1 Timothy 3:15

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.

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the {7} house of God, which is the church of the living God, the {i} pillar and ground of the truth. (7) The pastor always has to consider how he carries out his duties in the house of the living God, in which the treasure of the truth is kept. (i) That is, with regard to man: for the Church rested upon that cornerstone, Christ, and is the preserver of the truth, but not the mother.

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, Ephesians 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, Ephesians 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, stulov kai edraiwma. 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 edra, 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 edraiwma 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.

1 Timothy 3:15 . Ἐὰν δὲ βραδύνω , but if I tarry long ) Comp. ch. 1 Timothy 4:13 , at the beginning.— ἵνα , that ) The scope of the epistle.— πῶς δεῖ , how it is becoming ) comp. ch. 1 Timothy 4:11 .— ἐν οἴκῳ Θωοῦ , in the house of God ) God is ὁ δεσπότης , the Master , 2 Timothy 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; 2 Timothy 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. 1 Timothy 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 2 Corinthians 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 1 Timothy 3:14-15 , the apostle evidently concludes the former paragraph, which began at 1 Timothy 3:1 , and was brought down to this point, and he now commences a new paragraph, which is continued in ch. 1 Timothy 4:1 in so close connection, that the old interpreters, according to R. Stephanus and others, reckoned a seventh chapter of this epistle from 1 Timothy 3:16 , inclusive, to ch. 1 Timothy 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. 1 Timothy 3:1 and ch. 1 Timothy 4:9 , in which passages, for very much the same reason, the sentence is begun thus, πιστὸς ὁ λόγος , without καὶ .

I tarry long (βραδύνω) Only here and 2 Peter 3:9. Thou oughtest to behave thyself (δεῖ ἀναστρέφεσθαι) The verb ἀναστρέφεσθαι only here in Pastorals. In Paul, 2 Corinthians 1:12; Ephesians 2:3. The reference is not to Timothy's conduct as the A.V. implies but rather to the instructions which he is to give to church members. Rend. how men ought to behave. See on conversation, 1 Peter 1:15. House of God (οἴκῳ θεοῦ) An O.T. phrase, used of the temple. More frequently, house of the Lord (κυρίου); see 1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 6:1; 1 Chronicles 22:2, 1 Chronicles 22:11; 1 Chronicles 29:2, etc. Applied to the church only here. Paul has οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως Hebrews householders of the faith (Galatians 6:10), and οἰκεῖοι τοῦ θεοῦ householders of God (Ephesians 2:19), signifying members of the church. Christians are called ναὸς θεοῦ sanctuary of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 3:17; 2 Corinthians 6:16); and the apostles are οἰκονόμοι household stewards (1 Corinthians 4:1). So of a Bishop (Titus 1:7). See also Hebrews 3:6. Church (ἐκκλησία) See on 1 Thessalonians 1:1. Pillar and ground of the truth (στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας) Στύλος pillar, in Paul only Galatians 2:9. In Revelation 3:12; Revelation 10:1. Ἑδραίωμα stay, prop, better than ground. N.T.o. olxx, oClass. The kindred adjective ἑδαῖος firm, stable, 1 Corinthians 7:37; 1 Corinthians 15:58; Colossians 1:23. These words are in apposition with church.

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 ἑδραίωμα 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.