1 Timothy 3:15

1Ti_3:15

That thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God.

What the Church should be

I. The glorious name of the Church--The Church of the living God.

1. It is called the Church. What is a church? It is an assembly; and a Christian Church is an assembly of faithful men; of men who know the truth, believe it, avow it, and adhere to it. The Greek word signifies an assembly summoned out of the whole population to exercise the right of citizenship. An ecclesia, or Church, is not a mob, nor a disorderly gathering rushing together without end or purpose, but a regular assembly of persons called out by grace, and gathered together by the Holy Spirit. Those persons make up the assembly of the living God.

2. But the title grows upon us when we read it as the Church of God. There is a synagogue of Satan, and there is a Church of God. There are churches so-called which are not of God, though they take upon themselves His name; but what an honour it is to be one of the assembly of God, to be one of those whom God has chosen, whom God has called, whom God has quickened, whom God has sanctified, whom God loves and calls His own I How honoured is that assembly in which He resides I The title is enhanced in its excellency by the word which it is applied to God.

3. It is the Church of the living God, not thy congregation, O Diana, though they said of thee that thou didst fall from heaven, for thou art a lifeless image! What was Diana of the Ephesians? What life or power was in that senseless block? Timothy knew that the assembly which gathered in the name of Diana was not called out by a living god. It is a glorious fact that our God, the God of the Church, liveth and reigneth, and that He shows His life all around us. We see Him sustaining nature, ruling providence, and reigning in the midst of His Church; and while we see Him we adore Him. If you have never been quickened by the Spirit of God, if you are dead in trespasses and sins, what have you to do with the Church of the living God? Oh ye dead and corrupt, how can ye have communion with the living in Zion.

II. Her design in reference to God. The apostle speaks of the Church of the living God as the house of God.

1. I suppose we are to understand by the Church being Gods house, that it is the place of His worship. As of old the Temple was the holy place to which the children of Israel went up in pilgrimage, the point towards which they opened their windows when they prayed, and the place of the one altar and the one sacrifice; so now the Church of God is the sole place of Gods true worship. He is spiritually worshipped nowhere else. Do not dream, ye ungodly, that ye can worship the living God. The first essential to your acceptance is that ye accept His salvation.

2. But I like better still to get away from the somewhat ceremonious idea of a temple to the more familiar thought of a house or home. The Lord makes the Church the place of His indwelling. The thought itself is charming. It is that old prophecy fulfilled, I will dwell in them and walk in them. God calls His Church a house in the sense of His residing there. Of the Church we read, God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.

3. In his own house a man not only dwells, for he might do that in any inn; but there he feels himself to be at home, and therefore it is the place of his manifestation. You do not see the man on the bench, for there you see the judge; nor on business, for there you see the trader; but at home, with the children, as one of them, you see the man, the father, the husband; you see his heart and soul. And God is not seen in all the universe with anything like the degree of clearness that He is beheld in the midst of His people. The Lord God is more gloriously manifested in His people than in all the works of creation.

4. A mans house is also the place of his paternal rule, In the Church we are under the present rule of our heavenly Father. In the Church of God you will sometimes see this very remarkably.

5. Once again, it is for his own house that a man works and spends his strength; it is the object of his choicest purposes. If a man shall compass sea and land to gain gold, it is for his house. If he rise up early and sit up late and eat the bread of carefulness, it is still for his house. And so the great Householder ruleth all things for His chosen family, and the end and the design of all providence, if we were to trace it to its ultimate object, is the good of them that love God, and are the called according to His purpose. We will not leave this point without observing how holy, then, should all members of Christian Churches be! Holiness becometh thine house. How obedient also should we be; for if we are a part of the house of God, let it be our joy to submit ourselves to the Master. How struck with awe ought every church member to be to think that he is built into Gods house. How dreadful is this place! It is none other than the house of God. At the same time, how full of love ought we to be, for God is love! A house is no home if love be absent, and a Church is unchurchly if there be division among the brethren.

III. The design of the Church in reference to the truth. Paul compares it to a pillar and its pedestal or basement; for that, I think, would be a fair translation. The temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was adorned with more than a hundred columns of stupendous size. They were mostly of Parian marble, and were either furnished by the various cities of Asia as offerings to the goddess, or were contributed by wealthy men and princes. These pillars are said to have been immense monoliths: single stones of sixty feet in height, and they were set upon a basement which was elevated ten steps above the surrounding area. Diana had her pillar and her basement, but she had no pillar or basement of truth, hers was all imposture throughout. Now, Paul calls the Church of God the basement and pillar of the truth. What does he mean? Notice, that she is not the creator of the truth, nor the inventor and fashioner of doctrine. Let it be remembered also, that the figure must not be pushed beyond what it was meant to teach. In a certain sense the Church cannot be the pillar and ground of the truth. Truth is true of itself, and owes its origin to God Himself and the nature of things. The Church is not here described as the deepest foundation of the truth, for the basement of the pillar of truth rests on a rock, and the Church rests on God, the Rock of ages. But truth in itself is one thing, as truth as existing in the world is another thing. I daresay the proverb is true, but truth never prevails till some living mind believes it, vindicates it, and proclaims it abroad. The person who thus takes up a grand truth, declares it, fights for it, and makes it known, may be very properly called the pillar and the basis of the cause; for the spread of the principle depends upon him. We may say of the Reformation, Luther was its pillar and basement; or of Methodism the same might be said of Wesley. Note how in another place Paul says that James and Cephas and John seemed to be pillars; that is to say, they were upholders of the good cause. Notice that the text speaks of the Church of God, meaning all the people of God, and not the clergy alone. What does the expression mean--the pillar and basement?

1. I think it means, that in the Church the truth should abide. In the Church of the living God it always does abide, even as a pillar stirs not from its place. In the confession of the Church made by each one of her members, in the teaching of her ministers, and in the witness of the whole body, truth will be found at all times. The Church of God is not the quicksand of the truth, but the pillar and pedestal of it: she is not the floating island of the truth, but the eternal column of it.

2. It means that in the true Church the truth is uplifted as upon a pillar. Truth not only rests there as a pedestal, but it stands upright as a pillar. It is the duty and the privilege of the Church of God to exalt the truth into the open view of all mankind. Possibly you may have seen the column of Trajan, or the column in the Place Vendome in Paris; these may serve as illustrations. Around these shafts you see the victories of the conqueror pictured in relief, and lifted into the air, that all may see them. Now, the Church of God is a pillar which lifts up and publishes, far and wide, the achievements of our conquering Lord.

3. Again, a Church is intended by God to set forth the truth with beauty; for in a temple pillars and columns are meant for ornaments as well as for service. Gods service should be formed in the beauty of holiness.

4. Once more, it is the Churchs business to maintain the truth with all her might. She is set as a brazen wall and an iron pillar against all error.

The truths which may be derived from the text are of one order.

1. The whole Church is to maintain the truth.

2. Next, remember that a Church is unchurched which is not faithful to the truth.

3. Next, recollect that any Church fails in her design as being the pillar and pedestal of the truth in proportion as she departs from the truth. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Proper behaviour in Gods house

It was no vain superstition which prompted old Dr. Johnson to uncover his head, while standing within the deserted walls of a ruined chapel, in the Orkneys, saying to his less devout companion, I look with reverence upon every place that has been set apart for religion. The crying sin of our own day is the sin of irreverrence the only occasion when our blessed Lord is said to have been angry, was when He saw His Fathers house profaned. Many years ago, a worthy minister of the Scottish Kirk, attended a missionary meeting in London, and spent a Sunday there. A journey from Scotland to the great city was then not so common an occurrence as to pass without notice, and, on appearing in his own pulpit again, he wished to improve the occasion for the spiritual benefit of his flock. He accordingly remarked, in the course of his morning sermon, I have three wonders to tell you of to-day, which I saw when in London, and then went on in his usual vein of preaching, without the slightest reference to his promise. On leaving the place of worship, many inquiring looks were cast at the worthy man, as much as to say, You have forgotten to tell us the three wonders! At the afternoon service the building was crowded to overflowing, curiosity (as usual) bringing out more people than a sense of duty. After concluding the accustomed worship, the venerable preacher remarked, Well, my friends, I have now to tell you of the three wonders I saw in London. Amidst breathless silence, he thus went on: The first wonder I have to tell which I saw in London is, when I took my place in the pulpit, the folks were all waiting for me, and I had no occasion to wait for them; and I never saw the like of that here. The second wonder which I saw in London is, that as the prayer was drawing to a close, there was no jostling and making a noise; and I never saw the like of that here. The third wonder is, that there was no reaching for hats, and bundling up of Bibles, when the last psalm was a-singing, and no going out while the blessing was being pronounced; and I never saw that here, till this afternoon. Church manners have certainly improved very much, everywhere, since then, but the day has not yet dawned when most congregations would not be the better for hearing this simple story. We have come to this place to worship God, and we may properly ask ourselves whether we have really been doing what we came for? Have we borne our part in the solemn service with heart and voice? The responsive part of our beautiful worship is one of its most striking and important features. There is something so animating in the hearty acclaim of a multitude of voices, that every tongue should be unloosed, and every heart give utterance to its gratitude and joy. What would be thought if but a single bird should celebrate the dawn with his feeble note? It is when the air is filled with melodious voices, and, when from every bush and tree-top, and through all the fields and groves, there is the cheerful commingling of tuneful praise, that the responses of the birds are worthy of the morning. And, surely, the service of the temple calls for a spontaneous utterance from all the worshippers. Who that has listened to the waves, as they come breaking upon the shore in distant, strong and stately rhythm, has not felt their power? And there is nothing like this massing of sound to be moving and inspiring. There are times when the still small voice shall suffice; but, for the ends of public worship, even the inanimate world bespeaks something more (John Cotton Smith). We are learning to behave ourselves properly in Gods holy temple, here, that we may enjoy the worship of the heavenly sanctuary hereafter. The things which we now behold are but shadows of the true and the enduring. (J. H. Norton.)

The Church the house of God

I. Here is The Church of God. In common discourse, we generally mean by this word a building set apart by Christian people for public worship; but it is doubtful whether the Greek term which we translate church, is ever used in Scripture in this sense. The original word signifies an assembly, an assembly of any kind; and it is frequently so translated in our English Testament. But we must follow the word yet farther. It is often used to signify all the churches that are in existence at the same time on the earth. And even yet we have not done. There is one meaning more which the expression bears, and the highest of all. It has nothing to do now, however, with the merely nominal Christian; it takes now a purely spiritual though a wide sense. By the Church, then, as we are using the word to-day, we mean all the people of God of every age and nation viewed as one assembly. This we are now to look on in a particular light.

II. It is a house.

1. It has a foundation. And it is one part of vital godliness, and the main part, to understand this. It is not self-evident. Men do not see the foundation of a building. The child that comes into this house of prayer never thinks of the buried work which bears up its walls. Set him to build a mimic church in imitation of it; he lays no foundation whatever. But the architect, the practical workman, begins with the foundation. He cannot overlook it, for he understands its importance. So the mere pretender to godliness thinks that the Church has little to do with the Lord Jesus, but to bear His name. He imagines that he himself can do without Him.

2. The materials, too, of this house are found mentioned in Scripture. They are, however, the very last we should have thought likely to build it. We come, then, to this conclusion--no meanness, no guilt, will cause God to reject any one of us. But though all alike earthly and all vile, yet these materials, in some points, differ very much from each other. We see among them men of all countries, all classes, all characters, all ages; here a poor man, there a rich and noble one; here a man of the loftiest intellect. One thing more, however, must be said of these materials--in all this diversified mass there is nothing to be found which is not prepared for the heavenly building before it goes to it. True, God does choose in His wonderful mercy earthly and base materials wherewith to build His house; there could not be baser; but He does not leave them base, no, nor yet earthly. He works on them. Though He does not find them fit for heaven, he makes them so.

3. But materials, however selected and prepared, will not of themselves form a building, no, not even if east on a good foundation. There must be, further, a putting of them together. They must be sorted and arranged and united; each one must go into its proper place; otherwise they will be a confused heap, not a house. Now, there is a great overlooking of this fact amongst us, as applied to the Church. We almost forget that God has a Church. We feel as though we stood alone before Him, and were to be saved alone.

III. We have now looked at the Church as a house, but the text goes farther; it calls it The House of God.

1. He is the Builder of this house. The plan of it is His, and so is the progress and completion.

2. He is also the Owner of this house. He is building it for Himself. This people, He says, have I formed for Myself.

3. And He, too, is the great Inhabitant of this house. It is built for this very purpose, to be a habitation of God through the Spirit. Behold, says St. John, when speaking of it as the new Jerusalem, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

In the house of God

1. Thou oughtest to behave thyself quietly.

2. Thou oughtest to behave thyself attentively.

3. Thou oughtest to behave thyself seriously. (P. Carter.)

The house of God

I. The house of God is the dwelling-place of God.

1. The house of God should be the abode of love. The Church is not only the place where the Father dwells, but where His sons and daughters live in mutual confidence under the sway of supreme love to Him. It is this loving confidence which is the essence of a home. A splendid house with luxurious appointments is not a real home if love is not in it.

III. The house of God should be the sphere of service. The Church is our Lords instrument of working.

IV. The house of God is to be the maintainer of Gods truth. There seems to be little doubt that Paul meant what the grammatical structure of the sentence states--that the Church, which is the house of God, is also the pillar and ground (or basement) of the truth. The Church, then, is to be what Christ was, the Witness of the Truth. It is through human experience that the world will know it. Gods truth cannot become influential and living if it is left in texts and creeds, in symbols and in formulas. It must enter into mens consciousness; it must become a living experience; it must find expression in character and action, and reveal itself in love, worship, and obedience. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)

Which is the Church of the living God.

