1 Timothy 3:14,15 – Behaving in God’s house

These things I am writing to you, though expecting to come to you more quickly, yet, if I should be tardy, that you may be perceiving how one must behave in God’s house, which is the ecclesia…

From the scant information about the time this letter was written (see 1:3), we suggested that this letter may have been written during the two years in Ephesus (see Acts 19:10) or after the two years of captivity in Rome ( Acts 28:30). One thing is certain: Paul hoped to meet Timothy again soon in Ephesus. But if this meeting were to be delayed, Timothy knew what to do in the meantime. And not only himself, but also the supervisor and the servants about whom he was written.

It is not without significance that the ecclesia is called “God’s house” in this letter and not “the body of Christ.” This is a personal letter in which Timothy is given the task of putting things in order in a specific place (Ephesus) and had to appoint a supervisor and servants. The image of a house in which it is normal for rules to be set and enforced fits here. Hence, both the supervisor and the servants qualified by good leadership in their own homes (3:5). Order also reigns in God’s house, the ecclesia. Divine order.

Delen: