1 Timothy 3:14

3:14-16 The church is the house of God; he dwells there. The church holds forth the Scripture and the doctrine of Christ, as a pillar holds forth a proclamation. When a church ceases to be the pillar and ground of truth, we may and ought to forsake her; for our regard to truth should be first and greatest. The mystery of godliness is Christ. He is God, who was made flesh, and was manifest in the flesh. God was pleased to manifest himself to man, by his own Son taking the nature of man. Though reproached as a sinner, and put to death as a malefactor, Christ was raised again by the Spirit, and so was justified from all the false charges with which he was loaded. Angels ministered to him, for he is the Lord of angels. The Gentiles welcomed the gospel which the Jews rejected. Let us remember that God was manifest in the flesh, to take away our sins, to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These doctrines must be shown forth by the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.

{6} These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: (6) Paul purposing to add many particular things pertaining to the daily office of a pastor, speaks first a word or two concerning his coming to Timothy, that he should be so much the more careful, lest at his coming he might be reproved of negligence.

1 Timothy 3:14-16 . These things — Concerning the character of persons fit to be intrusted with the office of bishops or deacons; I write, hoping to come to thee shortly — It seems evident from hence, that Paul intended to have come back to Timothy at Ephesus in a little time, but was providentially called another way; but, as Doddridge observes, it can by no means be concluded from hence that Paul wrote this epistle to Timothy after his imprisonment at Rome. But if I tarry long — If I am hindered from coming, I give thee these instructions in the mean time; that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself — That is, how to discharge thy office properly; (which is the scope of the whole epistle;) in the house of God — In which thou hast the honour to bear so high an office, even in that house, or family, which is the church of the living God — Where he is worshipped in spirit and in truth by his believing people, manifests his special presence, and bestows peculiar blessings. The tabernacle first, and afterward the temple, obtained the name of the house or habitation of God, because there the symbol of the divine presence resided, 1 Samuel 1:7 ; Matthew 21:13 ; Matthew 23:38 . But under the gospel dispensation no material building or temple is called the house of God. That appellation is given only to the church of God, or to those societies of men who profess to believe in Christ, and join together in worshipping God according to the gospel form.

The pillar and ground — Or support, as εδραιωμα signifies; of the truth — That is, of the whole system of gospel truth. “Some commentators think Timothy is called, in this passage, the pillar and support of the truth, for the same reason that Peter, James, and John are called pillars, ( Galatians 2:9 ,) and that the particle ως , as, should be supplied before these words, and the clause translated thus: That thou mayest know how thou ought to behave thyself, as the pillar and support of the truth in the church, of the living God. But, not to insist on the harshness and irregularity of this construction, it must be observed, that seeing the interpretation of the passage hath been much contested, a word, which entirely changes the apostle’s meaning, should by no means be inserted in the text on mere conjecture, because in that manner the Scriptures may be made to speak any thing which bold critics please.” — Macknight. According to the common reading, the church of God is evidently here called the pillar and support of truth.

I being now in Macedonia, or at Athens, or some parts thereabouts, have wrote to thee whom I left at Ephesus these precepts about the officers of churches, not being sure I shall, but hoping myself soon to come to Ephesus unto thee; which yet he did not, as we read, for he met Timothy at Troas, Acts 20:5 .