1Timothy

Why Creation Matters, Part 12: Pauline Epistles 2

April 9, 2026 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Paul cites Creation theology in three more passages, two of them on the same subject.

1 Corinthians 11.9; 1 Timothy 2.13

In two passages Paul cites Creation as the basis for worship protocols.

⁸For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. ⁹Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man (1Co 11.8-9).

¹³For Adam was first formed, then Eve (1Ti 2.13).

Both of these passages have long and complex interpretational histories, and it’s not my purpose to develop that in a brief blog post. Both passages are addressing proper protocol in a worship service—the first specifically headwear, and the second leadership in the church. In a feminist age, both of these passages are highly controversial.

But the point I’m focusing on here is not at all controversial—or it shouldn’t be. I note, first, that Paul views the creation account as history, as non-fiction; he accepts its historicity outright. And second, Paul determines the appropriate protocols for corporate worship, a contemporary morality, if you will, from that ancient historical account.

It matters.

2 Corinthians 4.6

⁶For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s citation of Creation in this context feels almost off-handed. In this chapter Paul is contrasting the permanent, eternal value of spiritual life with the transitory treasures of life in the world. He will eventually write,

Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; ¹⁸While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2Co 4.17-18).

In making this contrast between the seen and the unseen, Paul uses the most logical metaphor, that of light; in his ministry practice he rejects “the hidden things of dishonesty” but manifests the truth (2Co 4.2). A hidden gospel reflects the “blinded” minds of the lost, who cannot see “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” (2Co 4.4).

The greatest need of a blind world, then, is the ability to see the light that is all around them. The fact that God originally spoke light into existence gives us assurance that he can speak a deeper light, a more powerful light, into existence in our inner beings so that we can recognize the light that shines inherently from Jesus Christ, the true light.

Christians argue over how this works. Arminians emphasize the centrality of human responsibility in believing, while Calvinists focus on the moving of God in sovereign grace. The Bible is clear that both factors are important. We will not believe unless God does a work of grace in us, and we must believe; our choice matters.

This passage emphasizes the divine work of turning on the switch. The light is there to be seen; but blind eyes must be given the capacity to see.

How do we know that God can do this?

He’s spoken the original light into existence, and he’s created eyes in Adam and Eve to see it. As we’ve already noted, Jesus replicated that act during his earthly ministry by creating, from clay, functioning eyes for a man who had never had them. He can certainly do it again, creating spiritual eyes to see spiritual light.

Creation matters.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

On Widows in the Church

August 29, 2024 by Dan Olinger 3 Comments

In the Bible James notes that taking care of widows and orphans is at the very heart of true religion (Jam 1.27). Later Paul, in a letter to his protégé Timothy, gives details on how the church should see to that duty (1Ti 5.3-16). His words are perhaps unexpectedly lengthy and detailed; he wants this done right.

Widows with family, he says, should be cared for by their family (1Ti 5.4, 16). That’s sensible. Further, the widow needs to be at least 60 (1Ti 5.9)—presumably because a younger woman would have a reasonable chance of getting married again (1Ti 5.11)—and have lived in a way that demonstrates the genuineness of her faith (1Ti 5.9-10), something that would obligate the church to see to her care.

How does this work in our culture? I’d like to share a story from my experience.

In a church where I was on the elder board, one of the elders got a burden for the widows, something he just couldn’t get out of his mind. We put him in charge of putting something together that would bring some discipline to our approach, particularly so that no one would fall through the cracks of our care.

Soon we had a list of all the widows in the church. There were 35. I was surprised at how many there were. Then an elder and a deacon interviewed each one: how are you doing? What do you need? How can we help?

We were all surprised at what we learned.

We expected to find financial need; that was certainly a primary concern in Paul’s day. There may have been a concern or two in our congregation, but for the most part that was not a problem. They told us that their husbands had had life insurance, and they had enough to live on. Some, in fact, were in better shape financially than they had been when their husbands were alive.

But that is not to say there were no needs. You know what they told us?

“We need purpose. We need to be needed. We need something to do, a reason to get up in the morning. We need to belong.”

