by Edwin Crozier<\/p>\n
“Teach and urge these things<\/em>,” Paul tells Timothy. He’s already told him the purpose of this letter is so folks will know how to behave as members of the church of the living God, which is the pillar and support of the truth. He’s also told Timothy he needs to pay careful attention to himself and his teaching so both he and his hearers will be saved. No wonder Timothy needs to “teach and urge these things<\/em>.” But then Paul explains why.<\/p>\n “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing<\/em>” (I Timothy 6:3-4 ESV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Wait! What? What does Paul mean by “the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ<\/em>“? True, in I Timothy 5:18, Paul quoted Jesus from Luke 10:7. Otherwise, the rest of this letter is Paul’s own writing. He’s not quoting Jesus. Jesus didn’t teach anything about church rolls for widows. He didn’t talk about the character traits of elders and deacons. He didn’t mention men praying with holy hands or women dressing with godliness and good works. How will Timothy (or we, for that matter) agree with the words of Christ if he teaches what Paul has written?<\/p>\n Stop and consider Paul’s claim here. Paul claims he is speaking on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ in this letter. In I Corinthians 2:12-13, Paul said he imparted “words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit<\/em>” (ESV). Recall that Jesus explained the Spirit would take what belonged to the Son and reveal it to the apostles, guiding them into all the truth (see John 16:12-15). Through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, Paul is providing the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n Please, grasp what this means about the Scripture. The red letters are no more Jesus speaking than the rest of the Bible. They are not any more important than the rest of the Bible. Every word, red or black, is the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we disagree with any of it, we are disagreeing with the Lord Jesus Christ. And anyone who disagrees with Jesus Christ is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing, even if he or she has the title “teacher of the Law.” Even if the person can speculate with myths and endless genealogies on a high plane. Jesus Christ is Lord, His Word is true. Everything else fails. That’s why, as Paul also began this letter, we must teach no other doctrine but Christ’s.<\/p>\n Let’s get into all the Scripture as the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, not just the red letters. All the letters.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Edwin Crozier “Teach and urge these things,” Paul tells Timothy. He’s already told him the purpose of this letter is so folks will know how to behave as members of the church of the living God, which is the pillar and support of the truth. He’s also told Timothy he needs to pay careful…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[77,1383],"class_list":["post-96691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-doctrine","tag-soundness"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14591,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-importance-of-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":96691,"position":0},"title":"The Importance of Doctrine","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Klein via\u00a0The Bulletin of the Church of Christ at New Georgia, August 26, 2007 This past week, I noticed that the sign in front of the Presbyterian Church in Rogersville said, \"Love God. Love others. The rest is doctrine.\" The message was plain. Loving God and loving others\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46461,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/devoted-to-the-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":96691,"position":1},"title":"Devoted to the Word","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer When the problem of neglected widows came up in Acts 6, the apostles told the church to choose seven men of special quality to take care of it so that they would be able to \"devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word\" (Acts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":542,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":96691,"position":2},"title":"Preachers (Article)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 9, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Among the duties or roles within the church listed in Ephesians 4:11-12 is the work of the evangelist. The word is translated from a Greek word which referred to a person who brought joyous news of victory from the battlefront. When the same word is used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82974,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-divine-pattern\/","url_meta":{"origin":96691,"position":3},"title":"The Divine Pattern","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Homer Hailey The divine wisdom has provided a divine pattern in all his ways. The doctrine men obey is a \"form\" or pattern, a mold, such as metal, which is poured into which life is fashioned. (Romans 6:17.) This pattern of doctrine was from God by Christ, who did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57273,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-there-is-only-one-in-the-godhead\/","url_meta":{"origin":96691,"position":4},"title":"If There is Only One in the Godhead","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Johnie Edwards via Back To Basics, Vol. 3, No. 2, February 2005. There are consequences of the doctrine that there is only one person in the Godhead. \u00a0We take a look at some of these: Why the Word \"Both?\" The word \"both\" means more than one. \u00a0John wrote, \"Whosoever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37888,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-a-good-minister\/","url_meta":{"origin":96691,"position":5},"title":"What Is a Good Minister?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant adapted from an article by Ken Weliever \"He's a good preacher,\" is often used to describe various gospel preachers. But what makes a good preacher? How would you define one? Is he a great orator? Can he captivate the audience? Does he preach soothing words? Can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}