1.  Paul writes at a time when the whole age was suffering from “the failure of nerve.” Men were longing for some defense against the “advancing chaos of the world.” We want to use Christ as they used religion as a means of making our world a better or safer place. We want to find something that will calm the volatility and uncertainty. In times of instability, then and now, people attach themselves to easy answers, sure things, strong leaders, institutions that promise security, heresies, novelties, cults, movements, extreme beliefs or no beliefs at all.

This was the world the church was in when Paul is writing. People were unsure about the future and where the world was going. There were enemies without and within. There were false teachers and false promises. Paul is writing to Timothy about his role as a teacher/pastor in the midst of this.

Peter Drucker wrote the book, Managing in Turbulent Times and says, “A time of turbulence is one of great opportunity for those who can understand, accept, and exploit the new realities. One constant theme is, therefore, the need for the decision maker in the individual enterprise to face up to reality and resist the temptation of what “everybody knows,” the temptations of the certainties of yesterday, which are about to become of deleterious superstitions of tomorrow. To manage in turbulent times, therefore, means to face up to the new realities. It means starting with the question: “What is the world really like?” rather than the assertions or assumptions that made sense only a few years ago.”

A teacher is not a harbor or an anchor, a sail or a rudder. We are keels. We help people manage in turbulent times by keeping them stable in the truth. We have a responsibility to take seriously what Paul is saying to Timothy and to the Ephesians.

2.  Let’s look first at the role of the teacher in Ephesians 4:11-12: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

The teacher is to prepare people for works of service.

That’s an interesting Greek word because it can mean several things and is used in several ways.

a). Mending nets
b). Refitting a ship
c). Resetting a broken bone.

It’s not about starting from scratch or a blank slate. All three assume we’re not starting out perfect. We’ve been through some wear and tear. As well, each one is a different process. Mending nets is constant. It’s done after every use. It’s daily. Refitting a ship is periodic. Resetting a bone is extreme and once in a lifetime for most people.

The work of a teacher in preparing people is all three:
It is sitting around stitching. Not just idle chatter but talking and working.
It is working with people in drydock and out of service for a time.
It is the emergency room.

But it is not preparing people for being museum pieces or door prizes or perfectly pious. It is preparing them for works of service and service is not just religious activity. Service is the word we use for deacons. We are not preparing people to be those decorative nets and floats you see on the walls of seafood restaurants. We are not preparing them to be ships in a bottle. We are preparing everyone to be deacons – because everyone has been designed by God to be a deacon in one fashion or another. None of us have been called merely to consume religious services and products.

3.  That’s the work of the teacher. What does Paul say about the life of the teacher to Timothy? Look at 1 Timothy 4:11-16: “Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Several things here for those of us who teach:

a.  There was a time when this advice about being young was more relevant than now. Still, it’s good advice even now in the way we look at those coming up. It’s easy to think of them as “conforming to the world” or “striving too hard to be relevant” or even too immature to be in the game. What is he saying to the young teacher?

Don’t deny your youth and your lack of experience…and surround yourself with older men and women. That is what Chapter 3 of 1 Timothy is about. It is about the team you choose. Being a teacher is not a solo sport. Pick your coaches and mentors carefully.

Don’t give people reasons to have disdain for your lack of experience. Be more of a listener than a speaker. Be enthusiastic but not silly. Be respectful. Don’t be caught up in every controversy in the church or community.

On the other hand, don’t try to be old before your time. There are some qualities of your youth that older people need – and Paul mentions those. We need to think in different ways about speech, conduct, faith, love and purity. By the time we are older we have become fixed and sometimes stagnant. We need stirring up and challenging.

b.  Be setting an example. That is the sense here. It is “be becoming an example”. In other words, the example you are now will not be the example you will be later in life. The principles are the same but the form will change. We are not to be molds into which people fit themselves but examples for them to observe. They should in time outgrow us.

There is a wonderful scene in “A River Runs Through It” where the boys are fishing with their father. At one point it becomes clear that Brad Pitt’s character, Paul, has gone beyond his father’s ability and that’s a good thing. His brother says, “I saw a remarkable thing. Paul had gone beyond our father’s instruction and found a rhythm of his own.” That is what an example does for people. It gives them something to follow until they develop their own rhythm.

c.  Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture. Pastors today are hard pressed to devote themselves to this because there are so many other demands. Have you seen the organizational chart of GABC? It will astonish you. When Bart Giamatti was President of Yale he said this: “You’re supposed to be a preacher. You’re supposed to have a pulpit where you expound on high principles and moral values. But of course what you are doing is running a company with a lot of employees, benefit programs, litigation, financial problems and obsolete facilities.”

