1 Timothy 2:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Timothy 2:7

Comments

Paul names three things that he was ordained by Christ to do. First, he was ordained a preacher. Why isn't his ordination as an apostle mentioned first? An apostle is much greater than a mere preacher. An apostle is sent from God with special authority, and yet the apostle chooses to say ‘a preacher’ first. It is not surprising, because he has just been speaking about witness to Christ: ‘to be testified in due time.’ It's all about testimony to Christ, so he is inspired to mention his ordination as a preacher first, though it is going to be followed by something in many senses more important. He is a preacher first, and first of all the church is a preaching organisation, not for the promotion of substitutes for preaching: music and dancing and drama, and all the things many misguided Christians want to put first today. Individual believers are witnesses to Christ, so the Apostle Paul mentions that primary function which lasts throughout the church age until the Lord comes. He waited very patiently until he was summoned by the church of Jesus Christ – ‘Come, God would have you preach for us’ – and then on his first missionary journey the Holy Spirit spoke through the leaders of the church at Antioch: ‘Set this man aside for the work that I have for him.’ So the call of God was made to Paul just as it is today. He speaks to the hearts of preachers, but it is not a call until God has also worked in the hearts of the church and expressed himself through the church. Secondly, he was ordained by Christ personally and directly to be an apostle. He was the last of the apostles, the one born out of due time. There were the eleven and Matthias, then there was the Apostle Paul and they were the foundation stage of the church with special authority to inaugurate, and to set up things that would stand throughout the gospel age. This is so important that he gives something which amounts to a vow, an oath, in brackets there: ‘I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not.’ And he was appointed a teacher of the Gentiles that is an evangelist among the Gentiles to teach them living faith and to teach them the truth. We can easily read over the next words: ‘A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.’ Task number one of the preaching ministry in the church is to bring lost people to salvation, by grace through faith alone, faith in Christ. The second duty is to teach the truth, and to defend it and to maintain it: truth about Christ, his person, his work; truth about man; truth of the word. Verity or truth has a special place for every Christian.

Application

Every believer must understand the inerrancy of the inspired word of God. It is given by God. It has no mistakes; it is God breathed; it is just what God intended. The Spirit of God mysteriously uses the human styles of different authors, but what emerges on the page is what God intended. Every word is true, every promise shall stand, every fact is certain. This is the yardstick for everything. We prove everything from Scripture. It tells us the way to heaven; it tells us how to run the church; it tells us how to behave; it tells us about the Lord and about heaven and God's purposes and eternity. Truth is the foundation for all.

Paul did not appoint himself and we do not appoint ourselves. We don't decide we are going to be preachers; indeed we don't appoint ourselves to anything in the church of Jesus Christ. Forget about preachers for the moment. One day you suddenly have an idea. You are a Christian man, a Christian woman, and you think to yourself, I know what I'll do, I'll go into business, I'll open a shop. You say, I rather like animals and I'll do that, and you don't pray about it; you don't think about it; you don't consider the will of God. You say, yes I would enjoy doing that. As Christians we may have ideas and they may be good ones, but then we pray about them and we want to put ourselves in the hand of the Lord, and we are very anxious to follow the rules of guidance in the Scripture. God guides his people and appoints his people. We don't do the first thing that comes into our heads.

Questions

They say there are apostles today. No, there are not apostles today. There were only apostles in New Testament times and there were only thirteen: the twelve plus Paul; that is all. In fact Paul had a lot of difficulty establishing that he was an apostle even though God authenticated him with signs and wonders and mighty deeds. The church of Jesus Christ was so clear on the fact that only the twelve were apostles that Paul had quite a lot of difficulty establishing his credentials. Even though he was not one of the twelve, he was a true apostle. He was called by God; he saw the risen Lord in a vision coming to him, and he was enabled to do miracles, and he was a channel of revelation. But because he was not one of the twelve he had a lot of difficulty establishing his credentials. That is why there is this strange term here ‘Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not).’ Almost always when Paul speaks of himself as an apostle he has to emphasize this in some way, because it was only the twelve plus Paul. Now people say there are apostles today

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Introduction

1 Timothy 2:7 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of 1 Timothy 2:7 explained