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First Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, the three “T” books in the New Testament, are Epistles written by Paul to his two young co-workers, Timothy and Titus. The subject of 1 Timothy is God’s economy concerning the church, the subject of 2 Timothy is an inoculation against the decline of the church, and the subject of Titus is the maintenance of order in the church. These are three aspects of one purpose, that is, to preserve the church as the proper expression of the Triune God.
The three “T” books emphasize the truth. Hence, the word truth is used thirteen times (1 Tim. 2:4, 7; 3:15; 4:3; 6:5; 2 Tim. 2:15, 18, 25; 3:7, 8; 4:4; Titus 1:1, 14). Four verses illustrate this emphasis on the truth.
First Timothy 2:4 says that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.” God desires all men to be saved. However, after salvation a man still needs to come to the full knowledge of the truth. Truth means “reality,” and it denotes all the real things revealed in God’s Word. In the New Testament there are many realities. For instance, the Word becoming flesh is a reality. The Word is God, and the flesh is fallen man. The Word becoming flesh means God coming to be a man in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3). Furthermore, the Lord Jesus died on the cross to accomplish redemption. His death for the accomplishment of redemption is also a reality. Not only so, He resurrected; this is another reality. He ascended to the heavens, which is also a reality. Christ being life is a reality, His being the life-giving Spirit is a reality, and His being the resurrection is yet another reality.
To know the truth is to know the reality of the crucial points revealed in the New Testament. Instead of knowing doctrine, we must know the truth and obtain reality. The Word becoming flesh is a reality, the Lord’s death and resurrection are a reality, and the Lord being the life-giving Spirit is a reality. Christ being life and resurrection are realities. As resurrection life, Christ becomes our sanctification, He becomes the power to sanctify us, and He becomes our overcoming life. These are also realities.
First Timothy 3:15-16 says, “The house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth...Great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh.” These two verses emphasize the church and speak of three main points concerning the church: the church is the house of the living God, the church is the pillar and base of the truth, and the church is the great mystery of godliness. These three points use different phrases to refer to the church, but they denote the same meaning. The house of the living God is the pillar and base of the truth, and the pillar and base of the truth is the great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh.
Paul’s sequence is right; he first speaks of the church as the house of the living God. God lives in this house. The kind of house a person lives in shows the kind of person he is. A house is the expression of the people who live in it. If an American family lives in a house for a month, it will have the expression of American family life; if a Japanese family lives in the same house, it will express the Japanese family life; similarly, if a Chinese family lives in a house, it will express the Chinese family life. This is the reason Paul says that the church is the house of the living God; the living God dwells in this house. This house manifests the truth, reality. This means that the living God, who manifests reality, dwells in this house and manifests Himself through this house. The living God is life, and He manifests life. The living God is sanctification, and He manifests sanctification. The living God is love, and He manifests love. Whatever God manifests is the truth, the reality of the divine things. This is the great mystery of godliness.
John 1:17 says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” When Jesus Christ came, God was expressed; God expressed is reality. God is manifested in the flesh. This refers not only to the incarnated Christ but also to the church as the enlargement of the incarnated Christ. Just as God was manifested in the flesh of Christ in the Gospels, God is manifested in the church, the enlargement of the incarnated Christ in the Epistles. The church as the house of the living God manifests the truth that it upholds. This is the great mystery of God manifested in the flesh.
According to 1 Timothy 2:7, Paul was appointed “a herald and an apostle...a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” Paul was a herald, an apostle, and a teacher in the sphere of faith and truth. Here faith refers to faith in Christ, and truth refers to the reality of all things in the economy of God as revealed in the New Testament. For instance, the Word becoming flesh, the death and resurrection of the Lord, and the Lord being the life-giving Spirit are all items of the truth, the reality in the economy of God. They are also the content of our faith, the items that we believe in.
Paul was sent not only to preach the gospel but also to teach people how to believe. This shows that we should not merely preach the gospel for people to be saved. After they are saved, we should teach them so that they understand what they have believed. This means that we should teach the realities, the truth, in the New Testament revelation as the content of the faith.
