THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus
Message One—God’s Economy in Faith
Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 1:3-4, 18; 6:3, 12
I. God’s economy is God’s household administration, which is to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen and redeemed people that He may have a house to express Himself, which house is the church, the Body of Christ—1:4; 3:15:
A. God’s economy, as His household administration, is to produce and constitute a Body for His Son—Eph. 1:22-23; 2:16; 3:6; 4:4, 16; 5:30.
B. The central subject of the Bible is the economy of God, and the entire Bible is concerned with the economy of God—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10:
1. The governing and controlling vision in the Bible is the divine economy—Prov. 29:18a.
2. In our reading of the Bible, we need to focus our attention on the divine economy for the divine dispensing—Eph. 3:9.
3. Unless we know God’s economy, we will not understand the Bible—Luke 24:45.
C. Christ is the element, sphere, means, goal, and aim of God’s eternal economy; He is everything in God’s economy—Matt. 17:5; Luke 24:44.
D. God’s economy is to dispense Himself into our being that our being may be constituted with His being; this can be accomplished only by God dispensing Himself into us as the divine life—Eph. 3:16-17a; Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.
E. The economy of God is that God became flesh, passed through human living, died, resurrected, and became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us as life and dispense God into us that we may be transformed for the producing of the church, which is the Body of Christ, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the counterpart of Christ, the ultimate aggregate of which is the New Jerusalem—John 1:14, 29; 12:24; 20:22; 14:2; 3:3, 5, 29-30; Rev. 21:2.
F. God’s economy is God becoming man that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce the organic Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem—Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 12:4-5; Rev. 21:10.
G. According to the desire of His heart, God’s eternal economy is to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead and to make Himself one with man and man one with Him, thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression, that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues—John 1:12-14; 1 John 3:1a, 2; 2 Pet. 1:4.
H. The divine economy is to produce the new creation out of the chaotic old creation—Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 5:17:
1. The history of the universe is a history of God’s economy and Satan’s chaos—Gen. 1:1-2, 26; Rev. 20:10—21:4.
2. Both in the Bible and in our experience, the satanic chaos always goes along with the divine economy—Eph. 3:8-10; 4:14-16; 6:24.
3. The Lord needs the overcomers, who will be one with Him to conquer the destructive satanic chaos and to triumph in the constructive divine economy—Rev. 2:7b, 11b, 17b, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 21.
I. The Lord’s recovery is for the carrying out of God’s economy—Eph. 3:2.
II. God’s economy is initiated and developed in the sphere of faith—1 Tim. 1:4:
A. On the negative side, to exercise faith is to stop our work, our doing; on the positive, to exercise faith is to trust in the Lord—Heb. 11:6.
B. Faith is a proclamation that we are unable to fulfill God’s requirements but that God has done everything for us and that we receive all God has planned for us, all God has done for us, and all God has given to us—John 1:16.
C. God’s economy is carried out not by our doing in ourselves but by our believing into Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God—3:15-16.
D. Faith is a matter of seeing a view of the contents of God’s economy—Heb. 12:2:
1. Because we have seen a revelation regarding the contents of God’s economy, we spontaneously believe in what we see—Eph. 3:9.
2. The ability within us to believe is a product, a result, of having a proper view of God’s economy—Heb. 11:6, 9, 23-26; 12:2.
E. The Christian life is a life of faith, a life of believing—Gal. 3:2, 14.
III. God’s economy in faith is versus differing teachings—1 Tim. 1:3-4:
A. Differing teachings refer to teachings that are not in line with the economy of God—6:3.
B. The differing teachings in 1:3-4, 6-7; 6:3-5, 20-21 and the heresies in 4:1-3 are the seed, the source, of the church’s decline, degradation, and deterioration.
C. Teaching differently tears down God’s building and annuls God’s economy; even a small amount of teaching in a different way destroys the recovery.
D. For the administration and shepherding of a local church, the first thing needed is to terminate the differing teachings of the dissenting ones, which distract the saints from the central line of God’s economy—Titus 1:9.
