1 Timothy 6

1. 1 Timothy 6 Grace Bible Church of Pullman Pastor-Teacher, Ron McMurray

2. Genesis 3:17-19, the origin of business. Adam has just sinned. He had a choice between Jesus Christ in the garden and the woman outside of the garden. • As a result of the fall Adam now discovers that he must enter the business world which is now under the control of Satan. Satan is the ruler of the world. • 3:17 — “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat from it’, Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” • This was one of his greatest mistakes. SHAMA – Qal Pf – to listen, to concentrate and obey. • Adam should have been running the show. He had double authority over the woman.

3. He was not only the ruler of the world but he was her right man. • As the ruler of the world he should have had the respect of the woman, and Adam as the right man should have had the respect of the woman. • Adam instead did not have the respect of the woman because the woman lost capacity for love and her loss of capacity came through indifference to Bible doctrine, as taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. • So Adam finally came under the influence of the woman when he should have been influencing her. • He decided to go with the woman, to follow her. He had one authority as the world ruler, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who appointed him.

4. But he rejected Jesus Christ in the garden and stepped out of the garden to be with the woman. • He should have recognized God’s authority but he did not, he only recognized the authority of the woman. • When a woman is put in charge of any man there is always trouble. • By subordinating himself to a creature over whom he had authority he lost dominion over the world, he lost his status quo of innocence, he too became spiritually dead as he ate from the fruit of the forbidden tree. • Notice he obeyed the voice of his wife. In other words, by now she was giving commands.

5. The Lord made the issue clear to the man as well as the woman and He kept repeating certain phrases. • The sin of Adam’s disobedience is specifically mentioned while the woman’s part in the transgression is not mentioned. • This dramatizes the difference between the man’s sin and the woman’s sin. The woman with her free will is just as guilty and just as spiritually dead. • Being “cursed” is a very important phrase. It indicates that business will never be easy and right from the start it was under a curse. • The woman is under a curse, she is going to stay home and bare children, but the man is under a curse, he is going to work.

6. He is going to find resistance in his attempts to earn a living. • “Being cursed” is the Qal Active Ptc of ARAR which says the business is always under a curse and always will be under a curse. • The first system of free enterprise was agriculture, it begins at this point. It is the ground which becomes the industry of the ancient world and the ground is under the curse here. • The curse, by the way, will be removed by the second advent of Christ and the Millennial reign, says Romans 8:19-22 and Isaiah 35.

7. “in toil you will eat of it” - this means that there is great suffering in business. • It is a great area for disappointment, for frustration, for temptation, everything that could cause difficulty in life, everything that could make you miserable. • But God also makes a promise when He says, “you will eat of it” - Qal Impf – AKAL - means earning a living. “In sorrow you are going to learn a living,” it is going to be difficult. • “all the days of thy life” — not until he reaches 65 or until he gets fired. So it is an unending thing.

8. 3:18 — “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field;” simply refer to various types of plants that grow up and stick you. • The point is that you are going to get hurt many times with many different types of adversity. In earning a living there is an awful lot of adversity, antagonism and misery in life. • 3:19 — “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” • This doesn’t mean that he is going to have to work physically necessarily. There are two kinds of sweat here; physical labor and mental labor. Both types are involved in the business world.

9. “until you return to the ground” — eventually you are going to die and you can stop working. • “because from it [the ground] you were taken: for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” — so you spend your life in dust, you spend your life in work, you never get away from it. That is the concept here. • The ground was cursed; Christ was cursed — Galatians 3:13. • The earth produces thorns; Christ wore a crown of thorns. • Man works either mentally or physically producing sweat of the face; Christ sweat great drops of blood on the cross.

10. Man returns to the dust; Christ was brought up from the dust in resurrection. • Man by an act of disobedience dies spiritually; Christ by bearing our sins died spiritually. • Man dies twice — spiritual death, physical death; Christ died twice on the cross — spiritual death, physical death. Business • 1. Business is a part of the laws of divine establishment: those laws of divine establishment that deal with the economy. • 2. The principle of business is the antithesis of the principle of grace. You work for a living; you do nothing for blessing under grace.

11. 3. In business you must work to produce; in grace you cannot work to receive divine blessing, whether it is salvation or some blessing in phase two, or some future blessing in phase three. The Function of Business • 1. The function of the believer in business is found in a number of passages of the scripture. The royal family believer, Church Age believer, is found in Eph 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-4:1; 1 Timothy 6. • 2. It is a part of the divine plan for every believer in the royal family of God to represent the Lord in the business world in time. John 17:15-17 is a business passage.

