Qualities of an Excellent Servant, Pt. 2
1 Timothy 4:10‑11
Let's open our Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 4...1 Timothy chapter 4. We're looking at verses 6 through 16. And, of course, like much of 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy and Titus, the Scripture in its intent is directed at the minister, the pastor, the servant of God Himself. And someone said to me a couple of weeks ago that it seems as though I've sort of belabored the point in the study of 1 Timothy.
And my response to that in my own mind was that if I tend to belabor the point a bit in dealing with passages that relate to the ministry, it is primarily because the Spirit of God is putting me through the process of training while He's putting you through it as well. And I find that when I dig into these passages that speak directly to my own heart and to what God has called me to do that I don't let go of them very easily. If find myself ringing them out to the very limit for all that they are worth. And I do that because I want so very much that the Spirit of God would speak to my own heart and the hearts of all in our church family who are in spiritual leadership or who are in school or seminary preparing for the ministry.
And I also am very much aware that by God's grace He has given to us the ears of pastors all around the world, not only in the United States but countries across the globe. And many of them are listening to what we are doing and saying here. And when we come to portions that speak so directly to the ministry itself and the man in the ministry, it just seems essential that we carefully delineate the truths that are there, make them fully understood and applied so that we can have as great an impact as possible on those who lead the church of Jesus Christ. Hosea said it simply like people like priests, we know the people don't rise any higher than their leadership and we have tremendous concern that God should raise up excellent leadership in His church. And if in some way He can use these studies to accomplish that, then that purpose is well served. So, you'll have to indulge me a bit for those reasons as we look together through these kinds of passages.
Now taking you back to 1 Timothy 4:6 to 16, the key phrase in this particular portion is that one in the middle of verse 6, "Thou shalt be an excellent minister of Jesus Christ." The issue here in this text is to give to Timothy the qualifications or qualities of an excellent minister of Jesus Christ. If he is to be what God wants him to be, if he is to be what the ministry demands that he be, if he is to be what the people need him to be, then he must have a standard by which to measure his life by which to form his ministry. And that is the intent throughout the pastoral epistles, 1, 2 Timothy and Titus, and specifically the intent of this very portion before us.
John Owen, the great Puritan commentator, wrote these words, quote: "A minister may fill his pews, his communion role, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before Almighty God, that he is and no more," end quote.
And what John Owen is saying is what the Scripture certainly sets forth and that is that the...that the demand of God for one in ministry goes beyond ability, it goes even beyond giftedness, it goes all the way to character. The bottom line in ministry is character. What kind of person are you before God? Somebody said personality is what you are in the light when everybody can see, and character is what you are in the dark when no one can see. And character is the issue in ministry. It is what you are before God. It is the holding and proclaiming of truth out of a godly life that is the essential thing.
And Paul wanted Timothy to understand this fact, to have it deeply imbedded in his thinking. And so he mentions it very often. Back in chapter 1 verse 5, he talked about being sure that a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith was maintained. In chapter 1 verse 19, he talks about holding the faith and a good conscience. That is a conscience that does not accuse one of sin. In chapter 2 verse 8, men should be lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissimulation.
He talks about in chapter 3 verse 1 that an overseer does a good work. And verse 2 says his word is so good that it requires a man who is blameless. That is a reference to character. Also a deacon in verse 10 is to be blameless. In chapter 6 verse 11, the man of God is to flee sin and follow righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
In 2 Timothy 2, he is to be strong in the Lord, verse 1, strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. In verse 15 it indicates that he is never to be a workman who needs to be ashamed but unashamed because obviously of a pure life. In chapter 2 verse 21, he is to be purged. In verse 22, he is to run from youthful lust and pursue righteousness and call on God out of a pure heart. In chapter 3 verse 17, the man of God is to be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good work.
So, throughout the pastoral epistles, the intent of Paul is to lay the responsibility on the servant of God at the level of spiritual character. That's where everything really takes place. All ministry activity is a flowing out of character.
So the sum of the character of the holy minister then is pulled together in that little phrase in verse 6, you shall be a good or noble or excellent minister of Jesus Christ. One who would fit into Matthew 25:21, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter in to the joy of your Lord. You've been faithful over a few things, I'll make you ruler over many things." So Paul wants Timothy and anyone else who fits into the category of pastoring ministries to realize that there is a standard of personal virtue and there is a standard of public ministry that is linked to that which is inviable from the standpoint of God for success in the ministry. God wants men of character.
