1 Timothy 4

Put these things before the brothers: the warning of 4:1–5 is not for Timothy’s private notebook. A good servant of Christ Jesus is nourished in the words of the faith and in the good doctrine he has already followed.

Serving well is handing on what you have received, not inventing a brand. Training is ongoing; followed is already a history of grace embraced.

A good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of good doctrine: Calvin heard a servant fed by the same gospel he serves.

Put these things before the church. Doctrine already followed is still to be set out. The minister is a steward, not a source.

Refuse irreverent, silly myths—speculative tales that feel religious and starve godliness. Train yourself: Wesley’s exercise thyself unto godliness. Holiness is not accidental.

Grace that is resistible is also grace that must be used. Training is cooperation with the Spirit, not self-salvation. Myths are a counterfeit workout.

Refuse profane and old wives’ fables; exercise unto godliness: Calvin opposed curious tales with disciplined piety.

Godliness is God’s work in the believer, and the believer is commanded to train. Means of grace are not optional hobbies. Myths are rejected because they are not God’s Word.

Bodily training has some value; godliness has value in every way—this life and the life to come. Wesley: profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

Godliness is not grim postponement. Present life is already promised good, and the life to come is not a maybe. Train because both horizons are packed with promise.

Bodily exercise profits a little; godliness is profitable unto all things: Calvin kept the comparison without despising the body.

Godliness carries promise now and later because God is faithful, not because training purchases heaven. The life to come is secured in Christ; present piety is its fitting walk.

The trustworthy saying formula returns (as in 3:1). Full acceptance: do not half-receive the promise of v. 8.

Both camps can sit here without a fight. The saying is God’s, to be taken whole.

Faithful is the saying, worthy of all acceptation: Calvin treated the formula as a seal on what precedes and what follows.

Full acceptance is the church’s amen, not a bargaining posture.

We both labor and suffer reproach, because hope is set on the living God. Savior of all men, especially of those who believe: Wesley heard the living God who is willing that all should be saved, and in a special sense the Savior of believers.

All is not a cipher for the elect. God is Savior toward all—sufficient provision, sincere willingness—and believers are those who actually receive that salvation. Especially marks the difference between offered rescue and embraced rescue, not between a secret few and a pretended all.

Savior of all men, especially of those that believe: Calvin denied that all includes the reprobate as saved. All denotes men of every kind and rank, or God’s common kindness toward all, and a peculiar salvation for believers.

God is Preserver of all creatures and Redeemer of the elect. Especially of those who believe names the only ones for whom Christ is Savior in the saving sense. Universal language here is not universal atonement as Arminians preach it; it is God’s wide providence and a gospel that goes to all sorts, with actual salvation restricted to those given faith.

Command and teach: Timothy is not only to model; he is to speak with authority these things—the doctrine of 4:1–10.

Teaching is a means of grace for hearers who can still receive or refuse. Command is pastoral courage, not a personality cult.

These things command and teach: Calvin heard an apostolic charge with teeth.

The same gospel is both taught and commanded. God uses the minister’s mouth as a means; the authority is Christ’s.

Youth is not a license to be ignored, and not an excuse to be unserious. Example in speech, conduct, love, faith, purity: Wesley’s let no one despise thy youth is answered by a life that cannot easily be despised.

Love, faith, and purity are graces to be exercised in public. Timothy’s age is fenced by holiness, not by bluster.

Let no man despise thy youth: be an example of the believers. Calvin located the cure for contempt in a visible pattern, not in demanding respect.

Speech, walk, love, faith, purity are the minister’s first sermon. God often uses a young servant; the servant must not give despisers easy material.

Until I come: public reading, exhortation, teaching. The church’s gathered diet is Scripture read aloud, then pressed and taught. Wesley: give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.

The public Word is how God ordinarily converts and builds. Devote yourself is a minister’s labor, offered to hearers who must still receive.

Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine until I come: Calvin made the public Scripture the spine of the wait.

God addresses His people by the read Word and by teaching that stays tied to it. Exhortation is not a substitute for reading; it rides on it.

A gift given by prophecy with the elders’ hands: Timothy must not neglect what was recognized and conferred in the church. Hands and prophecy do not replace the Spirit; they mark His giving in the open.

Gifts can be neglected. Grace is not a stored battery that runs without use. Lay hold; stir up; the laying on of hands was a moment in a council.

Neglect not the gift that is in thee, given by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery: Calvin treated the gift as God’s, recognized by the church’s act.

The hands do not create the gift; they attest it. Neglect is still possible as a ministerial sin, and the warning is a means God uses to keep His servant at the work.

Practice, immerse, so that all may see your progress. Growth is meant to be visible, not advertised as a brand.

Sanctification is change over time, cooperated with, seen by the church. Immerse yourself is the opposite of a gift left on a shelf.

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all: Calvin wanted progress that the flock can actually see.

God grants increase, and the minister is told to sink himself into the work. Visible progress encourages the church that the same grace is at work in them.

Watch yourself and the teaching; persist. In doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you: Wesley took the double watch as the minister’s path of salvation and of saving others through the gospel he handles.

A sound life with unsound doctrine, or sound doctrine with a neglected life, both ruin. Persist because falling away is a live danger, and because hearers may be saved through a watched ministry. Salvation here is not a minister meriting heaven; it is God using means—self-watch and true teaching—toward Timothy and toward the flock.

Take heed to thyself and to the doctrine; continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee: Calvin refused to let the verse become a minister’s self-salvation by works, and still let the means stand.

God saves His people through a watched life and watched doctrine. Yourself and your hearers names instrument, not meritorious cause. Persistence is commanded because this is how the Savior of v. 10 ordinarily keeps pastor and people.