Text -- 1 Timothy 1:17-20 (NET)

1:17 Now to the eternal king, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen. 1:18 I put this charge before you, Timothy my child, in keeping with the prophecies once spoken about you, in order that with such encouragement you may fight the good fight. 1:19 To do this you must hold firmly to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck in regard to the faith. 1:20 Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: 1Ti 1:17

This noble doxology is a burst of gratitude for God’ s grace to Paul. For other doxologies see note on Gal 1:5; Rom 11:36; Rom 16:27; Phi 4:20; Eph 3:21; 1Ti 6:16. White suggests that Paul may have often used this doxology in his prayers. Lock suggests "a Jewish liturgical formula"(a needless suggestion in view of Paul’ s wealth of doxologies seen above). For God’ s creative activity (King of the ages) see 1Co 10:11; Eph 2:7; Eph 3:9, Eph 3:11. @@Incorruptible ( aphthartōi ).

As an epithet of God also in Rom 1:23.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:17

Invisible ( aoratōi ).

Epithet of God in Col 1:15.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:17

The only God ( monōi theōi ).

So Rom 16:27; Joh 5:44; Joh 17:3.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:17

For ever and ever ( eis tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn ).

"Unto the ages of ages."Cf. Eph 3:21 "of the age of the ages."

Robertson: 1Ti 1:18

I commit ( paratithemai ).

Present middle indicative of old and common verb, to place beside (para ) as food on table, in the middle to entrust (Luk 12:48) and used by Jesus as he was dying (Luk 23:46). Here it is a banking figure and repeated in 2Ti 2:2.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:18

According to the prophecies which went before on thee ( kata tas proagousas epi se prophēteias ).

Intransitive use of proagō , to go before. When Timothy first comes before us (Act 16:2) "he was testified to"(emartureito ) by the brethren. He began his ministry rich in hopes, prayers, predictions.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:18

That by them thou mayest war the good warfare ( hina strateuēi en autais tēn kalēn strateian ).

Cognate accusative (strateian , old word from strateuō , in N.T. only here and 2Co 4:4) with strateuēi (second person singular middle present subjunctive of strateuō , old verb chiefly in Paul in N.T., 1Co 9:7; 2Co 10:3). As if in defensive armour.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:19

Holding faith and a good conscience ( echōn pistin kai agathēn suneidēsin ).

Possibly as a shield (Eph 6:16) or at any rate possessing (Rom 2:20) faith as trust and a good conscience. A leader expects them of his followers and must show them himself.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:19

Having thrust from them ( apōsamenoi ).

First aorist indirect middle participle of apōtheō , to push away from one. Old verb (see note on Rom 11:1.).

Robertson: 1Ti 1:19

Made shipwreck ( enauagēsan ).

First aorist active indicative of nauageō , old verb from nauagos (shipwrecked, naus , ship, agnumi , to break), to break a ship to pieces. In N.T. only here and 2Co 11:25.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:19

Concerning the faith ( peri tēn pistin ).

Rather, "concerning their faith"(the article here used as a possessive pronoun, a common Greek idiom).

Robertson: 1Ti 1:20

Hymenaeus ( Humenaios ).

The same heretic reappears in 2Ti 2:17. He and Alexander are the chief "wreckers"of faith in Ephesus.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:20

Alexander ( Alexandros ).

Probably the same as the one in 2Ti 4:14, but not the Jew of that name in Act 19:33, unless he had become a Christian since then.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:20

I delivered unto Satan ( paredōka tōi Satanāi ).

See this very idiom (paradounai tōi Satanāi ) in 1Co 5:5. It is a severe discipline of apostolic authority, apparently exclusion and more than mere abandonment (1Th 2:18; 1Co 5:11; 2Co 2:11), though it is an obscure matter.

Robertson: 1Ti 1:20

That they might be taught not to blaspheme ( hina paideuthōsin mē blasphēmein ).

Purpose clause with hina and first aorist passive subjunctive of paideuō . For this use of this common late verb, see note on 1Co 11:32; 2Co 6:9.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:17

King eternal ( βασιλεῖ τῶν αἰώνων )

Lit. the king of the ages . Only here and Rev 15:3. Comp. Heb 1:2; Heb 11:3. In lxx, Tob. 6:10. For kindred expressions in lxx, see Exodus 15:18; 1 Samuel 13:13; Psalm 9:7; 28:10; 73:12; 144:13; 145:10. See also additional note on 2Th 1:9.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:17

Immortal ( ἀφθάρτῳ )

Lit. Incorruptible . In Paul, applied to God only, Rom 1:23.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:17

Invisible ( ἀοράτῳ )

Applied to God, Col 1:15; Heb 11:27.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:17

The only wise God ( μόνῳ θεῷ )

Wise should be omitted. Rend. The only God . Σοφῷ wise was interpolated from Rom 16:27 - the only instance in which Paul applies the term to God. Comp. Jud 1:4, Jud 1:25; Luk 5:21; Joh 5:44.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:17

Honor and glory ( τιμὴ καὶ δόξα )

This combination in doxology only here and Rev 5:12, Rev 5:13. Comp. Rev 4:9. In doxologies Paul uses only δόξα glory , with the article, the glory , and with to whom or to him (be).

Vincent: 1Ti 1:17

Forever and ever ( εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων )

Lit unto the aeons of the aeons . The formula in Paul, Rom 16:26; Gal 1:5; Phi 4:20. Also in Hebrews and 1 Peter, and often in Revelation The doxology as a whole is unique in N.T.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:18

This charge ( ταύτην τὴν παραγγελίαν )

See on 1Ti 1:5. It refers to what follows, that thou might'st war , etc.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:18

I commit ( παρατίθεμαι )

The verb in the active voice means to place beside . In the middle, to deposit or intrust . Only once in Paul, 1Co 10:27. Comp. 1Pe 4:19.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:18

According to the prophecies which went before on thee ( κατὰ τὰς προαγούσας ἐπὶ σὲ προφητείας )

Const, according to with I commit : which went before is to be taken absolutely, and not with on thee: const. prophecies with on these . On thee means concerning thee. The sense of the whole passage is: " I commit this charge unto thee in accordance with prophetic intimations which I formerly received concerning thee." Prophecy is ranked among the foremost of the special spiritual endowments enumerated by Paul. See Rom 12:6; 1Co 12:10; 1Co 13:2, 1Co 13:8; 1Co 14:6, 1Co 14:22. In 1Co 12:28; Eph 4:11, prophets come next after apostles in the list of those whom God has appointed in the church. In Eph 2:20, believers, Jew and Gentile, are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. According to 1Ti 4:14, prophecy has previously designated Timothy as the recipient of a special spiritual gift; and the prophecies in our passage are the single expressions or detailed contents of the prophecy mentioned there. Προαγεῖν to go before is not used by Paul. In the Pastorals and Hebrews it appears only as an intransitive verb, and so in the only instance in Luke, Luk 18:39. In Acts always transitive, to bring forth . See Act 12:6; Act 16:30; Act 17:5; Act 25:26.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:18

That by them ( ἵνα ἐν αὐταῖς )

Ἵνα that denoting the purport of the charge. By them (ἐν ), lit. in them; in their sphere, or, possibly, in the power of these.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:18

Thou mightiest war a good warfare ( στρατεύῃ - τὴν καλὴν στρατείαν )

More correctly, the good warfare. Στρατεία war-fare once by Paul, 2Co 10:4. Not flight (μάχην ), but covering all the particulars of a soldier's service.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:19

Holding ( ἔχων )

Not merely having , but holding fast , as in 2Ti 1:13.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:19

Faith and a good conscience ( πίστιν καὶ ἀγαθὴν συνείδησιν )

The phrase good conscience is not in Paul, although συνείδησις is a Pauline word. The phrase appears once in Acts (Act 23:1), and twice in 1 Peter (1Pe 2:16, 1Pe 2:21). In Hebrews evil (πονηρᾶς ) conscience and fair (καλὴν ) conscience; Heb 10:22; Heb 13:18. The combination faith and good conscience is peculiar to the Pastorals. Comp. 1Ti 3:9.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:19

Which ( ἥν )

Referring to God conscience.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:19

Having put away ( ἀπωσάμενοι )

The A.V. is not strong enough. Better, having thrust from them . It implies willful violence against conscience. Twice in Paul, Rom 11:1, Rom 11:2, and three times in Acts.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:19

Concerning faith have made shipwreck ( περὶ τὴν πίστιν ἐναυάγησαν )

Better, " concerning the faith made shipwreck." For a similar use of περὶ concerning , see Act 19:25; Luk 10:40; 1Ti 6:21; 2Ti 2:18; 2Ti 3:8. It is noteworthy that περὶ with the accusative occurs only once in Paul (Phi 2:23). Ναυαγεῖν to make shipwreck only here and 2Co 11:25. Nautical metaphors are rare in Paul's writings.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:20

Hymenaeus and Alexander

Comp. 2Ti 2:17; 2Ti 4:14.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:20

Have delivered unto Satan ( παρέδωκα τῷ Σατανᾷ )

See on 1Co 5:5.

Vincent: 1Ti 1:20

They may learn ( παιδευθῶσι )

Neither A.V. nor Rev. gives the true force of the word, which is, may be taught by punishment or disciplined . See on Eph 6:4.

Wesley: 1Ti 1:17

A phrase frequent with the Hebrews. How unspeakably sweet is the thought of eternity to believers!

Wesley: 1Ti 1:18

That thou mayest deliver it to the church.

Wesley: 1Ti 1:18

Uttered when thou wast received as an evangelist, 1Ti 4:14; probably by many persons, 1Ti 6:12; that, being encouraged by them, thou mightest war the good warfare.

Wesley: 1Ti 1:19

Which is as a most precious liquor.

Wesley: 1Ti 1:19

Which is as a clean glass.

Wesley: 1Ti 1:19

Namely, a good conscience.

Wesley: 1Ti 1:19

It goes away unwillingly it always says, "Do not hurt me." And they who retain this do not make shipwreck of their faith. Indeed, none can make shipwreck of faith who never had it. These, therefore, were once true believers: yet they fell not only foully, but finally; for ships once wrecked cannot be afterwards saved.

Wesley: 1Ti 1:20

Though absent. I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme - That by what they suffer they may be in some measure restrained, if they will not repent.

JFB: 1Ti 1:17

A suitable conclusion to the beautifully simple enunciation of the Gospel, of which his own history is a living sample or pattern. It is from the experimental sense of grace that the doxology flows [BENGEL].

JFB: 1Ti 1:17

Literally, "King of the (eternal) ages." The Septuagint translates Exo 15:18, "The Lord shall reign for ages and beyond them." Psa 145:13, Margin, "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," literally, "a kingdom of all ages." The "life everlasting" (1Ti 1:16) suggested here "the King eternal," or everlasting. It answers also to "for ever and ever" at the close, literally, "to the ages of the ages" (the countless succession of ages made up of ages).

JFB: 1Ti 1:17

The oldest manuscripts read, "incorruptible." The Vulgate, however, and one very old manuscript read as English Version (Rom 1:23).

JFB: 1Ti 1:17

(1Ti 6:16; Exo 33:20; Joh 1:18; Col 1:15; Heb 11:27).

JFB: 1Ti 1:17

The oldest manuscripts omit "wise," which probably crept in from Rom 16:27, where it is more appropriate to the context than here (compare Jud 1:25). "The only Potentate" (1Ti 6:15; Psa 86:10; Joh 5:44).

JFB: 1Ti 1:17

See note, above. The thought of eternity (terrible as it is to unbelievers) is delightful to those assured of grace (1Ti 1:16) [BENGEL].

JFB: 1Ti 1:18

He resumes the subject begun at 1Ti 1:3. The conclusion (apodosis) to the foregoing, "as I besought thee . . . charge" (1Ti 1:3), is here given, if not formally, at least substantially.

JFB: 1Ti 1:18

Namely, "that thou in them (so the Greek) mightest war," that is, fulfil thy high calling, not only as a Christian, but as a minister officially, one function of which is, to "charge some that they teach no other doctrine" (1Ti 1:3).

JFB: 1Ti 1:18

As a sacred deposit (1Ti 6:20; 2Ti 2:2) to be laid before thy hearers.

JFB: 1Ti 1:18

In pursuance of; in consonance with.

JFB: 1Ti 1:18

The intimations given by prophets respecting thee at thy ordination, 1Ti 4:14 (as, probably, by Silas, a companion of Paul, and "a prophet," Act 15:32). Such prophetical intimation, as well as the good report given of Timothy by the brethren (Act 16:2), may have induced Paul to take him as his companion. Compare similar prophecies as to others: Act 13:1-3, in connection with laying on of hands; Act 11:28; Act 21:10-11; compare 1Co 12:10; 1Co 14:1; Eph 4:11. In Act 20:28, it is expressly said that "the Holy Ghost had made them (the Ephesian presbyters) overseers." CLEMENT OF ROME [Epistle to the Corinthians], states it was the custom of the apostles "to make trial by the Spirit," that is, by the "power of discerning," in order to determine who were to be overseers and deacons in the several churches planted. So CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA says as to the churches near Ephesus, that the overseers were marked out for ordination by a revelation of the Holy Ghost to St. John.

JFB: 1Ti 1:18

Greek, "in them"; arrayed as it were in them; armed with them.

JFB: 1Ti 1:18

Not the mere "fight" (1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 4:7), but the whole campaign; the military service. Translate as Greek, not "a," but "the good warfare."

JFB: 1Ti 1:19

Keeping hold of "faith" and "good conscience" (1Ti 1:5); not "putting the latter away" as "some." Faith is like a very precious liquor; a good conscience is the clean, pure glass that contains it [BENGEL]. The loss of good conscience entails the shipwreck of faith. Consciousness of sin (unrepented of and forgiven) kills the germ of faith in man [WIESINGER].

JFB: 1Ti 1:19

Greek singular, namely, "good conscience," not "faith" also; however, the result of putting away good conscience is, one loses faith also.

JFB: 1Ti 1:19

A wilful act. They thrust it from them as a troublesome monitor. It reluctantly withdraws, extruded by force, when its owner is tired of its importunity, and is resolved to retain his sin at the cost of losing it. One cannot be on friendly terms with it and with sin at one and the same time.

JFB: 1Ti 1:19

"with respect to THE faith." Faith is the vessel in which they had professedly embarked, of which "good conscience" is the anchor. The ancient Church often used this image, comparing the course of faith to navigation. The Greek does not imply that one having once had faith makes shipwreck of it, but that they who put away good conscience "make shipwreck with respect to THE faith."

