The extinction of the dodo bird has been so well known for such a long time that it has given rise to the expression, “dead as a dodo.” There is, however, another dodo that we fear is also on the verge of extinction:
“Eleazar the son of Dodo…smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the Lord wrought a great victory that day…” (II Sam. 23:9,10).
Eleazar’s name appears here among a list of “the mighty men whom David had” (v. 8), and in smiting the Philistines until “his hand clave unto the sword” and they literally had to pry his fingers from the hilt, this dedicated soldier proved himself mighty indeed! What an inspiration this makes him to those of us who are called upon by God to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (II Tim. 2:3)—and that would include all who name the name of Christ. It is the duty of every believer to “put on the whole armour of God” (Eph. 6:11), armor which includes “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17). Continue to use it even when someone tells you they don’t believe the Bible is God’s Word. No soldier ever sheathed his sword just because his opponent said he didn’t believe it would cut!
If you are going to go to war to war a good spiritual war-fare (1:19), you’d better be “holding” a weapon known as “faith.” Comparing Scripture with Scripture we learn that “faith” is “the faithful word” that Timothy and Titus were “taught” by Paul (IITim.1:13). If you want to hold Paul’s message as tightly as the Jews held their tradition (Mark 7:3), you’ll have to view the Word as Job did (Job 23:12).
To war this warfare you must also be holding “a good conscience” (v.19). But don’t let your conscience alone be your guide, as the world says. Paul was able to say he had lived in all good conscience (Acts 23:1) even though he’d murdered believers (Acts 22:4). And he wasn’t talking about just since he was saved (II Tim.1:3). You see, he did it ignorantly (ITim.1:13), thinking he was serving God (John 16:2).
But does that tell you how dangerous it is to let your con-science be your guide? You must hold the faith given to Paul and a good conscience or like Saul and the men who flew those planes into the World Trade Center in all good conscience, thinking they were serving God, you’ll end up warring the wrong kind of warfare with the wrong people.
If you’re thinking that everyone’s conscience knows it is wrong to murder, you’re right, we are all born with a good conscience, but a conscience can be “seared” (ITim.4:1,2) to where it is “past feeling” (Eph.4:17-19) the pricks of conscience telling you you’re doing something wrong. This is caused by bad doctrine (I Tim.4:1,2). Don’t ever let anyone tell you doctrine isn’t important, and that teaching it as we do here at Faith Bible Church isn’t vitally important.
A conscience can also be silenced by just putting it away (1:19), divorcing it, as it were (Mt.5:31). Paul says “some” who knew Paul’s gospel put it away “for filthy lucre” (Titus 1:9-11). Compare this to how everyone’s conscience knows stealing is wrong, but thieves put their conscience away. These men knew lying about Paul’s gospel was wrong but they put it away concerning faith and made shipwreck. Using this word, Paul wants you to think of the story of his shipwreck when God promised him that all who stayed in the boat with him would be saved (Acts 27:24). 276 souls were saved because they remained in the boat with Paul. When the dispensation of grace began, all believers were in the same boat, all knew Paul’s gospel was the truth for today (Acts 27:31).The only way to war a good spiritual warfare today is to remain in the boat with him.
Two that didn’t continue sailing with Paul (1:20) taught the resurrection of the rapture was past and some had missed it (IITim.2:16-18). Thinking you’d been left behind would “overthrow” your faith (v.18). If you thought God lied about rapturing you, why would you believe anything else God said? Paul countered by saying the Lord knew all that were His and wouldn’t miss any (v.19).
To stop these men, Paul delivered them to Satan, which means he put them out of the assembly (cf.ICor.5:2,5,13). The “destruction of the flesh” occurs when the man who was so sexually aggressive he slept with his step mother (ICor.5:1) went on to sleep with others who would give him a disease to destroy his flesh. Hymenaeus and Alexander weren’t doing anything that would endanger their lives, so Paul put them out of the assembly that they might “learn not to blaspheme” instead.
We normally think of blasphemy as blaspheming God’s name (Lev.24:15,16) but resisting new truth is also blasphemy (Acts 18:1-6), and that’s what Hymenaeus and Alexander did. The prophets taught the Jews that they had to go through the Tribulation, then their resurrection would come. When Paul taught we’d be raptured prior to the Tribulation, they resisted this. They also blasphemed in saying God couldn’t do what he promised and rapture us before the Tribulation as He said He would (cf. II Kings 18:33—19:3).
But isn’t the best place to learn not to blaspheme inside the church? Why put them out? Well, some people have to learn the hard way, even great men like the psalmist (Ps. 119:71). Paul believed in what the world calls “tough love”
Speaking of how he was the “chief” of sinners and how Christ came to save sinners (1:15,16) causes Paul to break into a doxology, an ejaculation of praise to God. Since he’s been talking about Christ, “the king” must be the Lord Jesus. Some grace believers think He is only Israel’s king since He was born “King of the Jews” (Mt.2:2). They reason that Israel was a kingdom (ISam.24:20) and kingdoms need kings, but we’re the body of Christ, and bodies need a head (Col.1:18).
It’s true there are some dispensational differences. A kingdom has to be governed by laws so God gave Israel a law that said to feed the hungry (Deut.15:8). But your head feeds your stomach because bodies are governed by love and you love your stomach (Eph.5:29). Kingdoms have laws that say don’t steal or kill so God gave Israel a law that said that, but we don’t steal or kill one another because we love one another (Ro.13:9,10; Gal.5:13). But if the mayor of the kingdom of Chicago announced there’d be no more laws, that everyone should just love one another, it wouldn’t work, it only works in bodies.
But we are part of the overall kingdom of the saved of all ages (Col.1:13). Christ sits on the throne of His holiness (Ps.47:8) till the 2nd coming (ITim.6:14,15). Meantime, if He’s your King, think maybe you should obey Him?
Like God the Father, God the Son is also “eternal” (1:17 cf. Micah 5:2; Heb.1:8-12). Christ is also “immortal,” (1:17), incapable of dying. We’ll put on immortality at the Rapture (ICor.15:53). That means we won’t be able to sin any more, for the wages of sin is death (Rom.6:23), something that must be deduced since no verses say this.
Christ was clearly visible when He was here on earth, but is now “invisible,” and not just because He’s gone. He dwells in the light of glory so bright He can’t be seen (ITim.6:16). That doesn’t mean we won’t be able to see Him in heaven. It’s just like Exodus 33:20 says no one can see God and live. You can see the glorified Christ, but you’d have to die — but we’ll be made immortal once we get to heaven!
Christ is “only wise” (1:17cf.Jude1:25) but not compared to the Father (Rom.16:27), only compared to false gods and men. In offering Christ “honour and glory” he is coming full circle back to what prompted this doxology, for He is worthy of honor and glory because He was slain (Rev.5:12), and Paul began this doxology based on this.
The “charge” (1:18) Paul speaks of is the one he gave Timothy in verses 3,4 to “charge” some to teach no other doctrine than Pauline doctrine. Since he gave him this charge according to some “prophecies” (v.18) we know the gift of prophecy hadn’t faded yet as God said it would when the Bible was complete (ICor.13:8-10). Prophecies like when Jacob predicted Judah would beat his enemies in the last days (Gen.49:1-16). Similarly, prophets predicted Timothy would be a leader of men, so Paul charged him to be one “according” to those prophecies (1:18). This suggests God saw something in that mamma’s boy that others didn’t, just as He saw in David. Even David’s father didn’t think he had it in him to be king (ISam.16:1-13). But God did, and saw something in Timothy and prophesied of it, to get Paul to charge him, and to get Timothy to respond as one of the sons of Judah did knowing what was prophesied of him (IISam.22:41). Timothy perhaps didn’t see anything in himself, but hearing these prophecies at his ordination, he manned up again and agreed with them (ITim.6:12).
We’re living in the time of the mystery and there are no prophecies of us, but we can draw courage from the “confidence” Paul had in even the Corinthians to war a good warfare (IICor.7:16; 10:3-5). Paul is confident that we’ll do more than he says (cf. Philemon 1:21). Just remember, we’re not at war with the unsaved who need the gospel, or with our brethren who teach error, we’re at war with the spirits behind them (Eph.6:11,12). How do we “war a good warfare” (ITim.1:18)? By remembering our weapons are not “carnal” (IICor.10:4), like belittling and ridiculing others. You war a good warfare by “speaking the truth in love” (Eph.4:15).
