The Church is Without Wrath. Without Doubt.

A Couple of weeks ago I asked the question: What is more important for the source of authority

Tradition or Scripture? And This week we will look at:  Culture or Scripture?

 

Paul ends the beginning of this chapter in verse 8:

 

“Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.”

--1 Timothy 2:8

 

If you keep reading,

 

“Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, with the modesty and self-restraint, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women professing godliness.  A woman must learn in quietness, in all submission.”

--1 Timothy 2:9-10

 

Paul gives a command to first men in the church and then he gives a command to the women in the church—the men must lead by example, must pray without wrath and dissension, must pray with petitions and prayers for all people including kings and authorities so that they may live quiet, obedient lives.  He is addressing both the men and the women of this church—of the church in general.

 

Wrath:

ὀργή ŏrgē, or-gay'; from G3713; properly, desire (as a reaching forth or excitement of the mind), i.e. (by analogy), violent passion (ire, or [justifiable] abhorrence); by implication punishment:—anger, indignation, vengeance, wrath.

 

Dissension:

διαλογισμός dialogismós, dee-al-og-is-mos'; from G1260; dispute, doubtful(-ing)

 

How can there be no wrath, no doubt, no disputes among the brothers and sisters of the church?  When the church worships Christ—when the men pray for all men, all people (including authorities and leaders)—when the church sits under Christ and worships it will end wrath, it will humble people, it will end dispute. 

 

1. The Church must preserve and follow Christ’s Truth, not the world’s Culture/ Truth.

 

Culture:  the customs and beliefs, art, way of life and social organization of a particular country or group

 

Remember:  What a Church believes will directly shape how that community lives and behaves. Allowing the Scriptures and good news about Jesus to form you will lead to a life of integrity and good works.

 

What is causing the wrath and dissension in the church of Ephesus?

a). People falling away from Christ because of poor doctrine, doctrines of demons (1 Tim. 4:1-2), Hymaneus, Alexander and Philetus taught Jesus came back already (second resurrection 2 Timothy 2:16-18) which changed how many in the church lived—they followed man made law and became legalistic. 

-People not getting married, not having children because of Artemis influence and Second Resurrection teaching (Matt. 22:38) saying they are in the second resurrection time having people not partaking in marriage and being fruitful / multiplying (Genesis 1:28).    

 

 

 

“by the hypocrisy of liars, who have been seared in their own conscience, who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God created to be shared in with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.  For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”

--1 Timothy 4:2-5

 

Paul encourages marriage as a form of sanctification/ Opposite to the teaching of Artemis and Hymaneus & Alexander. 

 

“Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.  But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.  The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.”

--1 Corinthians 7:1-3

 

“Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.  But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.  So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;”

--Ephesians 5:22-27

 

“In Ephesus, Artemis was creating extremely selfish doctrines leading to people caring more about themselves rather than others especially when it came to women and how they viewed marriage/ childbirth and child rearing. In later, Hellenistic times and in specific contexts like Ephesus, the worship of the virgin Artemis led some adherents to embrace an ascetic, pro-celibacy view, opposing marriage in favor of dedicating oneself entirely to the goddess, a tendency that appears in both local mythology and subsequent religious clashes.”

--Study.com

 

Strange man-made food laws are tearing people apart, creating dissension and wrath.

 

Remember, the early church was the coming together of Jews and Gentiles who have been saved by God to worship Him.  This was a prevalent problem throughout the early church as Jews were still teaching that one must come to salvation in Christ through following the Jewish law—the law saves, not Christ.

 

“For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to shrink back and separate himself, fearing the party of the circumcision.  And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.  But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before everyone, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?  ‘We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles;’”

--Galatians 2:12-15

 

“only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed!  As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed!”

--Galatians 1:7-9

 

Greed and selfishness creates dissension and wrath

 

“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

--1 Timothy 5:8

 

“And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.  So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith”

--Galatians 6:9-10

 

“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words—those of our Lord Jesus Christ—and with the doctrine conforming to godliness,  he is conceited, understanding nothing but having a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, slander, evil suspicions,  and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”

--1 Timothy 6:3-5

 

Ultimately, it is conceited behaviour, pride, lofty, high-mindedness and selfishness which infects a church and leads to wrath and doubt.  Satan uses pride, uses conceit to destroy God’s church.  All of these issues mix in the world’s culture into God’s culture and it does not work.  (False / worldly doctrines, 

 

2. God’s Church is to be selfless not selfish. We are to worship God so that God’s ideas can rule the church—not our ideas. 

 

Conceited:

τυφόω typhóō, toof-o'-o; from a derivative of G5188; to envelop with smoke, i.e. (figuratively) to inflate with self-conceit:—high-minded, be lifted up with pride, be proud.

 

Roman culture was full of selfishness and conceit.  It was a proud empire.  There was a dangerous virtue in Roman society called Ultio or Revenge as Ultio.  This was the concept that revenge was virtuous and necessary as oneself as greater worth than those who have slighted you—or even your own neighbor. 

 

The Roman concept of Ultio was not merely emotional, but rather a "careful precedent" of retribution aimed at balancing the scales of justice. It was often framed as a duty, as Lucious Seneca noted, to avenge wrongs done to oneself or family.  There was a tattle-tale culture in Rome as the government would send out people to into society to generate gossip so they may find people who were against the empire and punish them.  The government was selfish in protecting their regime and the people were also selfish in protecting themselves and seeing themselves as the worthiest of people.

 

“Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect… Let love be without hypocrisy—by abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good… Never paying back evil for evil to anyone, respecting what is good in the sight of all men, if possible, so far as it depends on you, being at peace with all men, never taking your own revenge, beloved—instead leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

--Romans 12:1-2,9, 17-19

 

Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But Yahweh weighs the hearts.  To do righteousness and justice is chosen by Yahweh over sacrifice.  Haughty eyes and a proud heart—The fallow ground of the wicked—are sin.

--Proverbs 21:2-4

 

Remember:  What a Church believes will directly shape how that community lives and behaves. Allowing the Scriptures and good news about Jesus to form you will lead to a life of integrity and good works.

 

“First of all, then, I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings, be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

--1 Timothy 2:1-2

 

“and those members of the body which we think as less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no such need. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.  Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.”

--1 Corinthians 12:23-27

 We must work together as members of Christ's family.  We don't identify with our skin colour, as victims, as perpetrators, in our sexual orientation--we identify as children of Christ! We give our sin to God and we are forgiven.  There is so much darknesss in the world including racism, genocide, terrible leaders and politicans and hatred of those politicians.  We are to look at each other with Christ in mind--look at each other and see Christ inside of a person rather than their faults. 

When Christ is the priority than we will not have wrath or dissension in the church.  A church is healthy Without Wrath.  Without Doubt.