12. 3. God has a plan for the believer in the business world. His plan calls for believers to be blessed in the business world. • 4. God’s plan calls for believers not only to be in the business world but to be fortified with doctrine in the business world. • This makes a believer in the business world a very definite part of the angelic conflict. Outline of 1 Timothy chapter six • Verses 1-8 deal with labor • Verses 9-19 deal with management • Verses 20,21 is a final dissertation to Timothy.  

13. 6:1 — relationship with unbelieving management. “All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against.” • DOULOI – in the first century referred to slaves but here it refers to the working class, anyone who works for someone else even an unbelieving boss, workers or employees. • EIMI – PAIndic – to keep on regarding their own masters. Being in the category of labor in the business world. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for historical reality. “As many as are workers.”

14. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. • This passage was written around AD 66, in the first one hundred years of the Roman empire. • At this time slavery was one of the chief sources of labor, and the reason why slavery was the source of labor was because the labor unions had priced themselves out of the market. • There was a strong labor union movement that began at the time of the second Punic War and it reached such a tremendous peak that it was impossible for industry to keep going with these labor unions.

15. By application to the 20th century this passage refers to those who work for unsaved management under the category of labor. • Christian slaves often had masters who were unbelievers. While slavery was in many ways a social evil Paul did not become diverted long enough to condemn it or to seek to rectify the problem. • The answer was always doctrine and Paul stayed on the track. • Therefore Paul’s approach is that of a greater-grace believer rather than a reversionistic bleeding heart or some believer under the influence of evil. • There are much greater issues than the problem of slavery — issues like salvation by grace, growth in grace on the part of believers, blessings in time, dying grace, and rewards.

16. The angelic conflict, then, is more important than the status of the individual in the devil’s world. • Once you believe in Christ you belong to Christ, so you need not be concerned about your own status. • Your concern must be directed toward doctrine, the written Word, and Jesus Christ, the living Word. • At this time of writing slaves had a great deal of freedom. They had working hours and then they could attend the local church and advance to maturity. • It is important to realize that slavery did not ever hinder spiritual growth in the Roman empire, and furthermore slavery did not hinder evangelism in the Roman empire.

17. “under the yoke” — HUPO ZUGOI - The thing that is important about yoke is the fact that it was originally a harness that put two animals pulling together. • The idea with labor is that you work with other people not just for management. • Yoke also means you are under authority in establishment and in the industrial complex. • If there is no authority then there is no success in business, no prosperity, and no jobs. No jobs, eventually depression.

18. No economy can survive the loss of authority. There must be a good labor market but that labor market must recognize the principle of authority. • The believer in labor has a job which is his full-time Christian service. • He is under the policy of management, he is under the payment of management. • Part of the function of that job is obedience to the authority as well as obedience to the policy of that company. • Economic prosperity and effectiveness in the industrial complex demands national freedom, individual respect for authority and management.

19. Management makes the policy, management represents the investor, the investor is capital. • The one who invests the money has the right to set the policy in the business. Bad management is never the excuse for the believer rejecting the principle of authority in business. • “to regard their own masters” – HEGEOMAI – PAImpv - means to think, to consider, to esteem, to regard. • In divine establishment believers are to consider themselves under authority. This is a command.

20. “their own masters” — TOUS IDIOU DESPOTAI - means one’s own ruler, boss, management. Management sets up the policy for business, not labor. • It refers to those who invest their money in business who are commonly called capitalists. • The principle is those who establish the business make the policy for the business. Labor has no rights except to do their job and to function under the policy set up for them. • “worthy of all honor” — regardless of what a stinker a person may be in management he is to be regarded as worthy of all honor.

21. This is an adjective that means that regardless of any personal conflict, personal feeling, you are to completely concentrate on the principle “worthy of.” • This indicates the mental attitude with which everyone should go to work every day. • “Worthy of all honor” is a mental attitude. This is a principle and the distortion of the principle does not change the principle. • The violation of the principle by management does not give you an excuse to violate the principle as labor. • Sinful man often distorts divine principles but this does not change or rescind the principles. The principle is not rescinded because it was abused. “All honor” is respect for the authority of management.  

