Christ and His Shepherds Use the Law Lawfully

Commemoration of St. Timothy,

Pastor and Confessor

January 24, 2016

1 Timothy 1:8

Christ and His Shepherds Use the Law Lawfully

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Timothy was taught how to be a pastor by his mentor, Paul. I always thought that an interesting name for our congregation when it was established 50 years ago this year would have been St. Timothy Lutheran Church because of the father-and-son connection that Paul spoke of in his letters to Timothy.

This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight (1 Timothy 1:18)

Paul loved Timothy as his own son. He trusted Timothy as a fellow pastor and urged him to preach Christ to the worst of sinners. And that included Paul himself. As he taught Timothy how to be a pastor, Paul wrote:

But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. (1 Timothy 1:8-11)

Our immediate reaction is to ignore this section. One hears the foul and disgusting sins―and dare-I-say “lifestyles”―mentioned here and most of us immediately say, “Nothing to see here. That's not me. That's not my problem.”

But indeed, it is. Only perfectly righteous holy people can skip this part of Christ's words. Can you skip this damning Law? Only liars would try to. And we are liars. So we try. But Jesus stops our wagging tongues with some of His other words from Paul's pen.

[A]s it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;

There is none who understands,

There is none who seeks for God;

All have turned aside, together they have become useless;

There is none who does good,

There is not even one.”

“Their throat is an open grave,

With their tongues they keep deceiving,”

“The poison of asps is under their lips”;

“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;

“Their feet are swift to shed blood,

Destruction and misery are in their paths,

And the path of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:10-20)

The Law that damns the lawless sinner is for us. And this is why Paul was telling Timothy to preach the Law to both unbelievers and believers. This preaching of the Law to believers is lawful because we always need to be shown our sin. Without the Law showing us our sin, we would always ignore our need for our Savior from sin. This Law and Gospel, our sin exposed and Jesus' cross revealed, is the good fight that Paul kept talking about several times in his letters.

Timothy's temptation, and the temptation for every pastor, is to preach the Law to “bad people,” but to remain silent about sins when speaking to his believing congregation. This can turn into a bashing of the people who aren't a part of our congregation and a self-congratulatory pep talk to his own flock.

No, the Law is for unbelievers and believers. Let's briefly explore a sin that plagues the Christians of our own congregation.

What of the sin that many Christians commit when they refuse to gather together on Sunday morning with their fellow sinners to receive Christ and His promise of forgiveness? Christ told Peter, and all pastors, to feed His sheep. This means pastors are to baptize sinners, to preach forgiveness to them, and to give them His true body and blood.

Since wise and faithful pastors assume that all the souls under their care are believers, they have the responsibility to go out and find the missing sheep of the flock. These sheep might wander by our green pastures once or twice a year. Other sheep of our congregation never come.

So faithful shepherds go out and find them and speak to them. They speak Christ to those who are ashamed to come to church because they think they aren't worthy to receive Christ's forgiveness. For these harassed and desperate sheep the shepherd will only speak Gospel to them: “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

But pastors will at times find stubborn sheep. They consider themselves very worthy, good people who don't really need Jesus and His forgiveness. To them they will only hear the Law. The pastor speaks of their sinful pride not to crush them to eternal death, but just the opposite: to crush them of their illusion of goodness, so that they will turn to the only One who is good, Jesus.

So pastors go out like shepherds among the sheep. They go to them and encourage them to come and hear the preaching of Christ and receive His Sacrament. If the members in questions cannot come to church on Sunday, the pastor will make arrangements to bring church, really Christ, to them.

This is what Pastor Timothy and his congregation did out of love for stubborn souls; this is what we must do also. To go out to our own people and bring them Jesus. If they tell us to go away, then we recognize the situation as it stands and pray that they repent and trust Jesus.

The Law is good and lawfully because it leads us to Christ, sometimes gently, sometimes roughly. Timothy knew the Law and so he knew his sin; by grace and preaching of Paul he knew his Savior Jesus who baptized him and washed his sin away. And then Jesus used Timothy to do the same good work for many others.

Let us pray.

Dear Good Shepherd, give us good men to be shepherds in Your church and to shepherds in Your homes. Strengthen the spines and hearts of our pastors and fathers so tha they might apply the Law and the Gospel to themselves first of all and then to those over whom You have given them the greatest responsibility on the face of the earth. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21