good doctrine, or teaching, that Timothy has followed.
They are from the enemy of God, in opposition to God, in contradiction of God, and are being used to seek to deceive the people of God.
But they’re stupid and false.
Timothy, the pastor, is to have nothing to do with them. What does that mean? Well, certainly, he is to contradict them in public (v. 6). He is to nourish himself on the Scriptures – not to dwell on these speculations – things that aren’t written about in the Bible. He isn’t to waste energy on these things – except to expose them by the light of the word of God in public!
(7b) Rather, train yourself for godliness…
Here, God gives us the opposite of dwelling on myths and speculations – training oneself for godliness.
How does one do that? Paul gives us the example of training for a physical event: (8a) – for while bodily training is of some value…
Bodily training had an end in mind in those days – an event – something that would take the body to its limits – something that required preparation.
In the same way, godliness takes preparation. It isn’t merely something you can just do, per se.
So how does one train for it? How does one prepare to reflect the glory of God in this life? Well, what is the opposite of having something to do with godless, silly myths? It’s feeding on the words of the faith and doctrines in Scripture, that are from Jesus.
The energy that it takes to produce godliness in someone’s life is found in the Scriptures – and primarily as the Scriptures teach about the person and work of Jesus.
(8b) …for… godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
And here is the reason that Timothy is to train for godliness – it has value for this life and eternal life.
So while these speculations are based on demonic lies, God’s words, as we are fed on them and godliness is the result, holds promise for now and later.
What promise?
When Paul uses ‘promise’ terminology, he’s typically talking about fellowship with God – relationship. There is a promise of relationship forever to all who are declared righteous in Christ through faith!
There is as well promise of fellowship with God through his Holy Spirit even now, as we wait for Jesus to come back to renew this world and fix it.
We see this in 1 Timothy 6.
What about now? How does it hold promise for us now? Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 tell us that all believers have the Holy Spirit. However, given the commands in Galatians 3 and 5, we see that we can relate to Him more or less. Our relationship with God, seeing Christ’s glory, is through the Holy Spirit – and godliness, cleansing ourselves from sins by faith in Jesus’ blood and repentance, draws us ever nearer to him.
And that is gain, for what does the Spirit do? John 16 says he glorifies Christ – and we want to know Christ – Philippians 3. We want fellowship with God – 1 John 1. And we want to rejoice in him and delight ourselves in him. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore.
So what is this promise? – the joy of knowing Christ, in part now through the Spirit, and fully later. (9) The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. These things are not earned by our godliness – but rather are in agreement with it. The joy of knowing Christ is for us accomplished by Christ – and pastors are to teach for the sake of godliness – for the sake of the fellowship of the saints with their God!
And godliness is accomplished through dwelling on the person and work of Jesus Christ by the Spirit – not on stupid lies that aren’t taught in Scripture – but rather contradict it.
SUMMARY:
1) Pastors are not to be tricked by beliefs that are outside of the Scriptures.
2) Pastors are to expose those falsehoods with Scripture.
3) Pastors are to nourish themselves on Scripture.
4) The effect of nourishing oneself on Scripture is godliness.
5) The effect of godliness is fellowship with God, both in this life and in eternal life.
6) Pastors must believe these truths and preach these truths.
PRAYER:
Holy God, I praise you! You are holy, and yet, you’ve entered into relationship with us. You have spoken in your word – cause us to believe and submit to it! Cause us to yearn for it and feed on it! Cause us to proclaim it. You have justified us in Christ – cause us to rejoice in it! Cause us to glorify you for it! You have given us your Holy Spirit – cause us to depend on him! Cause us to seek his presence through your word! You have given us the promise of fellowship with you forever – God, give us expectation and trust that your promises are true – to live for that moment when we see your Son face to face – and to glorify you on earth now.
Because Jesus lived for us, died for us, rose for us, intercedes for us, and is coming again to gather us –
And for the sake of his glory we pray – amen.
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