How the Gospel Shapes Our Conduct: 1 Timothy 3:14-16

My basketball coach during my freshman year of high school had a rule that his players had to wear long-sleeved shirts and ties with their shirt tales tucked in to every away game.  Although I didn’t care for the dress code at the time, as I get older I have come to appreciate what he was trying to do.  His intention, I believe, was for our team to make a statement with how we dressed and how we carried ourselves every time that we left campus.  He wanted others to take us seriously when we showed up to play ball. 

I believe that the apostle Paul also desired that Christians in New Testament would make a statement, not with how they dressed, but with how they lived.  In facts, in 1 Timothy 3:14-16, Paul tells us that this was his very purpose in writing Timothy.  In verse 15, Paul says his major purpose in writing Timothy this letter was so that Timothy would “would know how one ought to behave in the household of God.”  Here Paul is stressing for Timothy the importance godly behavior, or conduct, in the church.  This purpose was directly connected to the false teachers who were misbehaving and misleading others in the church.  

There are few messages are more appropriate for the contemporary church in light of the disconnection that normally takes place between what many people profess and then what those same people practice.  What we are going to see today is that in unpacking his reasoning for why we should conduct ourselves properly in the church, Paul draws attention to two realities: the church’s identity and the church’s theology.  In other words, this passage calls us to conduct ourselves in a way that is consistent with who we are and what we believe.

1 Timothy 3:14-16: [14] I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, [15] if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. [16] Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

1.     The Behavior of the Church Must be Consistent with Her Identity (14-15)

The first reality that Paul grounds his charge to behave properly in the church is the church’s identity.  Three metaphors are used here that call us to behave properly.  First, Paul points out that as God’s church, we are God’s Household (3:15).  This phrase communicates the truth that as believers in Jesus Christ, we are the God’s family.  Paul views the church as the family of God, not a building where people meet or a list of names on a roll.  Being God’s family makes the charge to guard/support the truth of the family all the more serious.  We should take as kindly to false teachers as we would to thieves who would want to break into our homes in order to steal, kill, and destroy our families. 

Not only do we learn that we are God’s household in this passage, we also learn that we are God’s People (3:15).  We are the summoned assembly (ekklesia) of the Living God.  This phrase highlights the church as the assembly of people where God most clearly manifests His living presence.  The title, “the living God” has rich Old Testament connotations and identifies God as the one true God over against dead idols, and also calls the church to be a people that manifest the life of God.  In other words, being the church of the living God consequently makes us God’s living church. We should bear the fruit of holiness because we are connected to the life of the true Vine (John 15:5). 

The final metaphor that Paul uses here reminds us that as the church, we are also God’s Temple (3:15).  I think this is what Paul means to communicate by saying that we are a “pillar and buttress of the truth” of God.  For the Ephesians, this phrase would have certainly brought to mind the pagan temple of Artemis (Diana), which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  127 gold plated pillars and many large foundation stones supported this temple structure.  This metaphor not only communicates that we are God’s temple in the sense that we are the place that God most manifests His presence to the world, but also highlights our function in displaying God to the world.  Our lives are to be a support for the truth of God.  This is obvious from the word “pillar” and also from the word “buttress,” which denotes the foundation upon which a building rests rather than a prop that keeps a structure standing.  The imagery presents the church as “holding up” and “supporting” the truth of the gospel before a watching world, and doing so in a way that repels the attack of false teachers.  It does not imply that God’s truth is unstable and shaky and therefore needs support, but presents the truth of the gospel as a strong immovable fortress that is fortified and held up by the conduct of God’s people for all to see.

So these metaphors are meant to communicate that who we are (our identity) directly affects our conduct.  You see, a dysfunctional family cannot effectively preach a functional gospel.  A dead people cannot effectively represent the living God.  And an unstable structure cannot effectively hold up the weight of the glorious gospel of Christ. 

Consider the family metaphor.  Who would you go to for marital/parental counsel: a dysfunctional or a functional family?  I used to watch a TV show called “In Living Color” in Junior High and from time to time they would air a skit called “The Dysfunctional Home Show.”  Jim Carrey’s character would always open the show by saying, “Welcome to the dysfunctional home show, where we teach you how to live the dysfunctional life.”  Carrey played an alcoholic dad who was always drunk, whose wife had left him because “she couldn’t take a punch or two,” who is constantly trying to make physical advances towards his own daughter (who made money as a prostitute in middle and high school), and whose encouraging parenting skills include constantly telling his children what losers they are and how they will never amount to anything.  Honestly, would you seek his advice if your marriage or family were in trouble?  Of course not!  Why?  You wouldn’t because a dysfunctional home cannot effectively communicate functional truths for the home. 

This is why the conduct of the church matters.  A dysfunctional church cannot effectively preach a functional gospel.  It’s time for the church to remember who she is.  We are God’s family.  We are God’s people.  We are God’s temple.  And it’s time to act like it.  But not only is this charge to godly conduct in the church grounded in the church’s identity, it is also grounded in the church’s theology. 

