Living in God’s Household
Kent Hughes
Today we continue Kent Hughes’ comments on 1 Timothy 3:15 - Paul's description of the church nestled in the last half of verse 15 where he employs three graphic phrases: 1) God's household, 2) which is the church of the living God, 3) the pillar and foundation of the truth.
The pillar and foundation of the truth. This is an awesome and descriptive phrase. John Calvin wrote: "It is no ordinary dignity that is ascribed to the church when it is called the pillar and ground of the truth. For what higher terms could he have used to describe it?"
"Pillar" and "foundation" (ESV ‘buttress’) are graphic architectural metaphors. A foundation is essential to the building; a building is only as good as its foundation. The church provides the solid bedrock of truth. Pillars stand upright on the foundation as columns and give the building its structure and beauty. The church as a pillar upholds the truth. Of course, the truth comes from God. God is the source of truth and not the church. But whenever the church is faithful to God's Word, it is the foundation and pillar of God's truths in this world!
This awesome reality lays equally awesome responsibilities on the church. Just as a foundation undergirds a building or a pillar supports the roof, the assembly of believers has been appointed to uphold and undergird, in this world, the truth that God has revealed through Christ. This is a divine call to allow the Word of God to saturate all of life. Jesus Himself prayed for the church, "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17). The truth of the Bible is to form and inform the foundation and the pillars.
God's Word is to be everything to us in the church. As the preface to the Geneva Bible in the seventeenth century summarized, the Bible is "the light to our paths, the key of the kingdom of heaven, our comfort in affliction, our shield and sword against Satan, the school of all wisdom, the glass wherein we behold God's face, the testimony of His favour, and the only food and nourishment of our souls." The Bible is light, key, comfort, shield, sword, school, mirror, testimony, food, nourishment, foundation, and pillar—everything!
These three descriptive phrases together make a compelling picture. As the church, we are family ("household"). And together we are to love as brothers and sisters who share the same heredity. We are "the church [congregation] of the living God." We come together as multiple temples of the living God, alive in dynamic, quickened community. As the church, we are "the pillar and foundation of the truth." The truth of God's Word is the bedrock, mortar, and bricks of our lives.
The verse in which this beautiful description of the church is embedded (1 Timothy 3:15) is the key verse in understanding what 1 Timothy is all about—namely, that there be proper conduct in the church. Verses 14, 15 read together make this very clear: "Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth."
Conduct in the church was such a concern to Paul that virtually all of 1 Timothy chapters 2 and 3 are a call to exemplary conduct—to holy behaviour and uncontentious prayer (2:1-8), modest dress (2:9-10), Biblical church order (2:11-15), and godly elders and deacons (3:1-13).
The motivation for this exemplary conduct was openly evangelistic, as mentioned in 1 Timothy 2:3-4: "This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." And here in the key verse of 1 Timothy, the call to proper conduct in the church is made even more compelling by understanding that we are family, a gathering of people indwelt by the living God, the repository and heralds of truth.
When the people of God live out what they are in Christ, God is pleased to enhance the preaching of the truth of the gospel. I experienced a remarkable example of this after leading a young man to Christ and seeing his life radically changed. He was so changed that his overbearing, intimidating father paid me an unannounced visit in my home where he looked over everything from our furniture to our children, then left me with a challenge and a threat that "this had better be real" and "I will be watching you."
After months of hostile observation of his son, me, and the church, the son urged me to meet with his father. I well remember the terror I felt when I pressed the doorbell. The evening began with a curse—as that hard man cursed his own wickedness and began to weep. He sought Christ's forgiveness that night and found it, then lived the remainder of his life for Christ and his church.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 3:15 from: R. Kent Hughes To Guard the Deposit
© 2000 by R. Kent Hughes.