JFB: 1Ti 1:20

There is no difficulty in supposing him to be the Hymenæus of 2Ti 2:17. Though "delivered over to Satan" (the lord of all outside the Church, Act 26:18, and the executor of wrath, when judicially allowed by God, on the disobedient, 1Co 5:5; 2Co 12:7), he probably was restored to the Church subsequently, and again troubled it. Paul, as an apostle, though distant at Rome pronounced the sentence to be executed at Ephesus, involving, probably, the excommunication of the offenders (Mat 18:17-18). The sentence operated not only spiritually, but also physically, sickness, or some such visitation of God, falling on the person excommunicated, in order to bring him to repentance and salvation. Alexander here is probably "the coppersmith" who did Paul "much evil" when the latter visited Ephesus. The "delivering him to Satan" was probably the consequence of his withstanding the apostle (2Ti 4:14-15); as the same sentence on Hymenæus was the consequence of "saying that the resurrection is past already" (2Ti 2:18; his putting away good conscience, naturally producing shipwreck concerning FAITH, 1Ti 1:19. If one's religion better not his morals, his moral deficiencies will corrupt his religion. The rain which falls pure from heaven will not continue pure if it be received in an unclean vessel [ARCHBISHOP WHATELY]). It is possible that he is the Alexander, then a Jew, put forward by the Jews, doubtless against Paul, at the riot in Ephesus (Act 19:33).

JFB: 1Ti 1:20

Not "might"; implying that the effect still continues--the sentence is as yet unremoved.

JFB: 1Ti 1:20

Greek, "be disciplined," namely, by chastisement and suffering.

JFB: 1Ti 1:20

The name of God and Christ, by doings and teachings unworthy of their Christian profession (Rom 2:23-24; Jam 2:7). Though the apostles had the power of excommunication, accompanied with bodily inflictions, miraculously sent (2Co 10:8), it does not follow that fallible ministers now have any power, save that of excluding from church fellowship notorious bad livers.

Clarke: 1Ti 1:17

Now unto the King eternal - This burst of thanksgiving and gratitude to God, naturally arose from the subject then under his pen and eye. God has most wondrously manifested his mercy, in this beginning of the Gospel, by saving me, and making me a pattern to all them that shall hereafter believe on Christ. He is βασιλευς των αιωνων, the king of eternities; the eternity a parte ante , and the eternity a parte post ; the eternity that was before time was, and the eternity that shall be when time is no more. Therefore, ever living to justify and save sinners, to the end of the world

Clarke: 1Ti 1:17

Immortal - Αφθαρτῳ· Incorruptible - not liable to decay or corruption; a simple uncompounded essence, incapable, therefore, of decomposition, and consequently permanent and eternal. One MS., the later Syriac in the margin, the Vulgate, one copy of the Itala, and some of the Latin fathers, read αθανατῳ, immortal, which our translation follows; but it is not the original reading

Clarke: 1Ti 1:17

Invisible - Αορατῳ· One who fills all things, works everywhere, and yet is invisible to angels and men; the perfect reverse of false gods and idols, who are confined to one spot, work nowhere, and, being stocks and stones, are seen by every body

Clarke: 1Ti 1:17

The only wise God - The word σοφῳ wise, is omitted by AD*FG, Syriac, Erpen’ s Arabic, Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Vulgate, and Itala. Some of the Greek fathers quote it sometimes, and omit it at others; which shows that it was an unsettled reading, probably borrowed from Rom 16:27 (note). Griesbach leaves it out of the text. Without it the reading is very strong and appropriate: To the only God; nothing visible or invisible being worthy of adoration but himself

Clarke: 1Ti 1:17

Be honor - All the respect and reverence that can be paid by intelligent beings, ascribing to him at the same time all the glory - excellences, and perfections, which can be possessed by an intelligent, unoriginated, independent, and eternal Being; and this for ever and ever-through eternity.

Clarke: 1Ti 1:18

This charge - See the note on 1Ti 1:5. It was a charge that the Judaizing teachers should not teach differently from that doctrine which the apostle had delivered to him. See 1Ti 1:3

Clarke: 1Ti 1:18

According to the prophecies - This may refer to some predictions by inspired men, relative to what Timothy should be: and he wishes him to act in all things conformably to those predictions. It was predicted that he should have this high and noble calling; but his behavior in that calling was a matter of contingency, as it respected the use he might make of the grace of his calling. The apostle therefore exhorts him to war a good warfare, etc. He was now called to that estate to which the prophecies referred; and now he is to act worthily or unworthily of that calling, according as he fought or did not fight the good warfare, and according as he held or did not hold faith and a good conscience

Some think that the προαγουσας προφητειας, the foregoing prophecies, refer to revelations which the apostle himself had received concerning Timothy; while others think that the word is to be understood of advices, directions, and exhortations, which the apostle had previously delivered to him; we know that προφητευω signifies to speak to men to edification, to exhortation, and to comfort. See 1Co 14:3. This is a very sober and good sense of the passage

Clarke: 1Ti 1:18

War a good warfare - The trials and afflictions of the followers of God are often represented as a warfare or campaign. See Isa 40:2; 1Co 9:7; 2Co 10:4; and see the reasons of this metaphorical form of speech, in the notes on Eph 6:13.

Clarke: 1Ti 1:19

Holding faith - All the truths of the Christian religion, firmly believing them, and fervently proclaiming them to others

Clarke: 1Ti 1:19

And a good conscience - So holding the truth as to live according to its dictates, that a good conscience may be ever preserved. As the apostle had just spoken of the Christian’ s warfare, so he here refers to the Christian armor, especially to the shield and breastplate; the shield of faith, and the breastplate of righteousness. See on Eph 6:13, etc., (note), and 1Th 5:8 (note)

Clarke: 1Ti 1:19

Which some having put away - Απωσαμενοι· Having thrust away; as a fool-hardy soldier might his shield and his breastplate, or a mad sailor his pilot, helm, and compass

Clarke: 1Ti 1:19

Concerning faith - The great truths of the Christian religion

Clarke: 1Ti 1:19

Have made shipwreck - Being without the faith, that only infallible system of truth; and a good conscience, that skillful pilot, that steady and commanding helm, that faithful and invariable loadstone; have been driven to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and, getting among shoals, quicksands, and rocks, have been shipwrecked and ingulfed.

Clarke: 1Ti 1:20

Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander - Who had the faith but thrust it away; who had a good conscience through believing, but made shipwreck of it. Hence we find that all this was not only possible, but did actually take place, though some have endeavored to maintain the contrary; who, confounding eternity with a state of probation, have supposed that if a man once enter into the grace of God in this life, he must necessarily continue in it to all eternity. Thousands of texts and thousands of facts refute this doctrine

Clarke: 1Ti 1:20

Delivered unto Satan - For the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. See what is noted on 1Co 5:5; what this sort of punishment was no man now living knows. There is nothing of the kind referred to in the Jewish writings. It seems to have been something done by mere apostolical authority, under the direction of the Spirit of God

Hymeneus, it appears, denied the resurrection, see 2Ti 2:17, 2Ti 2:18; but whether this Alexander be the same with Alexander the coppersmith, 2Ti 4:14, or the Alexander, Act 19:33, cannot be determined. Probably, he was the same with the coppersmith. Whether they were brought back to the acknowledgment of the truth does not appear. From what is said in the second epistle the case seems extremely doubtful. Let him who most assuredly standeth, take heed lest he fall

He that is self-confident is already half fallen. He who professes to believe that God will absolutely keep him from falling finally, and neglects watching unto prayer, is not in a safer state. He who lives by the moment, walks in the light, and maintains his communion with God, is in no danger of apostasy.

Calvin: 1Ti 1:17

17.Now to the King eternal His amazing vehemence at length breaks out into this exclamation; because he could not find words to express his gratitude; for those sudden bursts occur chiefly when we are constrained to break off the discourse, in consequence of being overpowered by the vastness of the subject. And is there anything more astonishing than Paul’s conversion? Yet, at the same time, by his example he reminds us all that we ought never to think of the grace manifested in God’s calling ²⁷ without being carried to lofty admiration.

Eternal, invisible, only wise This sublime praise of the grace which God had bestowed on him ²⁸ swallows up the remembrance of his former life. For how great a deep is the glory of God! Those attributes which he ascribes to God, though they belong to him always, yet are admirably adapted to the present occasion. The Apostle calls him the King eternal, not liable to any change; Invisible, because (1Ti 6:16) he dwells in light that is inaccessible; and, lastly, the Only Wise, because he renders foolish, and condemns as vanity, all the wisdom of men. The whole agrees with that conclusion at which he arrives:

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his designs! How unsearchable his ways!” (Rom 11:33.)

He means that the infinite and incomprehensible wisdom of God should be beheld by us with such reverence that, if his works surpass our senses, still we may be restrained by admiration.

Yet as to the last epithet Only, it is doubtful whether he means to claim all glory for God alone, or calls him the only wise, or says that he only is God. The second of these meanings is that which I prefer; for it was in fine harmony with his present subject to say, that the understanding of men, whatever it may be, must bend to the secret purpose of God. And yet I do not deny that he affirms that God alone is worthy of all glory; for, while he scatters on his creatures, in every direction, the sparks of his glory, still all glory belongs truly and perfectly to him alone. But either of those meanings implies that there is no glory but that which belongs to God.

Calvin: 1Ti 1:18

18.I recommend to thee this commandment All that he had introduced about his own person may be viewed as a digression from his subject. Having to arm Timothy with authority, it became necessary for himself to be clothed with the highest authority; and, therefore, he took an early opportunity of refuting an opinion which might have stood in his way. And now, after having proved that his apostleship ought not to be less esteemed by good men, because at one time he fought against the kingdom of Christ, this obstacle being removed, he returns to the course of his exhortation. The commandment, therefore, is the same as he mentioned at the beginning.

Son Timothy By calling him his son, he not only expresses his own warm regard towards him, but also recommends him to others under that name.

According to the prophecies which went before concerning thee. In order to encourage him still more, he reminds him what kind of testimony he had obtained from the Spirit of God; for it was no small excitement, that his ministry was approved by God, and that he had been called by divine revelation before he was called by the votes of men. “It is disgraceful not to come up to the expectations which men have been led to form; and how much more disgraceful will it be to make void, as far as lies in thy power, the judgment of God?”

But we must first ascertain what are the prophecies of which he speaks. Some think that Paul was instructed by revelation to confer the office on Timothy. That I acknowledge to be true, but I add that others made revelations; for it was not without reason that Paul made use of the plural number. Accordingly, we conclude from these words that several prophecies were uttered concerning Timothy, in order to recommend him to the Church. ²⁹ Being still a young man, he might have been despised on account of his age; and Paul might also have been exposed to calumnies, on account of having ordained youths, before the proper time, to the elder’s office. Besides, God had appointed him to great and difficult undertakings; for he was not one of the ordinary rank of ministers, but approached very closely to that of the apostles, and frequently occupied the place of Paul during his absence. It was, therefore, necessary that he should receive an extraordinary testimony, in order to make it manifest that it was not conferred on him at random by men, but that he was chosen by God himself. To be adorned with the applauses of the prophets was not an ordinary occurrence, or one which was common to him along with many persons; but because there were some circumstances to Timothy, it was the will of God that he should not be received by men until he had been previously approved by his own voice; it was the will of God that he should not enter into the exercise of his office until he had been called by the revelations of the prophets. The same thing happened to Paul and Barnabas, (Act 13:2,) when they were ordained to be teachers of the Gentiles; for it was a new and uncommon occurrence, and they could not otherwise have escaped the charge of rashness.

It will now be objected by some, “If God had formerly declared, by his prophets, what kind of minister Timothy should be, what purpose did it serve to admonish him, to show that he was actually such a person? Could he falsify prophecies which had been uttered by divine revelation?” I reply, it could not happen differently from what God had promised; but at the same time it was the duty of Timothy, not to give himself up to sloth and inactivity, but to render a cheerful compliance with the providence of God. It is therefore not without good reason, that Paul, wishing to stimulate him still more, mentions the “prophecies,” by which God might be said to have pledged himself on behalf of Timothy; for he was thus reminded of the purpose for which he was called.

That thou by them mayest war a good warfare By this he means that Timothy, relying on such approbation of God, ought to fight more courageously. What is there that either ought to give, or can give us greater cheerfulness than to know that God has appointed us to do what we are doing? These are our arms, these are our weapons of defense, by the aid of which we shall never fail.

By the word warfare, he states indirectly, that we must maintain a contest; and this applies universally to all believers, but especially to Christian teachers, who may be said to be standard-bearers and leaders. It is as if he had said, “O Timothy, if thou canst not fulfill thy office without a contest, remember that thou art armed by divine prophecies for cherishing assured hope of victory, and arouse thyself by calling them to remembrance. That warfare which we maintain, having God for our leader, is a good warfare; that is, it is glorious and successful.”

Calvin: 1Ti 1:19

19.Having faith and a good conscience I understand the word faith to be a general term, denoting sound doctrine. In the same sense he afterwards speaks of “the mystery of faith.” (1Ti 3:9.) And, indeed, the chief things demanded from a teacher are these two: — that he shall hold by the pure truth of the gospel; and next, that he shall administer it with a good conscience and holiest zeal. Where these are found, all the others will follow of their own accord.

From which some having turned aside concerning faith He shows how necessary it is that faith be accompanied by a good conscience; because, on the other hand, the punishment of a bad conscience is turning aside from the path of duty. They who do not serve God with a sincere and a perfect heart, but give a loose rein to wicked dispositions, even though at first they had a sound understanding, come to lose it altogether.

This passage ought to be carefully observed. We know that the treasure of sound doctrine is invaluable, and therefore there is nothing that we ought to dread more than to have it taken from us. But Paul here informs us, that there is only one way of keeping it safe; and that is, to secure it by the locks and bars of a good conscience. This is what we experience every day; for how comes it that there are so many who, laying aside the gospel, rush into wicked sects, or become involved in monstrous errors? It is because, by this kind of blindness, God punishes hypocrisy; as, on the other hand, a genuine fear of God gives strength for perseverance.