Now what are the qualifications? Well, we looked at four, let me just review them briefly for you and then we'll go on and take a couple more. I have eleven in this passage but I want to be cautious as we move through so that you understand them completely. And we'll look to the rest of them next Lord's day.
Number one, we said an excellent minister warns his people of error. He warns his people of error. Verse 6 says, if you put the brethren in remembrance, of if you remind them of these things, you will be a good minister or an excellent servant of Jesus Christ. The phrase "these things" has reference to all of the doctrines of demons, seducing spirits, lying hypocrites, false teachers, those who oppose the truth who are referred to in the first five verses of the chapter. The Lord wants His servant to be warning the people about such error. That's not the major emphasis of his ministry, but that is an important aspect of it. The Lord's servant is aware that deception is subtle, it is so subtle...so subtle and deceiving that in Matthew 24 our Lord said that if it were possible even the very elect would be deceived. In Acts 20:31, Paul says that for three years, night and day with tears, I watched, that's vigilance, that's having alertness and being discerning, to analyze what teaching is going on and what teachers are lurking around the church, and I warned, that is a strong intense admonishing. And he says I did that to everyone. He personalized that ministry, he was busy warning people about error. That is a very important part of an excellent ministry.
Secondly, an excellent minister is an expert student of Scripture. Verse 6 again, notice the second part of the verse, he is to be nourished up, be being kept nourished up in the words of the faith, that's Scripture, and of the good doctrine, that's what Scripture affirms, unto which you have attained. In other words, you've already had a good start, Timothy, founded in your mother and grandmother, Lois and Eunice, who taught you the scriptures from your childhood, you know what has been added to that by me and others like me and you have had a good beginning. Now continue to be constantly self‑fed on the Word and that which the Word affirms. Essential, we are to be skilled at the direct ministry of the Scripture. And that means a high level of intake, a continual commitment to taking in the Word of God. The excellent minister warns his people of error and he is able to do that because he is an excellent student of Scripture.
Thirdly, an excellent minister avoids the influence of unholy teaching. He avoids the influence of unholy teaching. He wants to keep a pure mind. He is not at all anxious to get involved, verse 4 of chapter 1, with fables, endless genealogies that serve only to cause questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. He is not interested in anything that's going to distract, create doubts, take away his conviction, take away his power, confuse him. He focuses on that which is the positive affirmation of the teaching of the Word of God. These are the things, chapter 6 verse 2 says, he is to teach and exhort. And verse 3 says if anybody teaches anything else and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine which is according to godliness, such a person is proud. He doesn't know anything. He's doting about questions and disputing over words and all it does is bring envy, strife, railing, evil suspicion, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds who are destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness. And he says from such withdraw thyself. Don't get involved in that kind of harangue which only serves to create suspicion about the Word of God, which only creates doubts, saps power, takes away conviction. An excellent minister avoids the influence of unholy teaching.
In fact, he is strongly committed to the principle that we know so well in Philippians 4:8, "Whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things." The focus of his mind is a single focus. He is not double minded or double souled man, as James refers to in chapter 1. He is not divided within himself. He is solely and only and totally committed to the truth of God. And that in itself creates a strength.
In 2 Timothy 2:16, he is to shun any profane or empty talk that can increase only unto godliness and eat like a gangrene, that is in a very destructive manner. In fact, in Titus 2:15, he is told to speak these things that are pertaining to the gospel and exhort and rebuke. Stick with the stuff. Stick with the message. There's a certain commitment to holy truth. He feeds on it. He feeds on it. And he avoids anything that would corrupt his pure mind and divert him from the single pursuit of the things of God.
So, he warns of error, at the same time avoiding exposure to it so that it has an unholy influence. And he is an expert in Scripture. Fourthly, and this is the last point we dealt with last time, an excellent minister is disciplined in personal godliness. He is disciplined in personal godliness. And here we come really to the issue of character. His life is a pursuit of godliness, not a pursuit of fame, it is not a pursuit of popularity, it is not a pursuit of reputation, it is not a pursuit of filthy lucre or money, it is a pursuit of godliness. And ministry is the overflow of a pursuit of godliness.
