1 Timothy 4:11, 12 These things command and teach.… I. TIMOTHY IS ENJOINED TO EXERCISE A DUE AUTHORITY. "These things command and teach." He is to instruct the Church at Ephesus with all authority in all that concerned the nature of true piety, the dangers to be guarded against, and the duties to be faithfully discharged. II. TIMOTHY IS ENJOINED TO CULTIVATE A GRAVITY OF DEPORTMENT THAT WOULD MAKE HIS YOUTH RESPECTED. "Let no man despise thy youth." 1. Timothy was only relatively a young man. It is highly probable that he was very young when he first joined the apostle (Acts 16:1-3) - perhaps nearly twenty-five years of age - and as eleven years had since intervened, he would probably now be about forty years old. 2. As Timothy had to give counsel to persons much older than himself (1 Timothy 5:1), and even to call them to account (ver. 19), it was necessary that he should cultivate a gravity of manner that would admit of his age being forgotten. Perhaps, also, as he was of a rather timid disposition - more disposed to obey than to command - the counsel of the apostle was more needed. He must be firm and manly, and destitute of every aspect or element of pretentious assumption. III. TIMOTHY IS ENJOINED TO BECOME A PATTERN TO ALL BELIEVERS. "But become thou a pattern of the believers in word, in behavior, in love, in faith, in purity." Thus would he counteract any disadvantage arising from his youth. He was to be a pattern in all the leading characteristics of the Christian minister. 1. "In word." (1) As to his public teaching, which must be according to God's. Word, showing in it uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that could not be condemned. (2) As to social intercourse, which must be (a) not corrupt, vain, or foolish; (b) but always with grace, seasoned with salt - wise, grave, edifying. 2. "In behavior." In the Church, the family, the world, he must maintain a deportment becoming the gospel of Christ, in all godliness and honesty, with simplicity and godly sincerity, so as to stop the mouths of gainsayers and earn a good report from them that are without. 3. "In love, in faith." These are the two motive forces of the Christian life to influence both the speech and conduct of the minister. The one is set in motion by the other; for "faith worketh by love." (1) He is to be a pattern in love to God and man, without which, even if he has the tongue of angels, he is nothing. (2) In faith, in the grace of faith, in the doctrine of faith, in the profession of faith. 4. "In purity." The minister must be pure in life, in thought, in language, and in all his relations to the world. - T.C. Parallel Verses KJV: These things command and teach. |
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