1 Timothy: on Christology

1 Timothy on Christology

1. Creedal confession, 3:16. Let us begin with the fundamentals. St. Paul wants to come to Timothy. Yet, preparing the younger pastor for a possible delay, he provides the confessional statement – what should the Church know about godliness. Before we go into text itself, let’s touch on two words: confession and mystery.   

Confession – Greek homologeon, means speaking together out loud. This is what the church should say as a statement of faith. This is what we believe – it should not be changed, adjusted, or improved. Later confessions: Apostle’s creed, Nicaean creed etc. used the very same form – a collection of short statements revealing the elements of doctrinal teaching about God, Christ, Holy Spirit, or Church. We repeat it TOGETHER every Sunday.

The word Mystery reflects the revelatory aspect of our faith. It is given to us, given from above. Therefore, we can recite it, we can study it, we can proclaim it. But we never will come to the full understanding of Who God is, and What exactly happened on the Cross, in the Tomb, and on Resurrection Sunday morning. Both Old and New Testament speak of the mystery – not magic, but mystery – something beyond our understanding (Proverbs 25:2, Psalm 131:1).           

Confession proper:

1. God (!) manifested in the flesh

2. Justified in the Spirit

3. Seen by the angels

4. Preached in/among the nations

5. Believed in the World/Cosmos

6. Taken up/received in glory.

2. Global function of the Christ, 2:3-7. Christ is the Savior of the world. All people are justified and should come to the knowledge of (this) truth. There is a need to differentiate between General and personal Justification. The difference is obviously seen in 1 Timothy 4:10 and 1 John 2:1-2. This passage talks about salvation and justification in a general way – what Jesus accomplished for the fate of the world on the Cross. Note the distinction of to be saved and to know. True knowledge follows salvation. Same as teaching follows baptism – Matthew 28:18-20. These elements of godliness should not be separated, but knowledge doesn’t HAVE TO precede salvation. That’s why we baptize infants – to be saved (1 Peter 3:21, AC V:1-2).      

3. Function of Christ on the personal level, 1:12-17. Regarding personal aspect of Justification, we can see St. Paul’s own example. He describes his actions toward the Church before his conversion as blasphemy etc. (v. 13). His resistance was conquered by the grace of our LORD, providing the faith and love in Christ Jesus. The apostle goes from general to personal – the task for Messiah is “to save the sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (v. 15). Knowing that people like Saul (former name of St. Paul) can be saved, gives us example of God’s patience and encourages us to pray for our “friends” who don’t know about salvation they can enjoy (v. 16).     

4. Christology is complete in training others in godliness, 4:6-11. Let me start with an example of Old Testament saint, Ezra (7:10): three steps – (1) he recognition of the WORD, given to the world; (2) personal “conversion” by studying and doing; (3) teaching others. St. Paul approaches teaching of Timothy in a similar way. We’ve talked about the first two, here is the third: command and teach these things (v. 11). 

2 John

 2^nd Letter of St. John   

Title:  This time [unlike the unidentified 1 John] St. John identifies himself as “the elder” (cp. 3 John). Looks like he sent a general “sermonic” epistle to establish the theological frame of refence, then he sent to letters: this one, addressed to the church, and another one (3 John) to one of the members of the congregation. 

Date of writing: If these two epistles (2 and 3 John) are written at the same time, then we can assume that later date of writing (still prior to 70 AD). The reasoning is based on the usage of names: Gaius and Demetrius (3 John 1, 9, 12).

Structure:

a. 1-3, Greetings

 b. 4-6, walking in the truth

  c. 7-8, deceivers/watch yourselves

 b’. 9-11, abide in the teaching

a’. 12-13, Final greetings

Main themes:

Truth – used 5 times in the letter. Twice he connects love and truth (v. 1 and 3). Also, he personifies the truth [v. 2] which “will be with us forever” making an allusion to John 14:6.

The deception – the rejection of Jesus Christ in the flesh (beginning of gnostic theology). This rejection had both historical and eschatological application.  

The Elect Lady has children (Cyprian, d. 258: No one can have God for his Father, who does not have the Church for his mother).

Priority of a meeting-in-person over a correspondence or a “meeting on-line”.

This small letter also testifies to the concept of a house as a micro-church – the need to notice who comes in and who does a Christian should “greet”.

Main Characters:

The elder, elect lady (or Donna), her children, and the children of her elect sister. That needs an identification: if the epistle is addressed to the congregation in Corinth (community of Jewish and Gentile’s believers in a pagan environment), then the elect sister can/should be the messianic congregation in Jerusalem.     

Reflection in other parts of the Bible: The concept of “from the beginning” is a hallmark of St. John’s appropriation of Genesis and Creation theology.

It is very important notice the close relationship between 2 John and Song of Songs. In both cases we have a female figure as a representation of the Church.

The idea of meeting face-to-face corelated with Pauline concept one-another (cp. Col. 3:16 etc.).  

Lutheran teaching: The Book of Concord quotes 2 John only once – during the discussion of the Power of Jurisdiction of Bishops (Tr. 60-62). The fact that St. John identifies as the Elder, shows that St. Peter did not have a superiority of ruling over the Church – both St. John and St. Peter are called the elders in their respective epistles. Also St. Paul charges Titus to set the Elders in every town of Crete (Tit. 1:5-6).   

Lutheran hymnody:

LSB 571 – For All the Saint in Warfare (v. 8 – St. John, Apostle and Evangelist).

LSB 878 – Abide with Me.

Relevancy of the Book:

There are (at least) three points which make the 2nd letter of John carry a relevant message for today. First, it is very important for a believer to understand himself/herself as a part of the Church: both Universal church and a local congregation (see the quote for Cyprian above). Second, the basis for the unity within the church is the acceptance of the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and the ministry of the incarnate Son Jesus Christ for redemption of the world. Third, this unity of believes (communion of saint) is not a couple of hours a week entertainment, it is reflected in our daily (24/7) walk with God. The way we deal both with follow believers and non-churched people should be an example for all around us to give thanks to the Father for His love given in Jesus Christ.               

Memory verses:

4: I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.