The Man of God
1 Timothy 6:11-14
It's fitting that we bring our Shepherds Conference to a climax by turning in our Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 6 and looking at verses 11 through 14. The subject of these verses is the man of God...the man of God. That in itself is one of my very favorite biblical descriptive phrases, man of God. It appears in verse 11 as a title the Apostle Paul gives to Timothy, a title that is simple yet immeasurably wonderful and rich.
What a privilege to be called man of God, or God's man. It is a possessive phrase indicating that Timothy belonged to God in a special and unique way. The fact is though this term "man of God" is a very common term in the Old Testament, it is a very uncommon term in the New Testament. Only one person on the pages of the New Testament is ever called man of God and it is Timothy and it is in this text. In a very special and unique way, Timothy was God's man. And Paul uses this title to increase the sense of responsibility that Timothy had to discharge his ministry. To be reminded that you are God's man, that you are the very possession of God is to be reminded of great responsibility. And that is precisely the sense in which the Apostle Paul uses the phrase in designating Timothy.
Though it is us uncommon in the New Testament, it is common in the Old Testament. It first appears in designation of Moses, the great prophet of God who wrote the Pentateuch. In Deuteronomy 33:1, Moses is first called the man of God. He is called the man of God again in 1 Chronicles 23:14 and Ezra 3:2. The term "man of God" one time in the Old Testament was used of an angelic messenger, one who came in the form of a man to bring a message from God to the wife of Manoah that she was to bring forth a child who came to be the man Samson. That occurs in Judges 13:6 and 7. In 1 Samuel 2:27 it was used to describe a prophet who spoke on behalf of God to the high priest Eli about the divine judgment soon to come on his sinful family. It was used again in 1 Samuel 9:6 and following to designate Samuel himself as the man of God who spoke divine truth.
Anyone who was the prophet of God was God's man. And the term "the man of God" was always used in reference to one who bore the Word of God, who represented God by speaking in God's behalf God's truth. It was used of the prophet Shemaiah who was sent from God to prophesy against Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12:22. It was used again for the prophet who spoke the Word of God to Jeroboam regarding his being replaced and then judged, 1 Kings 13. Elijah is called the man of God in 1 Kings 17:18 and following, and Elisha in 2 Kings 4 and following is called the man of God many times. David in Nehemiah 12 verses 24 and 36 is also called the man of God. The prophet who confronted Amaziah is called the man of God in 2 Chronicles 25:7 and a prophet by the name of Igdaliah in Jeremiah chapter 35 verse 4 is also called the man of God.
All of the uses in the Old Testament reflect someone who uniquely represents God by speaking the Word of God. The sum of all those uses then tells us unequivocally that it is a reference to a messenger who is sent by God to speak for God. When Timothy then is called the "man of God," it is reflective of his call and his ordination and his responsibility to speak the truth of God.
There are two other uses of the term "man of God" in the New Testament. One of them reflects back to the Old Testament men of God, that is 2 Peter 1:21. It says, "The prophecy came not...that referring to the Old Testament...at any time by the will of man but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." And there you want to see that as a technical term for the authors of Scripture who were the spokesmen of God, the holy men of God.
The one other use of it is a generic use in 2 Timothy chapter 3. Would you look at that for just a moment? Every use of the "man of God" is specific up to this point, referring to one or another prophet, referring as in 2 Peter 1:21 to a group of prophets, referring in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 11 to Timothy specifically, but here in verses 16 and 17 of 2 Timothy 3 it is broadened and used in a somewhat generic sense. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness in order that...and here's the phrase...the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. While Timothy is certainly the object in the context here since he is the recipient of the letter, and since his own conversion has been mentioned in verses 14 and 15, the term in use in verse 17 broadens beyond Timothy to include any man of God. The statement then in verses 16 and 17 is primarily for the benefit of those who are the articulators of the Word of God, the messengers of the Word of God, though it certainly extends beyond that at the widest point of interpretation to every believer.
But what Paul is saying here is that all scripture is given by inspiration of God for the purpose of perfecting the man of God. That is particularly focusing on the spokesmen for God. Obviously the Word of God will perfect all believers, but his particular object in mind is the man of God.
Now it's interesting to me that the last usage of this phrase in Scripture is a generic use and therefore we do not feel reluctant to broaden the use of "the man of God" to encompass any today who are the spokesman for God in our generation or in any other generation. God has always had His spokesman, He has always had His prophets, He has always had His preachers. Men of God are those who uniquely speak His Word.
