1 Timothy 1:3–7 - Him We Proclaim

Well, if you’re like me, you’re ready for warmer weather! You know it’s coming when you see new buds on the trees and bushes – the first signs of new life. Of course, those new buds aren’t the finished product. They’re only the start.

New spiritual life in Christ is similar. Being born again is only the beginning. The apostles spoke at length about growing in Christ. They pictured maturity – the completeness brought about in a believer’s life as Christ is formed within.

For example, in Colossians 1, the apostle Paul says, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” Paul proclaimed the glorious news of who Christ is and what He’s done not only to lead people to salvation, but also, for their ongoing sanctification. He declared the wonders of Jesus’ sacrifice, grace, love, power, and goodness for the spiritual growth of God’s people.

Listen again. “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” As we know Christ more, and our thoughts and desires are transformed by the grace and knowledge of Him, we mature in Him. We receive what He gives, and we change.

And for this maturity Paul speaks for all the church leaders when he says, “Him we proclaim.” This was why Paul left his protege Timothy with the Ephesian church. The focus of some was drifting away from the person and work of Christ. They were focusing on things that didn’t promote spiritual maturity. And the movement was gaining traction among the people.

It’s not hard to understand why. All of us are drawn to what pleases our sinful nature and avoids Christ. We’re interested in what’s “shocking or new” over what’s “timeless and true.” We don’t naturally want to take a hard look at our own sin. We’d rather be puffed up with pride. We’d rather get some pointers for self-help.

But those aren’t the goals of sound preaching and teaching. Good preaching and teaching helps us look within, pursue humility, and treasure the timeless realities of Christ and His gospel. Good preaching and teaching will glorify the Savior, not gratify the sinful nature. It will direct us to Christ, not distract us from Him with other subjects and ideas.

That was a major issue in Ephesus. But the church needed the sound preaching and teaching that proclaimed Christ that does three things described in these verses. Notice the outline on page 6. It reflects faithful stewardship, results in genuine love, and rejects empty talk. This is still true and needed in the church today. And as God’s people receive it, He produces salvation and sanctification.

Now look again at verse [3]. “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus.” Paul established this church in Ephesus (in what is modern day Turkey). Timothy came along later. Then Paul went to Macedonia (modern day Greece), across the Aegean Sea, leaving Timothy in Ephesus. Here he says why: “so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.”

There were believers, maybe leaders, deviating from the sound proclamation of Christ. How exactly? Verse [4], “nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.” This gives a little bit more detail. This and the following verses indicates that these myths, genealogies, and speculations were Jewish in nature.

Let me give you a potential example. In Genesis 39 in the OT, Joseph encounters Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh. Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers, but he found favor with Potiphar. And Potiphar made him an overseer in his house. Then at some point, Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph into adultery with her. When Joseph rejected her, she accused him of trying to seduce her. After that, Joseph’s opportunity in Potiphar’s house was over.

Now, this is all we know about Potiphar’s wife. Scripture doesn’t even record her name. But Jewish interpretive traditions would sometimes expand on biblical narratives, especially where Scripture is silent. One kind of expansion could be imagined backstories about figures like Potiphar’s wife.

Is it interesting? Sure. Is it true? Who knows. But these stories weren’t worthy of inclusion in God’s Word. They didn’t support the redemptive history that points to the person and work of Jesus. And so this is the kind of speculative story passed down in Jewish tradition that Paul is warning against. However, his concern wasn’t just false stories, but teaching that distracted from Christ and hindered faith and godliness.

Notice again that these stories and speculations were contrary to “the stewardship from God that is by faith.” The shepherds (or leaders) of the church are managers of God’s truth. They are stewards authorized to watch the doctrine of the church closely. This is why they must be trained, examined, and held accountable.

This is why we have confessional standards as a church: summaries of our beliefs. The shepherds of the church take vows to teach and practice these things. They are not to add to or take away from what they have vowed to uphold. They are to preach and teach the whole counsel of God.

They’re like managers of a city’s water, making sure it flows clean and steady, or managers of the power grid, making sure the current is strong and uninterrupted,
or dispensers of medicine, making sure the prescription is accurate and unaltered. Sound preaching and teaching that proclaims Christ reflects faithful stewardship.

Timothy was authorized to declare Jesus for seeing disciples made and matured. The shepherds deliver those means of growth which God has ordained. But those means can be undermined. They can be neglected or corrupted. That was happening in Ephesus. It still happens today. The stewards must be diligent to protect the purity of the preaching and teaching.

Now notice verse [5] again. “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” What’s the goal of this command that Paul gives to Timothy for the church? It’s not right doctrine as an end in itself. The goal is love. “Him we proclaim” so that God would produce true love in every heart.

Notice from where this godly love arises. First, “a pure heart.” Even once we’re born again, the sinful nature still attempts to control us each day. It wants to drag us back into the life from which Christ redeemed us. It can no longer make us powerless against sin, but it wants to make us complacent.

The sinful nature wants us to be ineffective and unfruitful. Sin creeps up on us from deep within. But the gospel tells us that God has put a new heart in those whom he saves. We were His enemies because of sin, but He loved us, and sent Christ to save us. As that truth sinks in, we begin to change within, and godly love gains momentum.

Notice from where else godly love arises – “a good conscience.” Dr. Bill Barcley writes that “The conscience is the arbiter of the rightness and wrongness of a person’s actions.” This is the moral consciousness of a person. Barcley says, “The conscience evaluates and controls behavior, but does not serve as an independent determiner of right or wrong actions…The conscience can be informed…the conscience can be corrupted.”