The Church and soul-life

I am to treat of the Church as the promoter of soul-life among men who are already really regenerate. Let us proceed, then, to inquire whether or not the Church sustains a developing and perfecting relation to the soul-life of its own numbers. I take the ground that it does sustain such a relation, and I argue this--

I. From the general drift of divine revelation as to the influential position which the Church sustains in the great redemptive economy. One of the grandest facts in the history of man is, that God has never taken one discoverable step, nor put forth one visible act, for his redemption, but through the Church. This is true both of the primary and completed history of redemption. Not a priest was consecrated, not an altar was built, not a victim was appointed, not a bard touched his lyre, not a prophet raised his voice, and not a hope was cherished in the primary dispensation under the law, but through the Church. When the elaborated principles and purposes of redemption were fully enunciated in the finished acts of the gospel, still God spoke and acted by the Church. His disciples were living scions of the same goodly fellowship. Not a miracle did Christ work, not a truth did He utter, not a pang did He endure, but for His Church. And His servants were as their Master in this matter. Every journey which they made, every insult which they received, every book which they penned, and every martyrdom which they welcomed, was for the Church. From all this, it is clear that the Church is not a matter of trivial import in the world, but is one of the great moral forces in the universe. She is no less than the subservient apparatus of redeeming love, the scaffolding which men and angels mount to pry into the secret architecture, and steal a thought from this stupendous temple. So that the Church is not the arbitrary mandate of the servant, but is the authoritative institution of the Lord. She was to form a sort of centre in Jehovahs boundless empire, the palace of the great King, from which He should sway the sceptre of moral administration in mercy and in peace.

II. From the intimate relations which exist between her and Christ our life. One of the most difficult points in this discussion will be to define, with anything like clearness and comprehensiveness, the specific union which binds Christ and His Church together. Happily our text introduces us into the central idea of this unity by the use of the one word living--The Church of the living God. This fearful appellation of the Deity is used very seldom in the Scriptures, and never but upon occasions and subjects of very great importance. For instance, we find it in the deep soul-struggle of David when he cries, My soul thirsteth for God, the living God, indicating the most intense longings of an immortal soul after its original life-sources. Again, it is used in the supernatural revelation of Christs Divinity, made to Peter: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. She is called the Church of the living God. Now, we never read of the Church as the Church of the most high God, although we read of the servants of the most high God. We never read of the Church of the everlasting God, although we read of the commandment of the everlasting God. We never read of the Church of the holy God, although we read that the Lord our God is holy: nor of the Church of the mighty God, although we read of Christ, that His name shall be called the Mighty God. But when the inspired pen comes to give us the intricacies of His relations to the Church this mystical language is invoked. She is coupled with Him either as the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, or as Mount Zion, the city of the living God. Herein we discover the nice distinction which the Holy Spirit uses in gospel definition. The Church is united to Christ, not as a dead bride, for He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. She is allied to Him, not as to a God of the imagination, but as to the Fountain of all vitality. She possesses Him, not as the personated ideal life of God, but as the God of life--the living God. Here, then, life throbs after life. To be sure, God is the cause of all causes, the life of all lives, the prolific original of every existence. He is not only the Universal Life, but the living God universal. In Him all lives live and move and have their being, from leviathan that lashes the ocean into fury, to the insect that imperceptibly wheels in the eddies of the air. But in the Church there is an embodiment of every attribute and perfection of the living God, which forms an inherent indwelling, and not a mere relation of influence. The life of His inferior creatures gives expression to His government, but the Church gives expression to His personality, to all His moral nature, and you can see it nowhere else as you find it there. God dwells in the midst of His Church in tangible reality. The Church can say, as no other body of men can say, We are made partakers of the Divine nature. The life of the Church has been her most glorious characteristic; for it is a remarkable fact that, outside of the Church, no great moral forces have yet been discovered in the elevation and salvation of the race.

III. From the general tenor of scriptural thought and expression, which treats of the Church as the church.

IV. From the historical life-developments of the Church itself. Real soul-life has always been found in the Church, and it has not been found out of it. God has always largely wrought out the life of the Church by the Church. Men never look elsewhere for light but to the sun. Men never look for soul-life but to the Church. Sometimes that life has been extremely feeble in the Church. The reason is, that, like all other sorts of life, it has always dissolved itself in a succession of classified manifestations. You always find it in the same place and under the same conditions. You always find flower-life in the rosebud, and forest life in the forests. You always find sympathetic life in the heart, and intellectual life in the brain. Where, then, will you look for soul-life but in the Church? Where will you look for this overmastering impulse but where the living God has planted it? Life of His planting is deep seated in that palpitating soul-nature which is so nearly allied to His own essence. You can only see it in its developments. But where it exists there will inevitably be first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. The Divine life will develop itself in its fecundity of blessings. A living Deity must have a living temple. Yet no device of man can fabricate this life; every spark of the fire and every form of the flame is from the living God. Mans appendages may enfeeble it, mystic observances may out-dazzle it, but it burns divinest in its own radiance. These are my arguments in support of the proposition that the Church sustains a developing and perfecting relation to the soul-life of its own members. Soul-life in the Church is capable of enkindling the same life in others. The newly-awakened power of this fellow ship out-weighs all other feelings, and subordinates them to itself. It betokens a coincidence of motive, sentiment, and principle, which enhances the life of the whole body, and blends the common force of the community into the tenderest relationships. Their organic life is a sacred trust, and the living God claims its use. They are the leaven, and in a silent, secret process of fermentation they are, by the forces of their continued operations, to diffuse the moisture through every particle of the mass. And yet no one must lose himself in the aggregate--no one must invite insignificance. The most self-depreciating member can stamp the impress of his moral life on every other living soul of the fellowship. (T. Armitage, D. D.)

The Christian Church, the House of God

Sacred tropology, by which I understand the various figures and similitudes whereby persons, characters, and events are brought under our notice, and made familiar to our minds, in the Bible, opens to the student of Holy Scripture, a field of thought and inquiry at once most beautiful and instructive. God the Father, for instance, is represented as a King, a Governor, a Householder, a Parent, a Master. God the Son is brought before us as the Word, a Shepherd, a Kinsman, a Redeemer, Rock, Light, Vine, Door, Bridegroom, Prince of Peace; God the Holy Ghost, as Fire, Water, Comforter, Witness, Spirit of Adoption, Fountain. Faithful Christians are called saints, disciples, children, servants, friends, priests, and kings unto God. Ministers are designated by suitable titles--watchmen, shepherds, ambassadors, stewards.

I. The house itself, called pre-eminently the house of God. There is fitness, design, beauty, and force in comparing the Church of the living God, wherewith we have membership, and to which we owe allegiance, unto His house.

1. Its Builder is God Himself. A system at once so simple and stupendous, as that exhibited in the origin and end of the Church, could no more have been the result of human device, than the creation of the universe, with all the harmonies of its movements, and all the beauty of its parts. Unfathomable love designed, unsearchable wisdom contrived, and Power Almighty executed that device of goodness to a lost and ruined world embodied in the gospel. When the command of the Most High came to Moses in the wilderness, whither he had lead the chosen host, saying, Make Me a tabernacle that I may dwell among them, every portion of that mysterious tent, even to the very meanest, was to be made according to a pattern shown him by God Himself. And wherefore? Because it was to be a type of His Church, in which, as to its spiritual form, character, use, appointments, end, nothing was to be of human device.

2. Its chief corner-stone is Christ Jesus. The voice of prophecy attests this glorious element of the Churchs stability.

3. The apostles and prophets are the foundations on which the Church is built.

II. The inhabitants of the house.

1. He hath given Jesus Christ to be the Head over all things to His body the Church, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. He, then, is the High Priest over the house of God. He is the Master of that great family, both in heaven and earth, which is called by His name.

2. The indwellers of this house of God are all they who enter the Church by baptism, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

III. The blessings of Gods house, the Church.

1. The Church affords shelter and sanctuary to its faithful indwellers. The sparrow, saith the inspired Psalmist, hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young; even Thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God. Without the Churchs pale, the sinner is houseless, naked, miserable.

2. The Church, Gods house, is a state of discipline and government. Order is heavens first law, and without it the whole frame and fabric of Society would fall into cureless ruin.

3. But food is also necessary to the family of heaven, and the Church of God affords it.

4. The great Head of the spiritual family administers His house by stewards.

5. One of the chief blessings in the Church, considered as the house of God, here or in heaven, is gracious intercourse and communion.

IV. The end for which that house was founded, and that family organized. (R. P. Buddicom , M. A.)

The Church of the living God

I. In the first place, then, I observe that the Church bears testimony to a truth--to a special truth--and in this relation it may be termed the pillar of the truth. It is a pillar of testimony. That truth is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Of that revelation the Church holds the record, maintains the verity, and illustrates the power. The Church itself is a witness that such a revelation has been given. We trace this body of Christian believers through past ages, until we reach a period when it did not exist. It bears witness to the New Testament account of its own origin. It is itself an abiding evidence to the authenticity of that account. We may try this evidence by negative and positive tests. In the first place, if the New Testament does not furnish a satisfactory account of the origin of the Christian Church, nothing else does. Or, if we assume that there never was an actual personality such as that to which the Church bears witness, and upon which it is founded--that this is only an ideal life, which, by a process of mythical evolution, has been developed from a slender reality into that which stands on the pages of the Gospel--we may well ask, how has this accretion crystallized into such harmony, and produced an ideal that satisfies the loftiest conceptions of all ages and all men? If such a person could not have been fabricated, or mythically evolved within the time when we must admit the existence of our written records, we are driven upon the positive test that such a Being did live and teach and act, and the Church stands firm as a pillar of testimony to that Divine manifestation in Jesus Christ. Moreover, while the Church preserves the record and maintains the verity of this revelation, it also illustrates its power. Again, taking the Church as it stands to-day--an undeniable, existing institution--and tracing back we come once more upon the fact to which it ascribes its origin. I need not say what a remarkable period that was in the history of mankind. An exhausted world, a troubled world, a world lying in the sad twilight of an eclipse. And then, suddenly, a new era emerging from the old--a sharp, distinct furrow breaking up the surface of history, new ideas, a new faith, a new life. An evident transformation--in its rapidity, depth, and thoroughness, really a miracle of transformation. There is no effect without a cause. And for such a stupendous effect as this there must have been a special cause. Where can we find such a cause? In the conditions of the old world, just alluded to? That Church stands yet, an unimpeachable witness to the revelation of God in Christ, and the operation of that truth in the earth. Divine in its origin like the creative act in the material world, like the procedure of the material world since the creation it now works by ordinary laws and in human conditions. It is advanced by human instrumentalities. It is distorted by human errors. It is hindered by human sins. And yet it manifestly triumphs, as an intrinsic power, through these instrumentalities. It dissipates these errors. It melts away these sins. It evidently acts as a special truth, a Divine force, in the world. It changes customs. It moulds manners. It works into laws. It springs up into beneficent institutions. It transfigures the lives of men. It survives the wreck of dynasties. It abases the proud. It exalts the humble. It reveals the worth of humanity. It gives to the lowliest a faith that is more glorious than a crown, a dignity grander than coronation robes. Even when evoked for evil, it serves the good.

II. I have been speaking of the Church as the witness, the pillar of testimony to a special truth. In the next place, let me refer to it as in a certain sense the ground of all truth. And, as I have suggested, there is a sense in which the Church is not only the ground of the special truth which characterizes the New Testament, but, as it rests upon, so, in turn, it enshrines--or, I might say, incarnates--the ultimate verity which exists behind all forms of truth, behind the visible facts which science explores and the invisible things which faith apprehends. Thus it affirms an eternal and immutable morality, enthroned above the fluctuations of expediency and the caprice of self-will--a reality of Spiritual Being from which all life springs forth--and so authenticates conscience, vindicates prayer, explains the order of the physical world, and interprets the aspirations of the human soul. And this also is certain: the facts of science cannot be cancelled. Therefore, in relation to the great interests of religion, they must be adjusted. The Church, as assuming to be the ground of truth, must try them by the simple truth. And, in this computation, what are facts? The naturalist verifies the objects of his senses and his reason, and calls them facts. But the Christian believer, in his own consciousness, has the same evidence of facts. The geologist is not more confident as to the trilobrite in the rock, or the astronomers as to Sirius in the sky, than is the devout soul as to communion with its Saviour and its God. The philosopher points his telescope, or arranges his microscope, and tells what God has done in the world without--in the glittering armies of heaven, or the infusorial myriad fold throbbing with the universal life. But the mourner takes the lens of faith, and gazing through the broken tomb of Jesus, commands the horizon of the immortal world. Through the clear-shining of his tears the penitent looks into his own heart, and in the illumination of Divine love beholds new hopes, new purposes, new possibilities, quickened in the transfiguration of a regenerated life. He knows in whom he has believed. He knows what Christ has done for his soul. He knows into what an atmosphere he mounts by prayer. And here let me make a practical suggestion based upon this unity of truth. No exhortation to the young minister is more common than that he should study the Bible. But this does not imply mere textual study. We are studying the Bible when we study any truth. That live Scripture is to be read, and learned, and applied in the presence of all nature and all history. We must carry its light into the world around us, and come back with our knowledge and experience to find in it fresher reality and profounder depths of meaning.

