The church of Christ as the Pillar & Ground of the Truth
The church of Christ As the Pillar and Ground of the Truth
Bro Ong Eng Boon | 1 September 2025 | Restoration Seminar | 1 Timothy 3:14–15
The focus of most of 1 Timothy 3 is on leaders of the church : elders and deacons (3:1-13) but towards the end of the chapter, it seems that Paul changed the subject:
14 These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; 15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Paul informs Timothy that he hopes to visit him in Ephesus shortly as we read earlier in 1 Timothy 1:3 that the apostle was going off and heading towards Macedonia. In the event that he is not able to make the trip back to Ephesus on time, he wants the young evangelist and the church at Ephesus to have some knowledge of how people ought to behave themselves as Christian and also entrusting the young preacher to put certain matters in order.
Paul always made plans especially for his travel during his missionary journeys. A phrase that always on his lips was “if the Lord wills.” He told the Corinthians, “19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills” (1 Cor. 4:19). In his epistle to the Romans, he has this to say about his desire to visit them, “10 making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you” (Rom. 1:10). Such an attitude is surely behind 1 Timothy 3:14,15.
Did Paul make it back to Ephesus? We do not know. This letter which was written by Paul and in it rightly contained all the instructions to Timothy and the church in Ephesus regarding what needed to be done in his absence.
The Task and Charge Given (3:15a)
Our texts begins with “but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God” (15a).
The word “ought” indicates that which is “necessary,” that which “one must” do and has to “do.” But the question is: Ought to do what?
Paul was to telling Timothy how he ought to conduct/behave oneself as a member of God’s church; in effect, to tell the congregation at Ephesus how they should behave as members of God’s church.
If you read the book of 1 Timothy, Paul gave instructions regarding how to behave towards protecting the truth from false teachers through teaching (1 Tim. 1:1-20); further he gave instructions of protecting the truth through scriptural worship (1 Tim. 2:1-15) and subsequently you come to how to protect the truth through scriptural leadership (1 Tim. 3:1-13) and up to this stage, Paul is putting emphasis protecting the truth through doctrinal purity (1 Tim. 3:14-4:16). Additional instructions follow in the remaining two chapters of 1 Timothy with protecting the truth through the treatment of others (1 Tim. 5:1-6:2) and protecting the truth through Godly Living (1 Tim. 6:3-21).
Three Familiar Terms (3:15b)
No matter where Paul was, he always had in his heart for the church. He regarded the church as more important than anything else in his life. His love for the church is worth learning from and here he used three designations for the church.
First, the church is identified as “the house of God.” The word translated house was used metaphorically by Paul to refer to one’s family (1 Tim. 3:4-5; 12; 2 Tim. 1:16; Eph. 2:19).
We are born into this family via the new birth (John 3:3,5). In the family, we called upon God as our Father (Matt. 6:9) and Jesus is our elder brother (Rom. 8:16,17,29; Heb. 2:11). We are all children of God (1 Jn. 3:2), brothers and sisters in Christ (1 Tim. 4:6; Jas. 2:15). As members of the family, we are to love each other (1 Jn. 3:23) and care for one another (1 Cor. 12:25).
Like all of us, Timothy was a member in the house of God which is the church also indicates that God planned it (Eph. 3:10,11), He gave his Son to purchase it (Acts 20:28), and he indwells it (Eph. 2:19-22). Therefore, Timothy was responsible for the way he conducts himself in the house of God or the church.
Second, Paul next used the phrase “the church of the living God.” Paul had earlier written a letter to the church at Ephesus with a strong emphasis on the church (Eph. 1:22; 3:10, 21; 5:22-32). The term “church” (ekklesia) is found only a few times in this letter in 1 Timothy 3:5, 15; 5:16) with significance.
