Trustworthy sayings

THE FIVE TRUSTWORTHY SAYINGS OF PAUL
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2014
 

 

Contents

I.	"To Save Sinners" (1 Tim 1:15)	pp. 02-07
II.	"A Noble Task" (1 Tim 3:1-7)	pp. 08-12
III.	"Value for All Things" (1 Tim 4:8-9)	pp. 13-17
IV.	"If We..." (2 Tim 2:11-13)	pp. 18-22
V.	"He Saved Us" (Tit 3:4-8a)	pp. 23-28
	Bibliography	pp. 29-30
	Endnotes	pp. 31-43

We live in a world of uncertainty where, despite our often careful planning, matters may not turn out as we expect or hope. Some times, the disappointment is simply annoying, as when the service we receive from a business is less than it should be.

A teacher was having trouble with her bank. Neither the bank's accuracy nor its mode of expression lived up to her standards. The last straw arrived in a form letter from the anonymous Delinquency Department that read: "It appears your account is overdrawn." She replied with an equally brief note: "Please write again when you are absolutely certain." (adapted from Hodgin 1994:43)

Other times our doubt reflects some urgency because disappointment would have serious consequences.

An American astronaut lay strapped in his capsule, awaiting liftoff, when a reporter asked via radio that typically annoying and irrelevant question: "How do you feel?" "How would you feel," the astronaut replied, "if you were sitting on top of 150,000 parts, each supplied by the lowest bidder?" (adapted from Hodgin 1994:309)

In this world of uncertainty, are there things of which we can be sure, especially in matters where disappointment would not merely be annoying but disastrous? Paul addresses this very question in a series of what he calls Trustworthy Sayings.

 

Most of Paul's thirteen letters he wrote to various churches, but four of them he sent to individuals. Those to Timothy and Titus are called the Pastoral Epistles because these men served as pastors in Ephesus and Crete. These men were Paul's protégé and were known among other churches.[1] He urges them to warn people against false doctrine and to stress the importance of sound teaching.[2] Paul quotes five "trustworthy sayings,"[3] so-called because, in the sea of competing ideas, these are "a faithful presentation of God's message" (Knight 1992:99). They appear just in the Pastoral Epistles and may have been theological confessions or the words of songs. Paul repeats them in these letters because they represent important truths for the believing community, truths a pastor should stress in his ministry and communicate to his congregation, and they will be the texts for our series.

 

The first of these sayings appears in the book of Timothy, who spent several years at Ephesus, and was there when Paul wrote the New Testament letters to him. The apostle, however, is in prison at this time, awaiting trial on a trumped-up charge of insurrection, stemming in part from his missionary activity. Paul's immediate future, therefore, is far from certain. Nevertheless, he knows that God and His purposes remain unaffected, utterly reliable even when Paul's world lacks such stability.

 

Adversity sometimes causes us to reflect on our lives, to look back and to evaluate whence we have come and whither we are bound, as Paul does in the opening chapter of his first letter to Timothy. Please turn to...

1 Tim 1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Then Paul cites one of these "trustworthy sayings" and applies it to his own situation.

1 Tim 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

This statement, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," is the shortest of the five, yet it echoes what we read elsewhere in scripture, especially by Jesus, about the wonder and work of the incarnation. "This is the Good News, the heart of the gospel" (Earle 1978:355), that Jesus came...

 

I. "To Save Sinners" (1 Tim 1:15)

 

Paul begins with...

For the rest of the paper and its Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here (43 pages).