III. But I proceed to observe that this is the Church of the Living God. Not only does it bear witness to a special truth--not only does it affirm all truth--it is also the vehicle of Divine life. (E. H. Chapin.)

The Church of the Living God

But what does it mean when it is said so expressly, the Church of the Living God? Is it in contrast to the temples of the heathen, whose gods are dead, and cannot hear, or speak, or see. Or does it mean more expressly that it is the Church of God who is living to keep, guide, bless, and give life to His people; and, therefore, because it is the Church of the Living God, it can never die. It may be changed, but it cannot die. Christ lives, and we are all members of Christ. Living members of a Living Head; and from that Head life is ever flowing down into the body. Therefore, the Church in Him cannot help being a living Church. And we are the temple of the Holy Ghost who liveth in us. But this is only a part of what it means. It must, like its great Author, if it is a Living Church, show signs of life. Now, what are the evidences of life? Let us take the analogy of the human life.

1. To make human life there must be the breath. Every one who lives must, of necessity, breaths. So it is with the Church, and with every member of the Church. There is a breath. The Holy Spirit is the breath. We must breathe that breath of the Spirit; and thus breathe warm thoughts, loving thoughts, happy thoughts, holy thoughts.

2. But the breath requires feeding with words which look and express this inward feeling. Words of praise, words of prayer, words of glory, words of power. Can there be life without expression? If it be not in speech, will it not be by some other way?

3. And can it go on without growth? If the man be a man of God, and if the Church be the Church of the Living God, there must be growth. The mans soul must grow. All the fruits of the Spirit must grow in him. It is equally the consequence and sign of life. A Church which does not grow may doubt whether it is a Church at all!

4. And with the growth and the breathing will come action! Action in accordance with the principle which is working within us.

5. There must be expansion. It is the principle of all true religion, and of every Church. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The Church: its nature and functions

Laying aside the notion of infallibility, let us proceed to consider how properly, without any such futile and arrogant claim, the Church is called the pillar and ground of the truth.

1. In the first place, and chiefly, the Church is so called, because, to use the language of our Twentieth Article, she is a witness and keeper of Holy Writ. Christianity is found in the Bible, and originally and purely nowhere else. Who should keep the book but those that use it? Who be anxious for its preservation but those who value it, make it the rule of their life? This is at once natural and necessary. Who keep the records of literature and science but men of learning; and who the divine record of religious knowledge but men of religion? They ever have kept it and ever will keep it, as long as religion exists in the world.

2. But further, the Church does not barely keep the volume, attesting its authenticity and watching over its integrity, and so acting as a pillar and ground of the truth; but she seeks to promote the truth by a system of instruction, the basis of which is the contents of that volume. She does not act simply as a publisher of the book, but as a lecturer upon it. Her thoughts axe not her own. She makes no such arrogant pretension. She has light, but it is borrowed light. She shines, but it is by reflection from the Holy Book. It is further worthy of remark, that the Church in the discharge of this function, is not doing a merely optional thing; she is necessitated to do it. The office is inseparable from her being.

3. It would be a further illustration and enforcement of this point to show in what manner the Church is required to discharge this duty. She is required to circulate the Scriptures. (William Sparrow.)

The pillar and ground of the truth.--

The pillar and ground of truth

I. That the Church is the pillar and ground of truth.--

1. That by the Church in this text he does not mean only the ministers.

2. It is far from concluding that one Church is the pillar of truth to another.

3. It is plain from all reason as well as Scripture, that truth is the pillar and growth of the Church, and not the Church of truth (Eph_11:20-21; 1Co_3:9-11).

Here we may inquire what that truth is which the apostle speaks of. There is a truth of history that we take delight in; to know what is doing in distant countries, or has been done in former ages, but this is rather our entertainment than our concern. There is a truth of argument. This is still more engaging, as it is the proper food of our reason. There is also a truth of conversation; which is what we call integrity. Besides these, there are truths of philosophy, that have no con-tern with the doctrine of Christ Jesus. But the truth that our apostle means is of another kind.

1. It is about the greatest concerns.

2. It comes with the fullest evidence.

3. It is always the same.

4. It is followed with the best effects. (T. Bradbury.)

The pillar and ground of the truth

I. LET US CONSIDER THE APPROPRIATE ATTRIBUTE HERE ASCRIBED TO GOD. He is called the living God and He is thus designated not in this place only, but also in numerous other places. He is self-existent and independent. There never was a time when He began to exist, and there never will be a time when He will cease to exist--He has neither beginning of days nor end of life. He is also the Fountain of Life to all other beings throughout the whole creation. There is also a higher life, which, if we are Christians indeed, we have received from Him.

II. Let us consider the significant name here given to the Church of God. It is called the house of God. The house of God, which is the Church of the living God. He dwells in them individually, taking up His abode in their heart, and making it a holy temple unto Himself. Know ye not, asks our apostle in writing to the Corinthians, that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God? He dwells also among His people collectively, being present in all their assemblies, as it is written, In all places where I record My name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. But there is another sense in which the word house issued in Scripture, and in which it may with propriety be understood here. It sometimes stands for the inhabitants of the house, the household, or the family. Thus it is said of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, that he was a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house; meaning all his family. The Church is the family of God. How great, then, is the privilege of those who belong to the house and family of God!

III. Let us consider the important office sustained by the Church in the world. It is present in the text as the pillar and ground, that is, the stay and support of the truth. In furtherance of this object, its ministers are to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The members of the Church also are to co-operate with its ministers in giving support and currency to the truth.

IV. To call your attention to the manifest duty that rests upon us as members of the visible Church of Christ, and particularly as members of that apostolical branch of it established in these kingdoms. That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. There is also another duty that rests upon us as members of the Church--we must live the truth. In other words, we must exemplify its holy effects in our life and conversation. But there is a third duty which we are called upon to discharge as members of the Church, namely, to make known the truth, as far as we can, to those who are ignorant of it. (D. Rees, M. A.)

Security of the Church

Speaking of that enormous mountain peak known as the Matterhorn, which is the universal admiration of Alpine travellers, a writer says that the materials of which it is composed are remarkable, and he goes on to gives the following description: Few architects would like to build with them. The slope of the rocks to the north-west is covered two feet deep with their ruins, a mass of loose and slaty shale, of a dull red brick colour, which yields beneath the feet like ashes, so that, in running down, you step one yard and slide three. The rock is indeed hard beneath, but still disposed in thin courses of these cloven shales, so finely laid that they look in places more like a heap of crushed autumn leaves than a rock, and the first sensation is one of unmitigated surprise, as if the mountain were upheld by miracle; but surprise becomes more intelligent reverence for the Great Builder when we find, in the middle of the mass of these dead leaves, a course of living rock, of quartz as white as the snow that encircles it, and harder than a bed of steel. It is only one of a thousand iron bands that knit the strength of the mighty mountain. Through the buttress and the wall alike the courses of its varied masonry are seen in their successive order, smooth and true as if laid by line and plummet, but of thickness and strength continually varying, and with silver cornices glittering along the edge of each, led by the snowy winds and carved by the sunshine. Now, all this suggests a parable. The Church of God, that glorious mountain of His habitation, is apparently built of very frail materials. The saints are, to all appearance, more like a heap of crushed autumn leaves than a rock, and beneath the feet of tyrants and persecutors they seem to yield like ashes; and yet the Church defies the storm and towers aloft, the obelisk of the truth, the eternal pillar of almighty grace. Faith, with eagle gaze, perceives the thousand iron bands which prevent the disintegration of the mass, and the central foundation harder than a bed of steel upon which the colossal fabric rests. The Church abideth for ever: infinite love, faithfulness, and power sustain her, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

church

Church (visible), Summary: The passages under this head 1Co 10:32; 1Ti 3:15 refer to that visible body of professed believers called, collectively, "the Church," of which history takes account as such, though it exists under many names and divisions based upon differences in doctrine or in government. Within, for the most part, this historical "Church" has existed the true Church, "which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all Eph 1:22; Eph 1:23.

(See Scofield "Heb 12:23") like the believing Remnant within Israel

(See Scofield "Rom 11:5") The predicted future of the visible Church is apostasy Luk 18:8; 2Ti 3:1-8 of the true Church, glory; Mat 13:36-43; Rom 8:18-23; 1Th 4:14-17.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:15 household of God: The earliest churches were house churches (Rom 16:5; 1 Cor 16:19; Col 4:15; Phlm 1:2) that reflected the codes of conduct of Greco-Roman households (see study note on 1 Tim 3:4-5). Violating these norms brought disrepute, disgrace, and shame on the entire household and its head. The same is true for the church (cp. Eph 2:19-22; Heb 3:6; 10:21; 1 Pet 4:17). • the church . . . is the pillar and foundation of the truth: This idea may anticipate the transition from the time of the apostles to the period after their deaths (cp. Gal 2:9; Rev 3:12). The church must be active rather than defensive in upholding the truth in the world (cp. 2 Cor 10:3-6).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Ti 3:15. Ἐὰν δὲ βραδύνω, but if I tarry long) Comp. ch. 1Ti 4:13, at the beginning.—ἵνα, that) The scope of the epistle.—πῶς δεῖ, how it is becoming) comp. ch. 1Ti 4:11.—ἐν οἴκῳ Θωοῦ, in the house of God) God is ὁ δεσπότης, the Master, 2Ti 2:12.—ἥτις, which) It indicates the universal Church, not universally, but so far as a part of it was then at Ephesus, committed to Timothy.—ἐκκλησία Θεοῦ, the Church of God) the community of those who are the Lord’s; 2Ti 2:19.—ζῶντος, of the living) The Church of the living God is opposed to the temple of Diana of the Ephesians. The life of God, the foundation of our hope (‘trust’), ch. 1Ti 4:10, and the fountain of truth, in this passage. The epithet is not added, in the first instance, to the same name (God;—the living God)—it is afterwards added for the sake of Epitasis (see Append.), as in 2Co 6:16.—Στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ ὁμολογουμένως μέγα, κ.τ.λ.) Jac. Cappellus, in his Observations on this passage, says, That this was the original reading of this place, was the opinion of the distinguished men, my beloved colleagues, Andrew Melvin, John Cameron, John Fabricius; and not without good reason. Respecting the same reading or the pointing of the words, I have made some slight observations in the Apparatus, p. 709, 710 [Ed. ii. p. 399, sq.], which I would wish to be carefully noticed; but I have reserved further remarks for the Gnomon here. At 1Ti 3:14-15, the apostle evidently concludes the former paragraph, which began at 1Ti 3:1, and was brought down to this point, and he now commences a new paragraph, which is continued in ch. 1Ti 4:1 in so close connection, that the old interpreters, according to R. Stephanus and others, reckoned a seventh chapter of this epistle from 1Ti 3:16, inclusive, to ch. 1Ti 4:7. The almost universal opinion of interpreters in the present day, among Protestants, fixes the commencement of the period at the word στύλος. I have quoted a great number of them in the Apparatus; G. G. Zeltnerus and J. C. Herzogius are added. Certainly this clause, στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας, is not at all advantageously connected with the preceding words, although Lightfoot says that the great Sanhedrim was everywhere dignified with this title; but this same clause is much more inconveniently separated from what follows. For the particle καὶ, καὶ ὁμολογουμένως, is unsuitable at the beginning of a new paragraph. Suppose ὁμολογουμένως to have been written without καὶ, then indeed one might acknowledge it to be a suitable commencement of the new division; comp. 1Ti 3:1 and ch. 1Ti 4:9, in which passages, for very much the same reason, the sentence is begun thus, πιστὸς ὁ λόγος, without καὶ. Now, when καὶ is in the way (occurs), the words between which it is placed are connected by it; στύλος καὶ ἐδραίωμα τὴς ἀληθείας καὶ ὁμολογουμένως μέγα, κ.τ.λ. The Rabbinical phrases, which are not dissimilar, are usually brought forward, in which the strength and gravity of the subject which comes to be discussed are declared; but the phraseology of the apostle should be considered in the first place. For in this epistle, which is intended to confirm and rouse Timothy, the form of a preface is frequent, by which Paul commends some topic about to be presently discussed by him, as true and good, solid and salutary, and to be laid hold of by all the force of the understanding and the will [the desires]: πιστὸς ὁ λόγος καὶ πάσης ἀποδοχῆς ἄξιος, κ.τ.λ., ch. 1Ti 1:15, 1Ti 4:9; 1Ti 4:6, where πίστεως [1Ti 4:6] agrees with πιστὸς [1Ti 3:9], καλῆς [1Ti 3:6], with ἀποδοχῆς ἄξιος [1Ti 3:9]. He expresses that formula, consisting of two members, in this by far the most magnificent passage, through the medium of loftier words, which are to be met with in the writings of the Hebrews; for example, R. Levi of Barcelona gives this reason, why so many memorial signs of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage are appointed in the fifteen precepts bearing upon the Passover, because that is the great foundation and strong pillar of the law, as well as of the Jewish religion. And Maimonides says, This is the foundation of the foundation, and the pillar of wisdom, that we may know, etc. Therefore Paul says: στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ ὁμολογουμένως μέγα ἐστὶ τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας μυστήριον: i.e. This mystery of godliness is the pillar and groundwork of the truth (equivalent to πιστὸν), and is something confessedly great (equivalent to ἀποδεκτὸν). Let us examine the words one by one. These two terms, στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα, are equivalent to one word, expressing something very solid, by which is denoted the mystery, exceedingly high (whence στύλος, from στάω) and exceedingly deep (whence ἑδραίωμα, from ἕζω), Iren. I. 3, c. 11. The Gospel is the pillar and ground of the Church. In Hebrew, אמת, truth, and נאמן, πιστὸν, faithful, are conjugates. In like manner, ὁμολογία (whence ὁμολογουμένως) and ἀποδοχὴ, each referring to the heart and the lips, are equivalent; comp. 2Ti 2:19; Heb 3:1; Joh 20:28. Hence also πάσης ἀποδοχῆς ἄξιον and ὁμολογουμένως μέγα are equivalent; μέγα is not an epithet which is to be construed with ἑδραίωμα, or with μυστήριον, but is put absolutely, μέγα, a great thing, as in 1Co 9:11; 2Co 11:15; in the same way as ἀγαπητὸς, our beloved, Phm 1:1, is used absolutely. The mystery is a thing great in itself; a thing to be with the greatest earnestness confessed, and embraced with all the force of confession; is a thing, the magnitude of which, in regard to the great salvation, all the sons of truth experimentally know and confess. Paul did not mention τὸ ἀποδεκτὸν without τὸ πιστὸν in this passage, but he praised both; just as τὸ πιστὸν καὶ τὸ καλὸν are commended together. The mystery of godliness is the subject; the remaining words are the predicate. And godliness is joined with truth, as in Tit 1:1. The Gentiles also had their mysteries, but they were distinguished by ungodliness and error. Departure from the faith, lying, and fables, are opposed to the truth (1Ti 3:16), a thing which is most especially to be noticed, ch. 1Ti 4:1 (the particle δὲ being interposed in 1Ti 3:1): in 1Ti 3:1-2; 1Ti 3:7, the hypocrisy of those who speak lies, and have their consciences seared, is opposed to confession [ὁμολογουμένως, confessedly, 1Ti 3:16], in 1Ti 3:2: the dotage of old women [1Ti 3:7, γραώδεις μύθους, old wives’ fables] to that which is great [μέγα, 1Ti 3:16], and profanity to godliness [1Ti 3:16], 1Ti 3:7 [ch. 1Ti 6:3]. Finally, there is a remarkable Oxymoron [see Append.]: ὁμολογουμένως and μυστήριον, confession and yet mystery. This doctrine of godliness is celebrated in the whole Church, but in the Church alone. Now, reader, read again the text, if you are at leisure, from 1Ti 3:14 to 1Ti 4:7-8; and consider the subject with an unbiassed and religious judgment.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti 3:15 . ἵνα εἰδῇς … ἀναστρέφεσθαι : It is a matter of indifference whether we render how men ought to behave themselves (R.V.), or how thou oughtest to behave thyself (A.V.; R.V. m.). It was Timothy’s duty to carry out the apostle’s directions, directions relating to the life, ἀναστροφή , of the Church. His ἀναστροφή would necessarily react on that of the Church. See the Western interpolation in apparat. crit .