Paull often called the church “the church of God.” This time, he added the word “living”: “the church of the living God.” Living means “be alive physically, full of vitality.” The opposite of living is dead. Can you recall that in the letters to the seven churches in Asia, Sardis was known as a “dead” church and the church at Laodicea was probably half alive, half dead and being termed “lukewarm” in nature.
Paul was perhaps contrasting God with the lifeless images worshipped in Ephesus. Remembered Paul said that Christians in Thessalonica had “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God” (1 Thess. 1:9). As a living God, God is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist (Acts 17:27,28).
Third, Paul spoke of the as “The Pillar and ground of the Truth.” The terms pillar and ground identified the part of a building which served as its foundation and support.
When Paul characterised the church as a “pillar and ground of the truth,” he may have the imagery from the temple of Artemis in Ephesus (Acts 19:35), which had one hundred plus pillars holding up the massive, marble roof. If a distinction is to be made between the church as the “pillar” of the truth and the “ground” of the truth, “pillar” probably has to do with holding the truth high (so all may see and admire it), while “ground” probably has to do with holding the truth firm (so that it remains unshaken). To put it in another way, “pillar” relates more to the propagation and proclamation of truth, while “ground” has more to do with the protection and preservation of truth.
The church is obligated to support the “truth.” It is ridiculous to claim, as some today do, that no one can know the truth.”
If such were the case, then no one could know, that no one can know, truth and the very denial would be an absurdity on the face of it. Paul wants Timothy to know that :
“The church has been entrusted with the truth; the conduct of the false teachers has been an abandonment of the truth.
[3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, 4 he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, 5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself] (1 Tim. 6:3-5).
[16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, 18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some] (2 Tim. 2:16-18).
[8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was] (2 Tim. 3:8-9).
[3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables] (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
Thus, it is important that Timothy not only stop the false teachers (1:3-11) but get people “back in touch with the truth.”
In this passage, “the truth” is, collectively, the doctrinal and moral truths of Christianity revealed by God and recorded by inspired men – that is, the New Testament. Remember, in one of Jesus prayers to God, He said, “17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (Jn. 17:17). If you remember at the trial of Jesus by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, Jesus declared that He came into the world to “bear witness unto the truth” (Jn. 18:37) to which Pilate response, “what is truth?” was probably sarcasm, or perhaps indifference.
Likewise, the postmodernist of today claim that we cannot know the truth and there is no objective standard of truth. Clearly the Roman governor and the postmodernist was not seeking to know the truth. But Jesus said, “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” To hear His voice was to know and follow the truth. Christ further gave the assurance in John 8:31-32 “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He furthered declared in John 14:6 that “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
According to Jesus, TRUTH can be KNOWN and men could know the truth well enough that they could OBEY it.
Peter clearly says this in 1 Peter 1:22-23, “22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”
Paul wrote to compliment the church in Thessalonica in 1 Thess. 2:13, “13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”
They had been taught the gospel. They had understood that the message was not the word of men but instead it is the truth from God. Is the message difficult to understand? No, it was taught to them in words, plain words in ordinary human language. They have been given facts, which they obey. There were instructions, which they had obeyed and became brethren in the church of God.
Jesus Christ is the full embodiment of grace and truth. He was in the beginning the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God (John 1:1). He was then born, came into the world, as the incarnation of grace and truth.
“14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
“17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:18).
In his third epistle the apostle John wanted to know that those Christians he had converted and nourished in the faith would continue walking in the truth. “For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. 4I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 John 3-4) So, the Christian not only wants to know the truth, but seeks to walk, or live consistently, according to the truth.
The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. It is our “prime directive” to pursue, practice, proclaim, preserve, and protect the word of God! This obligation rests upon the entire church – not just preachers! All of us need to recognize our personal obligation in this matter, then only the church will grow; and truth will have its fullest impact in the world.
Works cited
1. Before I Die ( Pages 103-108) - Wayne Jackson
2. 1, 2 Timothy & Titus, Part 2 (Pages 31-33) - Truth for Today, Eddie Cloer