You wouldn’t think He did, since sacrifices were brought “for atonement” (Ex. 29:36), and He had no sins for which to atone. However, He also had no sins of which He needed to repent to receive remission of them, and yet He submitted to John’s “baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4). Of course, we know that He was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). That is, in order for us to be numbered with the righteous, He had to be “numbered with the transgressors” so He could die for them (Isa. 53:12). So He was numbered with the transgressors in His baptism, and also when He died between two transgressors (Mark 15:28). But if He identified with sinners at the beginning of His ministry with His baptism, and at the end of His ministry with His death, perhaps He identified with sinners in between those events as well, with animal sacrifices.
But here we have to be careful how we say the Lord offered such sacrifices. As a Jew under the Law (Gal. 4:4) He had to keep the Law, for to transgress it would be sin (I John 3:4). Well, the Law required men to keep the seven feasts of Leviticus 23, each of which involved an animal sacrifice, and we know the Lord kept Israel’s feasts (Luke 22:15; John 7:2,10). These sacrifices were offered for the people of Israel as a whole, and He was one of the people, and so in this way He identified with them with animal sacrifices. But the One who “knew no sin” (II Cor. 5:21) never brought a sacrifice for any personal transgression.
The word “faithful” (v.15) in this context means depend-able, as it does in I Corinthians 1:9. You can depend on God to do what He says, and sinners can depend on the fact that Christ came into the world to save them. This was the Lord’s message even when He was here on earth ministering to the Jews (Mt.9:13; Mt.15:24)
If you’re not a sinner, you’re in trouble, for this means Christ didn’t come to save you. But you are one (Rom.3: 23). If you’re willing to admit this, but think that overall you’re pretty godly, even if that’s true you’re still in trouble, for “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom.5:6). If you’re willing to admit you’re ungodly but still think you’re on pretty good terms with God, you’re still in trouble, for you can’t be reconciled to God by His Son’s death unless you are willing to admit you’re an enemy of God’s (Rom.5:10).
Of course, before Paul was made an apostle, it was only known that Christ came to save Jewish sinners (Mt.1:21).
What’s Paul mean that this saying is “worthy of all acceptation” (ITim.1:15)? Well, when he later said masters were “worthy of all honour” (6:1), he meant they were worthy of all the honor a servant could give. In the same way, this saying is worthy of all the acceptance a sinner can give it, for every part is true. The Jews in Paul’s day denied Christ came into the world (IJo.4:1-3) as Jews still do. In addition, some Gentiles deny He came into the world, saying He never existed, that Bible stories about Him are legends and myths. Others believe He came, but that He didn’t come to save us, He came to teach us or be our example.
But here we must add He came to save sinners by dying for them, as seen by the myrrh the kings gave Him when He came into the world (Mt.2:11).There are two kinds of myrrh in the Bible, but the only other time this Greek word for myrrh is used is John 19:39 where it was used for embalming. He was a prophet who was born to die! (Acts 7:52)
Before he was saved, Paul was a pretty moral man (Phil.3:6) so why would he call himself “the chief of sinners” (v.15)? He certainly felt like the worst sinner (ICor.15:9 cf. Eph.3:8), but even when he was killing God’s people he was doing it “ignorantly” (v.13). No, the word “chief” means most prominent, as when the Bible speaks of “chief priests” and “chief rulers” and “chief singers.” The word also has the idea of leadership. The chief man on the island where Paul was shipwrecked (Acts 28:7) was probably the leader of those natives, and Satan was certainly the leader of all devils (Lu.11:15). Thus as the leader of the world’s rebellion against God, Saul was certainly the most prominent sinner.
So why’d God save him? To show His longsuffering in him (v.16). Notice he didn’t say he “was” the chief of sinners, he was still the most prominent sinner in the world, albeit now saved by grace. But as the most prominent sinner saved by grace he was an example of God’s longsuffering.
