Back in the summer of 1996, I met a girl and it was love at first sight. I had just graduated high school and was working as the youth director at my home church in Pennsylvania. We took our youth group the whole way to Indiana State for a weeklong Bible Camp. The first person I saw was this beautiful girl. She had long blonde hair, a big smile, and an angelic glow all around her. Before I ever spoke a word to her, I knew that this was the girl that God had chosen to be my wife.
Once we met and got to know each other, I discovered that she and her family were missionaries in Guatemala—in Central America! My faith was tested as I began to wonder how God was going to make this work between a missionary girl from Guatemala and a country boy from Pennsylvania. By the end of the week of Bible camp, we committed to a long-distance relationship.
In 1996, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype hadn’t been invented, and even e-mail wasn’t readily accessible yet. So, we had two options for communicating—the telephone and hand-written letters. (Does anyone here remember how to use pen and paper?) After exchanging a number of letters, I just had to hear her voice again. So, one evening I used my grandparent’s old-school rotary style telephone and dialed the international code and telephone number and I talked to her for an hour.
A week or so later, my grandfather opened the telephone bill; I watched his eyes pop out of their sockets and his face turn red with rage. That one call cost over $100! I tried to explain to him that this was the price of love, but he wasn’t buying it (figuratively or literally). After I paid him back, that was the end of my telephone calls to Guatemala. For the next year, I wrote to that girl twice a week. Then she dumped me! A year later, I met Jennifer, the real love of my life.
Have you ever had that experience where you wanted to see someone face to face, but a letter was the best you could do? Maybe it was a loved one deployed in military service? Maybe one of your children moved to another part of the country or another country altogether? Or perhaps you have had your own long distance relationship?
The Apostle Paul knew exactly what this feels like. In verse 14, he tells Timothy that he hopes to see him soon—that is, he wants to visit him face to face and personally help him address the problems in the Ephesian church, but he was currently occupied in Macedonia and was anticipating further delay. So, the best that Paul could do was to send this letter.
In this short section of Paul’s letter to Timothy, he highlights three aspects of the church: its behavior, nature, and message. Let’s take a closer look at each of these aspects of the church.
1.) The Behavior of the Church (14-15a)
In lieu of Paul’s inability to visit Timothy personally, he wrote this letter so that Timothy and the Ephesian church would know how to behave as God’s people. The “these things” in verse 14 specifically refers to what Paul has written in chapters 1-3, but it also alludes to the teachings about church life throughout the entire letter.
In chapter 1, Paul has already mentioned about proper behavior for God’s people are to have a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. He also tells Timothy that God’s people should avoid ungodliness, profanity, rebellion against one’s parents, sexual immorality, homosexuality, enslaving others, lying, perjuring, and doing anything else that is contrary to biblical teaching.
In chapter 2, Paul tells Timothy that the church should come together in a spirit of unity to pray for all kinds of people, including governing officials so that Christians may live out their faith in peace. Paul also tells Timothy that God’s people should dress, speak, and act in ways that are consistent with the character of Christ.
In chapter 3, he sets forth two lists of character traits for Christians and makes them qualifications for church leadership. These lists include living a blameless and respectable life, avoiding drunkenness, gentleness, hospitality, and managing one’s family and relationships well.
The first three chapter’s of Paul’s letter lay down clear expectations for the way Christians are to behave in the household of God. If we are truly God’s children—that is if we have really been adopted into God’s family through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, than we ought to act like God’s children. Out of gratitude to God for saving our souls from sin and hell, we are to put on the character of Christ. Our personal witness and the churches credibility to the unbelieving world is influenced by our behavior. How many of you know someone who won’t come to church because their impression of the church is that is just a bunch of hypocrites? This reminds me of Mark Twians old quote, “Always do the right thing! This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
How is your Christian behavior? How is your character? Do you do the things that Jesus did? Do you avoid the sins that Jesus avoided? Are you living like a child of God?
