1 Timothy 6:20 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Timothy 6:20

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‘O, Timothy.’ Some say that the word ‘O’ is an exclamation of affinity, of affection. In other words, ‘O my son in the faith, Timothy.’ It certainly is an exclamation of affection, but it is far more than that. O Timothy, says the apostle, I am moved to say this. I've just had a glimpse of something that I hope will never happen, and it would be so terrible and such a grave disappointment, such a calamity, if it did. I have had a glimpse of the possibility of Timothy, my son in the faith, and fellow labourer sliding into error. No, Timothy, it cannot be. It must never be. Paul is so moved that you get this terrific exclamation. ‘O Timothy, keep [guard, watch like a sentry] that which is committed [by God] to thy trust.’ It is a solemn charge. It is about the gospel and all the truth of the word. Keep it clutched to yourself. Hold on to it. ‘Avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science’, which translates the Greek for knowledge, oppositions of knowledge, people who say, ‘I know better’, people who come among you proclaiming something different. Some say it is about the early Gnostics, because Gnosticism is about knowing, and the apostle, they say, refers to that: ‘oppositions of knowledge’. But it is unlikely that the Gnostics were operating in Ephesus as early as this. They belonged to a slightly later age. There were others, and there are people today who know better than the Bible. They have got their theories, and they come in among the churches. The church always throughout its history is being constantly attacked to pervert the truth, to undermine the Scriptures, to bring in false teaching and false methodology. ‘O Timothy, hold on.’ Don't let it happen. If Timothy had slipped into error, disastrous error, that would have been much worse than if a rank, unbelieving opponent, an enemy, had come into the church. It would have been worse, because Timothy would have continued to teach much that was true. Maybe he would have continued to be a good gospel preacher, and so everybody would have said – even believers – ‘People like Timothy are true men.’ And yet at the same time he may have adopted some disastrous errors that would upset the church and sow the seeds of its destruction. But because he was a trusted man with some soundness, it would have been worse than if he were a dire enemy who would be easy to spot, an obvious false teacher. The biggest dangers in the church of Christ are people who teach half-truths and half-error. However could it happen? What could conceivably have caused Timothy to fall? He didn't, but what might have caused him to fall? Maybe indifference to error. Maybe it would have been a vulnerable because of his timidity. As error had come in, possibly he could have been tempted to be scared to oppose it, so that it got free course.

Application

‘Avoiding profane and vain babblings’, whether of a false religious kind or whether of a completely empty, banal, worldly kind, ‘and oppositions of science’, which means here knowledge, knowledge ‘falsely so called’. What is meant here? Today that would include unbelieving scholarship; that is knowledge falsely so called. The liberal theologians have produced a whole new theology which is contrary to the Scriptures, and they teach it in the liberal Bible colleges. You are to avoid them, shun them. As a young person, you do not go to such a liberal college. You have nothing to do with it. It's profane, futile, empty. It will hurt you. It will spoil you. They call it knowledge, but it isn't knowledge at all; it is opposed to God; it is the enemy of God, a system of their own devising. It doesn't come from the word of God at all.

In the Bible-believing world, the world of evangelicals, things have never been so bad as they are today. Why is it today there is so much compromise, and ministers and deacons and elders are led to bring shocking things into Bible-believing churches? Why are they led to bring in nonsense and untruth and false methods, so that the church becomes worldly? Throughout this country, in the United States, the West, all over the world, South America, and spreading throughout the East now, you go into most Bible-believing churches and you are confronted by pop groups and worldliness and things that are foul and offensive to the Lord. How did it happen? Why did the ministers let it happen? Sometimes they are ambitious. They want more recognition and larger places, and these things seem to bring in the people, so they don't want to rock the boat and oppose anything.

I remember when I was a youngster being in a Bible study and the man who was leading the Bible study shouldn't have been invited, really. He began to expound the theories of multiple authors of Isaiah in this youth Bible class. And there was one young lady there, she was in her mid-twenties, a severely handicapped young lady who could only just speak and articulate. She was the first to say, ‘But the Scripture says such and such, and what you have taught is erroneous.’ She was then joined by another person, and then finally the Bible class leader who was a local GP plucked up courage and said, ‘Yes, this is wrong.’ But he wouldn't have said a word, had that young lady not started the ball rolling. Why was everyone else so timid and so reluctant to murmur? You hear about it in churches. Something terrible comes in. Three or four people protest. Nobody stands with them. Everybody else plays the coward and lets it go. So things that are deeply offensive to Scripture and to the Lord come in.

So don’t say, ‘But our minister preaches the gospel’, when he allows everything else to come in, and the deacons are flabby and hopeless. You must not be a partaker in their sin, but if you say nothing and let it all happen, you will be. O Timothy, if it happened to you, how terrible it would be! Keep that which is committed to thy trust. Avoid and oppose the things that are wrong.

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1 Timothy 6:20 Commentary and Bible Study

Explain meaning of 1 Timothy 6:20