Till I come, give thyself to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.
Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus and could not say when he would arrive. So he gives Timothy three things to do until then: reading, exhortation, teaching. Writers ask what each word covers, and how much of it still belongs to ordinary Christians today.
The phrase "until I come" marks a season with a limit. What fills that season is the written Word standing in for the apostle's voice.
Timothy was to give himself with all diligence to reading, to exhortation, to teaching... When Paul came, Timothy might have the joy of hearing God's Word from the inspired lips of the apostle. Until then he must give his full attention to God's inspired Word in its written form.
Several writers say the "reading" here means reading aloud to the gathered believers. The ESV makes this explicit and renders the word as "the public reading of Scripture." Their proof comes from the two words standing next to it.
The words next to it give conclusive proof that the "reading" was not private study but the public reading of Scripture to instruct everyone. The "exhortation" and the "teaching" must refer to others. Paul had insisted on the importance of his own walk just before.
There was also a practical reason. Almost no one in Timothy's day owned a copy of the Scriptures.
In those days, hand-written copies of the Scriptures were few and far between. Many could not read at all. So the public reading of the Scriptures was a much needed service.
One verb, "devote yourself," covers all three words in the verse. Each of the three does its own work.
Reading would provide food for the mind. Exhortation would stir the heart and conscience about what has been read. Doctrine, or teaching, would give the accurate, clear meaning of what has been read.
No one can read well in public what he has never read alone. Writers draw the ordinary Christian into the verse along that line.
But how could he read and speak in public on what he had not first read and studied on his own? The greater includes the less. Many of us may not be called to read God's Word in public. But all of us are called to read it in private. This is a prime way of promoting godliness.
The next verse warns Timothy not to neglect his gift. The order of the two matters.
Timothy was to exhort and teach others, and for this a gift had been deposited in him in a special way. So the second instruction is, "do not neglect the gift that is in you." By reading we take in; by exhortation and teaching we give out. Not all of us have received a special gift. But all of us are responsible to give out in one way or another. If we neglect this, our own spiritual good is at risk.
Two verses later Paul returns to the same subject. The writer below uses an older translation of verse 15, which reads "meditate on these things." The order between the two habits is fixed.
Directions for meditation: read before you meditate. "Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture" (1 Tim. 4:13). Then it follows, "meditate on these things" (v. 15). Reading supplies the material; it is the oil that feeds the lamp of meditation. Be sure your meditations are founded upon Scripture. Reading without meditation is unfruitful; meditation without reading is dangerous.
The command was given because most people could not reach the Scriptures for themselves. Where everyone can, it presses harder, not less.
Timothy was told to read to the many because the many had no easy access to the Holy Scriptures. Now the many do have that access. So it is well within the spirit of this verse to urge the Lord's people to study the Scriptures.
What is at stake is the depth of the Christian himself, and what fills the space left empty.
A shallow knowledge of the Scriptures means a shallow Christian... If we are shallow in the one, there is too much room for the world to get in. Our minds are full of either the Lord's things or those of the world.
- Read — the word here means reading Scripture aloud to others. The words beside it, exhortation and teaching, both point outward.
- Digest — reading gives meditation its material. Reading without meditation bears no fruit. Meditation without reading is dangerous.
- Give out — reading takes in; exhortation and teaching give out. Do not neglect the gift given for that work.
- Alone first — public reading rests on private reading. Few are called to read to others. All are called to read for themselves.
- Now more — the command came when copies were scarce. Today Bibles are within everyone's reach. A shallow knowledge of them leaves room for the world.
Be not negligent of the gift [that is] in thee, which has been given to thee through prophecy, with imposition of the hands of the elderhood.
The verse sits inside a run of personal charges to a young worker: read, exhort, teach — and do not let the gift in you lie unused. Two questions follow. What was given to Timothy? And what did the hands laid on him do?
The verses just before this deal with Timothy's character. Writers note that a good life, on its own, does not qualify anyone to stand up and teach.
The Christian life may be right and beautiful, yet it would not enable the servant to take the definite place of a teacher. For that, a gift from the Lord was necessary. Timothy could go forward sure that a direct word from God had given him this gift. He could use it knowing that the elders of the Lord's people stood fully with him.
The gift is therefore the base on which everything else in the passage rests.
Hence, immediately after, he is reminded of that gift of grace which was imparted to him, the ground of his ministry: for no practical grace, however important morally and for God's glory, entitles a soul to go forward in Christ's service without such a gift.
So how did the gift reach Timothy? One writer separates the voice that named him from the hands that were laid on him.
He was not to neglect the gift given to him. In his case the gift came straight through prophecy, the voice of the Spirit making it known (as in Acts 13:1). The elders laying their hands on him did not pass on the gift. It was their outward expression of fellowship with the gift given to Timothy.
Much turns on one small word. Older translations end the verse "with the laying on of the hands of the elders," where the ESV reads "when the council of elders laid their hands on you." That older wording is what the next comment builds on.