Verse 7, and you remember this from last time and probably from your own memory, verse 7 says, not only refuse profane and old women's tales, we just mentioned that, stay away from unholy teaching, but exercise yourself unto godliness. Or keep yourself in training for godliness. And this is basically axiomatic. Bodily exercise profits for a little time and a little effect, but godliness is profitable unto all things because it has promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. And this is a true saying and worthy of all acceptance. This is axiomatic that spiritual exercise to godliness is far more important than physical exercise. Therefore, exercise yourself unto godliness. You are to be devoted in discipline to attaining personal godliness.
Now what do we mean by that? Well, the word is eusebeia. Let me just stretch your mind a little bit on that word. It was used by the philosophers of ancient times and the religionists of ancient times and it had a very clear meaning. For example, the Platonic definition was "right conduct in regard to the gods." The Stoic definition was "knowledge of how God should be worshiped." Lucien, the ancient writer, said it is describing one who is a lover of the gods. Xenophon said such a person was wise concerning the gods. So even in its pagan meaning, it had to do with a concern for God, with a reverence for things holy, a reverence for things divine, being preoccupied with matters related to deity.
And it's exactly what it means in the spiritual sense in terms of the Christian faith. It is a right attitude toward God and things that are divine. It is a reverence for things heavenly, a preoccupation for things that are holy and sacred. It is respect for what is due to God and respect for what is due to heaven. It is the highest of all virtues. If the highest attribute of God is His holiness, then the highest attainment of man is to pursue a God‑like holiness. Godliness then is the heart and soul of spiritual character.
If we had time we could expand our understanding of it but just to give you a little bit of insight, in 1 Timothy 6:3, godliness is said to be at the heart of truth. In 2 Peter 1:3 it says it comes through Christ. In 1 Timothy 6:11 it says we must pursue it. Acts 3:12 indicates that it brings power. And 2 Timothy 3:12 indicates that it brings trouble. And 1 Timothy 6:5 and 6 indicates that it blesses eternally but not necessarily bringing temporal prosperity.
Now let me sum that up. Godliness is the heart of all truth. It comes to us from Christ but we must pursue it. It gives us power but when that power starts to move out, it will create trouble from a hostile environment. It will bring us spiritual prosperity but not necessarily earthly prosperity. It is the heart and soul of all we do. It is the whole aim of Christian living. First Timothy 2:2 says we are to lead a peaceable life in all godliness. Second Peter 3:11, "What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy living and godliness?" We are to live lives that are reverently respective of God and His Word and His will. We are to be consumed with a preoccupation for heavenly things. And by the way, it starts at home, that's practical. First Timothy 5:4, "Let them show godliness at home." That's where it starts, very practical.
So, godliness then is the pursuit of that which honors God. And a good and noble and excellent and faithful servant of Jesus Christ will be a man who warns his people, who studies the Scripture, who avoids any unholy lies that may influence him and who is committed to a pursuit of godliness. That's his heart's desire.
Now with that summing up what we've already learned and expanding our thoughts a bit, let's go to number five in this text, a very fascinating verse, verse 10. And the fifth quality of an excellent minister is that he is committed to hard work.
Now let me just say before we look at verse 10, on the one hand we've just talked about godliness. We are to be preoccupied with heavenly things. We are to be preoccupied with those things that relate to the nature of God. We are to pursue holiness. In other words, there's a certain other worldliness about us. There's a certain disassociation with the things that are here. We are to pursue that which is divine and sacred and eternal and holy and heavenly. And having just lifted us into the heavenlies and called on us to be godly, he now brings us back to earth with a crashing jolt and says, and while you're here, the ministry is not only a heavenly pursuit, it is an earthly task. In fact, it's hard work.
And that's what I want to focus on in verse 10. "For to this end we labor and strive." And stop at that point. To this end...what end? The end of eternal life back in verse 8. Because we know that godliness has a promise not only of the life that now is but of the life which is to come to this end we labor and strive. Because we realize, now mark this one, we realize that what we do has eternal implications. Did you get that? It has eternal implications. We're not dealing with something passing away when we die, we're dealing with something that never passes away. And because we function with eternity in view, we labor and strive. The word labor and strive, both of those two verbs have the idea of hard work, very hard work. And we work hard because we are working in view of eternity. I mean, there's no short term effect here, this is an eternal effect.
