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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. All right, we are in First Timothy chapters one, two, and three. We're going to be in First Timothy today and tomorrow. Now, there's a couple of times where I do this where I actually, like, challenge everybody. Okay. And with this happens with shorter books. And so I'm going to challenge you. How about instead of reading 1 Timothy, chapter 1, 2, and 3 today, and then chapters 4, 5, and 6 tomorrow? I think it's really powerful to read entire books of the Bible in one sitting. And, you know, there's books of the Bible like Jeremiah that take four hours to get through, so we won't do that with Jeremiah. But when we got smaller books of the Bible that take 15, 20ish minutes, that's a great opportunity. And typically those books are like six chapters or less where I'll challenge us to do that. So instead of reading chapters 1, 2, and 3 today and 4, 5, and 6 tomorrow, I'm just going to challenge you to read all of First Timothy today and then all of First Timothy again tomorrow. We just want to get it into our minds, into our hearts. There's no such thing as read too much of the word of God. Come on. All right, if you haven't done the reading, just go ahead, pause, stop this and come back. I'm not going to go anywhere. I'll be right here. Let's jump into our hashtag context clues. Acts, chapter 16, verses 1 through 5, Give us the context for Paul and Timothy's relationship. Unlike Titus, who was allowed to remain uncircumcised, our boy Timothy got the chop. Got the chop, chop. Okay. Paul encounters Timothy in Acts, chapter 16. I actually don't think that's their first time meeting, but we'll get into that later. I'm going to read Acts, chapter 16, verses 1 through 5 for you. It says this. Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of this young man. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. All right, so we have Paul interacting with Timothy for the very first time here in Acts, chapter 16. So Titus, kind of the real word really isn't like, cast. Cast away to Crete, but Crete's a little off the beaten path. It's. It's. It's a. It's a large island. It's just not a major metropolis. And the people are kind of rough. Unlike Titus, who doesn't get, you know, doesn't have to get circumcised, but definitely gets cast away to a kind of no man's land called Crete. Timothy has got to get the chop, but he gets assigned to the big metropolitan city of Ephesus for context. Okay, Ephesus was the second largest city in the Roman Empire, second to Rome. So Ephesus is a massive, massive city. Uh, some estimates would put Ephesus at about a half a million people. And so Ephesus was like a sizable ancient city. Um, and we're gonna get into some nerdy nuggets about Ephesus in a bit. There's this shift that I think happens in Paul's ministry right around Acts, chapter 15, verse 36. And I'll. I'll read that. We're kind of still talking about. We're still in our context clues. Cause really, this is a pastoral epistle. So this unlike. So Timothy is going to get assigned to oversee this church in Ephesus. Unlike Paul's letter to the Ephesians, this is a personal letter to Timothy. Now, I think Timothy would have probably read it to the whole church, but it's just a little bit more personal in nature. So we want to talk about Paul and Timothy's relationship. It says this in Acts 15:36. Sometime later, Paul said to Barnabas, let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preach the word of the Lord and see how they are doing. It's a very pastoral thing that Paul is saying. Okay. I want you to remember Corinthians where he says, hey, my job's not the pastor. I don't baptize people. I'm here to preach. All right. I would probably say that in terms of my own personal ministry gifts, I'm a little bit more on the. My strength is preaching versus pastoring, and I'll get on a whole soapbox about that. If we go down that rabbit trail. So I'm not gonna. So Paul, who leans more towards church planting, pioneering. You could see a shift happening in Paul's ministry where he's going from pioneering, which is going into new cities, planting new churches, to, to not obtaining, but sustaining. Okay. He's moving from pioneering to now, like, hey, how about we sure up the stuff that we pioneered. Let's go see how those churches are doing. And so we're gonna see this interesting trend. Okay, you can find these like, along with me. Acts, chapter 14, verse 6. You'll kind of see the trend that I'm talking about says this, but they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe, okay. In the surrounding country, where they continue to preach the Gospel. In Lystra, there set a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth, although he had never walked. Okay? And so Paul says this in verse 19. Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crown over. They stoned Paul, okay, in Lystra and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples ga had gathered around him, he got up and went back to the city. The next day, he and Barnabas left for Derby. This is Lystra. Okay, that. So let's Talk about the second time in Lystra is 16, verse 1, where he talks to a disciple named Timothy. Okay, we just saw the disciples gathered around Paul after he was stoned. Okay, and now let's go to actual Acts, chapter 18, verse 23. After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. And a lot of people believe that he goes to Lystra. Okay, And. And as he's going through Galatia and Phrygia, that he actually goes to Lystra. So why does Paul keep going to this, like, backwoods small town? I would contend because he found a son in the faith there by the name of Timothy. Now the text in Acts chapter 16 would actually suggest, I know that the, the Jewish word here is mumzer. The English equivalent is. Is kind of a rough word. But the only English equivalent that we have would be like a, a bastard son, just a kid kind of born out of wedlock, dad who's not really present. And so the dad gets talked about but not really named. And it's a inter racial relationship, okay? The mom is Jewish, but the dad's Greek. And so I want you to see, I kind of wrote this sentence. Okay. As I summarize the story that's surrounding First Timothy and the story that's surrounding Paul and Timothy's relationship says this. The bastard kid from a small town called Lystra gets appointed to the big city called Ephesus as a true son. One of the things that Paul is going to emphasize over and over and over to this young dude named Timothy is that he is a true son. Here's what First Timothy, chapter one, verse two, says to Timothy, my true son in the faith. Paul really sees Timothy as a son in the faith, and that undergirds everything that's happening in this entire letter. And you could see how for a young boy from a small town who doesn't have his dad around, who, like Paul, like, goes and gets him circumcised, right? Like, if he had had a Jewish father, like, that would have. That would have got handled. And Paul steps into his life not just as a leader, but really as a pastor. That's why I had us read Acts, chapter 15, verse 36. Because I think something shifts in Paul's life where instead of going after the new place, pioneering the new church, he wants to go back to the churches that he already started. And you see him going back to lifestrake, going back to lifestra, going back to Lifestrap. And I can feel that own tension in my own life. Like, there's always a new thing that the Holy Spirit's doing that you can do, but then sometimes there's. It's less sexy, less exciting to sustain, but you gotta go back and start to go, man, I pioneered some stuff. Now I've gotta, like, take care of the stuff that I pioneered. And so. Okay, that's a lot of context. Okay. Move to a nerdy nugget. I've preached about this a lot because Paul is going to have some instructions around women. Oh, here we go. I found. I found it, guys. First Timothy, chapter one, verse 18. I'm giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them, you may fight the good fight. All right, child. Okay. That was the verse I was looking for, and I'm so glad I found it. There we go. So, my true son, my child, Paul is clearly emphasizing the paternal relationship that he has with this dude named Timothy. What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by arma. What is arma? I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription based platform that we design to help people, everyday people learn the Bible for themselves. We started ARMA so that anybody, anywhere could have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics, and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing and women in ministry. But really, ARMA is a community. A community of people that I've gotten to know. A community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions and nerding out on the Bible together. If you want a community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you want to dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want more exclusive access to me and the entire armor team, how about you go to thebibledepartment.com I'll be sure to post the link in the description of this video. Let's make this your year to become a Bible nerd. All right, nerdy nugget. Okay, Paul is going to really send Timothy to Ephesus to fix a lot of heretical doctrine that's getting spread in the church. Okay, there are two dudes who are named just flat out just. I mean, their names are Hymenaeus in Alexander. They are just spreading all types of wacky doctrine. But then Paul shifts and he starts to say women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided or with gold pearls or expensive clothes, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. Let a woman learn in silence, with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over man, but she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, providing that they continue in faith and love and holiness with modesty. Now, those verses have caused a lot of controversy in church, and I only got a couple of minutes to kind of give you some nerdy nuggets to navigate those verses. But there's an entire book here that I've used a lot and then I'm going to draw a lot from even right now. But if you care about women in ministry, women preaching, women leading, then you really need to watch our ARMA course entitled Women in Ministry. The title of this book is called wealth in Ancient Ephesus in the first letter to Timothy and man, Gary Hogue really does a good job just kind of breaking down what those verses really mean. Here's a snapshot summary. We know that these are wealthy women because they've got gold, pearls, and expensive clothes. That's just number one context clue number two. Ephesus was the home of the Artemis cult. The Artemis cult was like a super hyper feminist, a very popular hyper feminist cult. And guess where they're, like, headquarters was. Ephesus. Okay, not only was it a temple, temporary, the goddess named Artemis, but it was also like a creation museum. This is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. You could look this up on, like, Wikipedia. It's called the Artemisium. Okay? The temple to Artemis. And Artemis had a couple of things to say. First of all, if you were going to be a loyal follower of Artemis, you had to have your hair braided in a very, very particular hairstyle. And there's a lot of people who believe, yeah, Paul. There's no way. Paul's just saying that braids are bad. That Paul is probably talking about the particular hairstyle that women would have to show their allegiance to the goddess named Artemis. Also, we know that the women who were had leadership positions. The Temple of Artemis were wealthy women. Not only were they wealthy, but they taught a particular doctrine that said that women were created first, then men. So it makes sense that Paul is saying, hey, Adam was formed first. Okay, Then woman last. As these women came from the Artemisium into Timothy's church or into this church in Ephesus, they were scared of getting pregnant. They weren't having sex with their husbands because Artemis was the goddess of fertility, chastity, and childbearing. They believed that Artemis kept them from dying when they gave birth to children. And then if they left the Temple of Artemis and now came to a Christian church, that Artemis would no longer protect them. So they were scared because obviously it was Artemis that was keeping us safe all these years as we had our children. And Paul lets him know, hey, you'll be saved through childbearing. So we've got a lot of clues here that Paul is not giving a universal command for all of time and eternity, but he's giving a specific command to these women in Ephesus. There are three ways that churches generally deal with these verses. I'll give you all three. The first is that to apply it universally in Pepper TD forever, that no women can teach or lead ever, under any circumstances. Okay? It's the first way to apply these passages. Second is that women can teach, but not lead or have authority over men. And they can teach as long as they have sound doctrine. And then number three, that women can teach and lead and that Paul was only talking about these women here in Ephesus. I won't tell you where I land on that because I want you to watch the women in ministry course, if you're curious to know where I land on that. But these are the three ways that these passages get interpreted. And I hope that the nerdy nuggets that I gave you could actually help you to come to a conclusion that sits right with your conscience. All right, I will say this. I think that there are churches that don't allow women to preach or teach or lead that are healthy. And I think there are churches like that that are unhealthy. I think there are churches who allow women to teach but not lead that are healthy, and then churches like that that are unhealthy. And then I think there are churches who, you know, women can lead and can teach, and there are churches like that that are unhealthy, churches like that that are healthy. So I'm never going to put too much stock in the structure. I'm always going to put a lot of stock in the spirit, okay? I think that the spirit of the Lord can flourish as long as people are humble and wise and loving and gracious towards each other. And I think you can have toxic cultures with a certain kind of structure and then healthy culture with the exact identical kind of structure. And so I would say you got to make a decision for you and your church in your context that doesn't trespass against your own conscience. All right, let's move on to our timeless truth. It's 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 4 Timothy is being challenged by Paul not to occupy himself with myths, endless genealogies that promote speculation rather than divine training that is known by faith. So what is the word of God for? It is not, and let me repeat, not for myths, genealogies and speculations. The amount of people who come up to me and ask me about what I think about conspiracy theories or but where the dinosaurs at in the Bible. And I'm just like, hey. Like, hey, here's what the scriptures are for. Divine training. And Paul's going to go on to talk about training, okay? And we'll talk about that tomorrow. But training is spiritual disciplines. And what's that training for? For faith. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the word of God. The word of God is not here so that we can argue about it, so that we can come up with myths, so that we can try to get weird revelation from genealogies, so that we can speculate and try to figure out who's the Antichrist and who's gonna be the president next year. Like, that's not what the Bible's for. The Bible's not to help you get a lottery number so that you can get rich. Like, that's not what the Bible's for. The Bible is for divine training so that you can be built up in your faith. All right, that's my Thomas Truth for the day. I gave you some context clues. I gave you a nerdy nugget. I gave you some timeless truths. Tomorrow, we're going to finish up the book of Timothy. As we get into Timothy, chapter four, five, and six. I'm so proud of y'all. So, so, so proud. Let's go. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at the B and on Instagram at the Bible Department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.