Hence we may learn two lessons. First, Teachers and ministers of the gospel, and, through them all the churches are taught with what horror they ought to regard a hypocritical and deceitful profession of true doctrine, when they learn that it is so severely punished. Secondly, this passage removes the offense by which so many persons are greatly distressed, when they perceive that some, who formerly professed their attachment to Christ and to the gospel, not only fall back into their former superstitions but (which is far worse) are bewildered and captivated by monstrous errors. For by such examples, God openly supports the majesty of the gospel, and openly shows that he cannot at all endure the profanation of it. And this is what experience has taught us in every age. All the errors that have existed in the Christian Church from the beginning, proceeded from this source, that in some persons, ambition, and in others, covetousness, extinguished the true fear of God. A bad conscience is, therefore, the mother of all heresies; and we see that a vast number of persons, who had not sincerely and honestly embraced the faith, are hurried along, like brute beasts, into the reveries of the Epicureans, so that their hypocrisy is exposed. And not only so, but contempt of God is universally prevalent, and the licentious and disgraceful lives of almost all ranks show that there is either none at all, or the smallest possible potion of integrity in the world; so that there is very great reason to fear lest the light which had been kindled may be speedily extinguished, and God may leave the pure understanding of the gospel to be possessed by very few.

Have made shipwreck: The metaphor taken from shipwreck is highly appropriate; for it suggests to us, that, if we wish to arrive safely at the harbor, our course must be guided by a good conscience, otherwise there is danger of “shipwreck;€ that is, there is danger lest faith be sunk by a bad conscience, as by a whirlpool in a stormy sea. ³⁰

Calvin: 1Ti 1:20

20.Of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander. The former will be again mentioned in the Second Epistle, in which the kind of “shipwreck” which he made is likewise described; for he said that the resurrection was past. (2Ti 2:17.) There is reason to believe that Alexander also was bewitched by an error so absurd. And shall we wonder at the present day, if any are deceived by the various enchantments of Satan, when we see that one of Paul’s companions perished by so dreadful a fall?

He mentions both of them to Timothy as persons whom he knew. For my own part, I have no doubt that this is the same Alexander that is mentioned by Luke, and who attempted, but without success, to quell the commotion. Now he was an Ephesian, and we have said that this Epistle was chiefly written for the sake of the Ephesians. We now learn what was his end; and hearing it, let us keep possession of our faith by a good conscience, that we may hold it safe to the last.

Whom I have delivered to Satan. As I mentioned in the exposition of another passage, (1Co 5:5,) there are some who interpret this to mean that extraordinary chastisement was inflicted on those persons; and they view this as referring toδυνάμεις, “the powers” mentioned by Paul in the same Epistle. (1Co 12:28.) For, as the apostles were endowed with the gift of healing, in order to testify the favor and kindness of God towards the godly, so against wicked and rebellious persons they were armed with power, either to deliver them to the devil to be tormented, or to inflict on them other chastisements. Of this “power,” Peter gave a display in Ananias and Sapphira, (Act 5:1,) and Paul in the magician Bar-Jesus. (Act 13:6.) But, for my own part, I choose rather to explain it as relating to excommunication; for the opinion that the incestuous Corinthian received any other chastisement than excommunication is not supported by any probable conjecture. And, if by excommunicating him, Paul delivered him to Satan, why should not the same mode of expression have a similar import in this passage? Besides, it explains very well the force of excommunication; for, since in the Church Christ holds the seat of his kingdom, out of the Church there is nothing but the dominion of Satan. Accordingly, he who is cast out of the Church must be placed, for a time, under the tyranny of Satan, until, being reconciled to the Church, he return to Christ. I make one exception, that, on account of the enormity of the offense, he might have pronounced a sentence of perpetual excommunication against them; but on that point I would not venture to make a positive assertion.

That they may learn not to blaspheme. What is the meaning of this last clause? For one who has been cast out of the Church takes upon himself greater freedom of acting, because, being freed from the yoke of ordinary discipline, he breaks out into louder insolence. I reply, to whatever extent they may indulge in their wickedness, yet the gate will be shut against them, so that they shall not contaminate the flock; for the greatest injury done by wicked men is, when they mingle with others under the presence of holding the same faith. The power of doing injury is taken from them, when they are branded with public infamy, so that none are so simple as not to know that these are irreligious and detestable men, and therefore their society is shunned by all. Sometimes, too, it happens that — being struck down by this mark of disgrace which has been put upon them — they become less daring and obstinate; and therefore, although this remedy sometimes renders them more wicked, yet it is not always ineffectual for subduing their fierceness.

Defender: 1Ti 1:17

Some manuscripts do not include the word "wise" in this doxology, but it is clearly appropriate and certainly should be retained. God is not only eternal, incorruptible and omnipresent, but also omniscient."

Defender: 1Ti 1:19

Holding the true faith is naturally compatible with a good conscience. If one lapses into moral sin, it is a short step to explaining away the faith and vice versa (1Ti 1:5)."

Defender: 1Ti 1:20

The blasphemy of Hymenaeus, and, presumably, that of Alexander, was denial of the future bodily resurrection (2Ti 2:17, 2Ti 2:18), evidently holding that the resurrection was simply the spiritual change when a person is born again. This was called blasphemy because it denied not only the teachings of Paul (1Th 4:16, 1Th 4:17) but also of Christ Himself (Joh 5:25-29).

Defender: 1Ti 1:20

The action of "[delivering] unto Satan" probably includes more than excommunication from the church. The same action mentioned in 1Co 5:5 speaks of "destruction of the flesh" as a possible chastisement, not carried out by the church, but by the Lord."

TSK: 1Ti 1:17

the King : 1Ti 6:15, 1Ti 6:16; Psa 10:16, Psa 45:1, Psa 45:6, Psa 47:6-8, Psa 90:2, Psa 145:13; Jer 10:10; Dan 2:44; Dan 7:14; Mic 5:2; Mal 1:14; Mat 6:13, Mat 25:34; Rom 1:23; Heb 1:8-13; Rev 17:14, Rev 19:16

invisible : Joh 1:18; Rom 1:20; Col 1:15; Heb 11:27; 1Jo 4:12

the only : Rom 16:27; Jud 1:25

be : 1Ch 29:11; Neh 9:5; Psa 41:13, Psa 57:11, Psa 72:18, Psa 72:19, Psa 106:48; Dan 4:34, Dan 4:37; Eph 3:20,Eph 3:21; 1Pe 5:11; 2Pe 3:18; Rev 4:8-11, Rev 5:9-14, Rev 7:12, Rev 19:1, Rev 19:6

Amen : Mat 6:13, Mat 28:20

TSK: 1Ti 1:18

charge : 1Ti 1:11, 1Ti 1:12, 1Ti 4:14, 1Ti 6:13, 1Ti 6:14, 1Ti 6:20; 2Ti 2:2, 2Ti 4:1-3

son : 1Ti 1:2; Phi 2:22; 2Ti 1:2, 2Ti 2:1; Tit 1:4; Phm 1:10

according : 1Ti 4:4

mightest : 1Ti 6:12; 2Co 10:3, 2Co 10:4; Eph 6:12-18; 2Ti 2:3-5, 2Ti 4:7

TSK: 1Ti 1:19

Holding : 1Ti 1:5, 1Ti 3:9; Tit 1:9; Heb 3:14; 1Pe 3:15, 1Pe 3:16; Rev 3:3, Rev 3:8, Rev 3:10

which : Phi 3:18, Phi 3:19; 2Ti 3:1-6; 2Pe 2:1-3, 2Pe 2:12-22; Jud 1:10-13

concerning : 1Ti 4:1, 1Ti 4:2; 1Co 11:19; Gal 1:6-8, Gal 5:4; 2Ti 4:4; Heb 6:4-6; 1Jo 2:19

made : 1Ti 6:9; Mat 6:27

TSK: 1Ti 1:20

Hymenaeus : 2Ti 2:17

Alexander : Act 19:33; 2Ti 2:14, 2Ti 4:14, 2Ti 4:15

I have : Mat 18:17; 1Co 5:4, 1Co 5:5; 2Co 10:6, 2Co 13:10

that : 1Co 11:32; 2Th 3:15; Rev 3:19

blaspheme : Act 13:45; 2Ti 3:2; Rev 13:1, Rev 13:5, Rev 13:6

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: 1Ti 1:17

Now unto the king eternal - This ascription of praise is offered to God in view of the mercy which he had shown to so great a sinner. It is the outbreak of that grateful emotion which swelled his bosom, and which would not be denied expression, when Paul recalled his former life and the mercy of God to his soul. It somewhat interrupts indeed the train of his remarks, but the heart was so full that it demanded utterance. It is just an instance of the joy and gratitude which fill the soul of a Christian when he is led along in a train of reflections which conduct him to the recollections of his former sin and danger, and to the fact that he has obtained mercy and has now the hope of heaven. The apostle Paul not unfrequently, in accordance with a mode of writing that was common among the Hebrews, interposes an expression of praise in the midst of his reasonings; compare Rom 1:25; 2Co 11:31. God is called King here, as he is often in the Scriptures, to denote that he rules over the universe. A literal translation of the passage would be, "To the King of ages, who is immortal,"etc. The meaning of this expression - "the King of ages"- βασιλει τὼν αἰώνων basilei tōn aiōnōn - is, that he is a king who rules throughout all ages. This does not mean that he himself lives for ever, but that his dominion extends over all ages or generations. The rule of earthly monarchs does not extend into successive ages; his does. Their reign is temporary; his is enduring, and continues as one generation after another passes on, and thus embraces them all.

Immortal - This refers to God himself, not to his reign. It means that he does not die, and it is given to him to distinguish him from other sovereigns. All other monarchs but God expire - and are just as liable to die at any moment as any other people.

Invisible - 1Ti 6:16; see the notes on Joh 1:18.

The only wise God - notes, Rom 16:27. The word "wise"is missing in many mss., and in some editions of the New Testament. It is omitted by Griesbach; marked as doubtful by Tittman, and rejected in the valuable edition of Hahn. Erasmus conjectures that it was added against the Arians, who maintained that the Father only was God, and that as he is here mentioned as such, the word wise was interpolated to denote merely that the attribute of perfect wisdom belonged only to him. Wetstein regards the reading as genuine, and suspects that in some of the early manuscripts where it is missing it was omitted by the transcriber, because it was regarded as inelegant for two adjectives to be united in this manner. It is not easy to determine as to the genuineness of the reading. The sense is not materially affected, whichever view be adopted. It is true that Yahweh is the only God; it is also true that he is the only wise God. The gods of the pagan are "vanity and a lie,"and they are wholly destitute of wisdom; see Psa 115:3-8; Psa 135:15-18; Isa 40:18-20; Isa 44:10-17.

Be honour - Let there be all the respect and veneration shown to him which is his due.

And glory - Praise. Let him be praised by all for ever.

Amen - So be it; an expression of strong affirmation; Joh 3:3. Here it is used to denote the solemn assent of the heart to the sentiment conveyed by the words used; see the Mat 6:13 note; 1Co 14:16 note.

Barnes: 1Ti 1:18

This charge - This command or injunction. It does not refer to any "charge,"or "cure,"which he had as bishop or minister, as the word is sometimes used now, but to the commands or injunctions which he was delivering to him. The command particularly referred to is that in 1Ti 1:8.

According to the prophecies which went before on thee - The general meaning of this is plain. It is, that Paul was committing to him an important trust, and one that required great wisdom and fidelity; and that in doing it he was acting in conformity with the hopes which had been cherished respecting Timothy, and with certain expressed anticipations about his influence in the church. From early life the hope had been entertained that he would be a man to whom important trusts might be committed; and it had been predicted that he would be distinguished as a friend of religion. These hopes seem to have been cherished in consequence of the careful training in religion which he had had 2Ti 2:1; 2Ti 3:15, and probably from the early indications of seriousness, prudence, and piety, which he manifested. It was natural to entertain such hopes, and it seems, from this place, that such hopes had even assumed the form of predictions.

It is not absolutely necessary to suppose that these predictions referred to by the word prophecies were inspired, for the word may be used in a popular sense, as it is often now. We speak now familiarly of predicting or foretelling the future usefulness of a serious, prudent, studious, and pious youth. We argue from what he is, to what he will be, and we do not deem it unsafe or improper to hazard the prediction that, if he lives, he will be a man to whom important interests may be entrusted. As there were, however. prophets in the Christian church (Act 11:27 note; 1 Cor. 14 notes), and as it is possible that in some cases they were inspired to foretell future events, it cannot be regarded as improper to suppose that some of them had foretold the future usefulness of this religiously educated youth. Whatever may be meant by the expression, this general observation may be made, that when a young man enters on the active duties of life, and when great interests are entrusted to him, it is not improper to remind him of the hopes which had been cherished of him; of the anticipations which had been formed of his future usefulness; and of the expressions which have been used by the pious and the discerning respecting his future character. This is a kind of reminiscence which will rather increase his sense of responsibility than flatter his vanity; and it may be made a means of exciting him to diligence and fidelity. A virtuous young man will not willingly disappoint the long-cherished hopes of his friends. He will be likely to be made more diligent by the remembrance of all their fond anticipations of his future success.

That thou by them - By those prophecies. That is, that being stimulated and excited by those predictions and hopes, you might be led to fidelity and usefulness.

Mightest war a good warfare - The Christian life is often compared to a warfare or struggle for victory (compare Eph 6:10-17; 1Co 9:7; 2Co 4:4), and the services of the Christian ministry especially are likened to those of a soldier; 2Ti 2:3-4; 2Ti 4:7. The meaning here is, that he should contend with earnestness as a Christian and a minister in that holy service in which he was engaged, and endeavor to secure the victory. He "wars a good warfare"who is engaged in a righteous cause; who is faithful to his commander and to his post; who is unslumbering in observing the motions of the enemy, and fearless in courage in meeting them; who never forsakes his standard, and who continues thus faithful until the period of his enlistment has expired, or until death. Such a soldier the Christian minister should be.

Barnes: 1Ti 1:19

Holding faith - Fidelity to the cause in which you are enlisted - as a good soldier should do. This does not mean, as it seems to me, that Timothy should hold to the system of doctrines revealed in the gospel, but that he should have that fidelity which a good soldier should have. He should not betray his trust. He should adhere to the cause of his master with unwavering steadfastness. This would include, of course, a belief of the truth, but this is not the leading idea in the phrase.

And a good conscience - see the notes, Act 23:1. A good conscience, as well as fidelity, is necessary in the service of the Redeemer. A good conscience is that which is well informed in regard to what is right, and where its dictates are honestly followed.

Which some having put away - That is, which good conscience some have put from them, or in other words, have not followed its dictates. The truth thus taught is, that people make shipwreck of their faith by not keeping a good conscience. They love sin. They follow the leadings of passion. They choose to indulge in carnal propensities. As a matter of course, they must, if they will do this, reject and renounce the gospel. People become infidels because they wish to indulge in sin. No man can be a sensualist, and yet love that gospel which enjoins purity of life. If people would keep a good conscience, the way to a steady belief in the gospel would be easy. If people will not, they must expect sooner or later to be landed in infidelity.

