1 Timothy 3:15
April 27, 2025
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L. John Bost
I Want To Be a Worker for the Lord – Dallas Adult Christian Concert Choir
Introduction
The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:14-16:
I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; 15 but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
In the immediate context, Paul has been outlining the requirements for one to become an elder or a deacon. Here, he says he is writing these things now in case he is delayed in coming to them, as he hoped to do shortly.
The fact that he writes a letter to discuss these things and other things shows how important the topics of the letter are.
In this article, I want to discuss what Paul says in verses 15-16 in this article. Paul says in verse 15:
I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
The New American Standard Updated Version, and some others, read, “household of God.” The King James Version, and some others, reads, “house of God.” “House of God” is correct – believers are God’s house because God dwells in them.
Paul writes in Romans 8:9-11:
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
The Spirit of God dwells in us.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” He writes in Ephesians 2:19-22:
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Household in v. 19 is from a different Greek word than the word translated house and household in our text – this one (oikeios {oy-ki’-os}), means “belonging to a house or family [that is] belonging to one’s household, related by blood, kindred,” according to Vine. In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul uses oikos {oy’-kos}, which Vine defines as “household.”
Paul says we are a “habitation of God,” a building fitted together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.
So, we are the house of God. God dwells in us. That is a very serious matter!
Which Is the Church of the Living God
Paul writes in Ephesians 1:22-23:
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
The church of the living God is the body of Christ over which He is the head. As Coffman comments, “…he is the head of that community of men and women on earth called “the church” who are his body, his spiritual body, having an intimate and eternal connection with the all-powerful One who is actually the “head” of that spiritual body.
The church is the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Paul writes in Ephesians 5:23:
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
Those who are in the church are in Christ.
Paul tells us how one gets onto Christ. He writes in Galatians 3:27, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
Christians are in Christ. Variables of the prepositional phrase, in Christ, occur about 200 times in the New Testament. In Christ, 90 times; in Jesus Christ, 2 times; in Jesus, 10 times; in Him, 97 times = 199 times in the New Testament. Paul uses the phrase 126 times in his writings: In Christ, 86 times; in Jesus Christ, 2 times; in Jesus, 5 times; in Him, 33 times=126 times in Paul’s writings. He uses the phrase in the book of Ephesians 22 times: In Christ, 13 times; in Jesus Christ, 0; In Jesus, 1; in Him, 8=22 times in Ephesians.
Again, variables of the phrase, in Christ, occur 199 times in the New Testament.
So, those who are in the church are in Christ.
Paul says it is the “church of the Living God – not the Lutheran church, or the Baptist church, or the Methodist church, or the Wesleyan church, or the Seventh Day Adventist church – the church of the Living God.
The Pillar and Support of the Truth
Vine defines the Greek word translated as, pillar, “a column supporting the weight of a building.” In this case, it is a “column supporting the weight of the truth.” Vine continues, “…of a local church as to its responsibility, in a collective capacity, to maintain the doctrines of the faith by teaching and practice.” Read that again, “To maintain the doctrines of the faith by teaching and practice.”
Timothy lived in Ephesus, which was the location of the temple of Artemis, the Greek goddess of wild animals, the hunt, vegetation, chastity, and childbirth; the Romans identified her with Diana (Ephesian Tourism and DMC). (A slew of versions read Diana, but she was actually Artemis’ Roman counterpart, the goddess of woodlands, wild animals, hunting, and fertility – Myths and Legends).
Paul may be alluding to the temples of the Greek goddess Artemis, which were in Ephesus. It was constructed around the 8th century BCE and boasted an impressive collection of Ionic columns. Estimates suggest that there were approximately 127 columns, each towering at a height of about 60 feet (Temple of Artemis: Discovering the Ancient Wonder of Ephesus).
These columns supported the massive roof of the temple.
On the one hand, there was the temple of the heathen goddess supported by the huge columns.
On the other hand, there is truth supported by the church. a. As Coffman stated, “Inherent in this is a comparison with paganism, or rather a contrast, thus: Church of the living God, not the temple of the dead idols!” (Paul uses two words to describe the support of the truth by the church – pillar and support, both meaning essentially the same thing).
How does the church serve as the pillar and support of the truth?
