In 1 Timothy 3:14–16, Paul reminds Timothy how we are to live as the household of God and then gives us a beautiful confession about Jesus Christ: revealed in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, proclaimed throughout the world, and taken up into glory. But Paul calls all of this “the mystery of our religion.” In today’s reflection, we talk about the incarnation, the humanity and divinity of Jesus, and the mystery at the heart of our faith. We don’t have to understand or explain everything about God in order to trust God. Sometimes the mystery itself is part of faith’s beauty.
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Good morning, friends. I hope you’re doing well and that your Tuesday is off to a good start.
It’s been a great week here at First Church. There are lots of good things happening around here, and we’re grateful to see what God is doing. We’re looking forward to the next month and all the things we have planned and all the ways we hope God will continue to work through us.
Today we’re going to finish up 1 Timothy 3. We’re just going to look at verses 14 through 16. It’s only a couple of verses, but there’s a lot here.
Paul says that he hopes to come to Timothy soon, but he’s writing these instructions so that, if he’s delayed, Timothy will know how people ought to behave in the household of God—which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.
Then he gives us this beautiful statement of faith:
“Great indeed is the mystery of our religion.”
And then Paul gives us this little confession about Jesus: he was revealed in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the Gentiles, believed throughout the world, and taken up into glory.
Paul does this kind of thing throughout his letters. He’ll give us these little doxologies, these little songs of praise, these little statements of belief.
One of the things I really like about our United Methodist hymnal is that, in addition to all the hymns, we have these scriptural affirmations and creeds in the back. Sometimes I’ll use one of those as a confession of faith or a statement of what we believe.
And I think that’s what Paul is doing here.
But before we get to verse 16, there’s something important in verse 15. Paul says he’s writing these instructions so that Timothy will know how people ought to behave in the household of God.
He’s been talking about leadership. He’s been talking about what leadership in the church should look like.
And there’s a distinction between membership in the church and leadership in the church.
Everybody is welcome in the church. Everybody is invited to be part of the church. But leadership is something different.
I think that’s particularly important in a world where we have so many influencers and where ministry can sometimes become more about personality than integrity.
I remember reading something about Mark Driscoll years ago, after the difficulties surrounding his ministry. Someone said that his talent had outpaced his integrity.
I’ve always remembered that phrase.
I want to make sure that my integrity never gets behind my talent. I want to make sure that who I am is keeping up with whatever I’m doing.
That’s one reason I’m personally thankful for the long process of ordination in the United Methodist Church. It takes a long time, and I’m grateful for that.
When I entered the process, I didn’t simply assume that I would be ordained. I had to be willing to say, “The church may look at my life and say, ‘Andy, you’re not ready yet.’”
The church might have said there were things I needed to work on. Things I needed to improve. Places where I needed to grow.
And if that’s where the church had landed, then that’s where I needed to land, too, because I trust the church, and I’m serving the church.
Now, I believe everyone who is baptized is called to ministry in some way. Our ministry flows from our baptism. It’s an extension of our baptism.
But that raises another question: Are you called to full-time, vocational ministry? Are you called to paid ministry? Are you called to a particular form of leadership?
Those are questions that we wrestle with.
And Paul is telling Timothy, “I’m giving you these instructions so that you can teach other people how to live and lead within the household of God.”
Every household has expectations. Every family has standards.
And I think, particularly as a clergy person and as a leader in the church, I have to hold myself to certain standards. And I hope the church holds me to those standards. I hope the church holds other clergy and other leaders to those standards as well.
But then Paul moves from talking about the household of God to something even bigger.
He says, “Great indeed is the mystery of our religion.”
And then he gives us this beautiful statement about Jesus.
Jesus was revealed in the flesh.
That’s the incarnation.
Jesus wasn’t simply some spiritual idea. He wasn’t some abstract concept. He came among us in the flesh. He became human.
And I think one of the fascinating things about the early church is that we sometimes read the theology of the early church fathers as if it came to them as a finished product.
It didn’t.
They were wrestling with these things. They were learning. They were growing. They were trying to understand what it means to say that Jesus is fully God and fully human.
In some ways, we have the opposite problem.
We understand the divinity of Jesus pretty well. We struggle more with his humanity.
But his humanity is an essential part of who Jesus is.
He is fully God and fully human.
That’s the mystery of the incarnation: the Word became flesh.
Jesus took on our weaknesses and our frailties. He didn’t scorn us. He loved us.
He was vindicated in the Spirit. We think about his baptism, when the Spirit descended upon him and the voice affirmed him as God’s beloved Son.
He was seen by angels.
He was proclaimed among the Gentiles. That’s what Paul and Timothy are doing.
He was believed throughout the world. As Paul wrote these words, the gospel was already spreading throughout the Roman world.
And he was taken up into glory.
He ascended into heaven.
These are statements about what Christians believe to be true about Jesus.
But here’s the part I really love.
Paul calls it a mystery.
He gives us all these statements, but he doesn’t explain everything.
How exactly did the incarnation work?
I don’t know.
I believe it, but I don’t know exactly how it works.
How does the Trinity work?
I don’t know.
What exactly happens when we receive Communion? I know what we believe about it as United Methodists, but I don’t understand every mystery of God’s presence in the sacrament.
How does the Holy Spirit move in our hearts? How does the Spirit convict us of sin and draw us toward becoming more like Jesus?
I don’t know.
There’s a mystery to the movement of God.
And I think that’s okay.
We’re living in a time when we’re often tempted to think that everything has to make sense. Everything has to be explainable. Everything has to be reduced to something we can understand.
But maybe mystery is a good thing.
Maybe our faith can be a little weird.
Maybe we don’t have to explain everything.
I think people today are looking for something authentic. We’re looking for authentic relationships with Jesus. We’re looking for authentic relationships with one another. We’re looking for things that are true.
Not necessarily things that are easy to understand.
Not necessarily things that we can explain completely.
But things that are true.
And that’s what Paul is talking about when he says, “Great indeed is the mystery of our religion.”
The mystery of what we hold to be true is great.
We don’t understand it all.
We don’t have to.
There’s an old song by Caedmon’s Call that says, in essence, that we can be grateful that the truth doesn’t depend upon us.
And I’m thankful for that.
Because I don’t have to understand everything for God to be God.
I don’t have to explain everything for Jesus to be Lord.
I don’t have to know everything for the Holy Spirit to be at work.
So today, friends, don’t feel like you’ve got to understand it all.
You don’t have to explain it all.
You don’t have to know it all.
You just have to trust God and have faith in what God is doing.
Great is the mystery of our faith.
And thank God that at the center of that mystery is Jesus Christ.
Have a great rest of your day, friends. We’ll see you tomorrow as we continue in 1 Timothy.
See you!