2.) The Nature of the Church (15b)
After Paul reveals the purpose of the letter in teaching Timothy and the Ephesian church how they ought to behave, he goes on to highlight the nature of the church. He uses two metaphors on each side of an explanatory note. The first metaphor for the church is “the household of God.” The New Testament often refers to the church as the household or family of God. When a person puts their faith in Jesus Christ, they become born again and are adopted into God’s family whereby he becomes their father and other Christian’s become brothers and sisters. The local church becomes a Christian’s immediate spiritual family and the universal church (all true believers everywhere) becomes the Christian’s extended spiritual family.
The second metaphor Paul uses to describe the nature of the church is “a pillar and buttress of the truth.” This architectural term pictures the church as a great column or support post to hold up the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church provides the firm foundation where the gospel is protected and proclaimed. This is a fitting metaphor in light of the false teachers in Ephesus who were trying to destroy the church and corrupt the gospel message.
Wedged between these two metaphors is the explanatory note “which is the church of the living God.” This clarifies the object of the two metaphors as the church, and it reminds Timothy of the fact that God is still alive and working in the present world. God is both the Creator and Sustainer of life; he is not like the dead idols that so many people worshipped. God is present with his people; the church is God’s dwelling and household.
The church has changed a lot during the past 2000 years, but its basic nature is still the same. When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, your soul is born again and you are adopted into God’s family. He becomes your heavenly Father and other Christians become your spiritual brothers and sisters. Your local church becomes your immediate spiritual family, and like our biological families, we rejoice together, we suffer together, and we mourn together. We may not always agree with each other, but we always love, support, and help each other. Are you a part of the family of God?
Likewise, the church of the living God is still called to be a pillar and buttress of the truth. The church is still called to proclaim the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God wants his church to stand firm on the truths he has revealed to us in the Bible. The culture around us continues to shift and sway, but the truth of God’s Word never changes! As members of God’s church, we are called to up hold truth!
3.) The Message of the Church (16)
What, precisely, is this truth which the church is to uphold? The answer is found in verse 16, where he affirms the core message of the church, which he describes as “the mystery of godliness.” The word translated here as “godliness” also means “religion,” which seems to make better sense here. He explains the mystery of our religion by employing a creed or hymn. Creeds, like the Apostle’s Creed and Nicene Creed, are short summaries of the Christian faith. Most early church hymns were creed-like; they either affirmed doctrinal truths or retold the story of salvation. This hymn does both.
The structure of this hymn is a somewhat of a chronological story of Jesus’ life and work. The first line “manifested in the flesh” is a reference to Jesus’ Incarnation, where God became human flesh and dwelt with humans on earth. The second line “vindicated in the spirit” is a reference to Jesus’ spiritual vindication in heaven when he was resurrected from the dead. The third line “seen by angels” could refer to either angelic beings or human messengers after his resurrection. The fourth line “preached among the nations” speaks to the gospel expanding to the Gentiles. The fifth line “believed on in the world” affirms that the church’s missionary efforts were successful. And the sixth line “taken up into glory” is either an out-of-order reference to Jesus’ ascension or the exaltation of Christ to the realm of glory.
This hymn or creed affirms some of the core doctrines of the church and tells the story of Jesus bringing the hope of salvation to the world. This good news of the life, death, resurrection, and on-going ministry of Jesus Christ is the central message of the church. This is message the truth that we to protect and proclaim. There is no other gospel! There is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.
Jesus is the only one who left heaven and came to earth! Jesus is the only one who was resurrected from the dead! Jesus is the only one who can truly change our lives on earth and get us into heaven when we die! Do you believe this? Will you proclaim it?
Well, Paul really wanted to see Timothy and the Ephesian church face to face, but I am glad he was delayed and had to write this letter instead. You can learn a lot from reading old letters. And by reading a portion of this old letter today, we have learned something about the behavior, nature, and message of the church. May we be the Christians and church that God has called us to be!