22. History is perpetuated by the perpetuation of the principle of authority through God’s laws. It can be categorized under several principles: • a) We have direct authority of God as revealed through Bible doctrine. God’s will, God’s plan, God’s authority, is clearly defined in the scripture. • b) The authority related to the communication of doctrine: the authority of the pastor in the local church, the authority of the administrators in the local church. c) Life in general has authority called Divine Institutions. The first and most basic authority in your life is your own free will. • This is the basis for every mistake you ever make, for every advance you ever make.

23. Decision is a part of respect for your own authority in your own soul. • Divine institution #2 is the husband having authority over the wife. • Divine institution #3 is the parents having authority over the children. • Divine institution #4 is the system of government having authority over the people. • d) Academic. In academic life there are two basic categories of authority. First there is the policy system of authority. • Any academic organization has policy and the policy system is carried out by the administration.

24. In addition to that there is authority in the local classroom — the teacher or the professor, whoever is the communicator in the classroom. e) Business has authority, like everything else. • “so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against” - TO ONOMA - refers to the person of God, His perfect plan, His perfect essence. • Your job is your full-time Christian service and you are to do it as unto the Lord, you will respect management. • Capacity for life comes from doctrine resident in your soul and this gives you the capacity to respect management. • The believer’s job, duty, skill, is not only his means of livelihood but it is an integral part of the Christian way of life, part of his function.

25. “and doctrine not be spoken against” — BLASPHEMO – PPSubj - means to malign. • It describes what occurs at those times when Christian labor revolts against the authority of management. • If you go to work with a bad mental attitude, if you loaf on the job in some way, if you are not doing your job as unto the Lord, then you are maligning the Lord. • Translation: “As many as are servants [labor] under the yoke [authority of management] must consider their own masters [management] worthy of all honor, in order that the name [essence] of the God and Bible doctrine may not be maligned.”

26. Principle • 1. Every believer should do his job as if Jesus Christ was your boss, for in effect He is. • 2. No matter how menial the job it should be done with maximum efficiency as unto the Lord. • 3. Management may not always be around to supervise but the Lord sees you every minute — Hebrews 4:13. The Doctrine of the Function of the Soul in Labor • 1. Self-consciousness is the place where you concentrate, where you merge yourself into the policy of your company, the policy of the business organization where you draw your pay check.

27. Self-conscious means your ability to concentrate on the job and to fulfill the job profile laid out and specified for your job. • 2. Mentality. A good mental attitude on the job is the key. Some people have a little difficulty learning the job but with a good mental attitude they master the job. • A bad mental attitude contributes to doing a bad job. A good mental attitude reflects spiritual growth, Bible doctrine in the soul. • 3. The function of Volition, your free will. When you connect it with your mentality it means that your decisions are based upon maximum objectivity in every facet of your job. • Objectivity in relation to fellow workers, with regard to management are necessary.

28. Freedom from mental attitude sins then hooks up with volition and you have a recognition of authority. All decisions on the job must be loyal to company policy. • 4. The Emotions then becomes involved. Appreciation for the Lord motivates the believer to function in his job under the principle of grace orientation. • He expresses his love toward Christ as recorded in Colossians 3:17. His emotion never gets out of line with the job or out of line with who and what Christ is. • 5. Conscience also enters the picture. The conscience is the residence for the integrity principle on the job — loyalty to management and honor and integrity no matter how menial the task.

29. 6. The old sin nature seeks to frustrate all of these principles in working for someone else, in working for a living. Therefore the importance of CSB, learning doctrine and applying it to maintain proper perspective on the job. Principles: • a) Under the original interpretation of this passage in its application to the labor market of the first century Roman empire, which was primarily slavery, neither revolution nor manumission was recommended as a solution for anything. • b) No social action is ever commanded by the Word of God. It is doctrine in the soul that changes things historically from the inside but the Word of God is opposed to social action. • c) The Word of God condemns but never commends labor unions and guilds. A person must make it on his own, the Word of God emphasizes the individual, not some organization making it for you.

30. d) It becomes obvious that the solution to labor problems does not lie in strikes. • Not working doesn’t solve anything, it merely changes the course of the industrial complex. • Many, many machines were invented because people went out on strike and therefore jobs were destroyed. • Things are solved by doing a better job and things are solved by doctrine but strikes are not the answer to anything ever. • e) Doctrine resident in the soul makes permanent changes in life. Our blessing and our prosperity is related to Bible doctrine resident in our souls. Social action creates more problems; Bible doctrine is the solver.

31. f) Regeneration, not legislation, is always the answer. Regeneration and spiritual solutions. • Legislation is designed to stop crime, to protect freedom; to give you the right to live among other people, the right to privacy, the right to property, and the right to take your volition and to go as far as you can go inside the law. • The law was never designed to try to solve problems in the industrial complex. Colossians 3:22.