Second Timothy 2:15 says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman, cutting straight the word of the truth.” To cut straight in Greek means “to divide.” Just as a surgeon must know the human body so that he never randomly cuts a necessary part of the body, we must know the word of the truth so that when we expound the word of reality, the word of the truth, in the New Testament, we cut the word straight without any slant, curve, or distortion. When we expound the word of the truth incorrectly, we distort the word of the truth. Paul charged Timothy to learn to cut straight the word of the truth in the degraded situation of the church. In this way heresies and errors are avoided, and the factors of degradation are rooted out. This is a kind of inoculation.
The three “T” books also speak of faith, truth, and economy. Footnote 1 of 1 Timothy 1:1 in the Recovery Version shows the relationship between these three words. The faith is the contents of the complete gospel according to God’s New Testament economy. This gospel is not an ordinary gospel; it is the complete gospel according to God’s New Testament economy. The truth is the reality of the contents of the faith, and economy refers to the household administration of God. God is a God of economy. He has a dispensation, an arrangement, and a plan. God’s economy is His plan. In eternity God had a plan, a dispensation, related to His household administration. There is a relationship between faith, truth, and economy: God’s economy is His plan, faith is the contents of the gospel in God’s plan, and truth is the reality of the contents of the faith.
Another emphasis in the three “T” books is Paul’s charge to Timothy not to teach differently from God’s economy. First Timothy 1:3-4 says, “I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.” This portion shows that we should guard against and avoid teachings that differ from or distract from God’s economy. However, we need to know God’s economy, His arrangement, His plan. The primary matter is the gospel of God. The contents of the gospel of God is the faith, and the faith includes the reality of all the divine things. Therefore, what we preach must not differ from the words of reality in the divine things. This is our faith, this is the contents of the gospel, and this is the word of God’s economy.
In his Epistles Paul spoke many things to Timothy, but the most personal comment that he made to Timothy was, “Let no one despise your youth” (1 Tim. 4:12). This word, this charge, is inclusive in nature. It includes everything.
If a person receives teachings that are different from God’s economy, he is naive. If he were not so, he would not agree with a speaking that is different from God’s economy. If he agrees with a different teaching, he is not experienced and is still young. Therefore, we must learn to not let anyone despise our youth. Instead, we should be a pattern to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity (v. 12).
We should not let anyone despise our youth because of our words. We can discern whether or not a person is still a child by listening to how he speaks. Hence, in our serving the Lord we need to exercise to speak with weight and not frivolously. If our words are without weight, we are still young. This does not mean that we should speak with the sound and tone of an older man. Sounding like an older man is different from speaking with weight. We should not confuse these two things.
If we speak carelessly, we are not weighty and cannot be a pattern. In 1947 I was taking the lead in the church in Shanghai. One day while I was speaking with a few co-workers, a sister who loved the Lord ran into the room and exclaimed that there was a big hole in the ceiling upstairs. We were shocked and asked her how big the hole was. However, the more we inquired, the smaller the circle became. This shows that she was childish and young.
We also need to be a pattern in love. The object of a person’s love usually is an indication of whether or not he is childish. A valuable ring is always displayed in a beautiful box. When a child sees the box, he may be attracted to the box and want the box instead of the ring. This shows that he is childish in his love. We need to mature in our love. Our love toward others should express maturity, not frivolity or childishness. In order to learn in these things, we should not read 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus too quickly. Rather, we should read them carefully and enter into each verse as if these Epistles were written to us personally.
Even though Timothy was a young man, Paul charged him not to let others despise his youth in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. Purity refers to being pure, without mixture, in motive and action. A person who is learning to serve the Lord should pray, “Lord, cause me not to give others any ground to say that I am childish, naive, and without learning in my conduct, actions, and words.” This will take us a long time to learn.
