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 Personal Prophecies Text: “18This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in
accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by
them you fight the good fight, 19keeping
faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered
shipwreck in regard to their faith. 20Among
these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so
that they will be taught not to blaspheme.” 1 Tim 1:18-20 (NASB) The statement was made in a sermon a short while ago that prophecy is a weapon of spiritual warfare, using 1 Tim 1:18-20. Adding 1 Tim 6:12, “12Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses (NASB),” it was said that “we are enforcing the victory of the cross.” Further, based on Rom 10:17, “17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (NASB),” we were told that the “prophetic word brings about faith.” What a misinterpretation of the verse! Are we to get prophecies or words from God and fight our fight of faith by relying on them? Are we in trouble if we do not “fight the good fight” through the “prophecies” we have been given? Do we keep our faith and conscience by depending on these “prophecies?” If we do not, will we also suffer shipwreck with regard to our faith? Is this really what Paul meant when he wrote these words to Timothy? No doubt, 1 Tim 4:14, “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you (NIV),” refers to the same event as 1 Tim 1:18. Wuest quotes Vincent, “The sense of the whole passage is: ‘I commit this charge unto thee in accordance with prophetic intimations which I formerly received concerning thee.’ According to I Timothy 4:14, prophecy has previously designated Timothy as the recipient of a special spiritual gift; and the prophecies in our passage are the single expressions or detailed contents of the prophecy mentioned here.” [1] These “prophecies,” when seen in the light of 1 Tim 4:14, “must be understood in the sense of predictions in some way granted to Paul concerning Timothy before his call to the ministry. It may be parallel to those given to the Antiochene church regarding the missionary vocation of Paul and Barnabas.” [2] These prophecies “seem to have been prophetic utterances that pointed Timothy’s way into the ministry.” [3] If we want to know what the prophecies concerning Timothy were (1 Tim 1:18; 1 Tim 4:14) and what the gift was that was given to him (1 Tim 4:14), then we need to understand who Timothy was and how he fit in the church where Paul left him. Timothy, a native of Lystra, had a Greek father and a Jewish Christian mother (Ac 16:1). Paul invited Timothy to join him on his second missionary journey. Timothy also participated in the evangelisation of Macedonia and Achaia (Ac 17:14-15; 18:5) and was with Paul during his long stay in Ephesus (Ac 19:22). From there he travelled with Paul through Macedonia to Corinth and back to Macedonia and then to Asia Minor (Ac 20:1-6). He may even have gone as far as Jerusalem and was with Paul during his first imprisonment (Phil 1:1; Col 1:1; Philem 1). After Paul’s release (Ac 28), Timothy travelled with Paul but finally stayed at Ephesus to deal with problems there. Paul had a high regard for Timothy since he mentioned Timothy as co-correspondent of six of his letters (2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Philemon). It was during his fourth missionary journey that Paul wrote his first letter to Timothy while Timothy was at Ephesus. It was in this letter (1:3) that Paul instructed Timothy to stay on at Ephesus to take care of the church at Ephesus. Timothy was not an apostle, and neither was he an overseer (“elder” or “pastor”) since he was given instructions concerning overseers (3:1-7) and how to choose them. It may be safe to say that Timothy was an apostolic representative—in this case Paul’s—entrusted to carry out distinctive work. Timothy basically had to perform two major tasks: refute false teaching (1:3, 10; 4:6; 6:3, 20-21) and organise the church in Ephesus (church worship—2:1-15; appointing qualified leaders in the church—3:1-13; 5:17-25; prohibitions on women in ministry—2:9-15). Now, returning to “the
prophecies previously made concerning” Timothy (1 Tim 1:18), in the
context of who Timothy was and his place in the church we can conclude
that these “prophecies” very likely concerned his ministry in the
church, especially in Ephesus. Also, considering 1 Tim 4:14, writing of
“the spiritual gift
within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with
the laying on of hands by the presbytery (NASB),” it would seem that
these “prophecies” and the subsequent gift bestowed on Timothy were
related specifically to his ministry. The fact that the presbytery laid
hands on him seems to point towards his ordination into the ministry. We
see this same type of ordination when Paul and Barnabas were sent off by
the church onto their missionary journeys in Ac 13:3, “3Then,
when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent
them away. (NASB)” Why
would Paul remind Timothy of the prophecies concerning him and that he
must remain mindful of them to strengthen him in his ministry? Timothy
was not the confident person many of us today would claim to be! Paul
had to remind and encourage Timothy not to let anyone look down on his
youthfulness (1 Tim 4:12). Further, in 1 Cor 16:10-11 Paul writes to the
Corinthians that if “Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to
fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord,
just as I am. 11No
one, then, should refuse to accept him. Send him on his way in peace so
that he may return to me. (NIV)” Paul also characterised Timothy as
timid (2 Tim 1:7). Paul furthermore had to encourage Timothy not to
neglect the spiritual gift he had received (1 Tim 4:14), and not to be
ashamed of the gospel but to speak out for the sake of the gospel (2 Tim
1:8). Timothy was specially ordained by Paul and the presbytery for the
ministry described in 1 and 2 Timothy, and for the reason of his
timidity, Paul had to encourage Timothy by reminding him of his
ordination by the laying on of hands and the prophecies spoken
concerning his ministry. The
question now remains, do we in the church today need to hear prophecies
and to fight the good fight by using these prophecies? If we are
prophesied over and do not fight the good fight by them, will we suffer
shipwreck? We have to remember, that just because Paul told Timothy to
do so, especially in light of the special circumstances, does not mean
that we need prophecies to fight the good fight! The only other times
that Paul used the language of fighting
the good fight (admittedly, in 1 Tim 1:18 it literally means “war
the good warfare”), Paul expressly meant for Timothy to fight
the good fight of the gospel (1 Tim 6:12; 2 Tim 4:7). In both cases
when Paul used this language, he meant that he remained true to the
gospel. These
were special circumstances, in that Paul was an apostle and most likely
was the one that prophesied over Timothy. This makes our own situation
different from that of Timothy. The main differentiating point is that
there are no apostles that can prophesy over us today. This makes
Timothy’s situation unique and points to the fact that we cannot claim
like Timothy that we have similar prophecies to fight the good fight. Thus, prophecy is not a weapon in spiritual warfare. Neither is prophecy some “skip start and collect $200” type of fast track in our spiritual walk with God. The only trusted weapon in spiritual warfare is the Word of God, the Bible, and the faithful preaching of the gospel. [1] Wuest, Kenneth S., Wuest’s Word Studies From the Greek New Testament for the English Reader, Volume Two, The Pastoral Epistles, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, Reprinted, January 1979, p37. [2] Guthrie, Donald, The Pastoral Epistles, Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England, Reprinted 1979, p67. [3] Gaebelein, Frank E., General Editor, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 1 Timothy by Ralph Earle, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1978, p356. Copyright © 2004 [Teaching
the Truth]. All rights reserved. Revised: May 05, 2004 .
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