Wow.

Two thoughts struck me immediately.

First, we were completely uninformed, misinformed, on the situation in our own church. It was nothing like we thought.

And second, how could we have missed such a serious need?

We took immediate action. We asked the widows to come up with ideas on how they could organize and serve. That would address both the need to belong and the need to be needed.

And their first idea surprised us. They suggested that they clean the houses of new mothers.

I’ll confess that I wasn’t too keen on that idea. Widows are often, um, older than the population median, and were they up to it? Physical labor?

Well, it turns out that living that long helps give a person good sense, and they were wise enough not to take on tasks that would be too much for them. And their time with the new moms gave them opportunity to share mothering wisdom with the first-timers, and they delighted in the chance to hold the newborns and marvel over their little fingers and toes.

It was a win all around. Listening to people, and trusting their good sense and creativity, is a good thing.

I suspect that widows’ ministry will look a little different in every church, but we can be sure that we will give account to whether we have attended to that need.

Do you know what happened next?

That elder? The one with the burden? He died, and his wife became a widow. And she stepped right into a ministry that was ready to help her with grief support, and a need to be needed. Eventually she became the de facto leader of that widows’ ministry, until she remarried some years later.

Isn’t providence good?

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On Biblical Hymns, Part 6: Eternal Glory

December 7, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Christ As Firstborn | Part 3: Every Knee Will Bow | Part 4: Morning Light | Part 5: Manifested, Vindicated

There’s another probable early hymn in 1Timothy; it occurs near the end of the letter and functions as a closing benediction:

He who is the blessed and only Sovereign,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
¹⁶who alone possesses immortality
and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.
To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen (1Ti 6.15b-16).

If you’ve been with this series from the beginning, you may notice here one of the marks of potential early hymns: the passage begins with a relative pronoun referring to God—in this case, the Father, who is distinguished from the Son in 1Timothy 6.13 and who is said in 1Timothy 6.15a to be the one who will bring about the return of Christ (the “appearing,” or “epiphany” in Greek).

The word epiphany is used 6 times in the New Testament, always by Paul, and all but one in the Pastorals (Timothy and Titus). In 2Thessalonians 2.8 it’s associated with “brightness,” and in Titus 2.13 it’s called “glorious.” The word is used only of God’s appearing (never of an ordinary human’s, even a VIP’s), and in secular Greek it’s always used of divine appearances.

Who is the one who will bring this glorious appearing of the God-man to fruition? How shall we describe the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? The opening couplet tells us that he is “the blessed and only Sovereign”: he is in charge of all things, and only he is in charge of all things.

Well, what about earthly kings? How does their sovereignty compare to his? The second line of the couplet gives us the answer: all those kings have a King, and all those lords have a Lord, who is God. In practical terms, there is no other sovereign. He alone is in charge.

We should remember that as Paul writes this epistle, he has appealed to Caesar—specifically Nero—and, after waiting 2 or more years in Rome for a hearing, he has been acquitted and released. (That’s the way I see it, anyway.) Just before or just after the writing of this letter, a fire burns much of Rome, and Nero, apparently to divert popular anger against him, blames the Christians. Driven by his increasing madness, he begins to persecute Christians, throwing them to the lions in the Coliseum and notoriously using them as torches to light his garden parties.

It seems that he can do whatever he wants with Christians, or anyone else under his dominion.

It seems.

But in fact, Paul—who will lose his head to Caesar’s executioners in just a few years—reminds us that things are not as they seem. There is only one God, and he is sovereign over all—even over sovereigns. Over those elected, and those not elected. Over those placed in authority by popular acclaim, and over those who seize power by brute force and rule in cruelty and dishonor.

He is sovereign, appearances be what they may.

The evidences of his sovereignty are inescapable.

First, he lives forever. Nero is dead. Charlemagne is dead. England’s Bloody Mary is dead. Hitler is dead.

And everyone now in power, however great, whether good or evil, will soon, in the grand providence of God, be dead—as will you and I, if the Lord tarries. The mightiest kings of the earth lose their power and are mockingly welcomed to the world of the dead by those who have preceded them (Is 14.3-21).