Concerning faith - In respect to the whole subject of faith. They are unfaithful to God, and they reject the whole system of the gospel. "Faith"is sometimes used to denote the gospel - as faith is the principal thing in the gospel.

Have made shipwreck - There is an entire destruction of faith - as a ship is wholly ruined that strikes on a rock and sinks.

Barnes: 1Ti 1:20

Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander - Hymeneus is nowhere else mentioned in the New Testament, except in 2Ti 2:17, where he is mentioned in connection with Philetus as a very dangerous man. An Alexander is mentioned in Act 19:33, which some have supposed to be the same as the one referred to here. It is not certain, however, that the same person is intended; see the notes on that verse. In 2Ti 4:14, Alexander the coppersmith is mentioned as one who had done the apostle "much evil,"and there can be little doubt that he is the same person who is referred to here. One of the doctrines which Hymeneus held was, that the "resurrection was past already"2Ti 2:18; but what doctrine Alexander held is unknown, It is not improbable, as he is mentioned here in connection with Hymeneus, that he maintained the same opinion, and in addition to that he appears to have been guilty of some personal injury to the apostle. Both also were guilty of blasphemy.

Whom I have delivered unto Satan - On the meaning of this expression, see the notes on 1Co 5:5.

That they may learn not to blaspheme - It cannot be supposed that Satan would undertake to teach them not to blaspheme, or that Paul put them under him as an instructor on that subject. The instructions of Satan tend rather to teach his followers to blaspheme, and none in his school fail to be apt scholars. The meaning here is, that Paul excommunicated them, and not improbably brought upon them, by giving them over to Satan, some physical maladies, that they might be reformed; compare notes on 1Co 5:5. It is not entirely clear what is meant by blaspheme in this place; compare notes on 1Ti 1:13. It cannot be supposed that they were open and bold blasphemers, for such could not have maintained a place in the church, but rather that they held doctrines which the apostle regarded as amounting to blasphemy; that is, doctrines which were in fact a reproach on the divine character. There are many doctrines held by people which are in fact a reflection on the divine character, and which amount to the same thing as blasphemy. A blasphemer openly expresses views of the divine character which are a reproach to God; an errorist expresses the same thing in another way - by teaching as true about God that which represents him in a false light, and, to suppose which, in fact, is a reproach. The spirit with which this is done in the two cases may be different; the thing itself may be the same. Let us be careful that we hold no views about God which are reproachful to him, and which, though we do not express it in words, may lead us to blaspheme him in our hearts.

Poole: 1Ti 1:17

The apostle falleth out of this discourse with a doxology, or sentence giving glory to God, whom he calls

the King that is, the Moderator and Governor of all things.

Eternal without beginning of days or end of life.

Immortal not subject, as creatures, to any passion, or determination of being.

Invisible not obvious to our senses, whom no mortal eye ever saw.

Only wise primitively and originally, and eminently, from whom all wisdom is derived.

Be honour and glory for ever and ever be given all praises, homage, and acknowledgments, by which he can be made glorious for ever.

Poole: 1Ti 1:18

This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy: the term son, here applied to Timothy, whom he elsewhere calls his brother, is not a term of natural relation, but of spiritual relation, and of affectionate friendship and endearment. By the charge mentioned he probably means that before mentioned, 1Ti 1:3,4 , to charge the false teachers to teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables, & c.

According to the prophecies which went before on thee: these prophecies were either the judgments of good men before concerning him, or (which possibly is more probable) some Divine revelations Paul, or some believers, had received concerning this young man.

That thou by them mightest war a good warfare that thou, having heard of them, or remembering them, (though thou meetest with opposition as a minister and as a Christian, yet) mightest not be discouraged, but preach and hold the faith, against all opposers. So the apostle expoundeth himself.

Poole: 1Ti 1:19

By faith here is meant, the doctrine of faith, and the holding of it signifies a steadiness of the mind’ s assent unto it, without wavering or fluctuation, much less deserting or denying it. By

a good conscience is here to be understood what the Scripture elsewhere calls a conscience void of of offence toward God, and toward men, Act 24:16 , opposed to the evil conscience, mentioned Heb 10:22 ; so as a good conscience here signifies a pure conscience, which necessarily implieth a holy life; for our actions are presently copied out into our consciences, and make either blots or good copies there.

Which some having put away which some taking no care in, viz. to live holily, so keeping a good conscience;

concerning faith have made shipwreck have made shipwreck concerning faith, suffered loss as to it, falling from the truths of the gospel. Error seldom goes along with a holy life. The truths of the gospel have such an influence upon men’ s conversation, that ordinarily men’ s holiness is proportioned to their soundness in the faith, and usually the love of some lust is what betrayeth men into erroneous judgments and opinions.

Poole: 1Ti 1:20

Of which men who have made shipwreck of a good conscience and concerning faith,

Hymenaeus and Alexander are two persons. Of Hymenaeus we read, 2Ti 2:17,18 ; he affirmed the resurrection was past, and overthrew the faith of many. Of Alexander we read, 2Ti 4:14 ; he was a great enemy to Paul, the same person, as some judge, mentioned Act 19:33 , then a friend to Paul, but afterwards one who did him much harm.

Whom I have delivered unto Satan: we meet with the same phrase, 1Co 5:5 : see the notes there. Some think by it is signified a peculiar power granted the apostles, God in those primitive times confirming regular excommunications, by letting Satan loose upon persons excommunicated to torture them; but we find nothing of this in Scripture. I rather think the sense is no more than, whom I excommunicated and cast out of the church, making them of the world again, (as the world is opposed to the church, and kingdom of Christ), which, for the greater terror, the apostle expresseth by this notion of being delivered to Satan, who is called the god of this world, & c.

That they may learn not to blaspheme: not that I might ruin and undo them, but that I might amend them by this exercise of discipline, teaching them to take heed of spreading damnable and pernicious errors to the reproach of God. Or, perhaps, with their perverse opinions (which is very ordinary) they mingled reproachful speeches concerning God.

PBC: 1Ti 1:17

Every song that begins with genuine thanksgiving (1Ti 1:12) must end with praise to God, doxology.  Preeminently Paul’s parenthesis takes us from the intimately personal God who involves Himself in the salvation of the " chief" of sinners to the transcendent God who fills immensity and eternity.

For every preacher whose divine assignment requires that he speak regularly to people about God and His personal involvement in our lives, there is an endless challenge.  Do you wholly ignore any personal reference to self and to God’s activities in your life?  Or do you make God’s grace in your life the centerpiece of your preaching?  We’ve seen men who tried both strategies, typically with limited success—and limited benefit to their hearers.  How then do you strike the balance?  How do you discover when and how to use personal experience to confirm the greater truth of Scripture?  When do you leave self out of the formula and focus your hearers’ attention on God alone?  We celebrate " Amazing Grace" by John Newton, former slave trader, for its high praise to God for surprising and undeserved intervention and salvation.  Yet we also acknowledge the Pauline theme, " We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake" (2Co 4:5).  This philosophical comment by Paul raises a certain tension in our minds as we reflect on the rare occasions, such as 1Ti 1:12-16, when he uses his past experience to emphasize a greater truth in the gospel that he preaches.  When Paul mentions his personal experience, does he violate his allegation that he " preaches not himself" ?  My answer is no.  While Paul occasionally uses his personal experience, especially his exceptional meeting with the risen Christ on the Damascus road, he does not " preach" himself.  Rather he illustrates the truth of the doctrine that he preaches through his personal life.  His " example" in salvation and faith do not call on us to worship Paul, but underscore the truth that doctrine must connect with life, with our personal life, or it is mere philosophical conjecture.  When Paul mentions his personal experience, he never makes Paul the hero.  Always his experience becomes the lens by which we see God’s grace more clearly.  Preaching one’s personal experience for the sake of the experience easily slips into superficial emotive fog.  On the other hand, never mentioning God’s dynamic involvement in our lives leaves us at times cold and wondering; does this whole thing have nothing to do with us as individuals?  We celebrate Newton’s theme because he uses his personal experience, much like Paul, to exhibit God’s " Amazing Grace," not because he makes Newton the hero of the plot.

What does this staggering doxology tell us about our God?  Let’s break it down and look behind it at the God whom Paul praises.

He is eternal.  R. Kent Hughes defines this term, " God is the King of all ages who sovereignly governs every age before creation, after creation, to the final age, and on into eternity. [1]"  God transcends time.  He is not subject to it or a creature of it.  He created it.

He is immortal.  Hughes explains this term, " God is not subject to decay or destruction and therefore is in the most absolute sense ‘imperishable, incorruptible, and immortal.’ [2]"  Vine defines the word as "…not liable to corruption or decay, incorruptible ( a, negative, and A, No. 2), is used of ( a) God, Ro 1:23; 1Ti 1:17 (A.V., " immortal" )…" . [3]  God doesn’t grow old or become less God through the passage of time. 

He is invisible.  The physical eye can’t see Him.  Later in this letter (1Ti 6:16) Paul will describe God in similar terms, " Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."

He is the " only wise God."  First and foremost He is the only God.  Repeatedly in Scripture God declares His utter exclusivity as God.  There is no other God.  Men cannot, and will not become gods.  Secondly He is wise.  Wisdom is an integral attribute of His Person.  He is not a foolish god.  Everything He does grows out of His wise character.  He cannot and will not deny Himself or His essential character.  There is no schizophrenia in God.

Having established the supreme character of God, Paul now moves to the only appropriate response.  He is to receive honor and glory forever, now and throughout eternity.  Paul does not suggest that He is deficient without our praise.  Rather he affirms that He shall receive honor and glory without question.

Fee describes 1Ti 1:12-17 as a " diversion" from the problems at Ephesus. [4]  I prefer to view them as altogether an integrated part of Paul’s objective to confront and to correct the problem.  Obsession with personal ideas, particularly " myths and endless genealogies," can only detract from the true gospel’s primary objective, to honor and to glorify God.  These teachings detract people from the gospel’s essential purpose.  Who is right?  Who is wrong?  What is the truth?  Why is your interpretation different from his?  Paul warns us that these false teachings lead to endless questions.  Not only do they lead to endless questions about what truth is, they also lead to endless questions about the personalities involved.  We live in a dangerous era related to this precise point.  In the marketplace of ideas, even the sub-marketplace of Christian ideas, we literally face thousands of different options.  Sincere and studious men, even scholars, differ on major theological and textual points.  All cannot be right.  Many believers become confused and disenchanted, eventually giving up on discovering Biblical truth.  They simply replace Scripture with their personal sincerity.  Personal opinion becomes the final authority.  This option is far more akin to the New Age religion than to Biblical or historical Christianity.  " My truth" and " your truth" may be contradictory, but it doesn’t really matter.  If not checked, this attitude is frightening for the future of Christianity.  No individual believer is capable of comprehending the totality of God.  Paul makes that point for us.  However, Paul rejoiced—indeed, he worshipped God—precisely because of His transcendence.  We should follow Paul’s example.  Didn’t he make that point in this context?

I am grateful for a heritage that is fiercely devoted to Biblical supremacy for our source of knowledge and spiritual truth.  I am also grateful that my heritage reached outside its walls and celebrated truth, regardless of the denominational affiliation of the writer.  My uncle preached in my fellowship for over forty years.  When I inherited his library, I was at first somewhat surprised that he had more titles from non-Primitive Baptists than from our own writers.  To be sure, he referred to some of these titles to clearly understand error from its source, not secondary sources, but he also had many titles that presented the doctrines of Scripture positively from outside our fellowship.  Heaven will not be subdivided into small denominational compartments, as if any particular denomination will think that they are the only people in heaven.  The Biblical description of heaven describes a uniform gathering under the throne of the one God Who is " eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God."  Paul does not exhort us to praise him forever and ever.  He specifically affirms that He shall have honor and glory forever and ever.  There is no question or doubt.  For Paul, as well as for us, God’s certain honor and glory are specific cause for a doxology that stretches our words and minds.  To Him be the glory.

275

[1] Hughes, R. Kent and Chapell, Bryan, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus…p. 47.

[2] Ibid., p. 47.

[3]Vine, W., & Bruce, F. (1981; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996). Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Old Tappan NJ: Revell.

[4] Fee, Gordon D., New International Biblical Commentary: 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, …p. 55.

PBC: 1Ti 1:18

See Philpot: FAITH AND A GOOD CONSCIENCE

(1Ti 1:18-20) This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.?

"charge"

 A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, refers to the word " charge" in this lesson as a banking metaphor.  We routinely use our bank accounts in money transactions.  We deposit our money in a bank whose reputation and reliability we trust.  Every month we receive a full accounting of every penny in our account.  How much went into the account and how much was taken out of it, along with where it went, are reported to us.  If the bank statement doesn’t balance, we quickly get in touch with the bank to see what happened.  Sadly, many Christians who view themselves as altogether conscientious do not have such a clear view of their faith or of their role in their Christian service.  Many otherwise sincere leaders actually think that they can pretty much worship and minister according to their own private ideas, conscience instead of faith.  For them Scripture is too remote, too unclear, and too non-specific, to be of any real help in the way that they serve. According to Paul, our ministry belongs to God, not to us, and we must account to Him for every aspect of its activities.  If every pastor and every deacon were so faithful and devoted to Scripture—Scripture alone—for the manner in which they serve in their office, we would see a vastly different church in the world than we see today.  When men followed God so clearly, Christianity’s enemies reported of them that they " turned the world upside down" (Ac 17:6).  Our stubborn doing Christianity our own way has caused our enemies in our culture to marginalize us as altogether irrelevant to the society.  If we wish to alter that impression, perhaps we should return to the Biblical model of faith.  View our charge as a banking trust. 

"according to the prophecies which went before on thee,"

Paul urges Timothy to recall his original calling and ordination, the " prophecies" that went before on him.  Rather than deciding that he learned a " different truth" (a façade for embraced error), Paul charges Timothy to hold that original course in which he was charged at his ordination.  We may well grow in our knowledge, but we should be incredibly cautious when we consider growing " away" from established Biblical truth.  In a fellowship that respects its historical roots such as mine, we must wrestle cautiously with history versus Biblical revelation.  We must realize the ever-present danger of allowing history or historical beliefs and practices to supercede Scripture.  " They did it a hundred years ago; that is good enough for me" is not sufficient for the Biblical model.  Either we embrace Scripture alone as our rule of both faith and practice, or we don’t.  Rather than interpreting Scripture through our history, we should interpret our history through Scripture.  Historical beliefs and practices will invariably drift, not remain stable and consistent.  Scripture is the reliable constant that should assess our historical views and correct them when necessary. 