But if Saul began persecuting in Acts 7 and got saved shortly after in Acts 9, how did he show God’s longsuffering? Ah, God showed His longsuffering with mankind in saving Saul. He showed some longsuffering in Noah’s day (IPe.3:20) when he spared Noah and raised up the Gentile nations from his sons. Then when they rebelled at Babel He showed longsuffering to His favored nation 1500 more years. When they crucified His Son and stoned His prophet, God was supposed to give us the worst judgment ever (Mt.24:21) but showed “all longsuffering” instead.
God showed this longsuffering “for a pattern” to those who would believe on Him after Saul (Tit.3:3,4). But Paul is more than our pattern in salvation. There is a pattern of three more “faithful saying”s that show the fullness of how Paul is our pattern. He is our pattern in being godly (ITim. 4:8,9) because we are saved, not in order to get saved, as the pattern God gave thru Moses in the Law. He is our pattern in suffering for Christ and reigning with Him (IITim.2:11,12) and maintaining good works (Tit.3:8). How well should we maintain good works? Paul is our pattern, but he’s not here, so we should be a pattern (Ti.2:7)
Back in 1980, boxer Sugar Ray Leonard squared off with opponent Roberto Duran in what has become known as the No Mas fight. Late in the eighth round of this epic battle, Duran turned away from Leonard and said to the referee, “No mas!” which is Spanish for “No more!” Sugar Ray was declared the winner by technical knockout, and surely experienced an indescribable feeling of elation that no doubt eclipsed the sting of his earlier defeat to Duran a few months before.
As inexpressible as his joy was that day, however, it pales in comparison to the joy the Ephesians experienced when the Apostle Paul used those same “no more” words in his epistle to them:
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19).
These dispensationally revolutionary words no doubt eclipsed the sting of the apostle’s earlier description of their position before God as Gentiles in time past:
“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles…that at that time ye were… strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:11,12).
Imagine the jubilation those dear Ephesian believers experienced upon learning that they had gone from being “strangers from the covenants of promise” to being “no more strangers”! Sugar Ray never had it so sweet!
But here we need to point out that the Gentiles were not just strangers from God in time past, they were strangers from “the covenants of promise” that God made with Israel. These covenants of promise differed from the conditional “if-then” type covenant that God made with Israel in the Law in that they involved unconditional promises that God made to His people with no strings attached.
The Abrahamic covenant, for instance, was an unconditional covenant that God made with Abraham wherein He promised to give him the promised land “for an everlasting possession” (Gen. 17:8). Inherent in that promise of the land is the promise of eternal life, for Abraham could not possess the land forever without living forever. It is this covenant of “promise” (Rom. 4:16) that Paul says extends “to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.” In this covenant of promise, God promised Abraham eternal life in exchange for nothing more than believing the gospel that was preached to him, just as God graciously does for us (Rom. 4:3-5). Thus it is that we partake of the spiritual blessing of eternal life that was promised to Abraham without partaking of the physical blessing of the land that was promised to him.
The New Covenant was another unconditional covenant that God made with Israel (Jer. 31:31-34), a covenant to which we were once strangers but now are “no more strangers” to the “spiritual things” of this wonderful covenant of promise (Rom. 15:27) which we receive by grace. We partake of the spiritual blessings of the new covenant without the physical blessings of this covenant which belong to Israel, just as we partake of the spiritual blessing of eternal life that God promised Abraham without partaking of the physical blessing of the land that God promised him.
We know that there are some in the grace movement who hold that we are still strangers to the New Covenant, but when Paul says that we were “strangers from the covenants of promise” in time past, but now “are no more strangers,” we have to assume that he is saying that we are no more strangers to the thing he mentioned we were strangers to just a few verses before, the covenants of promise. The Greek word and English word for “strangers” is the same.
Boxer Manny Pacquiao recently lost the “fight of the century” after Floyd Mayweather landed 148 of his punches to his 81, with 348 of Manny’s punches connecting with nothing but air. But armed with eternal life, and equipped with the spiritual things that once pertained only to Israel (Rom. 9:4,5), and furnished with “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3), you are now ready to step into the ring and “fight…not as one that beateth the air” (I Cor. 9:26). If you’re not familiar with all of these blessings that God has to offer people freely by His grace, why not get in the Book that you “might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (I Cor. 2:12). Then, “freely ye have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8), and be ready to fight anyone who tries to put the saints under the conditional promises of the Law!
Did you ever wonder how God could call David “a man after His own heart” (I Sam. 13:14)? True, He called him that before his horrific infractions of adultery and murder. But even after his death, God said of him that he did “keep My statutes and My commandments” (I Kings 3:14). How can this be?
Well, to begin with, compare how Balaam was able to say of God that “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel” (Num. 23:21). This, of course, was because the Jews could say that “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Psa. 103:12), and Isaiah could pray with confidence, “Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back” (Isa. 38:17). Similarly, God was able to turn a blind eye to David’s sins, knowing that Christ would one day pay for them.
But there has to be more to it for God to be able to call David a man after His own heart, and I believe there is. You see, when God said of David that his heart was “perfect with the Lord his God,” He said that in contrast to Solomon, whose wives “turned away his heart after other gods” (I Kings 11:4). Despite his great sins, David never fell into idolatry. He always had a heart for the Lord, and a burning desire to serve Him.
As a pastor, Christians often ask me how I can think so highly of them when, in many cases, I have counseled them through their times of sin and failure, and so I know their deepest shame. I always explain that it is their heart for the Lord that God looks at, and so I always try to do the same. I don’t mean to say that those who strive to serve the Lord can do no wrong in my eyes, but this is very close to being so.
So it is that while we should always strive to live our lives as perfectly as God sees us in Christ (Phil. 3:10-14), if you are beating yourself up about your past sins and failures, stop it. Remember that “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (I Sam. 16:7), and if God doesn’t behold your iniquity, neither should you.
Finally, if you are a judgmental Christian, why not learn to look upon others the way God looks at you, and “receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God” (Rom. 15:7).
Why would Paul tell us to thank God the Father for “all things” (Eph.5:20) while he himself thanked the Son for one particular thing (ITim.1:12)? I believe it is because when the Lord saved Paul He did something for him that he doesn’t do for us, especially when it comes to being called to the ministry. God calls all men to be pastors, and those who “desire” to respond can consider themselves called (ITim.3:1). God calls them by showing them in His Word that sinners need to hear the gospel and saints need to be edified in the faith.
But that’s not how Paul got saved! God chose him (Acts 9:15, probably before he was born, like Jeremiah (Jer.1:4,5). God didn’t choose Jeremiah to be saved, he chose him to be a prophet. He himself had to choose to be saved. Jeremiah and Paul did, Balaam didn’t. But being chosen individually to be an apostle makes Paul’s call to the ministry different than all others, which may explain why Paul thanked God differently than all others.
The Lord “enabled” him (ITim.1:12) by making him an “able minister” of the new covenant (IICor.3:6). He didn’t do that in any supernatural way, but by giving him a great message, New Covenant grace, the world’s best product at the world’s best price — free! Pastors today have been given the same ability, as have all Christians who wish to minister God’s grace to others.
Since “for that” (ITim.1:12) means because (IChron.15:13; Pr.1:28,29), Paul is saying the reason the Lord enabled him and put him in the ministry was because he counted him faithful. To “count” means to judge, as our translators translated the Greek word for “count” in Hebrews 11:11. But we like to know a man years before counting him faithful enough to make him a minister, how did the Lord count Paul faithful? After all, He put him in the ministry the day He saved him (Acts 26:16,17).
Well, Paul counted Lydia faithful enough to stay with her the day she got saved (Acts 16:13-15) because she “attended” to Paul’s words. That word means to pay attention to and respond (Ps.66:19). So when Lydia responded to Paul’s words he was able to judge her faithful, and when Paul said, “What wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:5,6), when he agreed to do a complete 180 and go from being a persecutor to being persecuted, the Lord was able to judge him faithful on the basis of this response.
Since Paul was a “blasphemer” (v.13) he couldn’t have been saved under the kingdom program (Mt.12:31,32). He never blasphemed the Father, he kept the Father’s Law, and he doesn’t appear in the four gospels so didn’t blaspheme the Son. It wasn’t till the apostles were filled with the Spirit that he blasphemed. Since he couldn’t be saved in the Lord’s world or “the world to come”, we know God introduced a whole new world, a world the Lord knew nothing of because it was a mystery (Eph.3:1-3). The “world to come” He spoke of comes after this dispensation, a world the disciples tasted at Pentecost (Heb.6:4,5).
More proof that the Lord introduced a new world with Paul comes when he says he was a “persecutor,” for you couldn’t be a persecutor in the Lord’s world and be saved, you had to be a follower (Mt.18:18-22;Mt.19:27-29; Jo.10: 27,28), and in the world to come as well (Rev.14:4). Paul wasn’t a follower, he persecuted followers. You couldn’t be “injurious” in the Lord’s world either (Mt.18:6,10) or in the world to come (Rev.16:5,6), but Saul was (Acts 9:1,2).
When Paul claimed he killed the saints “ignorantly” (v.13), that’s the loophole Peter gave Israel when he charged them with the manslaughter of Christ (Deut.19:3,4 cf. Acts 3:17) and not His murder (Num.35:16), something he did with the Lord’s permission (Lu.23:34). But Peter could use it for the Jews who blasphemed the Son; Paul couldn’t use it since he blasphemed the Spirit. His only hope was grace, which God gave him in “exceeding abundant” measure (v.14). He gave it with “faith” (v.14), the faith of Christ (Gal.2:16), who is faithful to give it to whosoever believes on Him. He gives it faithfully because of His “love” (v.14)
“Can you explain Matthew 11:12, especially ‘the violent take it by force’?”
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
The “violence” that the Lord said the kingdom had suffered since John’s day was the violent resistance that the unbelieving leaders in Israel waged against the proclamation of the kingdom gospel. These violent rulers made several attempts on the Lord’s life as He preached the kingdom of heaven (Luke 4:29; John 5:18; John 7:1,19,25; 8:37,40; 10:31). As the Lord went on to explain, these violent attempts on His life were attempts to take possession of the kingdom by force.
The Lord illustrated all this with the parable of the “householder” who represented God (Matt. 21:33), “which planted a vineyard” that represented Israel in the Old Testament (Matt. 21:33 cf. Isa. 5:1,2,7). God “hedged” or “fenced” Israel (Matt. 21:33 cf. Isa. 5:2) with an invisible wall of protection from her enemies, but also “digged a winepress” (Isa. 5:2 cf. Matt. 21:33), which indicated He expected to reap a harvest of grapes from his vineyard to press into wine in return for His efforts. But the “servants” that God sent Israel to gather these fruits, the Old Testament prophets, were violently persecuted (Matt. 21:35,36). Last of all, He sent them His Son (Heb. 1:1,2), but when Israel’s leaders “saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill Him; and let us seize on His inheritance” (Matt. 21:38), His inheritance being Israel (Isa. 19:25).
In pronouncing the law “good” (v.8) Paul is teaching Timothy how to deal with those who desire to teach it (v.7). You start by acknowledging the law is as good as Moses said (Deut.4:6-8) and can do good things (Ps. 19:7,8; 119: 98). Even the man who says we are not under law (Rom.6: 15) keeps insisting the law is good (v.8cf.Rom.7:12).
But the law is good only “if” it is used lawfully (v.8). It is not made for righteous men, i.e., it’s not for saved men. Only saved men are righteous. Remember, only the righteous saved in Israel will inherit the land for ever (Ps.37:29), and only the righteous have eternal life (Mt.25: 46). None of us are righteous in ourselves (Rom.3:10), but we can be “made righteous” by the obedience of Christ (Rom.5:19).
Since there are only two kinds of people in the world, saved and unsaved, and the law isn’t made for the saved, it must be made for the unsaved, a group Paul calls “the lawless.” He also calls them “the disobedient” (v.9). Peter contrasts “disobedient” people to believers (IPe.2:7) because they “obey not the gospel” (IIThes.1:8).
God made the law for the unsaved to show them they are sinners (Rom.3:20) who need a Savior. When the Law finds its way to a “good” moral person, it makes the sin in them “exceeding sinful” (Rom.7:13). When we’re told not to do something, our fallen nature wants to do it all the more. That’s why Paul says that “the strength of sin is the law” (ICor.15:56).
Since the first commandment is not to have other gods before God, if you do, you are “ungodly” (v.9cf.Ex.20:3). Those who make graven images (Ex.20:4) are “sinners” (v.9). Since the next commandment says to keep the Sabbath “holy” (Ex.20:8), if the Jews who were under the law didn’t keep it holy, they were “unholy” (v.9). Since we’re not supposed to take God’s name in vain (Ex.20:7), the “profane” are those who break this commandment (v.9). When Paul says the law was made for “murderers,” he’s addressing Exodus 20:13. When he adds you shouldn’t kill your mother or father, he’s referencing Exodus 20:12.
Under the law “manslayers” (v.9) were those who killed people unintentionally, but in this context the word refers to those who kill anyone, not just fathers and mothers. God left the commandment “thou shalt not kill” open-ended to include even the killing of yourself in suicide. And if you don’t believe that this open-ended commandment prohibits abortion, you are guilty of age discrimination, for you are saying that it is okay to kill the old but not the young.
A whore in our day and age is a prostitute who has sex for money, so a “whoremonger” (v.10) would be a prostitute’s customer. But originally a whore was any promiscuous woman, so a whoremonger was any promiscuous man or woman, any who violate Exodus 20:14. Paul is also referencing the commandment not to covet (Ex.20:17), since coveting is what causes whoremongering (Rom.7:7). Whoremongering also covers them that defile themselves with mankind (v.10), for adultery with “mankind” is no better than adultery with a woman (cf.Lev.18:22).
The law was also made for “menstealers” (v.10), those who’d violate Exodus 20:15 by stealing the most valuable thing that can be stolen, people. “Liars” (v.10) break the commandment found in Exodus 20:16. We think of courtrooms when we think of “perjured persons,” but that’s only because perjury means lying under oath.
When Paul adds, “if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine” (v.10) according to his gospel (v.11), the Sabbath was not contrary to sound doctrine according to the law, but it is according to Paul’s gospel (Col.2:16). So if you use that law to bring a knowledge of sin on an unbeliever you are using it unlawfully.
Paul calls his gospel “glorious” to remind Timothy to remind those that desired to be teachers of the law that his gospel wasn’t contrary to the law as he’d been charged (Acts 18:13), it was a secret, unrevealed part of the new covenant, God’s glorious solution to the weakness and unprofitableness of the law (IICor.3:5-10).
“And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord…” (Ezra 9:8).
If you know anything about the history of Israel, it was a constant series of them sinning, God punishing them, them repenting, and then “a little space” of grace in between, such as this space that came after the punishment of the Babylonian captivity. Today, of course, we live in the dispensation of grace (Eph. 3:2), a time when God is dispensing grace unmixed with any periods of wrath. No matter what you do, you can’t make God punish you, whether you be saved or lost.
Of course, a believer who sins grieves God’s holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and may still suffer the natural consequences of sin. For example, a believer who ignores God’s prohibition against homosexuality (Lev. 18:22) may contract AIDS. However, this is not the wrath of God, this is just an example of reaping what you sow (Gal. 6:7), a principle that applies in every dispensation. If you want to know what God thinks of homosexuality, don’t look at a feeble disease like AIDS, look at Sodom and Gomorrah. Then remember that it is true of all kinds of sins that “because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them” (Eph. 5:6,7). Just because you are saved and immune from the penalty of sin doesn’t mean you should engage in the kinds of sins for which God will punish unsaved men in Hell for all eternity.
If you are not saved, enjoy the dispensation of grace while it lasts, for you are going to be left behind when the Rapture brings an end to this dispensation. The Great Tribulation that will follow the Rapture will be the exact opposite of a dispensation characterized by grace not mixed with any periods of wrath, for it will be a time of wrath unmixed with any periods of grace. When that day comes you will “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture…” (Rev. 14:10). As the uncut, unmixed, undiluted wrath of Almighty God is poured out, “in those days shall men seek death” (Rev. 9:6) because they will understand that even the slightest space of grace will then be out of the question to seek. Your only hope is to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” (Acts 16:31).