E. Paul charged Timothy, his faithful co-worker, to fight against the differing teachings and to fight for God’s economy—1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 2:3-4.
F. To war the good warfare is to war against the differing teachings and to carry out God’s economy according to the apostle’s ministry concerning the gospel of grace and eternal life for the glory of the blessed God—1 Tim. 1:18; 6:12.
G. We must avoid differing teachings and concentrate on God’s economy concerning Christ and the church—1:3-4; 3:9; Eph. 5:32.
H. The crucial point of the healthy teaching of the apostolic ministry concerns the Triune God processed to dispense Himself as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit into His chosen ones so that they may be brought into an organic union to receive the divine transfusion and thereby become sons of God and members of Christ; as a result, they can become the Body of Christ to express Christ, the One in whom the fullness of God dwells—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; 12:12-13, 27.
Ministry Excerpts:
NOT TEACHING ANYTHING DIFFERENT FROM GOD’S ECONOMY
The crucial point in the Epistles to Timothy that we will cover in this chapter is God’s economy. The way Paul presents this matter is very impressive and full of revelation. He presents God’s economy in a practical way, not in a doctrinal way. To teach a doctrine is one thing, but to practice something real is another thing. Paul did not teach the doctrine of God’s economy; rather, he practiced it.
Paul writes to Timothy, “Even as I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things” (1 Tim. 1:3). Paul does not exhort Timothy to charge certain ones not to teach wrong teachings or heresies; on the contrary, he exhorts Timothy to charge them not to teach different things. In verse 4 Paul continues, “Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.” The myths Paul speaks of probably include stories of the children of Israel from ancient times. Genealogies were the records of the Old Testament. Some of the teachings among Christians today minister not the riches of Christ but questions. God’s economy is a matter not in the mind but in faith. Anything that is in faith does not arouse questions.
THREE REQUIREMENTS OF GOD’S ECONOMY
In verse 5 Paul writes, “The end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience and out of unfeigned faith.” Here we can see three subjective things related to God’s economy—a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith. Our heart needs to be pure, our conscience needs to be good, and our faith needs to be unfeigned. We need to have these three things within us for the practice of God’s economy. If our heart is impure, if our conscience has some offense, or if our faith is not true but hypocritical, we cannot practice God’s economy.
A Pure Heart
God’s economy requires us first to have a pure heart. We all need to consider if our heart is pure. This is a basic question. To care for God’s economy, we must have a pure heart, which is a heart that seeks nothing but God Himself. Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” When God is the unique goal of our seeking, and we fix our heart only on God, we have a pure heart. A pure heart is a sincere heart seeking after God and having no other goal.
A Good Conscience
To practice God’s economy, we also need a good conscience. According to Paul, a good conscience is a conscience without offense (Acts 24:16). If we do not have any accusation or condemnation against our conscience, it is a good conscience. We can keep our conscience without offense by confessing in order to be cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus. Anytime we have the sense that we are wrong in something, there is an offense on our conscience. A good conscience is one that is void of offense. Perhaps when a brother comes home for dinner, he does not feel that his wife’s cooking is good and becomes somewhat unhappy, although he does not lose his temper. He thinks that after he has worked hard all day, his wife should have cooked something that would make him happy, but it is just the opposite. Because he is somewhat unhappy, when his wife tries to talk to him, he does not answer but only has a sullen countenance. After such an instance, the brother will have an offense on his conscience, and this offense will bother him.
It does not require a great offense for our conscience to have a problem. As soon as we sense the smallest offense on our conscience, we should confess to the Lord in a simple way and ask for forgiveness. After a sincere confession, the Lord applies the blood to us and cleanses us. In this way the offense on our conscience is washed away.
Unfeigned Faith
Unfeigned in Greek means “not hypocritical.” We should not perform or pretend but should have genuine faith. A pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith are required for our practice of God’s economy.