οἴκῳ θεοῦ : the household , perhaps, rather than the house, of God . In view of the prevailing paucity of articles in these Epistles, one cannot lay stress on the absence of τῷ before οἴκῳ , so as to render, a house of God such as is the Church, etc . οἶκος τοῦ θεοῦ is always found elsewhere. The Church is God’s οἶκος , Heb 3:6 ; God’s κατοικητήριον , Eph 2:22 ; a ναὸς ἄγιος , Eph 2:21 ; ναὸς θεοῦ , 1Co 3:16 , 2Co 6:16 ; a μεγάλη οἰκία , of which God is the δεσπότης , 2Ti 2:20 ; an οἶκος πνευματικός , 1Pe 2:5 .

The body of the Church, τὸ σῶμα ὑμῶν , is a ναὸς ἁγίου πνεύματος (1Co 6:19 ); and the human body of Jesus was a ναός (Joh 2:21 ); but it is not in accordance with Scriptural language so to describe the body of any individual Christian.

οἴκῳ … ἥτις : “The noun which forms the predicate in a relative sentence, annexed for the purpose of explanation ( ὂς … ἐστίν ), sometimes gives its own gender and number to the relative, by a kind of attraction” (Winer-Moulton, Grammar , p. 206).

θεοῦ ζῶντος : A constant phrase, occurring again 1Ti 4:10 .

στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα κ . τ . λ .: The view of Gregory Nyssen and Greg. Naz. that στύλος here refers to Timothy does not need refutation, although an early reference to this passage in the Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne (Eus. H. E . 1Ti 3:1 ) applies στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα to the martyr Attalus. στύλος has of course a personal reference in Gal 2:9 ; cf. also Rev 3:12 ; but it is childish to suppose that metaphors have a constant value in the Bible. Holtzmann’s suggestion that στύλος is in apposition to θεοῦ is rightly rejected by von Soden.

The clause is, of course, in apposition to ἐκκλησία which is by a kindred metaphor called in 2Ti 2:19 ὁ στερεὸς θεμέλιος τοῦ θεοῦ . This latter passage suggests that we should here render ἑδραίωμα ground or basis rather than stay (R.V. m.). ἑδραῖος is rendered steadfast elsewhere. See reff. and especially Col 1:23 ( τεθεμελιωμένοι καὶ ἑδραῖοι ), ctr . Hort, Christian Ecclesia , p. 174.

The truth , ἡ ἀλήθεια , has, as has been already stated, a technical Christian connotation in the Pastorals, and has not a wider reference than the Christian revelation, which is the truth in so far as it has been revealed. The Church, of the old covenant or of the new, is the divinely constituted human Society by which the support and maintenance in the world of revealed truth is conditioned. Truth if revealed to isolated individuals, no matter how numerous, would be dissipated in the world. But the Divine Society, in which it is given an objective existence, at once compels the world to take knowledge of it, and assures those who receive the revelation that it is independent of, and external to, themselves, and not a mere fancy of their own.

Bengel puts a full stop at ζῶντος and removes it after ἀληθείας , making τὸ … μυστήριον the subject of the sentence, and στύλος … μέγα the predicate.

The mystery, etc., is the pillar, etc., and confessedly great,” μέγα being used as in 1Co 9:11 , 2Co 11:15 , the whole expression being equivalent to πιστὸς ὁ λόγος καὶ πάσης ἀποδοχῆς ἄξιος . He quotes from Rabbi Levi Barcelonita and Maimonides parallel expressions concerning precepts of the Law, “ fundamentum magnum et columna valida legis ,” and a striking phrase from Irenæus, Haer . iii. 11, 8, Columna autem et firmamentum ecclesiae est evangelium , στύλος δὲ καὶ στήριγμα ἐκκλησίας τὸ εὐαγγέλιον .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pastor hath always to think, how that he is occupied in the house of the living God, wherein the treasure of the truth is kept.

To wit, in respect of men: for the Church resteth upon that cornerstone, Christ, and is the preserver of the truth, but not the mother.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

But if I tarry long--before coming to thee.

that--that is, I write (Ti1 3:14) "that thou mayest know," &c.

behave thyself--in directing the Church at Ephesus (Ti1 4:11).

the house of God--the Church (Heb 3:2, Heb 3:5-6; Heb 10:21; Pe1 4:17; Co1 3:16, "the temple of God"; Eph 2:22).

which is--that is, inasmuch as it is.

the church--"the congregation." The fact that the sphere of thy functions is "the congregation of the living God" (who is the ever living Master of the house, Ti2 2:19-21), is the strongest motive to faithfulness in this behavior as president of a department of the house." The living God forms a striking contrast to the lifeless idol, Diana of Ephesus (Th1 1:9). He is the fountain of "truth," and the foundation of our "trust" (Ti1 4:10). Labor directed to a particular Church is service to the one great house of God, of which each particular Church is a part, and each Christian a lively stone (Pe1 2:5).

the pillar and ground of the truth--evidently predicated of the Church, not of "the mystery of godliness" (an interpretation not started till the sixteenth century; so BENGEL); for after two weighty predicates, "pillar and ground," and these substantives, the third, a much weaker one, and that an adjective, "confessedly," or "without controversy great," would not come. "Pillar" is so used metaphorically of the three apostles on whom principally the Jewish Christian Church depended (Gal 2:9; compare Rev 3:12). The Church is "the pillar of the truth," as the continued existence (historically) of the truth rests on it; for it supports and preserves the word of truth. He who is of the truth belongs by the very fact to the Church. Christ is the alone ground of the truth in the highest sense (Co1 3:11). The apostles are foundations in a secondary sense (Eph 2:20; Rev 21:14). The Church rests on the truth as it is in Christ; not the truth on the Church. But the truth as it is in itself is to be distinguished from the truth as it is acknowledged in the world. In the former sense it needs no pillar, but supports itself; in the latter sense, it needs the Church as its pillar, that is, its supporter and preserver [BAUMGARTEN]. The importance of Timothy's commission is set forth by reminding him of the excellence of "the house" in which he serves; and this in opposition to the coming heresies which Paul presciently forewarns him of immediately after (Ti1 4:1). The Church is to be the stay of the truth and its conserver for the world, and God's instrument for securing its continuance on earth, in opposition to those heresies (Mat 16:18; Mat 28:20). The apostle does not recognize a Church which has not the truth, or has it only in part. Rome falsely claims the promise for herself. But it is not historical descent that constitutes a Church, but this only, to those heresies (Mat 16:18; Mat 28:20). The apostle does not recognize a Church which has not the intermediate; the "ground," or "basement" (similar to "foundation," Ti2 2:19), the final support of the building [ALFORD]. It is no objection that, having called the Church before "the house of God," he now calls it the "pillar"; for the literal word "Church" immediately precedes the new metaphors: so the Church, or congregation of believers, which before was regarded as the habitation of God, is now, from a different point of view, regarded as the pillar upholding the truth.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 15. But if I tarry long] That is: Not withstanding I hope to come to thee shortly, and therefore do not feel the necessity of writing at large; yet, lest I should be delayed, I write what I judge necessary to direct thy conduct in the Church of God.

The house of God] This is spoken in allusion to the ancient tabernacle; which was God's house, and in which the symbol of the Divine Majesty dwelt. So the Christian Church is God's house, and every believer is a habitation of God through the Spirit.

The Church of the living God] The assembly in which God lives and works; each member of which is a living stone, all of whom, properly united among themselves, grow up unto a holy temple in the Lord.

The pillar and ground of the truth.] Never was there a greater variety of opinions on any portion of the sacred Scripture than has been on this and the following verse. Commentators and critics have given senses and meanings till there is no meaning to be seen. It would be almost impossible, after reading all that has been said on this passage, for any man to make up his own mind. To what, or to whom, does the pillar and ground of the truth refer?

1. Some say to Timothy, who is called the pillar, c., because left there to support and defend the truth of God against false doctrines and false teachers and is so called for the same reason that Peter, James, and John, are said to be pillars, i.e. supporters of the truth of God. Ga 2:9.

2. Others suppose that the pillar and ground of the truth is spoken of GOD; and that ος εστι, who is, should be supplied as referring immediately to θεος, God, just before. By this mode of interpretation the passage will read thus: That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, WHO IS (ος εστι) the pillar and ground of the truth. How God may be fitly termed the pillar and ground of truth, requires no explanation.

3. Others think that the words should be understood of the CHURCH of the living God; and in this case the feminine relative ητιςεστι, which is, must be repeated immediately after εκκλησια, the Church. The house of God is the Church of the living God; WHICH (Church) IS the pillar and ground of the truth. That is: The full revelation of God's truth is in the Christian Church. The great doctrines of that Church are the truth without error, metaphor, or figure. Formerly the truth was but partially revealed, much of it being shadowed with types, ceremonies, and comparatively dark prophecies; but now all is plain, and the full revelation given; and the foundation on which this truth rests are the grand facts detailed in the Gospel, especially those which concern the incarnation, miracles, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, and the mission of the Holy Spirit.

4. Lastly, others refer the whole to το της ευσεβειας μυστηριον, the mystery of godliness; and translate the clause thus: The mystery of godliness is the pillar and ground of the truth; and, without controversy, a great thing. This gives a very good sense, but it is not much favoured by the arrangement of the words in the original.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15 How thou oughtest to conduct thyself: By this mode of expression he commends the weight and dignity of the office; because pastors may be regarded as stewards, to whom God has committed the charge of governing his house. If any person has the superintendence of a large house, he labors night and day with earnest solicitude, that nothing may go wrong through his neglect, or ignorance, or carelessness. If only for men this is done, how much more should it be done for God?

In the house of God There are good reasons why God bestows this name on his Church; for not only has he received us to be his children by the grace of adoption, but he also dwelleth in the midst of us.

The pillar and foundation of truth No ordinary enhancement is derived from this appellation. Could it have been described in loftier language? Is anything more venerable, or more holy, than that everlasting truth which embraces both the glory of God and the salvation of men? Were all the praises of heathen philosophy, with which it has been adorned by its followers, collected into one heap, what is this in comparison of the dignity of this wisdom, which alone deserves to be called light and truth, and the instruction of life, and the way, and the kingdom of God? Now it is preserved on earth by the ministry of the Church alone. What a weight, therefore, rests on the pastors, who have been entrusted with the charge of so inestimable a treasure! With what impudent trifling do Papists argue from the words of Paul that all their absurdities ought to be held as oracles of God, because they are “the pillar of truth,” and therefore cannot err!

First, we ought to see why Paul adorns the Church with so magnificent a title. By holding out to pastors the greatness of the office, he undoubtedly intended to remind them with what fidelity, and industry, and reverence they ought to discharge it. How dreadful is the vengeance that awaits them, if, through their fault, that truth which is the image of the Divine glory, the light of the world, and the salvation of men, shall be allowed to fall! This consideration ought undoubtedly to lead pastors to tremble continually, not to deprive them of all energy, but to excite them to greater vigilance.