“Let no one despise your youth” may also be applied to fanning into flame the gift of God, which is in us (2 Tim. 1:6). If the gift in us can be quickly fanned into flame but can be sustained for only five minutes, we are childish. We are also childish if we remain cold for half a year. We need to exercise so that our coldness lasts no longer than two minutes but our being on fire lasts for twenty-five years. Some believers may say that this is extreme, but I do not think so. If we can continue to be on fire for ten or twenty years without getting cold, we are not childish; we have some maturity. There are saints in the church who are old yet still childish. They may be in their seventies, but they are still like a child. They are on fire today and cold tomorrow. They are “old children.” Such believers can serve the Lord, but the effect of their service will not have a lasting impact. If we would like to have a lasting impact in our service, we must be experienced persons, not childish persons who fluctuate between hot and cold.
All the charges in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus can be linked to the statement, “Let no one despise your youth.” Paul charged Timothy to exhort an elderly man as a father and elderly women as mothers (1 Tim. 5:1-2). If we speak at length in a meeting, without discerning our audience or considering our age, we are childish. I once said that when a brother is appointed to be an elder, his wife might feel that she is the first lady. A young co-worker took these words and spoke in a meeting, saying, “Once a person becomes an elder, his wife immediately becomes the first lady.” He then asked an elder whether his wife felt like she was a first lady. The way this young co-worker applied what I said indicated his lack of maturity.
It is all right for me as an elderly brother to speak such words, but it is not right for a young person to speak such things when he has no experience. At the most he could say, “Brother Lee said that everyone likes to be an elder and that after some brothers become elders, their wives regard themselves as first ladies.” This is the most he should say. Saying anything further than this reveals his childishness. The young co-worker who spoke in this way left others with such a deep impression of his immaturity that it has not been forgotten even after many years.
When Timothy received Paul’s Epistles, he might not have been more than thirty years of age. Even though he was young, Paul charged him to lay before the brothers what he had been taught (4:6). Paul also charged Timothy to appoint elders and to deal with accusations against the elders (5:19). These are serious matters. Not taking into account our age or the age of the ones whom we are speaking to will cause others to despise our youth. If we are older than those whom we are speaking to, our age gives us more ground to speak. However, if we are younger than those whom we are speaking to, we must remember this fact. When we pay attention to our age as well as the age of others, our speaking will be appropriate and no one will despise our youth.
In summary, the three “T” books strongly emphasize the matter of character. These three books are involved with the character of a young person who serves the Lord. Paul admonished Timothy to practice the things that Paul had entrusted to him (1 Tim. 4:15). Being diligent is a matter related to character. Paul likened Timothy to a soldier and to an athlete in a race (2 Tim. 2:3-5). Whether a person is a soldier or an athlete contending in the games, he must be trained in character. Paul used a soldier and an athlete as analogies to indicate that the Lord’s serving ones must have proper character. Furthermore, Paul said to avoid vain babblings, which is related to character (1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 2:16). A person with poor character likes vain talk; once he starts a phone conversation, he cannot put the phone down. Therefore, by observing a person when he makes a phone call, we can gain an understanding of his character. The Chinese term for character is very meaningful. It is composed of two words: xing and ge. Xing refers to something inherent, and ge refers to something that is manifested; these two aspects form our character. That which is inward is innate, and that which is outward is cultivated. In 1953 while I was holding a training in Taiwan, I spoke of thirty items of character to the young trainees. The thirty items include: genuine, exact, strict, diligent, broad, fine, stable, patient, deep, pure, just, calm, single, corporate, open, affectionate, ardent, accommodating, strong, pliant, submissive, suffering, lowly, poor, steadfast, enduring, bearing, clear, magnanimous, and grave (see Character, published by Living Stream Ministry). I hope that especially the young saints will get into every character item.
If a Chinese child is raised by Americans and grows up in an American society, he will acquire an American character. Similarly, if an American child is raised by Chinese, he will have a Chinese character. This shows that character involves cultivation. According to my estimation, a person’s character is determined thirty percent by nature and seventy percent by nurture. Whether or not we can do things appropriately and successfully depends entirely upon our character. Our ability is secondary; our character is the primary factor. May we all pay attention to this matter. On the one hand, we should not let anyone despise our youth; on the other hand, we must cultivate a proper character.