Look at 2 Corinthians 5:9, to a familiar passage there. Verse 9, Paul says, "Wherefore we labor...using the same word...we labor, we work hard, that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him." And then he gives you two reasons why he works hard. Number one, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." I'm going to have to stand before Christ to be rewarded for the things that I've done in His service. In other words, there is an eternal consequence to me as a servant of Christ. I will stand before the Lord to receive from His hand that reward which is commensurate with my service rendered to Him, whether it's been good or useless. So I realize my own eternity is in view when I minister.
Secondly, verse 11, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." Now he says I'm looking beyond myself and I'm seeing unregenerate men, they're not going to face a time of reward, they're going to face a time of judgment. And because I know that men and women stand in view of eternal judgment, I persuade them, that is persuading them with the gospel.
So, Paul from his own viewpoint and the viewpoint of the people to whom he ministers says I work hard because I know this has eternal consequences. For me in terms of reward, and for those who hear in terms of destiny. This is the perspective that pushes the servant of God. And excellent minister is committed to hard work because he works in the sense of eternity. There is an eternal heaven and there is an eternal hell. And everybody on the face of the earth will either spend their eternity in heaven or in hell. And when we realize that, we are compelled. No one...no one with a reasonable understanding of heaven's glory and a reasonable understanding of hell's horror could ever be mediocre in the ministry unless he had a very cold heart. No wonder Henry Martin said, "Now let me burn out for God." No wonder David Brainard was dead in his late twenties in taking the gospel to American Indians, they gave themselves because the work needed to be done and eternity was the issue. We're engaged in an eternal work. The destiny of souls is at stake. There is no higher and no more blessed work in and of itself but the compelling thing is the eternal aspect.
Paul says in verse 10, "We," probably referring to any companions along with him, and very likely embracing Timothy as well, and everybody else who is so called to ministry. The words "labor" and "strive" come from two Greek verbs. Kopiao which means to work to the point of weariness, exhaustion, sweat. It's a strong word used many times in the New Testament. The second one is agonizomai from which we get agonize and agony. It means to agonize in a struggle. He says we work to the point of weariness and exhaustion. We agonize, that is we literally work through personal pain because we understand the objectives and they are eternal.
Oswald Saunders wrote, "If he is unwilling to pay the price of fatigue for his leadership, it will always be mediocre. True leadership always exacts a heavy toll on the whole man. And the more effective the leadership is, the higher the price to be paid," end quote.
But we cannot mitigate against that price because we understand the urgency of what we're all about. Weariness, loneliness, struggle, rising early, staying up late, foregoing desired pleasures, all of that comes with excellence. All of that comes with the hard work of the ministry. In Galatians 6:14, Paul said, "When I took up the cross of Christ, I crucified myself to the world." What he means was when I decided to take the gospel, I died to every thing around me. I literally became consumed with that one thing. "Woe is unto me," he says in 1 Corinthians 9, "if I preach not the gospel, necessity is laid on me, I beat my body to bring it into subjection, I fight not as one that beats the air, I run as one to win the crown..." All of this describing the tremendous effort and commitment of Paul to a ministry with such eternal consequences.
In 2 Corinthians 11, he talks about how many times he was beaten with rods, how many times he was beaten with a whip, how many times he went through weariness and suffering and pain and agony and shipwreck. And all of those perils that he endured and all of that because he was so totally committed to the ministry at hand. Why? For some early reward? No. For some temporal crown? No. For reputation? No. Because he had eternity in view. And he realized the destiny of souls was bound up in this matter of preaching the gospel.
Now I want you to notice back at verse 10 again how he begins to stretch our thinking in this regard. "To this end," picking up on the promise of life to come, "we both labor and strive because we trust in the living God." Now we'll stop there for a moment. We trust in the living God. You see, it wasn't for immediate fulfillment. But for eternal reward, is what he's saying. Literally the Greek text says this, "We have set our hope on the living God." And "have set our hope" is a perfect, it means we did it in the past and we continue to do it in the present. We did it and it's still going on. We continually have set our hope in the living God. What do you mean? We're not doing what we do for time, we're doing what we do for eternity.
The contrast here is between the living God and dead idols. If you were to open your Old Testament you could look at 1 Samuel 17 verses 26 and 31, you could look at 2 Kings 19 verses 4 and 16, Psalm 42:2, Psalm 84:2, etc., etc., and you would find God called the living God, the God who is a living God...and that in contrast to dead idols. All the gods of the nations are dead idols, they're just dead idols. And so whatever anyone does for those gods is only going to have implications in time, not eternity because it's a dead idol. But Paul is saying we serve not for just a temporal earthly reward some dead idol that can carry us not beyond the grave at all but only here in time can anything have any meaning, but we serve the living God who is eternally alive and therefore will reward us eternally. That's the idea.