1. By Faithfully Living by the Truth, Thus Ensuring That the Truth Is neither Perverted nor Lost.
As Albert Barnes states:
The meaning then is, that the stability of the truth on earth is dependent on the church. It is owing to the fact that the church is itself founded on a rock, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it, that no storms of persecution can overthrow it, that the truth is preserved from age to age.
Matthew Henry comments:
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.
2. By Sharing the Word With the World.
Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:2-3:
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Jesus told the apostles in Mark 16:15-16:
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.
In Matthew’s parallel passage, Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said:
All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Paul would write later, in 2 Timothy 2:2:
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
We see, then, that it is the Lord’s will that His people share His word with others. In this way, we do our part in ensuring that the church, the house of the Lord, serves as the “pillar and support of the truth.”
How We Ought to Behave Ourselves in the House of God
How ought we to behave in the house of God?
Let us see what Paul says in his second letter to Timothy – 2 Timothy 1:13-14. Paul writes:
Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
NASU
Notice what the apostle says. He says, “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me.” (KJV reads, Hold fast the form of sound words….). He continues, In the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Next, he says, Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
Retain and Guard
Please read Paul’s words in Hebrews 3:1-6. Christ was faithful as a Son over His house. We are God’s house if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. Vine says the word translated, confidence means, “to be very bold, to speak out boldly.” Thayer defines the word:
Freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech… 2 free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage…3 the deportment by which one becomes conspicuous or secures publicity…
Paul says that Christ was faithful as a Son over His house, and we are God’s house if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
Confidence
Luke tells us in Acts 4:13:
Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them [k]as having been with Jesus.
Peter and John were brought before Annas, the High Priest, Caiaphas, the former high priest, and all the priestly family. They were called in question because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. The whole thing started when Peter had healed a lame man.
Peter told the priests in Acts 4:10:
…let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health.
He concluded, Acts 4:12:
And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
In verse 13, Luke tells us:
Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.
That is the kind of confidence that a Christian should have – one that does and says what is right no matter to whom he is speaking and what the consequences may be for doing it!
Boldness
Paul wrote to the church at Philippi:
…according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
Paul was in prison in Rome when he wrote this!
The word translated, boldness here is the same word translated confidence in Hebrews 3:6:
Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
Those in the house of God must behave themselves with boldness!
Living Stones
Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:4-5:
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is [i]choice and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, [j]are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Coffman writes:
The figure of the spiritual temple of God is continued in this; just as Christ is the living stone, so also are the Christians. And why “living”? Because the Lord is the living One, and the life-giving One, the same yesterday, today, and forever. As members of Christ’s spiritual body, Christians partake of the same nature as their Lord, and they too are “living stones,” endowed with a measure of the Spirit which shall raise them up at the last day.
Willingness to Suffer as Christ Suffered
Paul wrote to the church at Colossi in Colossians 1:24:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
Those in the house of God must be willing to suffer, even as Christ suffered!
The Apostles List Numerous Attributes the Christian Must Add to His Life
Please read Colossians 3:12-17, 2 Peter 3:10-18, and Philippians 4:4-7. In these passages, the apostles Paul and Peter list numerous attributes that the child of God must display in his life. I urge you to read these passages carefully and apply these attributes to your life! These are attributes that one will display in his life as he properly behaves in the house of God.
Conclusion
A fitting conclusion to our discussion of how one ought to behave himself in the household of God, the pillar and support of truth, might be Paul’s words in Philippians 4:8-9:
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Endnotes
Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage.
Ephesian Tourism and DMC. Temple of Artemis: Discovering the Ancient Wonder of Ephesus. https://ephesiantourism.com/temple-of-artemis/.
Kerr, C.M. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online.Caiphas.https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/C/caiaphas.html.
Barnes, Albert. StudyLight.org © 2001-2025.Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/bnb/1-timothy-3.html.
Coffman, James Burton. StudyLight.org © 2001-2025. Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/bcc.html
Henry, Matthew. StudyLight.org © 2001-2025.Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/mhm/1-timothy-3.html.
Vine William Edwy. StudyLight.org © 2001-2025. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of NT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ved.html
Merriam-Webster.https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context.
Myths and Legends.Diana.http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Cr-Dr/Diana.html.
Youtube.Dallas Adult Christian Concert Choir. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8QQ9xSGnHA.