"war a good warfare;"

 Keeping with this idea of charge or trust, Paul introduces two additional metaphors in these verses.  The first metaphor is that of a soldier engaged in war.  A soldier goes to war under the directions of a commander.  He does not make up the rules of engagement.  He does not decide on the strategy of the battle.  He takes directions from his superior.  So in the field of ministry and church leadership we are instructed to follow the directions of the Lord Jesus Christ as documented in Scripture, not think and act according to our own preferences or personalities.  The only good warfare is one fought according to the directions of the commander. 

"made shipwreck:"

Paul’s second metaphor relates to a ship steering a predetermined course across a body of water.  For a church leader-teacher to turn from the clear teaching of Scripture is the equivalent of a ship’s captain ignoring the course that he has charted and all knowledge that he has of the waters in which he sails, going in his own direction without regard for the available knowledge that he could gain of the waters and of his charted course.  Here, no less than in the metaphor of warfare, submission to a higher authority and purpose forms a required part of the analogy.  The captain of the ship is not on a pleasure cruise, directed by nothing more than his personal desires.  He is on a mission that was decided by another.  He has been charged with a valuable cargo that belongs to others.  His charge is to deliver the cargo safely to the designated port.  Do you suppose that Paul intended to emphasize to Timothy that God has given us quite specific directions as to the objectives and strategies of our ministry?  I rest my case.  The content of our preaching, along with the methods and objectives of church leadership come to us clearly in Scripture, so we are not to teach or lead according to our personal private objectives. 

"Holding faith, and a good conscience"

          Is it possible for someone to indulge in error with a " good conscience" ?  It seems rather obvious that Paul viewed the two proponents of error at Ephesus to have done so.  The faithful preacher should conduct his ministry from the dual vantage point of solid faith and a good conscience.  No problem with these men’s consciences, but Paul charges them with a shipwrecked faith.  He couldn’t know their conscience, but he could well know their faith.  For New Testament writers, faith is not a mystical, trusting blind leap into darkness.  It is more a leap out of darkness into light.  It stands on the solid foundation of God’s character and stated promises in Scripture, not on esoteric " revelations" or " impressions." 

"Hymenaeus and Alexander;"

In the case of these two men Paul charges that they ignored their charge and made shipwreck of their faith.  In 2Ti 2:17-19 Paul mentions Hymanaeus and another man who fell into grave error by alleging that the resurrection had past already.  Not only did their shipwreck destroy their faith, Paul grieves that they also overthrew the faith of other believers as well.  For someone to imitate this error today is as equally grave as it was when Paul confronted it in the first century.  Scripture clearly teaches a final resurrection and general judgment of all mankind at the end.  To twist Scripture into teaching that this epochal event has already occurred and that we are living after it, so it has no comfort or relevance for us could hardly be more unacceptable to sound Biblical doctrine. 

"whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme"

 What does Paul intend by his comment "…whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme" ?  I offer two sides to this point.  First of all Paul had confronted and rejected these two men.  Most commentators believe that " delivered unto Satan" likely refers to excommunication or some form of severe church discipline.  As an apostle, Paul may have exercised more authority in this situation than the present-day pastor should claim.  We may well accept the point that an apostle could impose such direct authority in a church.  We should not use this event to justify dictatorial pastors attempting to imitate them.  The office of pastor and the office of apostle are clearly distinct positions.  We still honor the apostles through Scripture as our authority, but we should never use their authority to distort the offices of preacher-pastor or deacon into a despotic or unquestioned authority. 

            My second point from this verse is surprisingly positive.  Unlike the false teachers whom we examined in 2Pe 1:1-3:18, Paul views these men as recoverable.  Whatever Paul intended by " turning" them over to Satan, he intended a positive outcome, " that they may learn not to blaspheme."  These men had the ability to learn of their error and to recover their faith from its devastating shipwreck.

            Can you imagine that Hymanaeus was present when Paul spoke his parting words to the elders at Ephesus in Ac 20:1-38?  He was a good man and sound in his faith and teaching.  What happened to get him so far off his course?  The error is unacceptable.  The impact on others and on the valuable " charge" committed to him has been misappropriated.  If your local bank sent you a monthly statement that showed several hundred dollars short of your records, how would you react?  You would first contact the bank to learn why the error occurred.  How would you react if the banker acknowledged the error and then explained it by saying that he had some personal needs for money, so he appropriated your funds for his use?  You would immediately remove all your funds from this untrustworthy bank. Then you would report him to the authorities for fraud.  Why should we view our charge as leaders of the church with any less responsibility than we expect from our local banker?  May we follow Paul and his charge to Timothy in unquestionable faithfulness. 

275

Haydock: 1Ti 1:18

This precept I commend to thee. Some understand it a precept of what follows, that he should wage a good warfare against the enemies of God and of his salvation. Others refer it to the precept mentioned before, ver. 5, to wit, that Timothy should charge all the new converts not to give ear to new teachers. ---

Prophecies. He seems to mean some particular predictions made by some who had the gift of prophecies, and who foretold that he should be a great minister of God. (Witham) ---

The apostle reminds his disciple that he did receive him in the number of his disciples, and ordained him a ruler of the Church, in consequence of a prophecy; that is, a particular inspiration and revelation of the divine will. (St. John Chrysostom)

Haydock: 1Ti 1:19

An evil life is not unfrequently the leading principle of defection from the faith. The heart, not the mind, is generally the first corrupted.

Haydock: 1Ti 1:20

I have delivered to Satan; whom I have excommunicated, that they may learn not to blaspheme, or speak against the truth of the faith. (Theophylactus) ---

The devil frequently, at that time, took possession of, or afflicted the excommunicated with diseases and other temporal evils. (St. John Chrysostom)

Gill: 1Ti 1:17

Now unto the King eternal,.... This doxology, or ascription of glory to God, on account of the grace bestowed upon the apostle, may be considered, either as referring to all the three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, who are the one and only God; and to whom all the attributes of wisdom, power, eternity, immortality, or incorruptibleness, and invisibility, belong; and who are jointly concerned in the grace bestowed upon any of the sons of men. Or else to God the Father, in agreement with a parallel place in Rom 16:27 who is the only true God, in opposition to nominal and fictitious deities, though not to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit; and to whom the several epithets here used may be unquestionably given: he has shown his wisdom in the works of creation, providence, and grace; he is the everlasting King, or the King of ages, or of worlds; he is Maker of the worlds, and the Governor of them throughout all ages and generations; he only has immortality, and is the incorruptible God, and who is invisible, whose shape has never been seen, nor his voice heard: or else this may be thought to belong to Jesus Christ, since it is to him the apostle gives thanks for putting him into the ministry; and from him he obtained mercy, and received abundant grace; and he it was who came into the world to save sinners, and who showed forth all longsuffering in him, see 1Ti 1:12, upon which the apostle breaks out into this attribution of glory and honour, and which agrees with Jud 1:25. And everything here said is applicable to him; he is the eternal King, whose is the kingdom of nature, providence, and grace; his throne is for ever and ever, and of his kingdom and government there is no end; he is the "King of ages", as the phrase may be rendered, and so his kingdom is called מלכות כל עולמים, "the kingdom of all ages", Psa 145:13 and which endures throughout all generations; and this distinguishes him from all other kings. Scarce any king ever reigned an age, but Christ has reigned, and will reign throughout all ages. No regard is here had, as some have thought, to the Aeones of the Gnostics and Valentinians; but rather the apostle adopts a phrase into his doxology, frequently used by the Jews in their prayers, many of which begin after this manner,

"blessed art thou, O Lord our God, מלך העולם "the king of the age, or world", &c.

and רבון כל העולמים, "Lord of all ages, or worlds", &c. ^p. Other attributes and epithets follow, as

immortal or "incorruptible". Christ is the living God, and the living Redeemer; and though he died as man, he will die no more, but ever lives to make intercession for his people, and to reign over them, and protect them: who also may be said to be "invisible", who was so in his divine nature, till manifest in the flesh; and now in his human nature he is taken out of the sight of men, and is not to be beheld with bodily eyes by men on earth: and he is

the only wise God; he is "the only God", so the Alexandrian copy, the Syriac and Vulgate Latin versions, read; not to the exclusion of the Father or Spirit, but in opposition to all false deities, or those who are not by nature God: and he is the only wise God; who is wisdom itself, and of himself; and is the fountain of wisdom, both natural and spiritual, unto others; wherefore to him be

honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen. Christ is crowned with honour and glory, and he is worthy of it; and it becomes all men to honour the Son, as they do the Father: he is the brightness of his glory, and equal to him; and the glory of deity, of all the divine perfections, and works, and also worship, should be given him; as well as the glory of salvation, and of all the grace the sons of men partake of; and that not only now, but to all eternity,

Gill: 1Ti 1:18

This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,.... After a digression the apostle had made concerning himself, his conversion, and call to the ministry, he returns to his former subject, and original design, and renews the charge he gave to Timothy; and which was not only an order to charge others to teach no other doctrine than that of the Gospel; but includes the charge of preaching it himself, and intends the glorious Gospel of the blessed God committed to his trust, and the whole form of sound words he had heard of him, and which he had charged him to keep pure and incorrupt: and this was done,

according to the prophecies which went before on thee; by which are meant, not the prophecies of the Old Testament, though of these Timothy had a considerable share of knowledge from a child, and was hereby greatly qualified to have such a charge committed to him; but then these were not prophecies concerning him, but the Messiah, his person, office, kingdom, and grace: nor are any particular revelations made unto the Apostle Paul concerning Timothy intended, of which there is no account; the revelations and visions he had, related not to men, and their characters, but to doctrines; rather the testimonies of the brethren at Lystra and Iconium, and the good reports they made of him to the apostle, which promised and foreboded future usefulness, are designed; though it seems best of all to understand these prophecies of such as were delivered out by the prophets in the church, for such there were in those times; who, when Timothy was a child, or a youth, foretold that he would have great gifts bestowed upon him, and would be a very useful, diligent, laborious, and successful preacher of the Gospel; and therefore the apostle mentions these to stimulate him the more to the discharge of his work, that he might answer the prophecies concerning him: for he adds,

that thou by them mightest war a good warfare: that is, that in consideration of the charge committed to him, and the prophecies that went before of him, might be the more industrious to fulfil his ministry, is signified by a warfare, in allusion to the service of the Levites, which is so called, Num 8:24 with zeal and courage, faithfulness and integrity: for not that warfare is intended, which is common to all believers; who being enlisted as volunteers under Christ, the Captain of their salvation, and having on the whole armour of God, fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil; and are more than conquerors through him that has loved them: but that warfare, which is peculiar to the ministers of the word; whose business it is more especially to fight the good fight of faith, and as good soldiers of Christ, to endure hardness for the sake of him, and his Gospel; and who, besides the other enemies, have to do with false teachers; and their warfare lies in publishing and defending the Gospel of Christ, and in contending for it, and in the weakening of Satan's kingdom, and enlarging the kingdom of Christ; and for which the weapons of their warfare are peculiarly made, and are eminently succeeded; and when they are used to such good purposes, by the ministers of the Gospel, they war a good warfare.

Gill: 1Ti 1:19

Holding faith, and a good conscience..... By "faith" is meant, not the grace of faith, but the doctrine of faith, a sense in which it is often used in this epistle; see 1Ti 3:9 and the "holding" of it does not intend a mere profession of it, and a retaining of that without wavering, which is to be done by all believers; but a holding it forth in the ministry of the word, in opposition to a concealing or dropping it, or any part of it; and a holding it fast, without wavering, and in opposition to a departure from it or any cowardice about it and against all posers: to which must be added, a good conscience; the conscience is not naturally good, but is defiled by sin; and that is only good, which is sprinkled by the blood of Christ, and thereby purged from dead works; the effect of which is an holy, upright, and becoming conversation; and which seems to be chiefly intended here, and particularly the upright conduct and behaviour of the ministers of the Gospel, in the faithful discharge of their work and office: see 2Co 1:12.

Which some having put away; that is, a good conscience; and which does not suppose that they once had one, since that may be put away which was never had: the Jews, who blasphemed and contradicted, and never received the word of God, are said to put it from them, Act 13:46 where the same word is used as here; and signifies to refuse or reject anything with detestation and contempt: these men always had an abhorrence to a good conscience among men, and to a good life and conversation, the evidence of it; and at length threw off the mask, and dropped the faith they professed, as being contrary to their evil conscience: though admitting it does suppose they once had a good conscience, it must be understood not of a conscience cleansed by the blood of Christ, but of a good conscience in external show only, or in comparison of what they afterwards appeared to have: and, besides, some men, destitute of the grace of God, may have a good conscience in some sense, or with respect to some particular facts, or to their general conduct and behaviour among men, as the Apostle Paul had while unregenerate, Act 23:1 and which being acted against, or lost, is no instance of falling from the true grace of God, which this passage is sometimes produced in proof of:

concerning faith have made shipwreck; which designs not the grace, but the doctrine of faith, as before observed, which men may profess, and fall off from, and entirely drop and lose. Though supposing faith as a grace is meant, the phrase, "have made shipwreck of it", is not strong enough to prove the total and final falling away of true believers, could such be thought to be here meant; since persons may be shipwrecked, and not lost, the Apostle Paul was thrice shipwrecked, and each time saved; besides, as there is a true and unfeigned, so there is a feigned and counterfeit faith, which may be in persons who have no true grace, and may be shipwrecked, so as to be lost.

Gill: 1Ti 1:20

Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander,.... The former of these is mentioned in 2Ti 2:17 and that part of faith he made shipwreck of, or erred in, was the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, whereby the faith of some nominal believers was overthrown; and this was attended with the putting away of a good conscience, he seemingly before had; for his profane and vain babblings increased to more ungodliness: the latter seems to be the same with Alexander the coppersmith, who did the apostle much evil, 2Ti 4:14 and it may be is the same with him who was at Ephesus when the apostle was, there, Act 19:33 and where he might be now with Hymenaeus, with whom he might agree in his erroneous opinions, and therefore are particularly mentioned, Ephesus being the place where Timothy now was. It seems by their names that they were both Greeks; Alexander is a known name among the Greeks, since the times of Alexander the great, and even became common among the Jews; see Gill on Act 4:6, and Hymenaeus was a name among the Grecians, from Hymen, the Heathen god of marriage: one of this name is mentioned among those said to be raised from the dead by Aesculapius ^q; there was also a bishop of Jerusalem of this name ^r,

Whom I have delivered to Satan; not by excommunication, which is the act of a church, and not of a single person; but by an apostolical power he had of delivering the bodies of men into the hands of Satan, by him to be tortured and afflicted, in order to bring them to a sense of their sins, and as a chastisement and correction for them, and a token of God's displeasure at them; See Gill on 1Co 5:5.