Hence we may easily conclude in what sense Paul uses these words. The reason why the Church is called the “pillar of truth” is, that she defends and spreads it by her agency. God does not himself come down from heaven to us, nor does he daily send angels to make known his truth; but he employs pastors, whom he has appointed for that purpose. To express it in a more homely manner, is not the Church the mother of all believers? Does she not regenerate them by the word of God, educate and nourish them through their whole life, strengthen, and bring them at length to absolute perfection? For the same reason, also, she is called “the pillar of truth;” because the office of administering doctrine, which God hath placed in her hands, is the only instrument of preserving the truth, that it may not perish from the remembrance of men.

Consequently this commendation relates to the ministry of the word; for if that be removed, the truth of God will fall to the ground. Not that it is less strong, if it be not supported by the shoulders of men, as the same Papists idly talk; for it is a shocking blasphemy to say, that the word of God is uncertain, till it obtain from men what may be called a borrowed certainty. Paul simply means what he states elsewhere in other words, that since our “faith is by hearing,” there will be no faith, unless there be preaching. (Romans 10:17.) Accordingly in reference to men, the Church maintains the truth, because by preaching the Church proclaims it, because she keeps it pure and entire, because she transmits it to posterity. And if the instruction of the gospel be not proclaimed, if there are no godly ministers who, by their preaching, rescue truth from darkness and forgetfulness, instantly falsehoods, errors, impostures, superstitions, and every kind of corruption, will reign. In short, silence in the Church is the banishment and crushing of the truth. Is there anything at all forced in this exposition?

Having ascertained Paul’s meaning, let us return to the Papists. First, by applying this eulogium to themselves, they act wickedly; because they deck themselves with borrowed feathers. For, granting that the Church were elevated above the third heaven, I maintain that it has nothing to do with them in any manner. Nay, I even turn the whole passage against them; for, if the Church “is the pillar of truth,” it follows that the Church is not with them, when the truth not only lies buried, but is shockingly torn, and thrown down, and trampled under foot. Is this either a riddle or a quibble? Paul does not wish that any society, in which the truth of God does not hold a lofty and conspicuous place, shall be acknowledged to be a Church; now there is nothing of all this in Popery, but only ruin and desolation; and, therefore, the true mark of a Church is not found in it. But the mistake arises from this, that they do not consider, what was of the greatest importance, that the truth of God is maintained by the pure preaching of the gospel; and that the support of it does not depend on the faculties or understandings of men, but rests on what is far higher, that is, if it does not depart from the simple word of God.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(15) But if I tarry long.—St. Paul felt that dangers were pressing closer and closer—that the hoped-for visit to his loved church at Ephesus might not, probably never would be, accomplished; so these foregoing solemn directions respecting the choice of colleagues in the ministry had been written to Timothy, that, in the event of St. Paul never coming to him again, men (especially the ministers of God) should know how to conduct themselves in the congregation.

That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself.—The words refer here not to Timothy alone, but rather to Timothy and his colleagues in their church work, concerning whom such particular directions had just been given, and should be rendered, how men ought to behave themselves.

In the house of God.—The image is from the Old Testament, where “the house of God” denotes, in the first place, the Temple of Jerusalem, and, in the second, the covenant-people. It is here used for the congregation of believers among whom God dwells—the true and enduring Church of living souls. Of this great spiritual temple, the corner-stone of which is Christ, the Jerusalem house on Mount Zion, with its marvellous work and its gorgeous and elaborate symbolism, was the poor, perishable, hand-wrought model.

Which is the church of the living God.—The house of God is here plainly defined to be the “Church” (or, congregation) “of the living God,” who was working in its midst actively and personally, in strong contrast to that well-known graven image of the Diana of Ephesus, throned in that fair temple which glittered in its white and lifeless beauty over the roofs of the city where Timothy’s charge lay.

The pillar and ground of the truth.—The imagery is here changed, and the “house of God” which the Apostle had just defined to be the Church, or congregation, belonging to the living God, and in the midst of which He was pleased to dwell, is now defined to be “the pillar and ground” (or, basis) “of the truth.” In the first picture, the Church is painted by St. Paul as a vast congregation, with the living God dwelling in its midst: in the second, the same Church is painted as a massive pillar, holding up and displaying before men and angels the truth—the saving truth of the gospel. In the first picture, the thought of a great company gathered together for God to dwell among is prominent: in the second, the thought of the great redemption-truth alone comes to the front, and the Church of God is no longer viewed as a company of separate individuals, but as one massive foundation-pillar, supporting and displaying the glories of redemption.

This peculiar aspect of the Church, ”the support and pillar of the truth,” was dwelt upon probably by the Apostle as “defining—with indirect allusion to nascent and developing heresies—the true note, office, and vocation of the Church. . . . Were there no Church, there would be no witness, no guardian of archives, no basis, nothing whereon acknowledged truth could rest” (Ellicott).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. how thou oughtest to behave thyself] There is little in the Greek words and little in the context to decide us in translating either thus with A.V. and margin of R.V. or how men ought to behave themselves, with R.V. For (1), Timothy himself is in St Paul’s mind throughout; the directions are given for his guidance in seeing to a properly qualified ministry; for (2), presbyters and deacons have just had their proper equipment and behaviour fully detailed. Perhaps the latter is to be preferred from the long phrase (for so brief a style) ‘that thou mayest know how (one) ought to walk’ instead of ‘in order that thou mayest walk’; and from the brevity of the style solving by omission the difficulty of finding a phrase which should include bishops, deacons, and women deacons.

behave thyself] The verb is used by St Paul twice besides, 2Co_1:12, ‘we have (had our conversation) behaved ourselves in the world’; Eph_2:3, ‘we also (had our conversation) lived in the lusts of the flesh’; and the cognate substantive in the next chapter, 1Ti_4:12, ‘manner of life,’ and twice besides, Gal_1:13, ‘my (conversation) manner of life in time past’; Eph_4:22, ‘put off concerning the former (conversation) manner of life the old man.’ It was represented exactly by the Latin conversari (conversatio), whence our A.V. ‘conversation’ in its old sense.

the house of God] In O.T. the Temple; cf. Mar_11:17, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ quoted from Isa_56:7; and then spiritually God’s household and temple the chosen people, cf. Heb_3:6, ‘Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, Christ as a son over God’s house,’ quoted from Num_12:7. St Paul had elaborated the metaphor in his letter to Ephesus, Eph_2:22; and so in the later Epistles it is natural and appropriate as a title of Christ’s Church; Heb_10:21, ‘having a great high priest over the house of God’; 1Pe_4:17, ‘the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God.’ See Appendix, K.

which is the church of the living God] The lengthened form of the relative is used to give the characteristic attribute ‘which is, to describe it aright, the Church.’ ‘The Church,’ ecclesia, is used (1) simply for ‘a gathering,’ ‘a calling together,’ i.e. the regular law-court, Act_19:39; (2) for ‘the congregation’ of the children of Israel, in LXX. constantly; (3) from this, by our Lord twice for His own constituted community, Mat_16:18; Mat_18:17; (4) hence, 23 times in the Acts, the first history of that community, 62 times in the Epistles of St Paul its widest organiser, and 23 times in the Epistles and Apocalypse of St John, its venerable champion and prophet; sometimes of the Church at large, as here, ‘holy and Catholic,’ sometimes of one or other of its constituent parts, e.g. in Asia, Galatia, Judæa, Macedonia. See Bp Browne on Art. XIX., who quotes the following among other definitions of the earliest Fathers: ‘Tertullian speaks of the Church as composed of all the Churches founded by Apostles or offsprings of Apostolic Churches, and living in the unity of the same faith and discipline. The Church according to Clement of Alexandria is the assembly of the elect, the congregation of Christian worshippers; the devout Christians being as it were the spiritual life of the body of Christ, the unworthy members being like the carnal part. Origen says, “the Church is the body of Christ, animated by the Son of God, the members being all who believe in Him.” The visibility of the Church he expresses by saying that “we should give no heed to those who say, There is Christ, but show Him not in the Church, which is full of brightness from the East to the West and is the pillar and ground of the truth.” ’

the living God] At Lystra, where ‘the gods’ were thought to have come down in the likeness of men, St Paul besought them to ‘turn from these vanities unto the living God which made heaven and earth and the sea’; so now at Ephesus, where the Jewish and oriental speculations of physical and moral sciences, ‘the endless genealogies of emanations and æons,’ were clouding the simple truth ‘as it is in Jesus,’ St Paul insists on all his teachers being ‘good churchmen,’ holding and teaching the faith in ‘one living God’ manifested in Christ Jesus.

the pillar and ground of the truth] It will be felt unworthy of the rising greatness of the passage to refer this to Timothy or to the teachers; it is the Church penetrated through with this faith which, as the single central column in the chapter-house at Salisbury, supports and sustains and combines all the orb of truth, God’s progressive revelation of Himself in Nature, Art, Conscience. ‘Christ is the centre of mankind, and mankind is the centre of the world. If that be so, we have a central point round which all knowledge groups itself. The physical and the moral sciences have each their part in the building up of the great human temple in which God dwells; and the highest education is that which gives man a complete conception of the world thus viewed as centred in humanity and in Christ, its head.’ Fremantle, The Gospel of the Secular Life, p. 98.

There is no difficulty in a certain shifting of the metaphor, any more than in the above passage, itself a modern undesigned expansion of the phrase. The Church is, first, the house of God, and the Son of the living God its centre; and then this house is itself a centre, the central pillar of a larger house, the world, God’s home.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But if I tarry long,.... Or should long delay coming, defer it longer than may be expected; let it be observed that these things are written,

that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God; that is, the church of God, as it is afterwards explained; called a house, in allusion either to an edifice, it being a spiritual house built of lively stories, or true believers, upon the foundation Jesus Christ, and who also is the door into it; the pillars of it are the ministers of the Gospel; and the windows are the ordinances, and which also are the entertainment in it: or else to a family, as this is sometimes called the household of God, and of faith; the family named of Christ, of which he is the master; and in which are fathers, young men and children; in which ministers are stewards; and which is regulated by good and wholesome laws: and it is called the house of God, because as an edifice, it is of his building and repairing, and in which he dwells; and as a family, is what he provides for. Now the above things were written to Timothy, that he might know bow to order and manage things in this house and family; what became him to do himself, in the character he was; and what persons to direct in the choice of to be officers in it. And of this house it is said,

which is the church of the living God; in opposition to, and distinction from the houses and temples of idols, which are inanimate and senseless creatures; whereas the true God is the living God, has life in himself, essentially, originally, and independently, and is the author and giver of life to others. It is added,

the pillar and ground of the truth; which holds forth the truth to be seen and read of all, as pillars that bear inscriptions; and which supports and maintains truth, as every true church of Christ does so long as it remains so; though truth is the pillar and ground of the church; for if once truth is gone, a church is no more so: rather therefore Timothy himself is here designed; and the sense is, that what was written to him was with this view, that he might the better know how to conduct himself in the church of God, as a pillar and ground of truth, to hold it forth and to secure it: ministers of the Gospel are called pillars, Gal 2:9 and that with greater propriety than the church itself, which is before called an house: though it may be best of all to understand it of Christ as incarnate, the great mystery of godliness; who as he is the ground and foundation of the church, and all believers, so he is the foundation of all true doctrine; and particularly the doctrine of his person, as truly God and truly man, is the pillar and ground which supports all other truths, and without which they fall to the ground: and so this clause may be read in connection with the following words, thus; "the pillar and ground of the truth, and without controversy, is the great mystery of godliness, &c". And this way of speaking is used by the Jews, both of persons and things; so Zebulun is said (c) to be , "the pillar of the law"; and it is said (d) of

"the great sanhedrim in Jerusalem, they are the root of the oral law; and they are , "the pillars of doctrine"; and from them go forth the statutes and judgments unto Israel;''

and the same is said of things as of persons. Maimonides says (e),

"the foundation of foundations and the pillar of wisdom, is to know that there is a first Being, that gives being to all beings;''

and R. Sangari, another of their writers, says, (f).

"there are two things which are , "the pillars of the law"; the one is, that the law is from God; the other is, that it is received with a faithful (or sincere) heart, from the congregation:''

to which may be added, that it is said (g) that

"the mystery of faith is "amwyqw arqe, "the root and ground" of the world";''

all which may serve to illustrate this passage.

(c) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 152. 1. (d) Maimon. Hilchot Memarim, c. 1. sect. 1. (e) Hilchot Yesode Hattora, c. 1. sect. 1. (f) Cosri, par. 3. sect. 23. fol. 159. 2. (g) Zohar in Gen. fol. 124. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Ver. 15. In the house of God] See here the dignity of the Church, and the duty of ministers, which is to be faithful as stewards in all God’s house. But what mean the Papists so to cry up the Church even above the Scriptures (as the Council of Basil did by their Cardinal Cusanus in answer to the Hussites), nay, above Christ himself, as Hosius and others. Can they mean honestly (quoth that martyr) that make so much of the wife and so little of the husband? Bastard children are all for their mother, and are called by her name, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But if I tarry long - Paul appears to have been uncertain how long circumstances would require him to be absent. He expected to return, but it was possible that his hope of returning soon would be disappointed.

That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself - That is, that he might have just views about settling the affairs of the church.