We can conclude then from 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 that the man of God can embrace anyone who having been perfected by the Word is called to proclaim the Word. So all of us who are called by God, set apart for the proclamation of His Word, to be preachers and teachers and proclaimers are to be men of God. And we should bear that title in some measure of consistency with the long line of holy men who make up the elite company of those so designated men of God. We as men of God today take our place in the ranks of those who are the historic spokesman for the eternal God. What a tremendous calling. Paul's instruction to Timothy then, back in 1 Timothy 6, is heightened intensified and made even greater when he calls Timothy man of God because in so doing he identifies Timothy with that long line of historic spokesmen for God and intensifies his own need to be committed to the task at hand.
We are, as Pilgrim's Progress put it, the King's champions. What a marvelous thought. Men of God are men who have been lifted above worldly aims and who have been devoted to divine service. Men belonging to a spiritual order with which things temporal, transitory and passing have no permanent relationship. We are men who are not the world's men. We are not our own men. We are God's men. We have been raised above earthly things, we have been raised to the heavenlies, we have become the unique possession of God, His property, we stand in His stead to speak His Word.
It's important that Paul use the term here because of the weighty ministry at the feet of Timothy. You remember that Timothy had been left in Ephesus to put things right in the church, to bring order to a church that had lost its way. False doctrine had crept in. False leadership was there. People unworthy of pastoral roles and serving as elders were in those roles. Sinful leaders, heresy, ungodliness, tolerance of sin, all of that was in the church and Timothy was given the task of making it right. In order to lay upon him the weight of that responsibility he calls him God's man. You are there as the representative of the living God. That adds tremendous sense of responsibility. In fact, this is such a strategic letter for such a strategic church that Paul three times in the letter points out false teachers and how Timothy is to respond to them. And each time he does it by reminding Timothy of the sacredness of his calling.
Let me show you that. Go back to chapter 1. Three times Paul speaks of false teachers. Starting in verse 3 he talks about those who teach another doctrine. Verse 4, who teach fables and endless genealogies, who serve up questions rather than answers, and do not provide things that godly edify. These turn others aside, verse 6, and their motive is they want to be teachers but they have no idea what they're talking about, according to verse 7.
The second reference to false teachers comes in chapter 4. The first four verses, starting in verse 1, speak about the fact that some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, propagated by lie speaking hypocrites whose consciences have been seered with a hot iron.
The third reference to false teachers comes in chapter 6 verse 3, those who teach otherwise, who do not consent to wholesome or healthy words, who do not consent to the doctrine that is according to godliness, who are proud, who don't know anything, who are morbidly sick about questions and disputes and debates producing only envy, strife, railing and evil suspicion, who propagate nothing but the twisted corrupt perversed disputings of men, destitute of the truth who imagine that the real gain that they're after is money, not godliness. And he goes on to speak about their love of money down through verse 10.
So, chapter 1, chapter 4, chapter 6, Paul introduces the problem of false teachers. They were high powered, they were strong and they were in positions of authority in the church. Each time, however, he speaks of them he follows up by telling Timothy he has to resist them. Back in chapter 1 verse 18, he says to Timothy, "This charge...or command...I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies pointing to you that you might war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience in the midst of battle." Once he mentions the false teachers, he immediately then charges Timothy to resist them.
Chapter 4, he mentioned the false teachers, as I said in the first four verses, and then immediately in verse 14 having discussed all the way from verse 6 Timothy's responsibility, I mean 6 through 16, he flows through that whole passage and tells Timothy how to resist them. Verse 6, "Put the brethren in remembrance of these things, be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine unto which you've attained and refuse their profane and old wives fables and exercise yourself unto godliness."
Down in verse 16 he sums it up, "Take heed to yourself and unto the doctrine, continue in them. In doing this you'll save yourself and the ones who listen to you." Again false teachers and then Timothy's responsibility.
Chapter 6, we find the same thing. Three to ten, the false teachers and then in 11 through 14, Timothy's responsibility. "But you, O man of God, flee these things and follow after," and so forth. Each time he mentions false teachers which are the heart of the problem, he mentions Timothy's responsibility to resist them.
Now here's the real key point. In each case Timothy's responsibility to resist them is heightened by a reference to Timothy's call to the ministry. Chapter 1 verse 18, "Timothy, do this, I charge you, according to the prophecies which pointed to you." That is, the Word of God that came through means of prophecy to point to Timothy as God's anointed servant. Chapter 4 verse 14, the second portion about false teachers, Timothy's responsibility is again heightened by a reference to his spiritual beginnings, his call and ordination, "Neglect not the gift that is in you which was given you in prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the elders." And again he goes back to spiritual responsibility based upon his call of God, his ordination, his spiritual beginnings. Chapter 6, he does the same thing. Verse 12, "You are to fight the good fight, you are to hold on to eternal life because this is what you were called to and this is what you have confessed in your confession before many witnesses."