That they may learn not to blaspheme; or "that being chastised", corrected, or disciplined, "they might not blaspheme", as they had before done; either by words, contradicting, reviling, and scoffing at the doctrine of the resurrection; or by their unbecoming lives and conversations, giving themselves great liberty in sinning, supposing there was no truth in that doctrine; whereby they not only blasphemed the Christian religion themselves, but caused it to be evil spoken of by others,

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 1Ti 1:17

¹ tn Or more literally, “king of the ages.”

² tc Most later witnesses (א² D¹ H^c Ψ 1881 Ï) have “wise” (σόφῳ, swfw) here (thus, “the only wise God”), while the earlier and better witnesses (א* A D* F G H* 33 1739 lat co) lack this adjective. Although it could be argued that the longer reading is harder since it does not as emphatically affirm monotheism, it is more likely that scribes borrowed σόφῳ from Rom 16:27 where μόνῳ σόφῳ θεῷ (monw sofw qew, “the only wise God”) is textually solid.

³ tn Grk “unto the ages of the ages,” an emphatic way of speaking about eternity in Greek.

NET Notes: 1Ti 1:18

¹ sn This charge refers to the task Paul described to Timothy in vv. 3-7 above.

² sn The prophecies once spoken about you were apparently spoken at Timothy’s ordination (cf. 1 Tim 4:14) and perhaps spoke of what God would do through him. Thus they can encourage him in his work, as the next clause says.

³ tn Grk “that by them you might fight…” (a reference to the prophecies which can encourage him in his work).

NET Notes: 1Ti 1:19

¹ tn In Greek this continues the same sentence from v. 18, a participle showing the means by which Timothy will accomplish his task: Grk “fight the good fight, holding firmly…”

NET Notes: 1Ti 1:20

¹ sn The expression handed over to Satan refers to an act of discipline mentioned by Paul here and in 1 Cor 5:5, with a remedial goal, not a punitive one. The Greek word translated taught in this verse is used of “discipline, training of children” to lead them to correct behavior.

Geneva Bible: 1Ti 1:17

^{( 14 )} Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the ^{( k )} only wise God, [be] honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

^{( 14 )} He breaks out into an exclamation, even because of the very zeal of his mind, because he cannot satisfy himself in amplifying the grace of God.

^{( k )} See Joh 17:3

Geneva Bible: 1Ti 1:18

^{( 15 )} This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by ^{( l )} them mightest war a good warfare;

^{( 15 )} The conclusion of both the former fatherly admonitions, that is, that Timothy striving bravely against all stops, being called to the ministry according to many prophecies which went before of him, should both maintain the doctrine which he had received, and keep also a good conscience.

^{( l )} By the help of them.

Geneva Bible: 1Ti 1:19

Holding ^{( m )} faith, and a good conscience; ^{( 16 )} which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

^{( m )} Wholesome and sound doctrine.

^{( 16 )} Whoever does not keep a good conscience, loses also by little and little, the gift of understanding. And this he proves by two most lamentable examples.

Geneva Bible: 1Ti 1:20

Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; ^{( 17 )} whom I have ^{( n )} delivered unto Satan, that they may ^{( o )} learn not to blaspheme.

^{( 17 )} Those who fall from God, and his religion, are not to be endured in the Church, but rather ought to be excommunicated.

^{( n )} Cast out of the Church, and so delivered them to Satan.

^{( o )} That by their pain they might learn how serious it is to blaspheme.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: 1Ti 1:1-20

1 Timothy is put in mind of the charge which was given unto him by Paul at his going to Macedonia.

5 Of the right use and end of the law.

11 Of Saint Paul's calling to be an apostle;

20 and Hymenaeus and Alexander.

Maclaren: 1Ti 1:17

The Glory Of The King

Now, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.'--1 Tim. 1:17.

WITH this burst of irrepressible praise the Apostle ends his reference to his own conversion as a transcendent, standing instance of the infinite love and transforming power of God. Similar doxologies accompany almost all his references to the same fact. This one comes from the lips of Paul the aged,' looking back from almost the close of a life which owed many sorrows and troubles to that day on the road to Damascus. His heart fills with thankfulness that overflows into the great words of my text. He had little to be thankful for, judged according to the rules of sense; but, though weighed down with care, having made but a poor thing of the world because of that vision which he saw that day, and now near martyrdom, he turns with a full heart to God, and breaks into this song of thanksgiving. There are lives which bear to be looked back upon. Are ours of that kind?

But my object is mainly to draw your attention to what seems to me a remarkable feature in this burst of thanksgiving. And perhaps I shall best impress the thought which it has given to me if I ask you to look, first, at the character of the God who is glorified by Paul's salvation; second, at the facts which glorify such a God; and, last, at the praise which should fill the lives of those who know the facts.

I. First, Then, Notice The God Who Is Glorified By Paul's Salvation.

Now what strikes me as singular about this great doxology is the characteristics, or, to use a technical word, the attributes, of the divine nature which the Apostle selects. They are all those which separate God from man; all those which present Him as arrayed in majesty, apart from human weaknesses, unapproachable by human sense, and filling a solitary throne. These are the characteristics which the Apostle thinks receive added lustre, and are lifted to a loftier height of honour and glory,' by the small fact that he, Paul, was saved from sins as he journeyed to Damascus.

It would be easy to roll out oratorical platitudes about these specific characteristics of the divine nature, but that would be as unprofitable as it would be easy. All that I want to do now is just to note the force of the epithets; and, if I can, to deepen the impression of the remarkableness of their selection.

With regard, then, to the first of them, we at once feel that the designation of' the King' is unfamiliar to the New Testament. It brings with it lofty ideas, no doubt; but it is not a name which the writers of the New Testament, who had been taught in the school of love, and led by a Son to the knowledge of God, are most fond of using. The King' has melted into the Father.' But here Paul selects that more remote and less tender name for a specific purpose. He is the King'--not eternal,' as our Bible renders it, but more correctly the King of the Ages.' The idea intended is not so much that of unending existence as that He moulds the epochs of the world's history, and directs the evolution of its progress. It is the thought of an overruling Providence, with the additional thought that all the moments are a linked chain, through which He flashes the electric force of His will. He is King of the Ages.'

The other epithets are more appropriately to be connected with the word God' which follows than with the word King' which precedes. The Apostle's meaning is this: The King of the ages, even the God who is,' etc. And the epithets thus selected all tend in the same direction. Incorruptible.' That at once parts that mystic and majestic Being from all of which the law is decay. There may be in it some hint of moral purity, but more probably it is simply what I may call a physical attribute, that that immortal nature not only does not, but cannot, pass into any less noble forms. Corruption has no share in His immortal being.

As to invisible,' no word need be said to illustrate that. It too points solely to the separation of God from all approach by human sense.

And then the last of the epithets, which, according to the more accurate reading of the text, should be, not as our Bible has it, the only wise God,' but the only God,' lifts Him still further above all comparison and contact with other beings.

So the whole set forth the remote attributes which make a man feel, The gulf between Him and me is so great that thought cannot pass across it, and I doubt whether love can live half-way across that flight, or will not rather, like some poor land bird with tiny wings, drop exhausted, and be drowned in the abyss before it reaches the other side.' We expect to find a hymn to the infinite love. Instead of that we get praise, which might be upon the lips of many a thinker of Paul's day and of ours, who would laugh the idea of revelation, and especially of a revelation such as Paul believed in, to absolute scorn. And yet he knew what he was saying when he did not lift up his praise to the God of tenderness, of pity, of forgiveness, of pardoning love, but to' the King of the ages; the incorruptible, invisible, only God'; the God whose honour and glory were magnified by the revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ.

II. Look At The Facts Which Glorify Even Such A God.

And so that brings me, in the second place, to ask you to look at the facts which glorify even such a God.

Paul was primarily thinking of his own individual experience; of what passed when the voice spoke to him, Why persecutest thou Me?' and of the transforming power which had changed him, the wolf, with teeth red with the blood of the saints, into a lamb. But, as he is careful to point out, the personal allusion is lost in his contemplation of his own history, as being a specimen and test-case for the blessing and encouragement of all who' should hereafter believe upon Him unto life everlasting.' So what we come to is this --that the work of Jesus Christ is that which paints the lily and gilds the refined gold of the divine loftinesses and magnificence, and which brings honour and glory even to that remote and inaccessible majesty. For, in that revelation of God in Jesus Christ, there is added to all these magnificent and all but inconceivable attributes and excellences, something that is far diviner and nobler than themselves.

There be two great conceptions smelted together in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, of which neither attains its supremest beauty except by the juxtaposition of the other. Power is harsh, and scarcely worthy to be called divine, unless it be linked with love. Love is not glorious unless it be braced and energised by power. And, says Paul, these two are brought together in Jesus; and therefore each is heightened by the other. It is the love of God that lifts His power to its highest height; it is the revelation of Him as stooping that teaches us His loftiness. It is because He has come within the grasp of our humanity in Jesus Christ that we can hymn our highest and noblest praises to the King eternal, the invisible God.'

The sunshine falls upon the snow-clad peaks of the great mountains and flushes them with a tender pink that makes them nobler and fairer by far than when they were veiled in clouds. And so all the divine majesty towers higher when we believe in the divine condescension, and there is no god that men have ever dreamed of so great as the God who stoops to sinners and is manifest in the flesh and Cross of the Man of Sorrows.

Take these characteristics of the divine nature as set forth in the text one by one, and consider how the Revelation in Jesus Christ, and its power on sinful men, raises our conceptions of them. The King of the ages '--and do we ever penetrate so deeply into the purpose which has guided His hand, as it moulded and moved the ages, as when we can say with Paul that His good pleasure' is that, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ.' The intention of the epochs as they emerge, the purpose of all their linked intricacies and apparently diverse movements, is this one thing, that God in Christ may be manifest to men. and that humanity may be gathered, like sheep round the Shepherd, into the one fold of the one Lord. For that the world stands; for that the ages roll, and He who is the King of the epochs hath put into the hands of the Lamb that was slain the Book that contains all their events; and only His hand, pierced upon Calvary, is able to open the seals, to read the Book. The King of the ages is the Father of Christ.

And in like manner, that incorruptible God, far away from us because He is so, and to whom we look up here doubtingly and despairingly and often complainingly and ask, Why hast Thou made us thus, to be weighed upon with the decay of all things and of ourselves?' comes near to us all in the Christ who knows the mystery of death, and thereby makes us partakers of an inheritance incorruptible. Brethren, we shall never adore, or even dimly understand, the blessedness of believing in a God who cannot decay nor change, unless from the midst of graves and griefs we lift our hearts to Him as revealed in the face of the dying Christ. He, though He died, did not see corruption, and we through Him shall pass into the same blessed immunity.

The King, the God invisible.' No man hath seen God at any time, nor can see Him.' Who will honour and glorify that attribute which parts Him wholly from our sense, and so largely from our apprehension, as will he who can go on to say, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.' We look up into a waste Heaven; thought and fear, and sometimes desire, travel into its tenantless spaces. We say the blue is an illusion; there is nothing there but blackness. But he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' And we can lift thankful praise to Him, the King invisible, when we hear Jesus saying,' thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.'

The only God.' How that repels men from His throne! And yet, if we apprehend the meaning of Christ's Cross and work, we understand that the solitary God welcomes my solitary soul into such mysteries and sacred sweetnesses of fellowship with Himself that, the humanity remaining undisturbed, and the divinity remaining unintruded upon, we yet are one in Him, and partakers of a divine nature. Unless we come to God through Jesus Christ, the awful attributes in the text spurn a man from His throne, and make all true fellowship impossible.

So let me remind you that the religion which does not blend together in indissoluble union these two, the majesty and the lowliness, the power and the love, the God inaccessible and the God who has tabernacled with us in Jesus Christ, is sure to be almost an impotent religion. Deism in all its forms, the religion which admits a God and denies a revelation; the religion which, in some vague sense, admits a revelation and denies an incarnation; the religion which admits an incarnation and denies a sacrifice; all these have little to say to man as a sinner; little to say to man as a mourner; little power to move his heart, little power to infuse strength into his weakness. If once you strike out the thought of a redeeming Christ from your religion, the temperature will go down alarmingly, and all will soon be frost bound.

Brethren, there is no real adoration of the loftiness of the King of the ages, no true apprehension of the majesty of the God incorruptible, invisible, eternal, until we see Him in the face and in the Cross of Jesus Christ. The truths of this gospel of our salvation do not in the smallest degree impinge upon or weaken, but rather heighten, the glory of God. The brightest glory streams from the Cross. It was when He was standing within a few hours of it, and had it full in view, that Jesus Christ broke out into that strange strain of triumph, Now is God glorified.' The King of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God,' is more honoured and glorified in the forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ, and in the transforming power which He puts forth in the Gospel, than in all besides.

III. Lastly, Let Me Draw Your Attention To The Praise Which Should Fill The Lives Of Those Who Know These Facts.

I said that this Apostle seems always, when he refers to his own individual conversion, to have been melted into fresh outpourings of thankfulness and of praise. And that is what ought to be the life of all of you who vail yourselves Christians; a continual warmth of thankfulness welling up in the heart, and not seldom finding utterance in the words, but always filling the life.

Not seldom, I say, finding utterance in the words. It is a delicate thing for a man to speak about himself, and his own religious experience. Our English reticence, our social habits, and many other even less worthy hindrances rise in the way; and I should be the last man to urge Christian people to cast their pearls before swine, or too fully to,

Open wide the bridal chamber of the heart,'

to let in the day. There is a wholesome fear of men who are always talking about their own religious experiences. But there are times and people to whom it is treason to the Master for us not to be frank in the confession of what we have found in Him. And I think there would be less complaining of the want of power in the public preaching of the Word if more professing Christians more frequently and more simply said to those to whom their words are weighty, Come and hear and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul.' Ye are my witnesses,' saith the Lord. It is a strange way that Christian people in this generation have of discharging their obligations that they should go, as so many of them do, from the cradle of their Christian lives to their graves, never having opened their lips for the Master who has done all for them.

