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Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 3:15-16; 4:7-8; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Tim. 1:5, 1:12, 19; 4:2; 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:1, 7-8, 18; 1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Tim. 4:22
The arrangement of the order of the Epistles of the New Testament reveals the sovereignty of the Lord. By studying these particular books carefully, we can realize that the Epistles, from Romans to Jude, are divided into two main groups. The thirteen books from Romans to Philemon are the first group, and the eight books from Hebrews to Jude are the second group. The first group of Epistles gives a complete structure of the definition of the Body of Christ, whereas the second group serves as supplementary books. With good writings there is often the need of a supplement. The important matters that are hard to position in the main line are placed at the end in a supplement. The supplement is important and necessary, but it is not in the main line that runs through the writing.
The first main group of Epistles, which speaks of the definition of the Body of Christ, is further divided into two sections. The first section contains nine books, from Romans to 2 Thessalonians. Then from 1 Timothy to Philemon there are another four books forming a second section. The church as the Body of Christ needs two things, life and practice. Even our own physical body needs both life and exercise. For our body to do anything, it first needs life. If the body does not have life, it can do nothing. However, even if it has life, it still needs proper exercise. In order to drive a car, for example, we need the human life. A dog or a cat with its own respective life can never drive a car. Only the higher life is adequate to drive a car. However, this does not mean that as long as we have the human life, we can drive a car. There is still the need of practice and exercise.
The first nine books in the first section, Romans to 2 Thessalonians, deal mostly with the life side. They tell us what the nature, life, function, responsibility, and consummation of the Body of Christ are. These five matters characterize the different aspects of the life side. These books tell us how we receive life, how life grows and works within us, and how this life with its nature enables us to function in the Body and bear responsibility. Lastly, the consummation of this life is the second coming of the Lord Jesus. This is all on the side of life.
Following the life side, there is the side of practice and exercise. With life we need exercise, practice, and learning. After being taught and becoming experienced in practice, we must take the responsibility to teach others, because with life there must be practice, and practice includes teaching and learning. The four books from 1 Timothy through Philemon present practice with teaching and learning.
The Epistles from Romans to 2 Thessalonians seem to cover everything and to be complete. They tell us how we were sinners condemned before God, how we were justified and saved, how originally we were dead but were regenerated and made alive, how we received Christ into us as our life, and how this life has a consummation. It seems that everything has been covered, and they are short of nothing. However, without 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, we would have the life of the church, but we would not know how to practice the church life. We would not know, for example, how to have elders and deacons. To remove these four books from the Bible would be a great loss.
The book of Acts gives us a history, not a definition, of the church practice. In Acts some elders are established, and in Acts 6 some persons are appointed, but just by Acts alone we do not know that they are deacons. In addition, we do not know what kind of persons the elders should be and in what way they should be established. Without 1 Timothy through Philemon we are almost in darkness concerning the practice of the church. Philippians 1:1 mentions the overseers and deacons in the church, but there is no record of how they were produced or what kind of persons they were. Therefore, following the section concerning the matters of life, there are four books dealing with the practical side of the church life.
First Timothy 3:15 says, “If I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God.” This verse reveals the subject of these four books. Here the apostle Paul says that he may delay, but in principle the Lord is also delaying His coming. While the Lord is delaying His coming, these few books help us to know how to conduct ourselves in the church life. Although many matters are covered in the books through 2 Thessalonians, including the Lord’s coming, the Lord did not intend to come immediately. If the Lord had intended to return right away, there would have been no need for these four books. While the Lord delays His coming and is keeping us on the earth to be the church, these four books tell us how to conduct ourselves in the house of God.
Even though these books give us instructions about the practice of the church life, many people do not pay adequate attention to them and thus miss the mark, making the secondary things to be primary, even making the last things to be first. The foremost matter that these four books speak of is how to conduct ourselves in the house of God. This is a matter of practice.
The full and complete instructions for practicing the church life are in these four books. They tell us how to set up the government of the church, how to appoint and establish the elders, how to arrange the church service as the responsibility of the deacons, and how to learn many things by exercise and teach them to others (1 Tim. 3:1-13; 4:6-16; 2 Tim. 2:2). Whereas the first section, the nine books from Romans to 2 Thessalonians, is full of teaching, definition, and explanation, there is not much instruction. The four books of the second section, however, present many instructions but not much doctrinal teaching. This may be compared to a class: After a professor gives a lecture, he instructs the students how to practice in the laboratory.
Paul’s Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon are full of instructions, not doctrines and definitions. In Romans there are not many instructions; mainly there are “lectures” with many definitions. It is the same with all the books through 2 Thessalonians. No doubt there are some instructions, but these books present mainly the definition and meaning of the church as the Body of Christ. The following four books give us the instructions on how to practice according to the definitions. Moreover, all the instructions in these books are very personal. Instructions given by an intimate tutor to his dear learners must be personal.
As to the church, we must first learn to know its life aspect. We must spend more time in the first nine books to experience what is taught and what is defined on the life side. Then, we must take care of another important matter, the practice of the church life according to the teachings of life. If we keep this in mind, the meaning of these four books will shine out when we read them.
A key verse in these books is 1 Timothy 3:15, which gives us the main subject of this second section. First Timothy 4:7 and 8 are also key verses, speaking of our spiritual exercise. Verse 7 says, “Exercise yourself unto godliness.” Godliness includes all spiritual matters, all the things relating to God and to our relationship with God. All these spiritual matters require exercise. We have to exercise in prayer, exercise in the study of the Word, exercise to visit people, and exercise in how to talk with people. We also must exercise to know how to use the words of the Scriptures as weapons to fight the battle, how to conduct ourselves in the meetings, how to fast for the sake of prayer, how to know the inner life, how to discern the spirit from the soul, and how to know the hymns. Godliness includes many items; it includes everything relating to God and especially relating to our relationship with God. Although exercise unto godliness is a short phrase, it is very profound.
We should ask ourselves how much we exercise. In today’s Christian churches there is very little exercise. Some set up a seminary or Bible college for a small number of people to study the spiritual things, but with the church in general there may be no exercise. As a rule, what we see in many so-called churches is mainly the preaching of message after message without exercise. In the proper church life there must be the teaching and the exercise. This is the reason that after many years we have found the secret: we very much stress training. The church needs training. The way that we take for the ministry in the church must include the way of the four books from 1 Timothy to Philemon, the way of exercise.
A brother who studied for his Ph.D. in chemistry told us that one lecture in class required ten times more work in the laboratory. His professor would say, “What is the good of a lecture? Listening makes you proud, but practice makes you humble.” This is a good proverb. If we sit and listen to someone speak year after year, we may think that we know everything, and we can easily criticize everyone. Because of this, no one would dare to minister to us. If someone comes to minister, we may just listen and criticize his word, his teaching, and his attitude. It is easy to know things, but it is difficult to put them into practice.
Instead of criticizing someone, we should try to do a better job than he does; then we will be clear, and we will be humbled. I have learned this secret. Whenever a brother or sister criticizes something, I do not argue. I simply say, “Very good, brother. You take the responsibility to do it.” If someone says that the chairs are arranged wrongly or the piano is played poorly, we may say, “You are completely right. You come to do it.” When we try to practice something, we realize how hard it is. It is not easy to do things practically. The way to subdue those who criticize is to let them try to do the job themselves.
In the early 1950s I gave the saints many teachings along the line of life. The same brother who studied chemistry suggested that we should put all these matters into practice, and that if we did not, the saints would have all these points in their mind but not in reality. I agreed with him and told him to carry this out. He spent much time to write instructions and to put all these lessons into practical form. Then he trained the leading ones of the small groups how to practice and how to bring the saints in their groups into the same practice. This truly worked, and it helped us very much. This is the right principle. We need to exercise unto godliness.
Second Timothy 2:2 says, “The things which you have heard from me through many witnesses, these commit to faithful men, who will be competent to teach others also.” Timothy learned many things from Paul and exercised them accordingly. Now he was charged by Paul to commit all that he had learned to others, who in turn would be competent to teach others. This is the training of the teachers, as in a teachers’ college, which requires exercise, practice, and learning. As a church grows and the number increases, there is the need of practical instruction. This practical instruction cannot be put into practice in a large congregation. To a large congregation we can only give lectures and messages. In order to put all these things into practice, there is the need of smaller groups of ten or twenty to come together with one or two leading ones who know how to train the saints and bring them into the practice.
According to the instruction of the apostle Paul, Timothy cared for the work of training teachers, faithful men who were competent to teach others also. Timothy first learned from the apostle Paul, and then what he heard, he practiced. Following this, he passed it on to others. When we teach others, we learn more. Much of what I have learned came from teaching others. The principle is that wherever we minister, we should produce disciples. We should not minister all the time and yet not raise up others who can minister. After we minister for a while in a certain place, some who are competent to teach others should be produced by our ministry.
The main thought of this section of the Epistles is that we need instruction in order to know how to conduct ourselves in the church. To do so, there is the need of an appointment or arrangement for the elders, deacons, and deaconesses. There is also the need to exercise unto godliness. All spiritual matters require a certain amount of exercise; even in choosing a hymn, we need to exercise. Then we also need to learn. We should not say that because we have the Holy Spirit within us, we can do everything. We also need to teach others, and if possible, we should try to have a small “teachers’ college” to train others to be teachers, because in the practice of the church there is the need to produce more useful persons. These matters — appointment, arrangement, exercise, learning, and teaching others to be teachers — are the main matters of instruction found in the four books from 1 Timothy to Philemon.
Here we cannot go into much detail concerning these matters, but we can receive the principles. The New Testament always gives us the principles, but it leaves us the room to seek the present guidance of the Lord according to the situation. There is no need to copy anything outwardly. Although we have the principle, we need to pray and consider according to the situation, the present need, and the Lord’s leading. Even when we study something in class, we still need the practical application in the laboratory; then we will learn to carry it out in a better way.