In other words, Timothy's responsibility to stand against error and to fight for the truth and to be God's man in setting the church right is based upon that original call of God that so designated him as the man of God. God's representative. Beloved, the responsibility of the ministry revolves around a man's call from God. That's basic. We are called by God to be His man. We are uniquely His. He owns us. He possesses us. We represent Him.
In verse 11 it begins, "But thou, O man of God,.." "But thou" is set in contrast to the false teachers. The false teachers are into everything mentioned from verse 3 through 10, "But you," he says in contrast, "You are God's man, they are money's man, they are materialism's man, they are the world's man, they are their own man, they are sin's man, Satan's man, hell's man, but you, O man of God..." Contrast. The word "O" is a personal appeal, it's an emotional appeal. It's very rare, by the way, in personal greetings in the Greek that word would be used and it shows the pleading in the heart of Paul...but you, O man of God, remember your spiritual beginnings, your spiritual calling, don't lose sight of your identity. As a man of God, you have a unique calling. As a man of God, you are to be uniquely identifiable. As a man of God, you are to have characteristics that can be seen and measured.
How is a man of God known? What is Paul going to say to Timothy as to the character of a man of God? Four things...Timothy, you man of God, hear are four things that should mark you. One, a man of God is marked by what he flees from. Two, a man of God is marked by what he follows after. Three, a man of God is marked by what he fights for. And four, a man of God is marked by what he is faithful to. A tremendous practical outline for every man of God who stands to speak in the place of divine truth.
Number one, a man of God is known by what he flees from. Verse 11, "But thou, O man of God, flee these things." That's a present imperative, keep on continually fleeing. It's a continual running from. It's the word pheugo, from which we get fugitive. Someone who is running to escape a pursurer. It pictures one running from a plague, running from a serpent that's poisonous, running from an attacking enemy. The man of God is a runner. The man of God does not stand still, he runs and he runs from things. He is known by what he flees from. First Corinthians 6:18 the Apostle Paul says, "Flee sexual sin." First Corinthians 10:14, "Flee idolatry." Second Timothy 2:22 Paul writes to Timothy, "Flee youthful lusts." We are fleeing. The man of God is fleeing at all times those kinds of corrupting things.
Here he says flee these things. What does he mean? The things he has just talked about. What has he just talked about? The evils attached to the love of money. Verse 9, "They that would be rich, desiring to be rich, fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is all kinds of evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and literally skewered themselves through with many griefs. Flee these things, the love of money and all its attendant griefs, lusts, temptations, hurtful things, errors in the faith, sorrows, griefs...flee these things.
The man of God is not attached to the love of money. He does not have affection for material things. Paul has been telling Timothy to avoid a lot of things. He's told him several times in this epistle to avoid endless genealogies, vain repetition, fables, science falsely so called as its mentioned in verse 20 of chapter 6. And here he says flee the love of money which is the root of all kinds of evil. Flee greed with all its vices. It is the sin of false teachers. It is the sin of lying hypocrites who pervert the truth for personal gain, who make merchandise of people, who really pursue filthy lucre and people are only a means to that end, who preach for money. From Baalam, the prophet who was bought by the highest bidder, to Judas, the apostle who sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver...from the false prophets of Israel who were greedy dogs that never had enough and were concerned every one for his own gain, Isaiah says, and the covetous prophets and priests of Jeremiah's time and the prophets of Ezekiel's time who could be bought by handfuls of barley and pieces of bread, and the prophets who divined for money of which Micah speaks, all the way to the false teachers who spoke good words and fair speeches to the Romans to deceive the innocent for the satisfaction of their own bellies and the unruly and empty talkers and deceivers of Crete who subverted whole households teaching things they ought not for filthy lucre's sake, the characteristic of false teachers is greed. From the first to the last. But it has no place for the man of God. The love of money has twisted and perverted many.
Paul was so careful to avoid this, he says to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, "I have coveted no man's silver, no man's gold and no man's clothing and I have labored with my own hands to provide my own living and the living of everybody with me so you wouldn't have to be charged with that. I've gone the second mile so as not to be accused of grasping for money." To the Corinthians he writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, "I have a right to be supported, I have a right as an Apostle to lead about a sister as a wife...that is have marriage...I have a right to be receiving a living from my ministry, they that preach the gospel should eat of the gospel, or live of the gospel, but I wave that right so as not to get you in any way, shape, or form thinking that I might be in it for the money."