32. 6:2 — Christian management. “Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethern, but must serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles.” • Just because you work for a Christian it doesn’t give you the right to take advantage of him. • This refers to slaves in the Roman Empire and now to labor in the present time. ECHO – PAPtc – to have and hold believers as their masters. • Some believers (PISTOI) do have Christian management as the authority over them.

33. “must not be disrespectful to them” – KATAPHRONEO – PAImpv - means to look down on, to despise, to scorn, to treat with contempt.   Principle • 1. There is a tendency on the part of some ignorant and reversionistic believers to take advantage of Christian management. • 2. Being a fellow believer in the same local church does not give labor the right to take advantage of management on the job. • 3. In the name of Christian brotherhood no believer in labor has the right to take advantage of Christian management by loafing on the job, being late, ignoring company policy, demanding special privileges and special consideration not extended to other people working in the same job.

34. 4. Working for believers should not only intensify faithfulness and diligence, loyalty, but it should also mean your production is better. • 5. As a believer under Christian management you should be the best employee in the industry. •  “but must serve them all the more” — ALLA MALLON - “but to a greater degree.” DOULEUO – PAImpv – be serving them. • Christian management produces the action of the verb. There will always be believers in management.

35. “because those who partake of the benefit God loves that believer in management just as much as he loves the believer in labor. ANTILAMBANOMAI – PMPtc – these same ones being recipients. • “are believers (PISTOI) and beloved (AGAPETOI)”- God loves all believers. • Christian management and Christian labor are both beneficiaries of these same benefits. Whether management or labor benefits depends upon the attitude toward Bible doctrine. • Therefore both Christian management and Christian labor must possess Bible doctrine in their souls. • So while one is working for the other both should be accumulating doctrine resident in the soul.

36. 6:2 — “These things teach.” This command is a command to teach how to apply doctrine. HOUTOI – these things, the doctrine taught by the pastor on this subject of labor and management. • The pastor encourages people to function well on he job, because you are believers and it is your full time Christian service. • “and preach” — PARAKALEO – PAImpv – exhort, a command to all generations. • Translation: “Now on the other hand they who have believers as bosses should not be disrespectful to them, because they are brothers; but even more [to a greater degree] be serving [with respect and obedience] them, because they are believers and beloved, because these same ones are recipients of the same benefits. Be teaching and exhorting these things.”

37. 6:3-5 is one sentence and is a conditional clause. It is opposition from believers under the influence of evil. • Some believers are not going to accept the principle of the authority of management. • We have three verses to point out to labor that opposition to that authority is totally out of line, it is a matter of doctrine, a matter of the believer’s full-time Christian service. • It is a matter of obeying your boss, management, the company policy, as unto the Lord. Verse 3 is the protasis; the apodosis is verses 4,5.

38. 6:3 is the protasis of a first class condition recognizing the fact of opposition and then some conclusions that will be drawn from it. • 6:3 – “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness.,” • “If” is EI and introduces a first class condition. The protasis is true, there is opposition to what has been taught in verses 1 and 2. • “anyone advocates a different doctrine” in the royal family of God, there are believers who are working for someone else and who are in some stage of reversionism and under the influence of evil. They don’t like the idea of accepting the authority over them. • “advocates” – ETERODIDASKALEO – PAIndic - means to teach a different doctrine than what has been taught in verses 1,2.

39. The believer is never commanded to be disruptive of authority and this is the principle that is being advocated by false teaching in Ephesus. • The rebellious believer under the influence of evil is promoting doctrines contrary to what Paul taught. • The Labor was antagonistic to biblical principles of their function. • “and does not agree with sound words” – ME PROSERCHOMAI – PMIndic – to agree, to concur. • The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and is continuing at the present time.

40. It is wrong for anyone working for someone else to be disruptive and antagonistic toward authority. • There are two different types of apostasy. 1. The first apostasy is to be under the influence of evil teaching. 2. The second category is to be under the influence of evil rejecting doctrine. • This was actually happening in Ephesus.

41. “to sound words” — PAPtc – UGIAINO – to be healthy, well, sound. LOGOI – words, doctrine, thought. • “those words of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The second time we have the word LOGOI here it is used for the teaching or the doctrine of Jesus Christ. • “doctrine conforming to godliness” – DIDASKALIA – teaching of Christ. • KATA EUSEBEIA — pertaining to godliness. • Translation: “If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and does not concur with sound doctrine, namely those doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, even to that doctrine pertaining to godliness.”