We have changed the expectations of a pastor and now want them to run a company instead of devoting themselves to the one thing to which we ordained them. I’ve read this many times but I want to read it again. It’s from Eugene Peterson’s book, “Working The Angles.”

The Vow                 

One more thing: We are going to ordain you to this ministry, and we want your vow that you will stick to it. This is not a temporary job assignment, but a way of life that we need lived out in our community. We know that you are launched on the same difficult belief venture in the same dangerous world as we are. We know that your emotions are as fickle as ours.  That is why we are going to ordain you and why we are going to exact a vow from you.   We know that there are going to be days and months, maybe even years, when we won’t feel like we are believing anything and won’t want to hear it from you. And we know that there will be days and weeks and maybe even years when you won’t feel like saying it. It doesn’t matter. Do it. You are ordained to this ministry, vowed to it. There may be times when we come to you as a committee or delegation and demand that you tell us something else than what we are telling you now. Promise right now that you won’t give in to what we demand of you. You are not the minister of our changing desires, or our time-conditioned understanding of our needs, or our secularized hopes for something better. With these vows of ordination we are lashing you fast to the mast of Word and Sacrament so that you will be unable to respond to the siren voices. There are a lot of other things to be done in this wrecked world, and we are going to be doing at least some of them, but if we don’t know the basic terms with which we are working, the foundational realities with which we are dealing – God, kingdom, gospel – we are going to end up living futile, fantasy lives. Your task is to keep telling the basic story, representing the presence of the Spirit, insisting on the priority of God, speaking the biblical words of command and promise and invitation.

d.  There is something else to which teachers are to devote themselves – exhortation. This doesn’t mean rebuke or criticism but it can include that when necessary. What it mostly means is encouragement without being soft. What Garrison Keillor said about sermons is also true about teaching. Teachers need to be ready to sometimes say hard things.

“I’ve heard a lot of sermons in the past 10 years or so that make me want to get up and walk out. They’re secular, psychological, self-help sermons. Friendly, but of no use. They didn’t make you straighten up. They didn’t give you anything hard. … At some point and in some way, a sermon has to direct people toward the death of Christ and the campaign that God has waged over the centuries to get our attention.”

e.  But we are also to be devoted to our teaching. That doesn’t mean just lowering the level of ignorance about something by increasing the amount of knowledge. It means what Paul said in Ephesians – preparing people to carry out their work – to fish, to sail, to run. If we are not devoted to that we cannot expect those we teach to take their work seriously. Teaching, in the end, is about changed behavior and as someone once said, “If you want to make an enemy, try to change someone.”

f.  Then he goes on to say: “Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourselves and your hearers.”

Another translation says, “Meditate on these matters.” That does not mean sit and ponder them. It literally means be imaginative about these matters. Don’t just repeat old truths over and over again. Sometimes the word “diligent” conjures up getting an A for effort. That’s not the sense here. It is use your imagination about these things.

How do we show progress? That’s why it is important to do this for a long time with people who see how we are doing and if we are growing as teachers and as examples. Are we getting better at our craft with people who know our work? That is what Paul is saying here. I have pasted in the front of my Bible these words: “He who has learned in order to teach others, while his own soul loathes instruction and wisdom, will find that his lessons will be but mists of empty wind, and showers of dust and earth upon the ground.”

Watch your life and doctrine closely. This does not mean self-absorption or becoming immobilized by our own imperfections. It’s the word for “attend to something” or be aware of your life. This comes at several levels. Annie Dillard writes, “How we spend our days, of course, is how we spend our lives.” Over time we should be more aware of how we spend ourselves and our time.

It also means being aware of flashing yellow lights at intersections and yield signs when entering the freeway. It means not kidding yourself about dangers and situations that could cause harm to yourself and others. Elsewhere, Paul has said “guard your heart” and that is true for teachers – not just doctrinally but personally.

Finally, Paul says persevere in watching your life and these habits of the heart will save you and your hearers. We were in South Carolina and went out on a pirate ship. The Captain was young and great with the kids but I did wonder how he would do with the boat so I watched him. As we pulled into the dock at the end of the trip he maneuvered the ship into a very tight space with no hesitation at all. I knew he had done it many, many times. That’s how this word “attend to something” is used as well. It means bringing a ship to land safely and with great skill. It’s not being immobilized by analysis or self-absorbed – just having developed the skills that bring you and your passengers to safety.

In the end, our primary responsibility is not to ourselves but to those we teach. Did we bring people closer to Christ? Did we serve as growing and changing examples? Did we attend to our lives? Did people become prepared for works of service. That is the measure by which teachers will be evaluated and, as James says, we will be judged more strictly.