Paul, himself having endured numerous persecutions, warns Timothy, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come…(1 Tim 3:1)” Men will be ever worsening and ever more corrupt. They will be ever deceiving and being deceived (2:13). Both epistles written to Timothy bear this grave and deep, heart-felt concern as the apostle writes to his young protégé who is in the midst of his own struggles and persecutions with which Paul himself had become so familiar. Paul warns chiefly about false teachers and false teaching describing them here with a litany of vices. They are characteristically “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth… (v.9)”
So this is the warning, that Timothy be on guard against false teaching and the men who so teach. 1 Timothy 4:7 says to “reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.” Paul begins the book with:
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. (1 Timothy 1:3-7) ESV
Paul still further warns him in his second epistle to be on guard against his own sin, commanding him to “flee youthful lusts (2 Timothy 2:22).” There are thus three things that Paul commands him to be on guard against: false teachers, false teaching, and the sins of his own heart. Likewise, he warns his friend Titus to “avoid foolish disputes” and to “reject a divisive person (Titus 3:9-10).”
Alongside these warnings, Paul commends the role of preaching and teaching to be central and that Timothy be himself a faithful man of God. After declaring the veracity and completeness of the Scriptures, Paul commands Timothy, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the Word! (2 Timothy 4:1-2)” The single most important issue and the central theme from which all this comes is that Timothy be faithful to the accurate handling of the word of God. Ministry revolves around God’s word. From it, we convince the ignorant, we rebuke the disputers, and from it we exhort the faithful in all things, being brought under and committed to an accurate handling of the text. We surrender to it.
It is because of the enemy that we fight the noetic errors of this age, but the teaching of the word of God is positive. We search it for the purpose of “instruction and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (3:16-17)” In fact, the main reason that Paul condemns false teachers is that they desire to be teachers of the law but do not understand the things that they affirm or say (1 Tim. 1:7), and this is because they have turned aside to “idle talk” rather than to the word of God (v.6). Character is therefore the essential qualification which comes from a true surrender to the word of God.
Paul lays out specific characteristics of the one who would be a pastor/teacher. He specifically enumerates these in two places: 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-16:
1 Timothy 3:2-7: “Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.”
Once again, a man who is faithful to the word of God is faithful to live with it consistently while the apostate will reflect his apostasy in the same sense. Likewise, the list of qualifications Paul offers Titus ends with a related thought:
To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. (Titus 1:5-16)
The qualifications of a shepherd are the virtues which comes from faithfulness to the word of God. Both faithfulness to the word of God and faithfulness to God Himself in character feed one another. Paul called Timothy a man of God charging him with the keeping of the scripture and the test of this was his own lifestyle!
The shepherd is a man of God. He is not hired but called, and as such he stands accountable to God and to the people he oversees to properly exegete and give the meaning of God’s truth. “The man of God” is a phrase that Paul borrowed from the Old Testament to indicate a man who spoke for God, the prophet. He represented God and His word to God’s people. His qualifications are summed up not in his own giftedness per se but in his holiness. And so in agreement with that, his ability to rightly divide the word of truth correlates to this. To intellectually grasp the word of God is to be transformed by it. With that principle in mind, James the brother of our Lord so clearly elaborates on this spiritual maxim:
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. – James 1:21-25 (NIV)
The pastor is someone well-versed in both scripture and his own life. As such, he cannot come to the word objectively if he does not deal first with the sin in His own heart. Otherwise, he might be soft in areas where he himself doesn’t conform. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and come to the text! That is a repeated theme in the life of the servant of God. You cannot preach His word without it!
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