AN ECONOMY BEING A STEWARDSHIP
AND AN ADMINISTRATION FOR DISPENSING
In order to see what God’s economy is, we need to consider each instance in which the word economy is used in the New Testament. Economy in the New Testament does not mean what we understand by the modern usage of economy. The word economy in the New Testament is not a translation but an anglicized Greek word that means “stewardship.” In ancient times large, wealthy families had stewards to take care of the household affairs. Stewardship is the title of the service of a steward. The Greek word for economy also indicates an administration. In a large family the stewardship was an administration; the stewards administrated the affairs of the family. The Greek word also indicates the dispensing of certain things. All the supplies of a large family, such as food and clothing, were taken care of by the steward. Thus, there was the need of the dispensing of these supplies. The steward served the family by dispensing the necessities of life to the members of the family. Hence, the word economy means a stewardship as an administration to dispense the life necessities to the members of a household.
GOD’S ECONOMY BEING THE DISPENSING OF CHRIST
TO ALL GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE AS THEIR SUPPLY
God has a large family, a great household, and He has a number of stewards. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God which was given to me for you” (Eph. 3:2). Paul’s ministry, which was part of this stewardship, was to dispense Christ as the supply to all those in God’s house. God’s economy is simply the dispensing of Christ to all God’s chosen people as their life supply. In other words, God’s economy is simply to work Christ into God’s children. All the apostles, from Peter to Timothy, were stewards in this one stewardship, dispensing Christ to God’s children.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS NOT TEACHING DIFFERENT THINGS
BUT TEACHING DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF ONE PERSON—CHRIST
The entire New Testament was written to carry out God’s economy to dispense Christ as the life supply to the children of God. There are twenty-seven books from various writers, but these books do not teach differently. Apparently, the four Gospels are different from one another, but actually, they all teach Christ, only from different angles. This may be likened to taking four photos of one person from four different sides. Each photo will show different aspects of the person, but together they will give a complete picture of the person. The twenty-seven books in the New Testament teach different aspects of one person, Christ.
The New Testament deals uniquely with Christ. However, this one person is not simple. According to the sequence in the four Gospels, He is a king, a servant, a man, and God. Concerning who He is, we can list many different titles, such as Redeemer, Savior, Lord, Master, Creator, Shepherd, Bridegroom, and High Priest. Concerning what He is, He is the life, the light, the way, the truth, the door, the pasture, the water, the bread of life, and the Lamb of God. According to Colossians 2:16-17 every positive thing in the universe is a shadow of Christ. The light we see with our eyes is not the real light; the real light is Christ. The real air and the real food are Christ. The reality of every positive thing in the universe is Christ. Verse 16 tells us that Christ is the new moon, a light appearing in the darkest, blackest, most hopeless time. Christ is this new beginning in the midst of darkness. Whenever we are in a dark time, we should not be disappointed but realize that Christ is our bright new beginning at that very moment. Christ is also our feast, a time of special enjoyment. Also, Christ is the real Sabbath. In the new man, which is the Body of Christ, the church, Christ is all and in all (3:10-11). Because Christ is all in the new man, we all must be Christ. In the church there are no natural persons; we are all crucified (Gal. 2:20). In the church we are all constituted with Christ.
TO TEACH THINGS OTHER THAN GOD’S ECONOMY
PRODUCING QUESTIONINGS
Different teachings produce questionings, but the teachings that minister Christ do not cause questionings. The teaching of the law was according to the Old Testament and was therefore scriptural, yet it was different from God’s New Testament economy, which is to dispense Christ as the life supply to God’s children that the church might be built up. Although teaching the law is according to the Scriptures, it is different from God’s economy, and it therefore produces questionings rather than building up the church. When the law is taught, questions may be stirred up regarding matters such as the keeping of the Sabbath, circumcision, and diet. However, when we minister only Christ to God’s people, there are no questions.
GOD’S ECONOMY BEING CHRIST AS THE VINE
We need to experience Christ in our daily life. We need to live by Him, live Him, and live Him out. Every day we need to pray, “Lord, You are one with me. You are my life and my person. I am one with You. Lord, You are God’s economy. You are the vine, and we are the branches.” The branches in the vine simply live. But they do not live themselves; they live the vine, grow the vine, and produce the vine. This is God’s economy. (The Healthy Word, ch. 4)