Scripture does not say "by," but "with." When we see what Paul says elsewhere, we see how important that difference is. The whole sentence runs: "the gift which was given you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the elders." Here is the real force of it. A gift was given, which is a very different thing from ordination.
What was this gift, and what part did the elders play in giving it?
This gift was the special power of the Holy Spirit given to Timothy. There is no reasonable doubt that it is the gift spoken of in 1 Tim. 4:14. ... The elders were joined with Paul in the act, but the power lay in the apostle alone. He alone was the channel God used for so great a gift. The difference between the words "with" and "by" shows it.
Many have used this verse to defend ordination ceremonies. Commentators reject that, because what made Timothy's case possible is gone.
In Timothy's case there were prophecies that went before him (1 Tim. 1:18). A real gift was given through prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the elders (1 Tim. 4:14), and by the laying on of Paul's hands (2 Tim. 1:6). Without an apostle and a properly chosen body of elders, to say nothing of prophecy, no one can copy such a case. To act as if we could is a harmful pretence, unless the power is there to give the gift that was given then.
Yet the act itself still has an honest use, much smaller than the claims made for it.
The Christian world has copied this apostolic act and badly misused it, claiming great things for it — that it confers a status and hands over a spiritual blessing. If it were treated instead as a simple recognition and a mark of fellowship in service, it would be a scriptural act.
A gift can lie idle. Having one does not put its owner above ordinary work.
Someone might have thought that a man as gifted as Timothy was not called to give himself to these things and be wholly in them, so that his progress would be plain to everyone. But no. Grace and gift create a matching responsibility; they do not release a man from it.
One writer names a common excuse for leaving a gift unused, and refuses to accept it.
He was not to neglect what was in him. How many do neglect it, often through a false humility that makes the gift out to be small. That humility is false, because no gift from God, however small, is to be despised. It holds a seed that can grow without limit, if only God is served in it.
And the charge is not for gifted teachers only.
Not all of us have received a special gift. But all of us are responsible to give out in one way or another. If we neglect that, we put our own spiritual good at risk.
- Marked out. A prophetic word from God named Timothy — the gift started with God's voice, not with any human body.
- Given. The gift itself came through Paul's hands (2 Tim. 1:6) — the special power of the Spirit, passed on through the one channel God used.
- Joined. The elders laid hands on him "with," not "by" — a mark of fellowship, never the source of power.
- Not repeatable. Without an apostle and prophecy, no one can copy the scene. What stays valid is a simple recognition of service.
- Used. A gift brings responsibility instead of removing it. Even the smallest one grows when God is served in it.
Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them, that thy progress may be manifest to all.
Paul has just told Timothy not to neglect his gift. Now he says what to do with it: turn the truth over in his mind, give himself to it completely, and let the growth show. The writers below quote an older translation, which reads "Meditate on these things" where the ESV has "Practice these things."
Meditation is not reading more. It is working over what you have already read.
By reading our minds become well furnished with truth. By meditation the truth in its force and bearing is brought home to us. The ox not only feeds in the pastures; it also lies down to chew the cud. In the same way we need to chew things over, turning them over in our minds. What nourishes us is not what we eat but what we digest. If we meditate on the things of God, getting right into them so that they control us, our profiting becomes clear to all. That is our spiritual advancement.
A man as gifted as Timothy might seem exempt from the ordinary work of study.
Someone might think that a man so gifted as Timothy was not called to work at this. Why should he be wholly in these things, so that his progress shows to all? But no. Grace and gift create a matching responsibility; they do not release him from it… Depend on it, those who seek to give out had better take care that they take in.
The second command rules out a mind pulled in several directions.
"Bestow care on these things; be wholly in them, that your progress may be manifest to all." This calls for diligent follow-up, with no distraction from other things. Only this way brings growth and advance, and no fair-minded person can fail to see it.
For Timothy that meant no other job. For most readers it works out in ordinary daily work.
The second part, "give yourself wholly to them," no doubt meant that Timothy was not to work at secular things for a living. He was to be a full-time servant of the Lord. Yet it applies to us too. In all that we do, even in the lowest tasks, we are to "serve the Lord Christ" (Colossians 3:24). Others will see that we have profited from time in the word of God. That is, if we keep the Lord and His glory before us in our reading and meditation.
The private work has a public purpose. One writer pictures deep study as water drawn from a deep well and poured out where others can drink.
Not all are called, or able, to draw water out of the deep wells of God. But all can drink that water when someone puts it into vessels suited to them. The water in the well is beyond the reach of many; the water in the vessel is available for all… Timothy was to "meditate on these things," to give himself "wholly to them." This surely was drawing water from the well. But his "profiting" was to "appear to all." This was the water in the vessel available for all.
Nobody can pass on what he has not first taken in.
Even if the content is all right, no testimony, no preaching, no teaching is right teaching when the soul has not first been filled from God for itself. We must drink for ourselves that rivers may flow. Indeed, everything else dries up the soul. "That your profiting may appear," says the apostle. It is only fresh, good, and powerful when it is the soul's own portion first with God.
One writer aims the verse at two opposite faults: speaking off the cuff, and arriving with a ready-made speech.
Far be it from us to encourage anyone in a random, haphazard way of speaking on Scripture. We believe such a habit ruins the soul of the speaker and is worse than wearisome to the souls of the hearers… The "profiting" is sure to "appear" if we keep up the habit of meditation. But if someone goes to a meeting with a sermon already prepared, it may not be what the Lord wanted spoken at all… We have to watch against two things: making ourselves up for an occasion, and idleness and indifference.
- Digest — reading fills the mind; meditation brings truth home. What feeds us is what we digest, not what we eat.
- Diligence — a gift does not excuse a servant from work. Grace and gift create responsibility rather than removing it.
- Undivided — progress comes from follow-up with nothing else competing. The same holds in the most ordinary daily job.
- Drink first — we must drink for ourselves before rivers can flow. Teaching is only fresh when it has been the soul's own portion with God.
- Displayed — water drawn from the deep well goes into a vessel others can drink from. Then the growth shows to all.
Give heed to thyself and to the teaching; continue in them; for, doing this, thou shalt save both thyself and those that hear thee.
The chapter closes with a charge to Timothy in two parts: watch yourself, and watch what you teach. Two questions follow: why does watching yourself come first, and how can a man "save" himself and his hearers?
The order is deliberate. A teacher of the truth needs this self-watch more than anyone.
There is another caution of great value, and heeding it brings rich blessing: "Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching," and do so in that order. No man needs watchful and holy self-restraint as much as a teacher of the truth. Nothing corrupts a person more than careless behaviour combined with the highest doctrine. It dishonours the Lord and makes souls stumble. A walk a man knows is low always tends to drag the testimony down, so that the two look consistent. And holding the highest truth without a matching walk leads straight into hypocrisy.
The truth we hold and the way we live do not always match. There is a tempting way to close that gap.
Now comes the temptation to alter or pare down the doctrine a little, so that our ways can be left untouched and the gap largely, if not entirely, disappears. May God give us all grace to reverse that, and to alter our ways instead, so that they line up with the doctrine. Then we shall be taking heed to ourselves and to the doctrine as well, and by continuing in the truth we shall be saved. The salvation here is from the dangers the Spirit expressly warns us about earlier in the chapter — teachings of demons, or godless myths.
There is a way of studying Scripture that leaves the student himself dry. The cure is in the Lord's own wording.
To come to the Word of God as a mere student is a very poor thing, and a very dangerous one. It means sitting down only to prepare lectures or sermons for other people. Nothing can be more deadening or withering to the soul... We may be drawing water for other people, and all the while be like rusty pipes ourselves. How miserable this is! "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink," said our blessed Lord. He did not say "draw." The true spring and power of all ministry in the Church will always be drinking for our own souls, not drawing for others.
Watching your teaching is not just a matter of being accurate. The same words can be right or wrong for the people in front of you.
God alone knows the state and the need of souls. He knows their capacity. We do not. We may be offering "solid food" to those who can only take "milk," and so do real harm. Scripture says, "whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God." It does not say "according to the oracles of God." A man may stand and speak for an hour in the assembly. Every word he says may match the letter of Scripture exactly. Yet he may not be speaking as an oracle of God at all — as God's mouthpiece to the people. He may minister truth, but not the needed truth, at the time.
Does the promise mean a teacher secures his own eternal salvation? Commentators say no.
Some have twisted this instruction. They read it as the salvation of the soul, eternal salvation. It has nothing to do with eternal life and salvation. The believer has this in Christ through grace. "Save" here means the same as it does in Philippians. It is a present salvation from the dangers along the way — a rescue from error.
The promise reaches past Timothy himself.
Timothy himself had to continue in the teaching he had received. That would keep him safe while corruption grew all around him. It would also make him an instrument in the Lord's hands to deliver others from it.
The work itself carries a danger: caring for others can crowd out care for your own soul.
Do not let the work draw you into being so taken up with other people that you neglect yourself... If you do so, it will be a lesson to your brothers and sisters, and a lesson more real than a great deal of preaching.
- Order — Self first, then the teaching. Careless living beside high doctrine corrupts a teacher more than anything else.
- Honesty — When your life and the truth clash, move your life. Trimming the doctrine to fit your ways is the temptation the verse guards against.
- Supply — Drink for yourself before you draw for others, or you become a pipe carrying water you never taste.
- Fitness — Every word may be accurate and still not be the needed truth at that moment. God knows the hearers' capacity; we do not.
- Outcome — "Save" here means being kept from error and danger now, not eternal salvation. And it reaches your hearers: a steady life is a more real lesson than much preaching.