Only God lives forever. Only he is truly sovereign.

There’s another evidence.

He dwells in unapproachable light—beyond what we humans are even capable of surviving. He is glorious.

I was once lying on a beach—I won’t say where—and along came a man in swim trunks, shirtless, clambering barefoot over some rocks in a jetty. I soon realized that he was a powerful US Senator—and I was struck by how ordinary he looked. No halo, no cloud of glory, no retinue. Just a man, and a fairly feeble one at that.

God is not like that. He has dominion, and he will have it forever, with our consent or without it.

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works.

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you.

Sing.

Part 7: If and Then | Part 8: God and Us

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Biblical Hymns, Part 5: Manifested, Vindicated

December 3, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Christ As Firstborn | Part 3: Every Knee Will Bow | Part 4: Morning Light

The next two hymns in our series appear in the Pastoral Epistles, which were written much later in Paul’s life. The first of those is in 1Timothy 3.16—

By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness:
He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.

Paul introduces this hymn by calling its subject matter “the mystery of godliness.” In the New Testament, a “mystery” is an old truth that is just now (finally!) being revealed. For example, Jesus begins his “kingdom parables” by remarking that he is telling “the mysteries of the kingdom” (Mt 13.11); Paul tells the Romans of the “mystery” that the Jews’ hard-heartedness was foreseen and intended to offer an opportunity for Gentiles to be brought into God’s family (Ro 11.25); he tells the Corinthians that all believers—those alive and those dead—will be transformed at Christ’s return (1Co 15.51). (You should look up the other NT references to “mystery” sometime. It’s a profitable study.)

“Godliness” is perfectly believing in, and following, God. So Paul is saying that in this hymn we’re going to learn—finally—what perfectly trusting and obeying God looks like.

And we shouldn’t be surprised that he then presents Christ to us as that perfect example.

One little technical point. The NASB, which I’ve quoted above, translates the first Greek word of the hymn as “he who.” The KJV translates it as “God.” The difference results from a textual variant, a copying error easily made (ΟΣ vs ΘΣ). If you compare several translations—a very good way to study the Bible—you’ll see that in general the modern ones go with “he who” or something similar.

I don’t think the difference matters much, if at all. Since “he who” has just been described as “the unfolding of perfect godliness,” then Paul is essentially calling Jesus “God” here anyway. Like the vast majority of textual variants, this one need not concern us.

So then. How does Jesus reveal perfect godliness?

Several organizational structures of this hymn have been suggested, but it seems to me to have 3 couplets, or pairs of lines:

He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,

Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,

Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.

The first stanza contrasts “flesh” and ”spirit”; the second, “angels” and “peoples”; and the third, “the world” and the “up in glory.”

What does it all mean?

This one who appeared to us in the flesh—as a human—was perfectly godly in the parts we couldn’t see as well, on the inside. (Yes, I’m taking “spirit” here as a lower-case word, not a reference to the Holy Spirit. Feel free to disagree with me.) He was the real deal, one whose godliness would never disappoint us.

He has been testified to by the heavenly hosts (on the one hand) and proclaimed as Savior to the human hosts, the teeming masses of the nations of the world (on the other hand). Not quite sure what the first clause is referring to—before the incarnation (Is 6.2-3 [Jn 12.41])? At his birth, to the shepherds (Lk 2.13-14)? After his victory over temptation (Mt 4.11)? Whatever Paul intends, it’s clear that the heavenly hosts endorse the Son (Php 2.10; He 1.6).

He has been recognized here on earth by those who “received” him (Jn 1.12), and the worthiness of their trust has been verified by his ascension to the Father (Ac 1.9-11) and reception at his right hand (Ac 7.56; He 1.3-4).

“He who has seen me,” Jesus said, “has seen the Father” (Jn 14.9). We have all the example we need in order to follow God perfectly. We need only look to Jesus (He 12.1-2).

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works.

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you.

Sing.

Part 6: Eternal Glory | Part 7: If and Then | Part 8: God and Us

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash