Read: 1 Timothy 1:1-7
1 Timothy was written by the apostle Paul to his friend, colleague and protégé in ministry, Timothy, who was the pastor of the young church in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this letter to help him identify spiritual warning signs in the church and to address these by sound (healthy) doctrine. 1 Timothy is like an older experienced physician guiding a younger doctor in the work of diagnosis and treatment. The things Paul tells Timothy to do and to teach provide us with the metrics of spiritual health for our personal and corporate lives as Christians. Paul begins his letter by reminding Timothy of the most important sign and metric of all.
1) The Urgency of Love
It may be something we miss on our first reading, but in order to understand the message of 1 Timothy, we first need to feel its tone. 1 Timothy is one of the most urgent letters in the New Testament. Most scholars would agree that it is second in urgency only to Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Note that it was customary at this time (as it was Paul’s custom) to begin his letters with warm introductions filled with thanksgiving and encouragement. In this letter, however, he gets right to the point. He urges Timothy to immediate action (v3). Something must have been extremely urgent for Paul to move past greeting and encouraging one of his dearest and closest friends.
What was so urgent? Verses 4-5 tell us. People in the church were leading others to miss the entire point of God’s plan and their faith in Jesus – love. They were spending a lot of time talking about the Bible, but the only result was speculation and fruitless discussion. They were moving themselves and others further and further away from love. Paul’s response to this shows us what is always an urgent matter for God – love.
2) The Ultimacy of Love
This passage goes beyond saying that love is an urgent matter; it is saying love is the MOST urgent and ultimate matter in life. Some things are unclear and hard to understand in the Bible, but this is crystal clear - love is the ultimate sign of life and the most important metric of spiritual health. This is what Paul says to Timothy in v5: “The goal of our instruction is love.”
Paul reminds Timothy of the ultimate goal so that he would stay committed to two very difficult things in his situation. These two things are what every person and every church needs in order to move further toward the goal of love. What are they?
1) Difficult People – In v3, Paul tells Timothy, “I urged you to remain in Ephesus”. When someone has to be urged to remain somewhere, it usually means they are thinking of leaving or giving up! Paul is saying, “Remember that the goal, Timothy, isn’t easy relationships or finding people who always agree with you and make life easy for you or who don’t demand anything hard of you… the goal is love. So remain. Stay.” When the people close to us are difficult for us or to us, we need to remember the goal. Love only grows in us as we remain committed over time, even (and especially!) when it’s difficult.
2) Doctrine – We might say, “How does doctrine lead to love? Doesn’t doctrine lead to division and disagreement?” Paul’s response is, “Yes, doctrine can lead to disputes, arguments, envy, quarrelling, slander, suspicion and constant disagreement (see 6:3-4) but the answer is not no doctrine or less doctrine. The answer is “sound doctrine”. Here’s how we know the difference – the goal. The goal of all God’s instruction is love. Whenever relationships take a back seat to being right or knowing more – it’s a sign the goal has been lost. Sound doctrine is truth from God for healthy relationships - with Him and other people. This is the goal of the law – if we miss this, we cannot understand God’s instruction in the law (see verse 7)
3) The Capacity for Love
The more we learn sound/healthy doctrine and the more we remain close & committed to people, what will happen? The more we will see how unloving we really are. God’s word shows us hard things about ourselves. His law exposes our selfishness and self-centeredness. Our close relationships reveal things we didn’t even know were in us. This is hard but it is healthy for us. It is a loving thing for God to do to show us these things - because it is how God grows in us our capacity to love. How so?
Our love grows when God’s love in the law leads us to God’s love in the gospel. Paul helps us see what this looks like when he shares how it works for him, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and I am the worst of them” (1:15). The most difficult and most sound doctrine of all is this: I am more unloving and unlovely than I will ever know (the worst of sinners), yet because of Jesus Christ I am more fully and unconditionally loved by God than I could ever fully grasp (Jesus came for me). If Jesus selflessly and sacrificially loved the most difficult person to love that I know (me!), I can love others who are just as difficult. This is how doctrine applied to the heart can increase our capacity to love.
Paul says love comes “from a pure heart, good conscience, sincere faith.” How does an impure heart become pure? How does a guilty conscience become good? How does a faith become sincere - without hypocrisy, pretending and masks? There’s only one way this happens – it is when we know that no matter how impure our heart, how heavy our conscience and whatever it is we are hiding behind the mask, if we come to Jesus we will be forgiven and loved. When we see our failures to love for what they are and experience the love of Jesus for us at our worst, we grow in our capacity to love even the most difficult of people for us to love.
DIAGNOSE
According to the bible, love is the most important metric of spiritual health. Take a moment to prayerfully consider what it would look like for love to be in the IMPORTANT/URGENT category in your life. What people or situations come to mind? What things might become less urgent or important to you? What things might become more urgent and important to you?
DISCUSS
What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?
In the sermon, it was said: “Love is not efficient. It almost never happens when we are in a hurry. Love will almost always look like a waste of time.” Do you agree? How should this affect the way we live in a world of endless options, constant hurry?
God’s plan (v4) is often different than our plans. God’s idea of what is urgent is so different from ours. Is there something urgent to you that God doesn’t seem to be responding to with the urgency you would like? How might God be deepening your faith and growing you in love in this as you wait on Him?
If love for other people is the ultimate sign of life and the most important metric of spiritual health. How does remembering this help us remain committed to difficult people? How does it help us remain committed to hearing hard doctrine from the Bible?
What has God used in your life to grow your capacity for love? What role has sound doctrine played? How has remaining close and committed to people when it’s been difficult grown your capacity for love?
Our capacity for love grows when the love of God in the law leads us to the love of God in the gospel. In 1 Tim. 1:15 Paul shows us what this looks like personally : I am more unloving than I will ever know (“I am the worst of sinners”) but by faith in Jesus I am more fully and unconditionally loved by God than I could ever fully grasp (Jesus came to die for me). In what ways is God personally teaching you this in His word or in your relationships?
Read the story from Jesus’ ministry found in Luke 7: 36-50. This is one of the clearest places in Scripture that shows us how we grow in our capacity for love. According to Jesus, who has the greatest capacity to love?
Where do you find yourself in the story – as the Pharisee looking down on others or as the woman weeping at the feet of Jesus? If you find yourself looking down on others, what is stopping you from getting on the floor and joining the woman? If you find yourself as the woman weeping, what is stopping you from getting up and “going in peace” to love others as you have been loved?