2.     The Behavior of the Church Must be Consistent with Her Theology (16)

What we have in verse 16 is what most commentators believe is part of an early hymn that summarizes the content of the Christian faith.  It unpacks “the truth” that the church is supposed to be a pillar and buttress of.

Let’s first consider the title of this hymn, which is called “the mystery of godliness.”  The word “mystery” refers to God’s redemptive plan, which had been kept secret but is now revealed and “godliness” implies that there is a godliness of living that this mystery produces.  “Godliness” accompanies becoming a part of this redemptive plan.  The TNIV actually translates this phrase “the mystery from which true godliness springs.” The hymn itself, as I said earlier, summarizes, but not exhaustively, “the truth” that we are a pillar and a buttress of.  It tells the story of Christ’s work.  Some commentators see this hymn as having two stanzas of three verses each.

Stanza one deals with Christ’s earthly ministry and victory.  It’s first line states that Jesus was “manifested in the flesh.”  This is a reference to Jesus’ incarnation, the reality that in Christ, God appeared in a human body (took on flesh).  One of the clearest places in the Bible that this truth is declared is in John 1:1-3, 14: “[1:1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made…[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  The second line states that Jesus was “vindicated by the Spirit.”  This is mainly a reference to Jesus’ resurrection because it is the event in which God’s Holy Spirit supremely vindicated all of Jesus’ claims.  Paul speaks this way in Romans 1:4, where he says that Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.”  The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead in power in order to declare Him to be just who He had claimed to be, the Son of God.  That’s how He was “vindicated by the Spirit.”  Finally, the third lines states that Jesus was “seen by angels.”  This line is a little difficult, but we do see angels appearing around Jesus’ birth, death, burial, resurrection, & ascension.  Also, several passages speak of how angels have been and will be made subject to Jesus due to His victorious and finished work on the cross (Phil. 2:5-11, 1 Peter 3:18-22).  Colossians 2:15 even says that in Jesus work on the cross, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”  Jesus publically humiliated demons (which are fallen angels) in His victory on the cross.  Basically, this phrase reminds us that Jesus’ victory was not some back yard throw down.  It was history’s MAIN EVENT in which Jesus picked a fight with the forces of hell and invited all creation to see them get publically humiliated.  Perhaps this is why William Mounce says that this phrase here refers to Jesus’ “victorious proclamation” at the resurrection and ascension. 

Stanza two deals with Christ’s ongoing ministry and the basis for its victory.  The first line here states that Jesus was “proclaimed among the nations,” and is followed by the second line, which states that Jesus was “believed on in the world.”  If we take these two lines together, they obviously refer to the mission of the church to make disciples of all nations (Gentiles).  The third line states that Jesus was “taken up in glory,” which refers to Jesus’ ascension (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9-11) and solidifies the success of His ongoing mission to redeem a people for Himself.  What is interesting, however, is that chronologically, Jesus was taken up in glory before He was proclaimed and believed upon in the world.  Why, then, do these two items appear before the last one and why are they spoken of in the past tense?  One reason that the mission of the Christ appears before the ascension of Christ may be because the giving of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) actually did come before the ascension.  And as far as God is concerned, that mission is as good as done.  It is important to understand that the New Testament often assumes the success of the mission the church ahead of time (Matt. 16:18, John 10:16, Acts 18:9-10).  Even the angels in heaven, in Revelation 5:9-10, speak of missions in this way.  Why can the success of the church’s mission be assumed?  It can be assumed on the basis of Christ’s finished work and on the basis that Christ is the ultimate builder of His church.  It is like a game that awaits the final buzzer, but is as good as over.  The crowd is singing, “Na-Na, Na-Na-Na-Na, Hey-Hey-Hey, Goodbye!”  In such a case, people are celebrating and declaring the sure victory of a team before the game is over.

This hymn has several functions.  It proclaims the essential truths of the gospel; it serves to engrave these truths upon our hearts and minds; it calls the church to mission; and finally, it celebrates the success of the church’s mission on the basis of Christ’s victory.  This is one practical benefit of hymns, creeds, confessions, and catechisms.  When it comes to music, deep, rich theology is supposed to saturate the songs that we sing so that it can become engraved upon our minds and hearts.  This reminds us as a church corporately to sing worship songs that are teaming with gospel truth and you individually to listen to music throughout the week that is teaming with those truths as well (examples). 

This hymn calls us be CLEAR in our understanding and proclamation of the gospel and CONFIDENT in the success of our mission.  Surveys and statistics today reveal that the average person in the pew doesn’t know why he or she believes what they believe.  They reveal that the average person in the church is both Biblically illiterate and theologically inadequate to explain or defend their own faith.  This has to change.  Will you, by God’s grace, commit to become a devoted student of the Bible and of theology today?  Don’t settle for ignorance.

From this passage, we see that there is an inseparable link between who the church is, what the church believes, and how the church behaves.  A healthy sense of who we are and what we believe leads to godly behavior.  But everything we are talking about today begins and continues by coming to treasure the person and work of Jesus Christ.