In Philippians he says, "I would love to send someone to you but I don't have anybody to send because everybody does what he does for himself, not for Jesus Christ. The only person I can send you who is not like that is Timothy." Paul must have experienced people in his own ministry who were in it for what they could get, like Demas who having loved the present world departed from the Apostle.
In 1 Thessalonians he says to the Thessalonians, "We were gentle among you like a nursing mother cherishing her children and we did not charge you for anything," and he goes on to explain his own labor night and day in toil in order that he might provide ministry to them at no cost.
Let me tell you something. You may call yourself a preacher, but if you're in it for the money you are not a man of God...you are not God's man. You cannot be God's man and money's man. You have prostituted the call of God into personal gain. We see it all around us. And when do we awaken to the reality of it? Never put a price on your calling, never put a price on your ministry, never charge a certain amount for bringing the Word of God, for whatever you charge will have the net effect of devaluing you to zero.
A man of God is known by what he flees from. He flees from sexual sin. He flees from having other gods in his heart. He flees from youthful lust. And here in this text he flees from the love of money.
Secondly, the man of God is also known by what he follows after. Verse 11 says, "Follow after..." and six virtues are mentioned, "righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and meekness." The man of God while continually running from is also continually running to. Something behind him he wants to avoid, something ahead of him he wants to catch. And it's present imperative again, continually be pursuing, keep on running after. We are always fleeing, that's the negative, and we are always following after, that's the positive. Like that wonderful widow mentioned in chapter 5 verse 10 who has diligently pursued every good work, so the man of God has a life pursuit of that which is right.
The Christian life is not just running from what's wrong, it's running toward what's right. And there's a sense in which as long as we're in this body, in this flesh, on this earth and victims of our own fallenness, we can never stop running because if we stop running from what is evil it will catch us, and if we stop pursuing what is righteous, it will elude us. We'll never ever be at the point where we have finally outdistanced what is wrong, nor will we ever be at the point where we have fully captured what is right. So our whole life is in a pursuit of what is right and a fleeing from what is wrong.
In 2 Timothy 2 where Paul said, "Flee youthful lust," he added, "and follow righteousness, faith..." and so forth. Proverbs 15:9 says, "The Lord loves the one who pursues righteousness." What a great thought. Ask yourself what you pursue. What are you after in this life? What are you living for? What are you directing your goals and energies at? What occupies your mind? What goals do you want to attain...success, fame, esteem, promotion, money, possessions, house, car, whatever? What are you really after? That's the mark of a man of God. He's after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, meekness. A man of God is known by what he runs from, he's also known by what he runs after.
Let's look at these. The first two are overarching general virtues, one having to do with the external behavior, the other having to do with the internal attitude and motive. The first is righteousness...the beautiful word righteousness. And I don't want to beg the issue and you all know what this means, that rich word dikaiosune basically means to do right, do right before man, do right before God; do right to man, do right to God.
The remnant of faithful Israel were called by Isaiah in chapter 51 verse 1, "You that follow after righteousness." The writer of Hebrews says, "The only people who see the Lord are those who follow after holiness," Hebrews 12:14.
And the righteousness Paul has in mind here is not imputed righteousness, it's not sort of that declared righteousness that you receive positionally in Christ in salvation, it's practical righteousness. The man of God is known by doing right. He does right in his life. He lives according to the standard of God. He obeys God. His conduct is right, his behavior is right, his life is right, he does what's right.
And how tragic it is when as we have seen this week in the terrible scandal that's hit the television evangelists, living ungodly lascivious sexually disoriented lives apart from the truth of God and all the time mouthing the gospel of Jesus Christ is a total sham on everything the gospel stands for. And I was interested to read in the paper yesterday that 99 percent of the letters that came into that program have been affirming and positive. Ninety‑nine percent, which tells me that the truth was probably never given out through those years on that program to those constituents or they would have seen sin for sin and dealt with it as sin ought to be dealt with. And so a man can maintain his credibility when his life would make a black mark on a piece of coal. How can that be? A man may be a preacher, I say it again, but he's not a man of God who lives like that. Obeying God's standard is characteristic of the man of God. The man of God follows after righteous behavior. He pursues righteous behavior. He does not pursue sexual gratification, material gratification, ego gratification, he pursues righteousness. He lives to do what's right. He lives to do what's good. He lives to do what's obedient to God's commands.
And the partner to that spiritual virtue is the next one, godliness. That has to do with the inside. Righteousness has to do with the behavior, godliness has to do with the attitude and the motive. This moves inside to direct our thought to the spirit of reverence, the spirit of holiness, the spirit of piety that's in the heart. Eusebeia, that beaut