In the house of God - This does not mean in a place of public worship, nor does it refer to propriety of deportment there. It refers rather to the church as a body of believers, and to converse with them. The church is called the “house of God,” because it is that in which he dwells. Formerly, his unique residence was in the temple at Jerusalem; now that the temple is destroyed, it is the church of Christ, among his people.

Which is the church of the living God - This seems to have been added to impress the mind of Timothy with the solemn nature of the duty which he was to perform. What he did pertained to the honor and welfare of the church of the living God, and hence he should feet the importance of a correct deportment, and of a right administration of its affairs.

The pillar and ground of the truth - There has been no little diversity of opinion among critics whether this phrase is to be taken in connection with the preceding, meaning that “the church” is the pillar and ground of the truth; or whether it is to be taken in connection with what follows, meaning that the principal support of the truth was the doctrine there referred to - that God was manifest in the flesh. Bloomfield remarks on this: “It is surprising that any who have any knowledge or experience in Greek literature could tolerate so harsh a construction as that which arises from the latter method.” The more natural interpretation certainly is, to refer it to the former; and this is supported by the consideration that it would then fall in with the object of the apostle. His design here seems to be, to impress Timothy with a deep sense of the importance of correct conduct in relation to the church; of the responsibility of those who presided over it; and of the necessity of care and caution in the selection of proper officers.

To do this, he reminded him that the truth of God - that revealed truth which he had given to save the world - was entrusted to the church; that it was designed to preserve it pure, to defend it, and to transmit it to future times; and that, therefore, every one to whom the administration of the affairs of the church was entrusted, should engage in this duty with a deep conviction of his responsibility. On the construction of the passage, Bloomfield Rosenmuller, and Clarke, may be consulted. The word “pillar” means a column, such as that by which a building is supported, and then any firm prop or support; Gal 2:9; Rev 3:12. If it refers to the church here, it means that that is the support of the truth, as a pillar is of a building. It sustains it amidst the war of elements, the natural tendency to fall, and the assaults which may be made on it, and preserves it when it would otherwise tumble into ruin.

Thus it is with the church. It is entrusted with the business of maintaining the truth, of defending it from the assaults of error, and of transmitting it to future times. The truth is, in fact, upheld in the world by the church. The people of the world feel no interest in defending it, and it is to the church of Christ that it is owing that it is preserved and transmitted from age to age. The word rendered “ground” - ἑδραίωμα hedraiōma - means, properly, a basis, or foundation. The figure here is evidently taken from architecture, as the use of the word pillar is. The proper meaning of the one expression would be, that truth is supported by the church. as an edifice is by a pillar; of the other, that the truth rests “on” the church, as a house does on its foundation. It is that which makes it fixed, stable, permanent; that on which it securely stands amidst storms and tempests; that which renders it firm when systems of error are swept away as a house that is built on the sand; compare notes on Mat 7:24-27.

The meaning then is, that the stability of the truth on earth is dependent on the church. It is owing to the fact that the church is itself founded on a rock, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it, that no storms of persecution can overthrow it, that the truth is preserved from age to age. Other systems of religion are swept away; other opinions change; other forms of doctrine vanish; but the knowledge of the great system of redemption is preserved on earth unshaken, because the church is preserved, and because its foundations cannot be moved. This does not refer, I suppose, to creeds and confessions, or to the decisions of synods and councils; but to the living spirit of truth and piety “in” the church itself. As certainly as the church continues to live, so certain it will be that the truth of God will be perpetuated among people.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The pillar and ground of the truth. By the promises of Christ to direct his Church by the infallible spirit of truth; (see John xvi. 7; Matthew xxviii. 20; &c. (Witham)) and therefore, the Church of the living God can never uphold error, nor bring in corruptions, superstition, or idolatry. (Challoner) --- That the Church, the pillar and ground of truth, is to be conducted by the constant superintendence and guidance of the Holy Spirit into all truth to the consummation of days, every one whose mind is not strangely prejudiced may easily discover in various places of the inspired writings.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

I do not know how God will dispose of me, though I hope shortly to see thee, and therefore I have written to direct thee how in the mean time thou shouldst carry thyself in the affairs of the church, which I have committed to thee, which is a matter of great moment; for the people which constitute the church of him who is not like the gods of the heathens, a dead man consecrated and made a god, nor a being without life, like their images, but one who hath life in himself and from himself, is

the house of God, a people in and amongst whom he dwelleth, and amongst whom he is worshipped; and of whom he hath a great care, and for which he hath a great love, Christ having died for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, Eph 5:26; and which (as a man doth by his house) he is daily enlarging, beautifying, and adorning with the graces of his Holy Spirit, that (as there, Eph 5:27) he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Which church is the pillar and ground of the truth, στυλος και εδραιωμα. We want a good English word whereby to translate the latter of the two words in the Greek, which possibly hath advantaged the great contests about the sense of this text. It comes from εδρα, which signifieth a star, and a thing to support, and a seat, the place (say some) in which the idol was set in the pagan temples. Thence this word εδραιωμα is translated, the underpropper, the establisher, any firm basis upon which a thing standeth or leaneth; so that it is much of the same significancy with the former word, which we rightly translate a pillar, the two things signifying in use the same thing, that which underproppeth and holdeth up another thing, as the pillars do the building, and the basis of the image or statue doth the statue. Pillars also were of ancient use to fasten upon them any public edicts, which princes or courts would have published, and exposed to the view of all; hence the church is called,

the pillar and basis, or seal,

of truth, because by it the truths of God are published, supported, and defended, and in it they are only to be found as in their proper seat and place; for to it the oracles and mysteries of God are committed, and in it they are exposed to the notice and knowledge of all, as public edicts are upon pillars. But neither that saving truth, nor the faith which we give to it, is established upon the authority of the church, (as the Romanists vainly pretend), but upon the authority of God the author of it. The church discovers and recommends the truth, but the testimony it gives is not the foundation of its credibility. The universal church (of which the church of Ephesus, over which Timothy had a charge, was a genuine part) is, in the sense before expressed, the pillar and supporter, or seat, of truth.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. If I tarry long—So that the letter was a proviso against his failing to come soon, or ever.

Behave thyself in the house of God—The word behave unfortunately suggests to the ordinary reader the idea of personal deportment; it really designates Timothy’s official management in governing the Church, in doctrine, ordinations, and administration, according to the directions thus far by Paul prescribed.

House of God— Huther objects that if Timothy’s personal management is here intended, then the house of God must mean the Church of Ephesus. Undoubtedly it does. Timothy and the Church of Ephesus are solely here meant, and the whole epistle and all its contents are applicable to other cases only by fair inference. And so it is with a large share of the New Testament. The rule in the immediate case is placed on record for future application to future cases. Huther well notes that the term house of God is the original designation of the temple, Mat_21:13 : thence applied to the Church of the Old Testament, Heb_3:2-5; now to the Church of the New Testament in which God dwells, Heb_3:6; 1Pe_4:17. Synonymous is Eph_2:22, habitation of God, and 1Co_3:16, and 2Co_6:16, temple of God.

Church of the living God—Emphatic explanation of the previous phrase.

Living God—A solemn and impressive epithet; used, perhaps, to distinguish Jehovah from the lifeless Diana of Ephesus.

The pillar and ground of the truth—That St. Paul should, after having called the church a house, then make it but a pillar, has been decried by some critics as a very tasteless anti-climax. And to avoid this objection some very forced interpretations have been invented; as for instance, the making pillar apposition with thou, and identical with Timothy. But this criticism fails to appreciate St. Paul’s purpose in this rapid change of figure. The Church, as the sphere within which Timothy is to administer, is a house; but as a bulwark against the invasion of the errorism predicted in the next verses, it is a pillar and basis. The Church is hereby the pillar and ground, not merely of truth, nor of the truth, as the gospel generally, but of the truth beautifully summarized in the next verse, the truth of the incarnation, against which the errorists of 1Ti_4:1-3 are assailants.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Men ought to behave themselves for thou oughtest to behave thyself, A.V To behave thyself (ajnastrefesqai); variously rendered, both in the A.V and the R.V, "to have one"s conversation," "to live," "to pass (one"s time)," "to be used". (Heb_10:33) It is literally "to go up and down" a given place, "backwards and forwards," hence "to dwell in it." The substantive ajnastrofh, in the thirteen places where it occurs in the New Testament, is always rendered "conversation" in the A.V; in the R.V, "manner of life," "life," "issue of life," manner of living," behaviour," "living." It is a favorite word in the two Epistles of St. Peter, where it occurs eight times. The house of God. This phrase here denotes, as it is explained in the following words, the Church on earth. So Heb_3:6, Christ as a Son over his house; whose house are we," where the reference is to Num_12:7, My servant Moses... is faithful in all mine house." The Church of the living God. Here is again a somewhat remarkable resemblance to the phraseology of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God... to the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn". (Heb_12:22, Heb_12:23) However, the phraseology is not peculiar to the Epistle to the Hebrews. Thus we read in, 2Co_6:16, Ye are the temple of the living God." The phrase, the living God," occurs seven times in St. Paul"s Epistles, and four times in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It occurs three times in the Gospels, once in the Acts of the Apostles, and once in the Revelation. Here it is used by St. Paul to enhance the obligation to a holy and blameless walk in those who have the oversight of his Church. The pillar and ground of the truth. Some apply these words to Timothy himself (Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, and others cited by Alford) after the analogy ofloi), Gal_2:9, where James, Cephas, and John are said to be "pillars" (stu andlon) Rev_3:12, where it is said of him that over-cometh, "I will make him a pillar (stu) in the house of my God." And so, in Venantius Fortunatus, St. Paul is called "stilus ille." But the metaphors of "a pillar" and "a foundation" do not all suit the verb ajnastrefesqai; and it is well argued that the absence of the pronoun se is unfavorable to the application of "the pillar and ground of the truth" to the subject of the first clause. It is therefore better to understand this clause as descriptive of the Church of God. The Church is the pillar of the truth. It supports it; holds it together binds together its different parts. And it is the ground of the truth. By it the truth is made fast, firm, and fixed. The ground (eJdraiwma). This word only occurs here at all; eJdraiov, common both in the New Testament, the LXX, and in classical Greek, means "fixed," "firm," or" fast." In the A.V of 1Co_7:37 and 15:58, "steadfast;"na), Col_1:23 (where it is coupled with teqemeliwme) "settled." Thence eJdraiow in late Greek, "to make firm or fast," and eJdraima, the "establishment" or "grounding" of the truth; that in and by which the truth is placed on a sure and fixed basis.

HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM Ver. 15.

Behavior in church.

thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God." "Behavior" seems a commonplace word enough, and we often assign it a subordinate place in religion. It is, however, a word large as "character." It is a vocabulary in itself. It is not "do" havior, but "be" havior! What I do may be accidental; what I am is everything. Paul has been addressing pastors, deacons, women professing godliness, and wives. He has dealt with marriage, and the ruling of children; and now he speaks to the Church about the conduct of men in church.

WHAT IS BEHAVIOR? A man"s behavior reveals much of what he is. Earnest or frivolous; gentle or hard; forgiving or unforgiving; selfish or generous; pitiful or censorious; appreciative or unthankful. Behavior is an every-hour sermon. It corrects the notion that a man"s religion is mainly in his doctrine or opinions, his ritual or ceremonial. Manners are not to be put on like a garment, nor can we masquerade in them and pretend to be what we are not. Bending the knee is nothing, if we are not reverent at heart. A gift is nothing, unless given from love. Prayer is nothing, unless our life is a prayer. Praise is nothing, unless our life be a garment of praise. Manners are not etiquette, nor best dresses, nor courtesies of speech; they are the expressions of a life. In this aspect their potency is wonderful. In church we are to behave well; not to give ourselves airs, as rich, or learned, or superior people, but to remember that we are bought with a price. But behavior is not much thought about. There is an idea that some men are good at heart, though they are brusque, if you knew how to approach them. This is nonsense. The flower does not wait for me to unfold it; it does not say, "If you knew how to tempt my kindness, I would give you fragrant incense." It is a flower everywhere, to everybody. W.M.S.

What "Church" means.

the house of God, which is the Church of the living God." The idea of what the Church is, is to regulate what our behavior is. The word "church" comes from the Greek words Kurios oikos. These two words abbreviated make "church" or "kirk.

I IF IT BE THE CHURCH OF GOD, IN OUR BEHAVIOUR THERE MUST BE REVERENCE. Reverence is at the root of all religion. Flippancy of manner, indevoutness of heart, will destroy the best service. We read the old command, "Ye shall reverence my sanctuary, saith the Lord;" and wherever we meet together, even in the humblest church, "the Lord is in his holy temple," and we are to "keep silence" or "be reverent" before him.