Only remember, if you venture to speak you will have to live your preaching. There is no speech nor language, their voice is not heard, their sound is gone out through all the earth.' The silent witness of life must always accompany the audible proclamation, and in many cases is far more eloquent than it. Your consistent thankfulness manifested in your daily obedience, and in the transformation of your character, will do far more than all my preaching, or the preaching of thousands like me, to commend the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

One last word, brethren. This revelation is made to us all. What is God to you, friend? Is He a remote, majestic, unsympathising, terrible Deity? Is He dim, shadowy, unwelcome; or is He God whose love softens His power; Whose power magnifies his love? Oh! I beseech you, open your eyes and your hearts to see that that remote Deity is of no use to you, will do nothing for you, cannot help you, may probably judge you, but will never heal you. And open your hearts to see that the only God' whom men can love is God in Christ. If here we lift up grateful praise' unto Him that loveth us and hath loosed us from our sins in His blood,' we, too, shall one day join in that great chorus which at last will be heard saying, Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.'

MHCC: 1Ti 1:12-17

The apostle knew that he would justly have perished, if the Lord had been extreme to mark what was amiss; and also if his grace and mercy had not been abundant to him when dead in sin, working faith and love to Christ in his heart. This is a faithful saying; these are true and faithful words, which may be depended on, That the Son of God came into the world, willingly and purposely to save sinners. No man, with Paul's example before him, can question the love and power of Christ to save him, if he really desires to trust in him as the Son of God, who once died on the cross, and now reigns upon the throne of glory, to save all that come to God through him. Let us then admire and praise the grace of God our Saviour; and ascribe to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three Persons in the unity of the Godhead, the glory of all done in, by, and for us.

MHCC: 1Ti 1:18-20

The ministry is a warfare against sin and Satan; carried on under the Lord Jesus, who is the Captain of our salvation. The good hopes others have had of us, should stir us up to duty. And let us be upright in our conduct in all things. The design of the highest censures in the primitive church, was, to prevent further sin, and to reclaim the sinner. May all who are tempted to put away a good conscience, and to abuse the gospel, remember that this is the way to make shipwreck of faith also.

Matthew Henry: 1Ti 1:12-17

Here the apostle, I. Returns thanks to Jesus Christ for putting him into the ministry. Observe, 1. It is Christ's work to put men into the ministry, Act 26:16, Act 26:17. God condemned the false prophets among the Jews in these words, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied, Jer 23:21. Ministers, properly speaking, cannot make themselves ministers; for it is Christ's work, as king and head, prophet and teacher, of his church. 2. Those whom he puts into the ministry he fits for it; whom he calls he qualifies. Those ministers who are no way fit for their work, nor have ability for it, are not of Christ's putting into the ministry, though there are different qualifications as to gifts and graces. 3. Christ gives not only ability, but fidelity, to those whom he puts into the ministry: He counted me faithful; and none are counted faithful but those whom he makes so. Christ's ministers are trusty servants, and they ought to be so, having so great a trust committed to them. 4. A call to the ministry is a great favour, for which those who are so called ought to give thanks to Jesus Christ: I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath put me into the ministry.

II. The more to magnify the grace of Christ in putting him into the ministry, he gives an account of his conversion.

1. What he was before his conversion: A blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious. Saul breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, Act 9:1. He made havoc of the church, Act 8:3. He was a blasphemer of God, a persecutor of the saints, and injurious to both. Frequently those who are designed for great and eminent services are left to themselves before their conversion, to fall into great wickedness, that the mercy of God may be the more glorified in their remission, and the grace of God in their regeneration. The greatness of sin is no bar to our acceptance with God, no, nor to our being employed for him, if it be truly repented of. Observe here, (1.) Blasphemy, persecution, and injuriousness, are very great and heinous sins, and those who are guilty of them are sinners before God exceedingly. To blaspheme God is immediately and directly to strike at God; to persecute his people is to endeavour to wound him through their sides; and to be injurious is to be like Ishmael, whose hand was against every one, and every one was against him; for such invade God's prerogative, and encroach upon the liberties of their fellow-creatures. (2.) True penitents, to serve a good purpose, will not be backward to own their former condition before they were brought home to God: this good apostle often confessed what his former life had been, as Act 22:4; Act 26:10, Act 26:11.

2. The great favour of God to him: But I obtained mercy. This was a blessed but indeed, a great favour, that so notorious a rebel should find mercy with his prince.

(1.) If Paul had persecuted the Christians wilfully, knowing them to be the people of God, for aught I know he had been guilty of the unpardonable sin; but, because he did it ignorantly and in unbelief, he obtained mercy. Note, [1.] What we do ignorantly is a less crime than what we do knowingly; yet a sin of ignorance is a sin, for he that knew not his Master's will, but did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes, Luk 12:48. Ignorance in some cases will extenuate a crime, though it do not take it away. [2.] Unbelief is at the bottom of what sinners do ignorantly; they do not believe God's threatenings, otherwise they could not do as they do. [3.] For these reasons Paul obtained mercy: But I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief. [4.] Here was mercy for a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an injurious person: " But I obtained mercy, I a blasphemer,"etc.

(2.) Here he takes notice of the abundant grace of Jesus Christ, 1Ti 1:14. The conversion and salvation of great sinners are owing to the grace of Christ, his exceedingly abundant grace, even that grace of Christ which appears in his glorious gospel (1Ti 1:15): This is a faithful saying, etc. Here we have the sum of the whole gospel, that Jesus Christ came into the world. The Son of God took upon him our nature, was made flesh, and dwelt among us, Joh 1:14. He came into the world, not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, Mat 9:13. His errand into the world was to seek and find, and so save, those that were lost, Luk 19:10. The ratification of this is that it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. It is good news, worthy of all acceptation; and yet not too good to be true, for it is a faithful saying. It is a faithful saying, and therefore worthy to be embraced in the arms of faith: it is worthy of all acceptation, and therefore to be received with holy love, which refers to the foregoing verse, where the grace of Christ is said to abound in faith and love. In the close of the verse Paul applies it to himself: Of whom I am chief. Paul was a sinner of the first rank; so he acknowledges himself to have been, for he breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, etc., Act 9:1, Act 9:2. Persecutors are some of the worst of sinners: such a one Paul had been. Or, of whom I am chief, that is, of pardoned sinners I am chief. It is an expression of his great humility; he that elsewhere calls himself the least of all saints (Eph 3:8) here calls himself the chief of sinners. Observe, [1.] Christ Jesus has come into the world; the prophecies concerning his coming are now fulfilled. [2.] He came to save sinners; he came to save those who could not save and help themselves. [3.] Blasphemers and persecutors are the chief of sinners, so Paul reckoned them. [4.] The chief of sinners may become the chief of saints; so this apostle was, for he was not a whit behind the very chief apostles (2Co 11:5), for Christ came to save the chief of sinners. [5.] This is a very great truth, it is a faithful saying; these are true and faithful words, which may be depended on. [6.] It deserves to be received, to be believed by us all, for our comfort and encouragement.

(3.) The mercy which Paul found with God, notwithstanding his great wickedness before his conversion, he speaks of,

[1.] For the encouragement of others to repent and believe (1Ti 1:16): For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to those who should hereafter believe. It was an instance of the long-suffering of Christ that he would bear so much with one who had been so very provoking; and it was designed for a pattern to all others, that the greatest sinners might not despair of mercy with God. Note here, First, Our apostle was one of the first great sinners converted to Christianity. Secondly, He was converted, and obtained mercy, for the sake of others as well as of himself; he was a pattern to others. Thirdly, The Lord Jesus Christ shows great long-suffering in the conversion of great sinners. Fourthly, Those who obtain mercy believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; for without faith it is impossible to please God, Heb 11:6. Fifthly, Those who believe on Christ believe on him to life everlasting; they believe to the saving of the soul, Heb 10:39.

[2.] He mentions it to the glory of God having spoken of the mercy he had found with God, he could not go on with his letter without inserting a thankful acknowledgment of God's goodness to him: Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Observe, First, That grace which we have the comfort of God must have the glory of. Those who are sensible of their obligations to the mercy and grace of God will have their hearts enlarged in his praise. Here is praise ascribed to him, as the King eternal, immortal, invisible. Secondly, When we have found God good we must not forget to pronounce him great; and his kind thoughts of us must not at all abate our high thoughts of him, but rather increase them. God had taken particular cognizance of Paul, and shown him mercy, and taken him into communion with himself, and yet he calls him the King eternal, etc. God's gracious dealings with us should fill us with admiration of his glorious attributes. He is eternal, without beginning of days, or end of life, or change of time. He is the Ancient of days, Dan 7:9. He is immortal, and the original of immortality; he only has immortality (1Ti 6:16), for he cannot die. He is invisible, for he cannot be seen with mortal eyes, dwelling in the light to which no man can approach, whom no man hath seen nor can see, 1Ti 6:16. He is the only wise God (Jud 1:25); he only is infinitely wise, and the fountain of all wisdom. " To him be glory for ever and ever, "or, "Let me be for ever employed in giving honour and glory to him, as the thousands of thousands do,"Rev 5:12, Rev 5:13.

Matthew Henry: 1Ti 1:18-20

Here is the charge he gives to Timothy to proceed in his work with resolution, 1Ti 1:18. Observe here, The gospel is a charge committed to the ministers of it; it is committed to their trust, to see that it be duly applied according to the intent and meaning of it, and the design of its great Author. It seems, there had been prophecies before concerning Timothy, that he should be taken into the ministry, and should prove eminent in the work of the ministry; this encouraged Paul to commit this charge to him. Observe, 1. The ministry is a warfare, it is a good warfare against sin and Satan: and under the banner of the Lord Jesus, who is the Captain of our salvation (Heb 2:10), and in his cause, and against his enemies, ministers are in a particular manner engaged. 2. Ministers must war this good warfare, must execute their office diligently and courageously, notwithstanding oppositions and discouragements. 3. The prophecies which went before concerning Timothy are here mentioned as a motive to stir him up to a vigorous and conscientious discharge of his duty; so the good hopes that others have entertained concerning us should excite us to our duty: That thou by them mightest war a good warfare. 4. We must hold both faith and a good conscience: Holding faith and a good conscience, 1Ti 1:19. Those that put away a good conscience will soon make shipwreck of faith. Let us live up to the directions of a renewed enlightened conscience, and keep conscience void of offence (Act 24:16), a conscience not debauched by any vice or sin, and this will be a means of preserving us sound in the faith; we must look to the one as well a the other, for the mystery of the faith must be held in a pure conscience, 1Ti 3:9. As for those who had made shipwreck of the faith, he specifies two, Hymeneus and Alexander, who had made a profession of the Christian religion, but had quitted that profession; and Paul had delivered them to Satan, had declared them to belong to the kingdom of Satan, and, as some think, had, by an extraordinary power, delivered them to be terrified or tormented by Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme not to contradict or revile the doctrine of Christ and the good ways of the Lord. Observe, The primary design of the highest censure in the primitive church was to prevent further sin and to reclaim the sinner. In this case it was for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, 1Co 5:5. Observe, (1.) Those who love the service and work of Satan are justly delivered over to the power of Satan: Whom I have delivered over to Satan. (2.) God can, if he please, work by contraries: Hymeneus and Alexander are delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme, when one would rather think they would learn of Satan to blaspheme the more. (3.) Those who have put away a good conscience, and made shipwreck of faith, will not stick at any thing, blasphemy not excepted. (4.) Therefore let us hold faith and a good conscience, if we would keep clear of blasphemy; for, if we once let go our hold of these, we do not know where we shall stop.

Barclay: 1Ti 1:12-17

This passage begins with a very paean of thanksgiving. There were four tremendous things for which Paul wished to thank Jesus Christ.

(i) He thanked him because he chose him. Paul never had the feeling that he had chosen Christ, but always that Christ had chosen him. It was as if, when he was heading straight for destruction, Jesus Christ had laid his hand upon his shoulder and arrested him in the way. It was as if, when he was busy throwing away his life, Jesus Christ had suddenly brought him to his senses. In the days of the war I knew a Polish airman. He had crowded more thrilling hairbreadth escapes from death and from worse into a few years than the vast majority of men do into a lifetime. Sometimes he would tell the story of escape from occupied Europe, of parachute descents from the air, of rescue from the sea, and at the end of this amazing odyssey, he would always say, with a look of wonder in his eyes: "And now I am God's man." That is how Paul felt; he was Christ's man for Christ had chosen him.

(ii) He thanked him because he trusted him. It was to Paul an amazing thing, that he, the arch-persecutor, had been chosen as the missionary of Christ. It was not only that Jesus Christ had forgiven him; it was that Christ trusted him. Sometimes we forgive a man who has committed some mistake or been guilty of some sin, but we make it very clear that his past makes it impossible for us to trust him again with any responsibility. But Christ had not only forgiven Paul; he entrusted him with work to do. The man who had been Christ's persecutor had been made his ambassador.

(iii) He thanked him because he had appointed him. We must be very careful to note that to which Paul felt himself appointed. He was appointed to service. Paul never thought of himself as appointed to honour, or to leadership within the Church. He was saved to serve. Plutarch tells that when a Spartan won a victory in the games, his reward was that he might stand beside his king in battle. A Spartan wrestler at the Olympic games was offered a very considerable bribe to abandon the struggle; but he refused. Finally, after a terrific effort, he won his victory. Someone said to him: "Well, Spartan, what have you got out of this costly victory you have won?" He answered: "I have won the privilege of standing in front of my king in battle." His reward was to serve and, if need be, to die for his king. It was for service, not honour, that Paul knew himself to be chosen.

(iv) He thanked him because he had empowered him. Paul had long since discovered that Jesus Christ never gives a man a task to do without also giving him the power to do it. Paul would never have said, "See what I have done," but always, "See what Jesus Christ has enabled me to do." No man is good enough, or strong enough, or pure enough, or wise enough to be the servant of Christ. But if he will give himself to Christ, he will go, not in his own strength, but in the strength of his Lord.

Barclay: 1Ti 1:12-17

There are two further interesting things in this passage.

Paul's Jewish background comes out. He says that Jesus Christ had mercy on him because he committed his sins against Christ and his Church in the days of his ignorance. We often think that the Jewish viewpoint was that sacrifice atoned for sin; a man sinned, his sin broke his relationship with God, then sacrifice was made and God's anger was appeased and the relationship restored.