If you are thinking that you’ll wait and see if the Rapture really comes before believing on Christ in the Tribulation, think again, for God’s undiluted wrath will not convince you to believe as you might think it would. In John’s vision of that day,
“…men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not…and they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed…God…because of their pains…and repented not of their deeds” (Rev. 16:9-11).
Of course, these pains will be the least of your worries, for all who persist in unrepentant unbelief will be “tormented with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 14:10), “and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night…” (Rev. 14:11).
The choice is yours: undiluted grace or undiluted wrath. “Christ died for your sins” and “rose again” (I Cor. 15:1-4). All He asks of you is to believe it, and rest in what He did for you on Calvary’s Cross.
Since the word “end” can mean purpose or goal, “the end of the commandment” refers to the goal of the commandment. In God’s mind the ten commandments are one (James 2:10,11), so “the commandment” (v.5) refers to all ten. God’s purpose, or goal, in giving the ten commandments was “charity,” a Bible word for love. God’s goal in giving the law was to get men to love Him and their neighbor as themselves.
But don’t change “charity” to love, for love is a feeling, charity is that feeling in action. God’s goal in giving the law wasn’t just to cause you to feel love toward God and men, it was to get you to put that feeling in action by not having others gods before Him or taking His name in vain, and by not lying to your neighbor, stealing from him, killing, etc. (Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:13,14).
Only saved people have “a pure heart” (v.5 cf. Pr.24:3,4; Mt.5:8). The Jews purified their hearts by water baptism (Heb.10:22), but the Gentiles purify their hearts “by faith” without baptism, like Cornelius (Acts 15:8,9). The point is, God’s goal in giving the law wasn’t just to get everyone obeying the ten commandments, it was to get everyone saved and obeying them out of a pure, saved heart.
That doesn’t mean God doesn’t it like it when the unsaved obey the law. We know He does, for He’ll force them to obey it in the kingdom (Rev.19:15; Jer.23:5). The kingdom will begin with all believers, but when most of their children don’t believe the Lord will have to rule amid His “enemies” (Ps.110:2). Everyone will obey the ten commandments in that day, but the unsaved will obey them out of impure hearts.
But we know the law can’t change impure hearts because at the end of the millennium all who obeyed it out of impure hearts rebel against Christ (Rev.20:7-9). And it wasn’t God’s goal to give the Law so men would obey outwardly, just waiting for their chance to rebel! It was to get men saved and obeying the law “out of a pure heart.”
The process always starts when the lost hear the law and learn what sin is (Rom.3:20; 7:7). Once the lost man learns he is a sinner he sees his need to be saved and become someone who can obey the law out of a pure heart.
Similar to all this, the only ones with “a good conscience” (at least in this context) are saved people. The Jews got it by water baptism (Heb.10:22), we get it by faith alone! God also wants us obeying the law out of “faith unfeigned” (v.5). Since “feign” means pretend (ISam.21:13), “unfeigned” faith was genuine faith (IITim.1:5).
The reason Paul was saying all this is because some in Ephesus had “swerved” from the goal of charity and “turned aside” (v.6). Since three times the Bible says that Israel “turned aside” from the law (Ex.32:8; Deut.9:12,16), Paul picked this phrase deliberately to answer those who were charging him with turning aside from the law (Rom.6:15). It was his way of saying, “Yes, I am turning aside from the law, but you’re turning aside from the goal of the law.”
“Vain” (v.6) means empty, and “jangling” is overly loud jingling. We know when some turned to vain jangling they were turning to the law, for Paul goes on to say they desired to be teachers of the law (v.7). They left charity to focus on the thing that was supposed to produce charity. This led to bickering, another meaning of “jangling.”
Paul told Titus to “stop” the vain talkers of the circumcision who were talking about the Law (Tit.1:10,11). The Greek words for “vain jangling” are the same as for “vain talkers” there. Their motive was “filthy lucre.” Satan always makes sure undispensational things are lucrative.
But if the goal of the law is to get men to love God and others, and we’re not under the law, does that mean God doesn’t want us to love God and others in the dispensation of grace? Of course He does! But today it is the goal of a different commandment, the commandment of God that made Paul an apostle (ITim.1:1) and gave him a new message of grace, not law. The goal of that commandment is to get men saved by grace and loving out of a pure heart.