Although these four books give us instructions for the practice of the church life, they still stress the inner life. There are a number of important points about the inner life in these books, because in his instructions Paul often refers to life. The matters that we put into practice must be practiced in life. We dare not set up a seminary, because that is merely a place to practice things for the sake of practice. Instead of a seminary we need a home. A seminary is based on knowledge, whereas the basic matter in a home is the life of the family. The practice of the church life must be based on life; it cannot be practiced without life. Although these books do not give us definitions concerning life, they give us many points relating to the inner life.
In these books the apostle very much stresses a good conscience. According to the context of 1 Timothy 1:5, the practice of the church is a matter not of mere teachings but of love, which issues from a good conscience. In verse 19 Paul says, “Holding faith and a good conscience, concerning which some, thrusting these away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith.” Second Timothy 1:3 says, “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience.” This is not only a good conscience but a pure conscience. When we practice the church life, we need both a good conscience and a pure conscience. Furthermore, 1 Timothy 4:2 says, “By means of the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, of men who are branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron.” These persons make their conscience to have no feeling; the sense, the consciousness, of their conscience has been destroyed. By reading all these verses, we can realize how much we need a good, pure, and sensitive conscience for the practice of the church life. First Timothy 1:5 also tells us that we need “love out of a pure heart.” The heart as well as the conscience must be pure.
First Timothy 1:12 says, “I give thanks to Him who empowers me, Christ Jesus our Lord.” The word empower in Greek comes from the root word for dynamo. It is the same root word used in Philippians 4:13, which says, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.” Christ is the One who empowers us. In the practice of the church life, we must learn to be empowered by Christ. We should not merely do things outwardly according to certain regulations or forms. We must do things from within by being empowered by Christ.
First Timothy 3:15 and 16 are great verses in the Holy Scriptures. Verse 15 says, “If I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.” Everything in the church must be living, because this is the house of the living God. We should not do anything in the church according to dead rules or dead forms. Everything that we do or practice in the church life must be living, because we are serving a living God.
The church is also the pillar and base of the truth. This refers to the Triune God. The truth, the reality, is Christ, and Christ is the embodiment of God. As the pillar and base, therefore, the church bears the reality of the Triune God. The church stands not for doctrine but for the truth, the reality of the Triune God.
Verse 16 continues, “And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, / Justified in the Spirit, / Seen by angels, / Preached among the nations, / Believed on in the world, / Taken up in glory.” God manifested in the flesh is the greatest mystery, the mystery of godliness.
The foregoing items are the main points related to the inner life. In order to practice the church life, we need to learn these instructions. Although we need the teachings, we must practice and learn them in the living God and in the fact that the church is the testimony of Jesus, the pillar and base of the truth, and the mystery of godliness, which is God manifested in the flesh.
First Timothy 6:12 says, “Lay hold on the eternal life.” Whatever we intend to do, we must do in the eternal life.
In 2 Timothy 4:18 Paul says, “The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and will save me into His heavenly kingdom.” In the same chapter he says, “I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom” (v. 1). The apostle Paul learned to experience Christ as his life, empowering him all the time, and he learned to practice the mystery of godliness. He also put the heavenly kingdom always before him as a goal. He was pressing on toward the goal for the kingdom, and at the end of his race he said that the Lord would save him into His heavenly kingdom. Therefore, he charged Timothy by His kingdom. We must be empowered within by Christ as our power, and we must also be warned and attracted by His heavenly kingdom.
If we read the New Testament carefully, we will see that the heavenly kingdom in its manifestation is a reward to the faithful overcomers who run the race and finish in victory. Second Timothy 4:7-8 says, “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who have loved His appearing.” This is also an aspect of the inner life. We must realize that one day the Lord will appear to reward His servants, so we must fight, run, and keep the faith.
First Timothy 1:14 says, “The grace of our Lord superabounded with faith and love in Christ Jesus.” The grace of the Lord was with Paul, all the time imparting faith and love into him. Strictly speaking, this grace is the Lord Himself. The practice of the church life must be in grace, in the inner empowering, in the living God, in the reality which the church stands for, in the mystery of godliness, in the eternal life, with a pure conscience and a pure heart, and in the life of the heavenly kingdom.
Finally, 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” This word concludes these two books of instruction on the practice of the church. When we close a letter, we often use particular words with a definite meaning. Of all Paul’s Epistles, there is only one that closes in this exact way. He did this with a definite purpose. No matter what kind of practice we may have or what kind of teaching we give, it must be something of the living Christ within our spirit. Although the practice, learning, and teaching of the church life is outward, there also must be something issuing from the indwelling Christ in our spirit. We should not merely have the outward practice and outward teaching. We must learn to practice all the things of the church life from a strengthened spirit.