II BEHAVIOUR MEANS LIFE. It is the Church, not merely of the God of Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, but of the living God. We do not build temples as monuments of a past glory. Christ said, "Do this in remembrance of me." Before his departure he said, "I go away and come again;" and wherever two or three are gathered together in his Name, there he is in the midst of them. This Church of God is further described as the pillar, or ground and stay, of the truth; that is to say, that no sacred books will preserve religion without a sacred life. Men may answer an argument or adopt a theory, but the victory of the early Church was won by the Church"s life or behavior. "See how these Christians love one another." Learn, then, the great lesson, that behavior is everything. "How unblamably we behave ourselves," says Paul to the Thessalonians. "I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way," says the psalmist. W.M.S.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That thou mayest know how to behave - This is the scope of the epistle. In the house of God - Who is the master of the family. Which is - As if he had said, By the house of God, I mean the church.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Ver. 15. But if I should tarry, [the things have been written] in order that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to conduct thyself in God’s house, which indeed is the church of the living God, the pillar and basement of the truth. The expression rendered, how thou oughtest to conduct thyself (δεῖ ἀναστρέφεσθαι), has sometimes been taken in a more general sense: how men ought to conduct themselves, such as have to do generally with the management of God’s house (so, for example, Huther). It might, no doubt, be understood in this manner; but it seems better to retain the special reference to Timothy: for, while many of the things written in the preceding portions of the epistle had respect to the conduct which men generally, especially men holding office in the Christian church, ought to maintain, their more immediate object was to instruct Timothy how he should himself act in the delicate and responsible position he was for the time called to fulfil at Ephesus. But even on the understanding that the special reference is to Timothy, such a rendering as this might fitly enough be given: how one ought to conduct oneself; but the other is simpler, and is to be preferred.

God’s house, which indeed is the church of the living God—οἴκῳ θεοῦ, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἐκκλησία Θ. ζῶντος; the latter clause epexegetical of the former, defining more exactly what is meant by God’s house. The indefinite relative ἥτις is in such a connection stronger than the simple relative, being employed “to introduce an especial attribute belonging to the nature of the object, its real and peculiar property, or differentia” (Jelf, Gr. § 816, 7; Ellicott on Gal 4:24): the house of God, namely that which is—or, which indeed is—the church of the living God. There was a necessity for this definition, as in former times the expression “house of God” had been much associated with the material fabric of the temple, which was, in a sense that nothing of like sort could be in the gospel dispensation, the habitation or dwelling-place of Deity (2Ch 5:14; Isa 56:7; Mat 21:13). But even in Old Testament times, the more enlightened believers understood that the temple, with its sacred furniture and services, was an emblem of God’s fellowship with His people, who therefore were then, as now, the only proper habitation of God on earth: hence such passages as Num 12:7, Isa 66:2; and those in which habitual communion with God is identified with dwelling in His house, Psa 23:6, Psa 27:4; or having God Himself for a sanctuary and dwelling-place, Psa 90:1, Eze 11:16. There was a mutual indwelling—they in God, and God in them. But, in accordance with the spiritual character of the new dispensation, this truth is brought out more distinctly now, and that, too, in earlier parts of Scripture than in the passage before us. Thus, in Eph 2:20-22, the church, as composed of believing Jews and Gentiles, is represented as a glorious building, raised on Christ as the foundation: an holy temple in the Lord, or habitation of God through the Spirit. A quite similar representation is given in 1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 4:17, and again in Heb 3:6, where, with reference to Christ as a Son in His own house, it is added: “Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” In these passages, the house, temple, or habitation of God is plainly associated with individuals, the individuals addressed by the apostle, contemplated as in living union with Christ; and in the strict sense it can only be predicated of such that they are God’s house; for in their case alone is there the real link that connects the human with the divine—the spiritual habitation with the glorious inhabitant. It is the church as the ecclesia of God, His elect, whom He has called out of the world and gathered into His fold, that He may sustain and keep them unto life eternal. But here, as in many other passages, the apostle does not use the word in this absolute sense; he uses it of the outstanding, organized communities of believers, viewed as the concrete realization, in this or that particular locality, of the spiritual or ideal body. This is what every one of such communities is called to be, though in reality it might be so but in part. He holds it, as it were, to its idea: if it was worthy of the name, it was God’s house, a living community of saints pervaded by the presence of the living God; and hence, the pillar and basement of the truth (στῦλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας): for, as so connected with God, it necessarily holds and bears up in the world, that with which His name and glory are peculiarly identified—the truth as it is in Jesus.

Some have sought to connect these last words, not with what precedes, but with what follows—with the mystery of godliness (so Episcopius, Mosheim, Bengel, Rosenmüller, and others, chiefly rationalistic expositors of more recent times). This, however, is against all probability, and is rejected by the great body of interpreters. It would form a most abrupt and artificial commencement were the terms pillar and basement made to begin a fresh sentence: “Pillar and basement of the truth, and confessedly great is the mystery of godliness! “Not only so, but to couple such specific terms first with a quite general epithet, great, and then with an object, mystery of godliness, which does not properly suit them (for with what propriety could a mystery be called a pillar?), would only be justifiable if it were impossible to find a more appropriate connection. But so far is that from being the case, that to regard them as a description of the church in her destination to maintain and exhibit before the world the testimony of divine truth committed to her keeping, is in itself a perfectly natural representation, and in accordance with what we elsewhere read of the calling of the church. Was it not the special calling of Christ Himself to bear witness to the truth, and by doing so to become the Light of the world? But in this Christ was only in a pre-eminent degree what in a measure His people, individually and collectively, should also be found. They should be, and they are, while stedfast to their profession, a basement whereon the truth may securely rest amid all the fluctuations of the world, and a pillar to bear it aloft, that all may know and consider it.

There has been a disinclination in certain quarters to acquiesce in this mode of interpretation, because of its supposed tendency to play into the hands of the Church of Rome. It is, no doubt, one of the passages on which Rome seeks to ground her claim to universal homage as the one church of Christ; but it is no more suitable to her purpose than the promise to St. Peter in Mat 16:18; only by arbitrary distinctions and vain assumptions can either the one passage or the other be made to favour her pretensions. Here, in particular, where the church is set forth as the pillar and basement of the truth, it is a test we have to deal with, as well as a claim to consider. For the truth is not of the church’s making, but of God’s revealing: she has it, not as of her own, but from above; and has it not to alter or modify at her own will, but to keep as a sacred treasure for the glory of God and the good of men. And if she should anyhow corrupt or lose hold of this truth, she so far ceases to be the house of God; for she now does that part to the devil’s lie, which ought to have been done exclusively for the sure word of God. Nor is it too much to suppose such a thing possible with a considerable portion of the professing church. It was so, we know, with by much the most pretentious section of the Jewish community before the time of Christ; and the apostle has elsewhere informed us, that in the Christian church also there was to be a great apostasy, a mystery of iniquity working under the cloak of a Christian profession, in consequence of which many should be given up to believe a lie (2Th 2:3-11). Rightly understood, therefore, this passage determines nothing for Rome, or for any church which rests its claim to apostolicity on historical descent. The grand test is, does she hold by the truth of God? Is she in her belief and practice a witness for this? Or does she gainsay and pervert it?

It is rather strange that Chrysostom, while he applies the description to the church, inverts the order of the relation it indicates between the truth and the church: the church of the New Testament, he says, “is that which possesses in itself the faith and preaching, for the truth is both the pillar and the basement of the church (ἡ γὰρ ἀληθεία ἐστι τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα).” Theodoret is better, for he expressly calls the company of the faithful who compose the church the pillar and basement of the truth: “for they continue stayed and settled upon the rock, and by active operations (διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων) preach the truth of the doctrines.” Not a few of the Fathers, however (see in Suicer at στύλος), referred the passage to Timothy, misled by other passages in which the designation of pillars is applied to persons occupying prominent positions in the church: so also, in recent times, Conybeare, and Stanley (Apostolic Age, p. 121). According to this view, the whole sentence would run thus: “That thou mightest know how thou oughtest to conduct thyself in the house of God, [so as to be therein] a pillar and basement of the truth.” No grammatical objection can be made to this construction; only, for so specific a meaning the sentence is too indefinitely expressed. We should certainly have expected, as urged by Alford, the personal pronoun after δεῖ (δεῖ σε), and also the article with στύλος, so as to make: how thou oughtest to conduct thyself, who art the pillar, etc. Besides, while the term pillar might fitly enough be applied to Timothy, as it is to other individuals (Gal 2:9; Rev 3:12), the other term, basement, is not elsewhere so applied, nor was it strictly applicable to such a person as Timothy,—an evangelist appointed for a short period to execute a definite commission for the churches in and around Ephesus. It were to say more of him, indeed, than is said of Peter and the other apostles, who are simply represented as foundation-stones of the visible church. For in this case the church presents itself as an organized institution, rising up to view in the world, and obtaining an outstanding existence, through the faith and labours of the apostles, who therefore stand to it in die relation of founders. But the truth itself, to which that church owes its distinctive character, and which it is called to preserve and manifest, cannot justly be said to have any individual basement, save in Him who is the very truth in everlasting and embodied fulness. It is quite improbable that the apostle should have designated his “child Timothy” by what is so peculiarly characteristic only of Christ. As to Stanley’s objection to the other and more common interpretation, that “it is against the whole tenor of the passage to describe the same object first as a building, and then as a part of that building,” this arises from the complex nature of the object represented, as requiring to be contemplated sometimes in a collective, sometimes in an individual aspect; and the same sort of interchange between the one and the other occurs in other passages, as at 1Pe 2:4-5, where believers are at once regarded as living stones of the spiritual house, then the house itself, and again as a holy priesthood offering up sacrifices within it.

We hold, then, that the description here given with reference to the truth is to be understood of the church—of the church primarily in the higher sense, the church of the redeemed, and of particular communities only in so far as they possess the more essential characteristics of the other. The church in that respect is God’s instrument of working. He does not (to use the words of Calvin) “personally descend from heaven to us, nor does He daily send angels for the purpose of promulgating the truth; but He uses the ministry of pastors, to whom for this very end He has granted ordination. To express myself more strongly: Is not the church the mother of all saints?—regenerating them by the word of God, rearing and training them throughout their whole life, establishing and carrying them onward, even to their proper maturity? And for the same reason also she is designated a pillar of the truth, since the office of imparting spiritual instruction which God has committed to her is the sole provision for preserving the truth, so that it do not perish from the minds of men. Therefore this eulogium is to be referred to the ministry of the Word, which, being taken away, would leave the word of God to fall,—not as if it were in itself infirm, and needed to be borne up on the shoulders of men, as the Papists impiously talk; but on this account only, because if the doctrine of the gospel were not continually sounded forth, if there were no godly ministers who by their preaching kept the truth from falling into oblivion, lies, errors, impostures, superstitions, and all forms of corruption, would forthwith usurp the kingdom.”

It were wrong to quit the subject without noticing, however briefly, the elevated view which the passage under consideration presents of every church that properly deserves the name: “The house of the living God! The pillar and basement of the truth! “When one really takes in this sublime conception of the church of God, how little can anything of a merely adventitious or carnal nature add to its greatness! Let it be admitted that the friendly cooperation or temporal support of worldly powers might, within certain limits, enable her more promptly and successfully to work out the ends of her appointment; yet to raise her to a nobler position and enhance her real glory, this is not theirs to give. The palace differs from other dwellings in the land, and ranks proudly above them all; not, it may be, on account of its finer structure and more beautiful surroundings, but simply as being the seat and habitation of royalty. And such precisely is the distinguishing characteristic of the church of Christ, wherever situated, and whatever its external accompaniments: it is the palace of the Great King, where He is ever graciously present, and dispenses life and blessing to the members of His spiritual household. How careful, therefore, should these members be to maintain its proper character! How careful, especially, to stand in the truth, which alone makes the church what it is as a region of light and blessing!

Three things are essentially necessary to this. 1. That those who bear rule in the church possess only ministerial, not absolute authority—serve while they rule. 2. That God’s word be taken as their one grand directory of faith and practice in God’s house. God’s word must reign paramount: it is the statute book of the kingdom. 3. And then, lastly, the pervading character of all pertaining to it must be holiness; for holiness is the sum of God’s moral perfections, “therefore holiness becometh His house for ever.”

Patrick Fairbairn — An Exposition of Ezekiel (1851), Jonah (1849), and The Pastoral Epistles (1874) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 8

THE CHURCH, GOD’S FAMILY

15. “I write these things to thee, hoping to come to thee more speedily.” Evidently Paul’s plan was to spend the oncoming winter at Nicopolis in Southern Macedonia, and return to Asia the ensuing spring. This he never did; but saw Timothy no more till they met in bright glory. Instead of spending the winter at Nicopolis, he was arrested, carried to Rome, and

incarcerated in that filthy old Mamertine prison; out of which he was led to Nero’s bar, and thence to the executioner’s block. “But if I delay, in order that you may know how to deport yourself in the family of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” The Greek, oikos, so frequently in the New Testament translated “household,” is the regular word for family. It is used constantly in reference to Abraham, who never owned a house, but spent his life in a movable tent; “house of Abraham,” simply meaning his family. The apostolic Churches had no houses, and never built any till A.D. 150. Since the devil turned on the Church such a flood of idolatry—i.e., ecclesiolatry; i.e., Church worship—I sometimes think it would have been better if the Church never had built a house. Let the edifice burn down, and the pastor defraud the bank and run off, the whole congregation feel they have no religion, and surrender to the devil. Here it says “at the house of God;” i.e., the family of God, not the building—for they had entrusted none—the Church of the living God. So, if you want to know whether you are in the true succession of the apostolic Church, you have but one question to settle: Does the Spirit himself bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God? If you can answer this question solidly in the affirmative, you can shout down all the pretentious hierarchies and ecclesiastical tyrants in all the ages intervening between you and Paul’s sermon on the Areopagus. Here we see positively revealed the identity of the apostolic Church with God’s family. We also have the affirmation that the Divine Ecclesia—i.e., the New Testament Church—is the “pillar and support of the truth.” Hence, we see the immeasurable responsibility, the illimitable enterprise, and the ineffable glory of the holiness people, as the only true and faithful custodians of the truth in all the world, on whom God can depend to preach it unequivocally and unreservedly, fearlessly of men and devils. We can not depend on the creed-bound and priest-ridden Churches to do this work, so grand and noble that the archangels would vacate their thrones to enjoy the privilege. The holiness people, though identified more or less with all of the various Churches, are the only people in the world who take the Bible as their only authority in all matters appertaining to the kingdom of grace and glory, unencumbered by human creeds and uninspired authorities. Let any others go out preaching, and they will mix up their creeds and humanisms with the gospel. Hence, the latitudinous and longitudinous opportunities and responsibilities of the holiness movement. The Churches became so corrupt that God could no longer rely on them to proclaim his unadulterated truth to all the world. Hence, he called out, and is still calling, his true and humble saints of all nationalities, sects, and races, and separating them unto himself, that he may make them the faithful custodians of his truth revealed in the Bible, and send them out to preach it to every nation. Consequently he is raising up great armies of evangelists in every land and nation, to carry this gospel to the ends of the earth. We have this glorious heavenly treasure in these frail earthen vessels. The available material is so scarce, in proportion to the demand, that God will take you without regard to age, sex, or race, if you will only meet the conditions; i.e., come out of the world and separate yourself unto him, so he can manage you in his own way.