We live in hope. We live in hope, hope of the future. Missionaries through the years who have preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and deprived themselves of almost every earthly pleasure and pursuit in doing that and have perhaps wound up as martyrs did it because their hope was set on a living God. And they believe that that living God would provide life for them past this life. And that's why we do what we do. We're not tied to temporal things. We're not trying to amass a fortune here so we can indulge ourselves here before we leave. We are set on the future. We live in hope. We are saved in hope, Romans 8:24 says, we live by hope. We cannot be indulging ourselves only for the pursuit of the things that are here, we must have eternity in view.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 verses 1 to 5, it's required of a steward that he be found faithful, and he says it doesn't matter to me, really, what you think of me, it doesn't matter to me what I think, I am waiting for the time when the Lord I face and He will judge the secrets of the heart and make manifest the counsels that are there and then shall every man have praise from God. I'm not looking for human praise, I'm waiting for God's eternal reward, that's what he was saying. I look to the future, I'm not bound to this earth. And that causes me to serve with all my heart, working hard to the point of weariness and exhaustion, striving and agonizing to do the work of the ministry because it has eternal consequence both to me and to those whom it impacts and it is unto that eternal consequence that I work, not some passing temporal thing. We hope in an eternally living God, he says, who shall some day reward those who faithfully serve and some day bring into eternity the fruit of that service.
Now having said that, he adds this phrase, a most interesting phrase: "We trust in the living God," and he further defines the reason for his trust by saying of God, "who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe." Who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. Now at first glance that looks like a somewhat troublesome statement. In what sense is God the Savior of all men and if He is the Savior of all men, what does it mean especially of those that believe?
There have been many suggestions made as to this meaning, the key thing is to stay in the context and deal with the terms that are here, and we'll endeavor to do that. Now follow this thought, this is so rich.
This God whom we serve, for whom we work hard and work to exhaustion and for whom we spend our lives in a struggle in an agonizing warfare against the enemy in order to see people come to Christ, this God we have set our hope on will some day bring to full glory all those who have responded to our ministry and will some day reward us so that all of the sacrifices and all of the labor and all of the struggle will be eternally worthwhile. We believe that.
Now what affirmation do we have of that? Because this living God, we have already seen is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe. Now with that in mind, let's look more closely at that phrase. In what sense is God the Savior of all men?
Well, some would say this teaches universalism, that ultimately everybody will be saved. All things will be resolved in Christ, all things will be resolved in God, there's no eternal hell, everything finally sort of wraps up in Christ. And all men will be saved. That's not what this means, the Savior of all men, because that's not what the Bible teaches. And we believe in what is called analogia scriptura which means the Bible is always analogous to itself, it doesn't teach one thing in one place which contradicts what it teaches somewhere else. Since God is the author of all it if, it is consistent.
We know there is a hell and we know that hell is eternal. The Bible is very clear about that, it is a place where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. It is eternal, aionios, just as heaven is eternal. It is a place where the unsaved go and they are set apart from the presence of God forever and ever. It is a place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, it is a place of evil, it is a place of torment, it is a place of isolation and loneliness. It is that which is out from the presence of God. Jesus said, "Where I go you can never come," and that's what He meant when He spoke in John 8.
So there is an eternal hell. There is an eternal judgment. There is an eternal separation between men and God for those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ. So we know this can't be teaching that all people are going to be saved in a soteriological sense. In fact, in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 it says men will be punished with ever lasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
So the Bible teaches eternal hell for those who are not saved. This, then, when it says "God is the Savior of all men" does not mean that ultimately all men are going to be saved, that would contradict Scripture.
Another view, and this one perhaps more common, is that this is talking about potential...potential salvation as over against actual salvation. In other words, He is potentially the Savior of all men, He is actually the Savior of those that believe. Now in a sense that's true. The death of Jesus Christ was powerful enough to have redeemed the whole human race. His death for sin was such an adequate death that had God so designed that it could have sufficed for all the sins of all the world, to have delivered all men forever from their sin. And there is a sense in which the death of Christ was a potential salvation for the whole world but actual salvation only applies itse