42. The Doctrine of Godliness • 1. Godliness is derived from the Greek word EUSEBEIA and refers to spiritual maturity. • The principle is found very simply in three different doctrines. a. Indwelling of Spirit at salvation making us royalty and marking us as different from all other believers in other dispensations. It also means that in this stage of the angelic conflict demon possession can never occur. b. Filling of the Spirit –gives us the power to function. Spirituality controls our soul not our body.

43. “Be filled with the Spirit” in Ephesians 5:18; • “walk in the Spirit” in Galatians 5:16; • In John’s vocabulary “walk in the light” in 1 John 1:7. • Peter also has his technical terms for the Holy Spirit controlling the life — “partakers of the divine nature.” 2 Peter 1:4 c.. Godliness – spiritual maturity and daily living pattern.

44. 2. There are two concepts of the believer basically and fundamentally: spirituality and carnality. • Spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive, therefore they become absolutes in CWL — 1 John 3:4-9. • Light and dark are mutually exclusive; spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive. • 3. The great issue that starts your Christian life and becomes an issue always is imitation. • Spirituality is imitation of God — 2 Corinthians 3:3; Ephesians 5:1; 2 Peter 1:4.

45. On the other hand, carnality and reversionism is imitation of the unbeliever. • All of your Christian life you are either imitating God or you are imitating the unbeliever. Carnality and reversionism, imitation of the unbeliever — 1 Corinthians 3:3; Galatians 5:19-21; 1 John 1:6. • 4. Spirituality is a function of the royal priesthood. Therefore it is not subject to the Mosaic law or any Levitical system of the previous dispensation — Romans 8:2-4; 10:4; 13:8; Galatians 5:18. • All of these say that if you are filled with the Spirit you are not under the law.

46. 5. In keeping with partnership with the divine essence through the filling of the Spirit ( 2 Peter 1:4) spirituality produces the character of the incarnate Christ. • The character of Christ is produced in us through doctrine in our soul. Galatians 4:19 tells us that we are to become imitators of Christ, Christ must be produced in us. • In the same context of Galatians 5:22,23 we find out what this means. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc. This is the production of the character of Christ. The same thing is found in 2 Peter 1:4 and 1 John 2:5,6. • 6. The general objective of the filling of the Spirit is the control of the soul. • This has a relationship with at least five different factors in your life:

47. a) It has to do with your partnership with divine essence. Since 2 Peter 1:4 says you are in partnership, the filling of the Spirit is the means of fulfilling it. • b) It has to do with imitation of God — Ephesians 5:1. • c) It has to do with glorifying Christ — John 7:39; 16:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. • d) The Law is fulfilled — Romans 8:2-4. • e) The purpose of the filling of the Spirit in the new believer, the immature believer, and the adolescent believer is the learning and application of doctrine.

48. Believers cannot learn or apply doctrine without the ministry of the Holy Spirit — John 14:26; 16:12-14; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16. • 7. Spirituality is lost through carnality but recovered through the rebound technique. Volition is always involved in sinning and therefore volition must be involved in recovery. The recovery is rebound. • 8. Some results of Spirituality. a) Christ is magnified in the life — Eph 3:16,17; 2 Cor 3:3; Philippians 1:20,21. b) You can understand doctrine when exposed to teaching 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. c) You can be effective in witnessing — Acts 1:8; 2 Cor 3.

49. d) You can have guidance from God and assurance under these conditions — Romans 8:14-16. e) It is the basis of all true worship — John 4:24; Philippians 3:3. f) It becomes the basis for effective prayer — Ephesians 6:18. g) it means to help carnal or reversionistic believers get back in fellowship — Galatians 6:1.

50. 10. Spirituality, then, is one of the original sources for divine good. • Divine good is rewardable — 1 Corinthians 3:12ff; human good produced in carnality and reversionism is destroyed at the judgment seat of Christ. • 11. Nomenclature for spirituality. • Positive, like “walk in the Spirit” — Galatians 5:16; “walk in the light” — 1 John 1:7; “be filled with the Spirit” — Ephesians 5:18; and “be a partaker of the divine nature” — 2 Peter 1:4. • When we sin under carnality, that is grieving the Holy Spirit. Grieving and quenching of the Holy Spirit means you are not filled with the Spirit, but when you rebound then the Holy Spirit controls again and you go back to the filling of the Spirit — spirituality.