Dr. Barcley notes that a good conscience is one that has been transformed by God and informed by His Word. It can be seared and defiled by sin, or it can be sanctified and directed by the Savior. “Him we proclaim” so that you would love what is true and hate what is false, and develop an increasingly “good conscience” – one that treasures the person and work of Christ. As that occurs, we change more, and godly love grows within.

But notice from where else godly love arises – “a sincere faith.” The faith that is in Christ alone for righteousness and salvation is a gift from God. Paul says this is the case, “so that no one may boast.” Salvation by grace through faith. He says it’s “not your own doing…not a result of works…We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

As we contemplate the great gift of faith in Jesus – through the preaching and reading of the Word, through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and through prayer – we change even more, and godly love grows even more.

“Him we proclaim” so that your faith may grow strong, so that you would marvel at the fact that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you!

“Him we proclaim” so that faith in Christ would affect how you see yourself and every part of your life.

“Him we proclaim” that you may truly believe and say “Yes!” when you hear, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” This is how God produces genuine love in our hearts. Sound preaching and teaching that proclaims Christ results in genuine love.

Now see verse [6], “Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion.” They were missing “the stewardship from God that is by faith.” They were missing “a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” They were getting caught up in other subjects – getting sidetracked, and verse [7] says, “desiring to be teachers of the law.”

They wanted to appear knowledgeable of the OT Scriptures, especially having information not present in the Scriptures perhaps having keen insights that were theirs alone. But it amounted to “vain discussion;” in other words, “empty talk.” It had no value for producing real godliness. It actually produced the opposite.

You might think, “Well, what difference does it really make? What’s the big deal?” The Christian life is like going upstream on the river in a Jon Boat with a trolling motor. As long as your little motor is running, you’re moving forward, against the current. But if you switch your motor off, you quickly begin to drift back. You can’t remain still against the current. The sinful nature is the current. The motor is the ordained means through which we receive the life of Christ.

Today, we may not hear any Jewish legends in our Evangelical Protestant churches. What you may hear instead is moralistic teaching and preaching that amounts to, “Try harder. Do this, don’t do that.” Yes, we must pursue holiness, and yes, there are things to stop doing or start doing as we follow Jesus. But it’s “Him we proclaim…that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

Christ pursued holiness for you, and He accomplished it. Christ loved what was true, and He despised what was false, in your place. It’s “Him” and His achievements, not us and ours, who “we proclaim…that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

Also, in many Evangelical Protestant churches, you may hear what amounts to messages of self-help. Things like “Believe in yourself,” “Follow your heart,” “Live your best life,” “God just wants you to be happy,” “You are enough just as you are.”

You may hear messages on certain Bible passages that amount to  “Be like Moses, be like Abraham, be like David.” Or for other passages, you may hear, “Don’t be like Moses, don’t be like Abraham, don’t be like David.” You may draw some good wisdom from their examples or mistakes, but that’s always a secondary point. The primary point of those passages is to help you see why you needed Christ to come into the world, how His coming came to pass, and what He accomplished.

Sir Francis Bacon famously said, “Knowledge is power.” What did he mean? He meant that rightly gained knowledge of creation equips people to act fruitfully in the world and improve human life. And of course, that’s true in so many situations.

But that’s not the case for moral obedience to God. Even for those who are born again, knowledge of the right and the wrong is not enough. Knowledge of God’s moral law by itself is not the power to obey the law. Paul refutes the idea that if you’re born again, and you know what’s right, then you’ll do what’s right. Think of all the ancient Israelites saw and knew. Yet still they desired to sin.

People often say, “Oh, well if I saw those things, I would believe, and I would obey.” Actually, in your natural state, no you wouldn’t. Your heart must be changed. The OT repeatedly says this. Deuteronomy 30 proclaims the need for circumcised hearts. Psalm 51 proclaims the need for a clean heart. Ezekiel 36 proclaims the need for a new heart and Spirit. Jeremiah 31 proclaims the need for the law written on the heart. Therefore, “Him we proclaim.”

With self-help talk, you feel empowered just by hearing and comprehending it. You may feel helped before you’ve actually done anything. This is why self-help is a billion dollar industry today. But if the idea that “knowledge is power” is used to urge morality or produce Christian maturity, it can subtly suggest that sin is mainly just intellectual error, or that sanctification is mainly done by information, insight, and understanding, or that obedience results simply from instruction and trying harder.


But sanctification is a work of God’s grace. It flows from Christ through union with Him. That union is effectually established by the working of God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit then maintains and deepens our participation in Christ throughout the Christian life. Teaching is absolutely essential. That’s clear from what Paul says here. But we must return each day to Christ Jesus, to His glorious person and His redemptive work.

That seems too “basic” to the natural self. We think, “Give me more application points for life. Tell me what to do” The apostle Peter said, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

“Him we proclaim,” because our hope is not that when we hear a good moral lesson, we will either: a. pat ourselves on the back because we are performing well, or, b. pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and do better. No, “Him we proclaim” because our hope is: C-h-r-i-s-t. Our hope is our living Lord.

He sits at the right hand of the Father, ruling His church by His Word and Spirit. He holds all things together, having secured every spiritual blessing for His people. He’s always appealing to the Father on behalf of sinners He came to save. And anyone who claims to be a preacher or teacher of God who doesn’t faithfully proclaim Him desires to be a teacher – see the end of verse 7 – “without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.” Sound preaching and teaching that proclaims Christ rejects empty talk.

It always points to Him – the vine that gives life to His branches. Trust in Christ today for your salvation and for your growth to maturity in Him. Lay your heart bare before Him. Come clean, admitting your sins. There is grace. There is forgiveness even for you. You can start again. And as we go to His table now, He uses what we see with our eyes and hold in our hands and hear with our ears to spiritually strengthen our souls.

Let’s bow in prayer together.