16. “Confessedly great is the mystery of godliness.” It is certainly great, for that mystery is none other than the Incarnate God-man, who came in the lowly manger, and was nailed to the cruel cross to redeem you and me from sin, death, and hell, and is coming again in glory unspeakable to redeem the world, taking the devil out of it, judging the wicked, and inaugurate his glorious millennial kingdom. “Who was manifested in the flesh.” The incarnation of Christ in his first advent is the great centralizing event of the world’s history the last six thousand years, fulfilling the old dispensation, and inaugurating the new. “Was justified in the Spirit.” Christ needed no justification from sin, but he was abundantly justified in the sense of approval by the Holy Ghost, who descended on him in the form of a heavenly dove when John at the Jordan consecrated him to his official Messiahship, speaking aloud, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” thus filling him for the great work of preaching his gospel to the world. “Was seen of angels.” They called the shepherds from the fields of Bethlehem to recognize him in the manger; meanwhile hovering over him, they sang their song of triumph. They ministered to him after the devil’s temptations, accompanying him in all his earthly life, one hundred and twenty thousand gathering over Mount Calvary, administering comfort and anxious to interpose in his rescue. “He was preached among the Gentiles.” Christ was truly the herald of the gospel to all nations during his first advent, verifying all the types and shadows of Levitical restriction, and unfurling the banner of his redeeming love to all the nations of the earth. “Was believed on in the world.” While haughty Jew and warlike Roman alike rejected the incarnate Christ, diabolically uniting in his crucifixion, he was not left without witnesses, many true hearts having believed on him in his peregrinations through Galilee and Judea. “Was received up in glory;” not into glory as R.V. reads, as if he had to go up to heaven to receive his glory. But the Greek says, He received it right there on Mount Olivet when his body was transfigured, eliminating mortality, and rising, ascending triumphantly into heaven amid the contemplative multitude. The moment his feet vacated the summit of Olivet, he entered the glorious transformation, then and there receiving again the glory which he had with his Father before the world began. Thus invested with his transfiguration glory, leaving the world, he ascended up to heaven.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. But if I tarry. In that case he wrote that Timothy might understand how to act. Behave thyself in the house of God. Conduct thyself in the management of the church. Which is the church of the living God. The house of God is not the temple of Diana, which stood there at Ephesus. The pillar and ground of the truth. The church is the pillar and support of the truth because it preaches it to the world, preserves it, and transmits it from generation to generation.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

15. After δεῖ, some Western authorities (followed by the Latin Vulgate) insert σε; but its insertion is due to a misconception of the meaning. See note in loc.

15. πῶς δεῖ ἐν οἴκῳ θεοῦ ἀναστρέφεσθαι, how men ought to behave themselves in God’s household. This is the general subject of chaps. 2 and 3; and the insertion of σε after δεῖ (see crit. note), or the limitation of the words to Timothy (how thou oughtest to behave thyself &c.), is quite misleading. On οἷκος θεοῦ see note on 1Ti 3:5 above; cp. also 2Ti 2:20. No stress can be laid on the absence of the definite article, which is used but sparingly throughout the Pastorals.

ἥτις, quippe quae, explanatory of οἷκος θεοῦ.

ἐκκλησία θεοῦ ζῶντος. The term ἐκκλησία, representing the קָהָל of the O.T., has, like its Hebrew original, a double meaning, sometimes being used for the local Christian congregation, sometimes in the larger sense of the new Israel in covenant relation with God. Thus God’s household which indeed is the Ecclesia of the living God is the assembly of the faithful, baptized into the Threefold Name. ἡ ἐκκλησία τοῦ θεοῦ is a frequent expression of St Paul’s (cp. 1Co 10:32; Act 20:28 &c.).

We have the phrase the living God again in ch. 1Ti 4:10; cp. Deu 5:26; 2Co 3:3; 2Co 6:16 &c. It may perhaps point a contrast with the idols of the heathen, such as Artemis of Ephesus; but (more probably) it emphasises the continuous providence of God in the guidance of His Church: He is not to be conceived of merely as the Supreme Being, but as the Heavenly Master Whose care is over all His family.

στῦλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀλ., a pillar and stay of the Truth. Here, the absence of the definite article seems to be deliberate. The Church is not the pillar of the Truth, for the Truth has other supports in conscience and in Scripture; but the Church, and every local branch of the Church, is a pillar and stay of the Truth. Without such external aids, such permanent witness, the Truth itself might be endangered. And such a conception of the Church justifies the minuteness of the injunctions that have been given in chaps. 2 and 3; whatever contributes to the dignity of the Church’s worship and to the worthiness of the Church’s ministers, in so far is a strengthening of the majesty of the Truth[529].

[529] The expression στῦλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας has been referred by some, not to the Church, but to Timothy himself, on the grounds that στῦλος is generally applied to persons in the N.T. (Gal 2:9; Rev 3:12), and that the Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne (Eus. H.E. v. 1. 6) speaks of the martyr Attalus as στῦλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα, with an evident reminiscence of this passage. But if στῦλος καὶ ἑδρ. κ.τ.λ. here referred to Timothy, we should certainly expect accusatives, and farther the full phrase is far stronger than στῦλος by itself, too strong, indeed, to be used of any single individual. The expression, as used of Attalus, is a quotation and a somewhat loosely applied quotation; its occurrence in the Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne cannot be taken as ruling the interpretation of the verse before us.

ἐδραίωμα is not found elsewhere in the Greek Bible, but St Paul has ἑδραῖος several times (1Co 7:37; 1Co 15:58; Col 1:23). It seems to mean bulwark or stay (Vulg. firmamentum) rather than ground or foundation, the sense usually assigned to it here.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. πῶς δεῖ] Picking up 3:2, 7.

ἐν οἴκῳ θεοῦ] Picking up 3:4, 5, 12, and therefore not “God’s house,” but “God’s family”; cf. Tit 1:11, 2Ti 1:16, and Eph 2:19 οἰκεῖοι τοῦ θεοῦ: Gal 6:10 τῆς πιστέως. The reference to 3:5 makes it almost certain that the allusion is not to the universal family, to the Church as a whole, but to the special community at Ephesus.

ἀναστρέφεσθαι (“conversari,” Vulg.) includes the life and character of each individual (cf. Eph 2:3, Heb 13:18, and ἀναστροφή, Gal 1:13, Jas 3:13, and instances from papyri in M.M. s.v.); but also the intercourse of each member with other members, of men with women (c. 2), of parents with children, of ministers with those to whom they minister (c. 3); cf. Hort on 1 P 1:7. “He wishes Timothy to have before him an outline of the relation which must exist between the various parts of a congregation or household of God” (Ramsay).

The subject of ἀνσατρέφ. might be σε (which is found in a few MSS and Fathers), “how you ought to behave,” as the οἰκόνομος in the household, but the general character of cc. 2-3 makes it almost certain that it should be wider, “how men ought to behave,” “that you may know the right relation of class to class.” 4:12 shows that it will include Timothy himself as well as those to whom he is to be a model.

ἐκκλησία] Possibly (as in Eph.) the Universal Church throughout the world; but 35 decides that the primary allusion is to the Church at Ephesus as a separate congregation, though thought of as part of the larger whole; cf. Bengel, “Ecclesiam innuit universalem, non universe, sed quatenus pars ejus turn erat Ephesi, commissa Timotheo,” and Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, pp. 172-75. This increases the dignity attached to each Christian Church and therefore a fortiori to the whole Ecclesia which incorporates them.

Θεοῦ ζῶντος] Perhaps with semi-conscious contrast to heathen gods, cf. 1Th 1:9, 2Co 6:16; but emphasizing the thought that a God of life can give life and make such intercourse possible, cf. 4:10, 6:13, and perhaps the thought that He is alive to punish those who fail to live the true life, cf. Heb 10:31: so “a contrast with the true God made practically a dead Deity by a lifeless and rigid form of religion” (Hort, u.s.).

στύλος] The origin of the metaphor is not quite clear: if στύλος is used of the Universal Church, it would be drawn from some one pillar standing alone and holding up to view a statue (such as was afterwards “Pompey’s pillar” at Alexandria). If, however, it is applied to a local church or an individual (v. next note), the thought will be of one of a row of pillars which support and give strength to the whole fabric, like one of the many pillars in the temple of Artemis at Ephesus: there will be no sharp distinction between it and ἑδραίωμα. This is the more probable, the combination of the two words being common. According to Lightfoot (Horœ Hebr., The Temple, c. 22), it was applied to the great Sanhedrin by the Jews; by R. Levi, to the reference to the Exodus in the Paschal precepts, “quia fundamentum id magnum sit et columna valida legis ac religionis Judaicæ” (Bengel).

ἑδραίωμα (“firmamentum,” Vulg.), that which makes steady, stay, buttress, rather than base; cf. Col 1:23 τεθεμελιωμένοι καὶ ἑδραῖοι: 1Co 15:58 ἑδραῖοι γίνεσθε.

στῦλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα] Four views have been held of the construction—(i) In apposition with ἐκκλησία.

(ii) In apposition with the nominative of εἰδῇς.

(iii) In loose ungrammatical apposition with θεοῦ (Holtzmann)

(iv) To be joined with καὶ ὁμολ. μέγα as nominative to ἐστι.

Of these (iii) and (iv) may be put aside. (iii) is unnecessarily artificial, and gives an inadequate description of the living God. (iv) though defended by Bengel, leads to an anticlimax, στ. καὶ ἑδρ. καὶ μέγα, and is tautological, “the secret of godliness” is not the support of the truth, but the truth itself. In favour of (ii) it is to be said that στῦλος is used generally of individuals in the N.T. (Gal 2:9, Rev 3:12): that the combination of the same or similar words is also so used (cf. Eus. H.E. v. 1 of Attalus, στῦος καὶ ἑδρ. τῶν ἐνταῦθα; Justin M. Tryph. 5, Πλατῶνα καὶ Πυθαγόραν, οἳ ὥσπερ τεῖχος ἡμῖν καὶ ἔρεισμα φιλοσοφίας ἐγένοντο: Greg. Naz. Ep. 29, of Eusebius, στ. καὶ ἕδρ. τῆς ἐκκλησίας, πατρίδος ἔρεισμα), and it suits the context— “I want you to know, … because you are in position to uphold and support the truth,” cf. 1:18, 6:20. Yet the stress of the preceding chapters has been more on what the Church than on what Timothy is to be, and this is decisive for (i). Each local Church has it in its power to support and strengthen the truth by its witness to the faith and by the lives of its members. A very full note on the usage of the words will be found in Suicer, Thesaurus, s.v. στῦλος.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I tarry long [βραδυνω] . Only here and 2Pe 3:9.

Thou oughtest to behave thyself [δει αναστρεφεσθαι] . The verb ajnastrefesqai only here in Pastorals. In Paul, 2Co 1:12; Eph 2:3. The reference is not to Timothy's conduct as the A. V. impliest but rather to the instructions which he is to give to church members. Rend. how men ought to behave. See on conversation, 1Pe 1:15.

House of God [οικω θεου] . An O. T. phrase, used of the temple. More frequently, house of the Lord [κυριου] ; see 1Ki 3:1; 1Ki 6:1; 1Ch 22:2, 11; 1Ch 29:2, etc. Applied to the church only here. Paul has oijkeiouv thv pistewv Hebrews householders of the faith (Gal 6:10), and oijkeioi tou qeou householders of God (Eph 2:19), signifying members of the church. Christians are called naov qeou sanctuary of God (1Co 3:16, 17; 2Co 6:16); and the apostles are oijkonomoi household stewards (1Co 4:1). So of a Bishop (Tit 1:7). See also Heb 3:6.

Church [εκκλησια] . See on 1Th 1:1.

Pillar and ground of the truth [στυλος και εδραιωμα της αληθειας] . Stulov. pillar, in Paul only Gal 2:9. In Rev 3:12; Rev 10:1. Edraiwma stay, prop, better than ground. N. T. o. o LXX, o Class. The kindred adjective eJdaiov firm, stable, 1Co 7:37; 1Co 14:58; Col 1:23. These words are in apposition with church. 106 The idea is that the church is the pillar, and, as such, the prop or support of the truth. It is quite beside the mark to press the architectural metaphor into detail. By giving to eJdraiwma the sense of stay or prop, the use of the two words for the same general idea is readily explained. The church is the pillar of the truth, and the function of the pillar is to support. 107

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.