It may well have been that that was in fact the popular, debased view of sacrifice. But the highest Jewish thought insisted on two things. First, it insisted that sacrifice could never atone for deliberate sin, but only for the sins a man committed in ignorance or when swept away in a moment of passion. Second, the highest Jewish thought insisted that no sacrifice could atone for any sin unless there was contrition in the heart of the man who brought it. Here Paul is speaking out of his Jewish background. His heart had been broken by the mercy of Christ; his sins had been committed in the days before he knew Christ and his love. And for these reasons he felt that there was mercy for him.

There is a still more interesting matter, which is pointed out by E. F. Brown. 1Ti 1:14is difficult. In the Revised Standard Version it runs: "The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." The first part is not difficult; it simply means that the grace of God rose higher than Paul's sin. But what exactly is the meaning of the phrase "with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus"? E. F. Brown suggests that it is that the work of the grace of Christ in Paul's heart was helped by the faith and the love he found in the members of the Christian Church, things like the sympathy and the understanding and the kindness he received from men like Ananias, who opened his eyes and called him brother (Act 9:10-19), and Barnabas, who stood by him when the rest of the Church regarded him with bleak suspicion (Act 9:26-28). That is a very lovely idea. And if it be correct, we can see that there are three factors which cooperate in the conversion of any man.

(i) First, there is God. It was the prayer of Jeremiah: "Restore us to thyself, O Lord" (Lam 5:21). As Augustine had it, we would never even have begun to seek for God unless he had already found us. The prime mover is God; at the back of a man's first desire for goodness there is his seeking love.

(ii) There is a man's own self. The King James Version renders Mat 18:3entirely passively: "Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." The Revised Standard Version gives a much more active rendering: "Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." There must be human response to divine appeal. God gave men free will and they can use it either to accept or to refuse his offer.

(iii) There is the agency of some Christian person. It is Paul's conviction that he is sent "to open the eyes of the Gentiles, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins" (Act 26:18). It is James' belief that any man who converts the sinner from the error of his way "will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins" (Jam 5:19-20). So then there is a double duty laid upon us. It has been said that a saint is someone who makes it easier to believe in God, and that a saint is someone in whom Christ lives again. We must give thanks for those who showed us Christ, whose words and example brought us to him; and we must strive to be the influence which brings others to him.

In this matter of conversion the initiative of God, the response of man, and the influence of the Christian all combine.

Barclay: 1Ti 1:12-17

The thing which stands out in this passage is Paul's insistence upon remembering his own sin. He heaps up a very climax of words to show what he did to Christ and the Church. He was an insulter of the Church; he had flung hot and angry words at the Christians, accusing them of crimes against God. He was a persecutor; he had taken every means open to him under the Jewish law to annihilate the Christian Church. Then comes a terrible word; he had been a man of insolent and brutal violence. The word in Greek is hubristes (5197). It indicates a kind of arrogant sadism; it describes the man who is out to inflict pain for the sheer joy of inflicting it. The corresponding abstract noun is hubris (5196) which Aristotle defines: "Hubris (5196) means to hurt and to grieve people, in such a way that shame comes to the man who is hurt and grieved, and that not that the person who inflicts the hurt and injury may gain anything else in addition to what he already possesses, but simply that he may find delight in his own cruelty and in the suffering of the other person."

That is what Paul was once like in regard to the Christian Church. Not content with words of insult, he went to the limit of legal persecution. Not content with legal persecution, he went to the limit of sadistic brutality in his attempt to stamp out the Christian faith. He remembered that; and to the end of the day he regarded himself as the chief of sinners. It is not that he was the chief of sinners; he still is. True, he could never forget that he was a forgiven sinner; but neither could he ever forget that he was a sinner. Why should he remember his sin with such vividness?

(i) The memory of his sin was the surest way to keep him from pride. There could be no such thing as spiritual pride for a man who had done the things that he had done. John Newton was one of the great preachers and the supreme hymn-writers of the Church; but he had sunk to the lowest depths to which a man can sink, in the days when he sailed the seas in a slave-trader's ship. So when he became a converted man and a preacher of the gospel, he wrote a text in great letters, and fastened it above the mantlepiece of his study where he could not fail to see it: "Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee." He also composed his own epitaph: "John Newton, Clerk, once an Infidel and Libertine, a Servant of Slaves in Africa, was by the Mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Preserved, Restored, Pardoned, and Appointed to Preach the Faith he had so long laboured to destroy." John Newton never forgot that he was a forgiven sinner; neither did Paul. Neither must we. It does a man good to remember his sins; it saves him from spiritual pride.

(ii) The memory of his sin was the surest way to keep his gratitude aflame. To remember what we have been forgiven is the surest way to keep awake our love to Jesus Christ. F. W. Boreham tells of a letter which the old Puritan, Thomas Goodwin, wrote to his son. "When I was threatening to become cold in my ministry, and when I felt Sabbath morning coming and my heart not filled with amazement at the grace of God, or when I was making ready to dispense the Lord's Supper, do you know what I used to do? I used to take a turn up and down among the sins of my past life, and I always came down again with a broken and a contrite heart, ready to preach, as it was preached in the beginning, the forgiveness of sins." "I do not think," he said, "I ever went up the pulpit stair that I did not stop for a moment at the foot of it and take a turn up and down among the sins of my past years. I do not think that I ever planned a sermon that I did not take a turn round my study table and look back at the sins of my youth and of all my life down to the present; and many a Sabbath morning, when my soul had been cold and dry, for the lack of prayer during the week, a turn up and down in my past life before I went into the pulpit always broke my hard heart and made me close with the gospel for my own soul before I began to preach." When we remember how we have hurt God and hurt those who love us and hurt our fellow-men and when we remember how God and men have forgiven us, that memory must awake the flame of gratitude within our hearts.

(iii) The memory of his sin was the constant urge to greater effort. It is quite true that a man can never earn the approval of God, or deserve his love; but it is also true that he can never stop trying to do something to show how much he appreciates the love and the mercy which have made him what he is. Whenever we love anyone we cannot help trying always to demonstrate our love. When we remember how much God loves us and how little we deserve it, when we remember that it was for us that Jesus Christ hung and suffered on Calvary, it must compel us to effort that will tell God we realize what he has done for us and will show Jesus Christ that his sacrifice was not in vain..

(iv) The memory of his sin was bound to be a constant encouragement to others. Paul uses a vivid picture. He says that what happened to him was a kind of outline-sketch of what was going to happen to those who would accept Christ in the days to come. The word he uses is hupotuposis (5296) which means an outline, a sketch-plan, a first draft, a preliminary model. It is as if Paul were saying, "Look what Christ has done for me! If someone like me can be saved, there is hope for everyone." Suppose a man was seriously ill and had to go through a dangerous operation, it would be the greatest encouragement to him if he met and talked with someone who had undergone the same operation and had emerged completely cured. Paul did not shrinkingly conceal his record; he blazoned it abroad, that others might take courage and be filled with hope that the grace which had changed him could change them too.

Greatheart said to Christian's boys: "You must know that Forgetful Green is the most dangerous place in all these parts." Paul's sin was something which he refused to forget, for every time he remembered the greatness of his sin, he remembered the still greater greatness of Jesus Christ. It was not that he brooded unhealthily over his sin; it was that he remembered it to rejoice in the wonder of the grace of Jesus Christ.

Barclay: 1Ti 1:18-20

The first section of this passage is highly compressed. What lies behind it is this. There must have been a meeting of the prophets of the Church. They were men known to be within the confidence and the counsels of God. "Surely the Lord does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets" (Amo 3:7). This meeting thought about the situation which was threatening the Church and came to the conclusion that Timothy was the man to deal with it. We can see the prophets acting in exactly the same way in Act 13:1-3. The Church was faced with the great decision whether or not to take the gospel out to the Gentiles; and it was to the prophets that there came the message of the Holy Spirit, saying: "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Act 13:2). That was what had happened to Timothy. He had been marked out by the prophets as the man to deal with the situation in the Church. It may well have been that he shrank from the greatness of the task which faced him, and here Paul encourages him with certain considerations.

(i) Paul says to him: "You are a man who has been chosen and you cannot refuse your task." Something like that happened to John Knox. He had been teaching in St. Andrews. His teaching was supposed to be private but many came to it, for he was obviously a man with a message. So the people urged him "that he would take the preaching place upon him. But he utterly refused, alleging that he would not run where God had not called him.... Whereupon they Privily among themselves advising, having with them in council Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, they concluded that they would give a charge to the said John, and that publicly by the mouth of their preacher."

So Sunday came and Knox was in Church and John Rough was preaching. "The said John Rough, preacher, directed his words to the said John Knox, saying: 'Brother, ye shall not be offended, albeit that I speak unto you that which I have in charge, even from all those that are here present, which is this: In the name of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of these that presently call you by my mouth, I charge you that you refuse not this holy vocation, but...that you take upon you the public office and charge of preaching, even as you look to avoid God's heavy displeasure, and desire that he shall multiply his graces with you.' And in the end he said to those that were present: 'Was not this your charge to me? And do ye not approve this vocation?' They answered: 'It was: and we approve it.' Whereat the said John, abashed, burst forth in most abundant tears, and withdrew himself to his chamber. His countenance and behaviour, from that day till the day that he was compelled to present himself to the public place of preaching, did sufficiently declare the grief and trouble of his heart; for no man saw any sign of mirth in him, neither yet had he pleasure to accompany any man, many days together."

John Knox was chosen; he did not want to answer the call; but he had to, for the choice had been made by God. Years afterwards the Regent Morton uttered his famous epitaph by Knox's graveside: "In respect that he bore God's message, to whom he must make account for the same, he (albeit he was weak and an unworthy creature, and a fearful man) feared not the faces of men." The consciousness of being chosen gave him courage.

So Paul says to Timothy: "You have been chosen; you cannot let down God and man." To every one of us there comes God's choosing; and when we are summoned to some work for him, we dare not refuse it.

(ii) It may be that Paul was saying to Timothy: "Be true to your name." Timothy--its full form is Timotheos (5095)--is composed of two Greek words, time (5092) which means "honour," and theos (2316) which means "God," and so means "honour to God." If we are called by the name Christian, one of Christ's folk, to that name we must be true.

(iii) Finally, Paul says to Timothy: "I entrust this charge to you". The word which he uses for to entrust is paratithesthai (3908), which is the word used of entrusting something valuable to someone's safe keeping. It is used, for instance, of making a deposit in a bank, or of entrusting someone to another's care. It always implies that a trust has been reposed in someone for which he will be called to account. So Paul says: "Timothy, into your hands I am placing a sacred trust. See that you do not fail." God reposes his trust in us; into our hands he puts his honour and his Church. We too must see to it that we do not fail.

Barclay: 1Ti 1:18-20

What then is entrusted to Timothy? He is despatched to fight a good campaign. The picture of life as a campaign is one which has always fascinated men's thoughts. Maximus of Tyre said: "God is the general; life is the campaign; man is the soldier." Seneca said: "For me to live, my dear Lucilius, is to be a soldier." When a man became a follower of the goddess Isis and was initiated into the Mysteries connected with the goddess' name, the summons to him was: "Enrol yourself in the sacred soldiery of Isis."

There are three things to be noted.

(i) It is not to a battle that we are summoned; it is to a campaign. Life is one long campaign, a service from which there is no release, not a short, sharp struggle after which a man can lay aside his arms and rest in peace. To change the metaphor, life is not a sprint; it is a marathon race. It is there that the danger enters in. It is necessary to be for ever on the watch. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." The temptations of life never cease their search for a chink in the armour of the Christian. It is one of the commonest dangers in life to proceed in a series of spasms. We must remember that we are summoned to a campaign which goes on as long as life does.

(ii) It is to a fine campaign that Timothy is summoned. Here again we have the word kalos (2570) of which the Pastorals are so fond. It does not mean only something which is good and strong; it means something which is also winsome and lovely. The soldier of Christ is not a conscript who serves grimly and grudgingly; he is a volunteer who serves with a certain knightly chivalry. He is not the slave of duty, but the servant of joy.

(iii) Timothy is commanded to take with him two weapons of equipment. (a) He is to take faith. Even when things are at their darkest, he must have faith in the essential rightness of his cause and in the ultimate triumph of God. It was faith which kept up John Knox when he was in despair. Once when he was a slave on the galleys, the ship came in sight of St. Andrews. He was so weak that he had to be lifted up bodily in order to see. They showed him the church steeple and asked if he knew it. "Yes," he said, "I know it well: and I am fully persuaded, how weak that ever I now appear, that I shall not depart this life till that my tongue shall glorify his godly name in the same place." He describes his feelings in 1554 when he had to flee the country to escape the vengeance of Mary Tudor. "Not only the ungodly, but even my faithful brethren, yea, and my own self, that is, all natural understanding, judged my cause to be irremediable. The frail flesh, oppressed with fear and pain, desireth deliverance, ever abhorring and drawing back from obedience giving. O Christian brethren, I write by experience.... I know the grudging and murmuring complaints of the flesh; I know the anger, wrath, and indignation which it conceiveth against God, calling all his promises in doubt, and being ready every hour utterly to fall from God. Against which remains only faith." The Christian soldier needs in the darkest hour the faith that will not shrink. (b) He is to take the defence of a good conscience. That is to say, the Christian soldier must at least try to live in accordance with his own doctrine. The virtue is gone out of a man's message when his conscience condemns him as he speaks.

Barclay: 1Ti 1:18-20

The passage closes with a stern rebuke to two members of the Church who have injured the Church, grieved Paul, and made shipwreck of their own lives. Hymenaeus is mentioned again in 2Ti 2:17; and Alexander may well be the Alexander who is referred to in 2Ti 4:14. Paul has three complaints against them.

(i) They had rejected the guidance of conscience. They had allowed their own desires to speak with more persuasiveness than the voice of God.

(ii) They had relapsed into evil practices. Once they had abandoned God, life had become soiled and debased. When God went from life, beauty went along with him.

(iii) They had taken to false teaching. Again it was almost inevitable. When a man takes the wrong way, his first instinct is to find excuses for himself. He takes the Christian teaching and twists it to suit himself. Out of the right he finds perverted arguments to justify the wrong. He finds arguments in the words of Christ to justify the ways of the devil. The moment a man disobeys the voice of conscience, his conduct becomes debased and his thinking twisted.

So Paul goes on to say that he has "handed them over to Satan." What is the meaning of this terrible phrase? There are three possibilities.

(i) He may be thinking of the Jewish practice of excommunication. According to synagogue practice, if a man was an evil-doer he was first publicly rebuked. If that was ineffective, he was banished from the synagogue for a period of thirty days. If he was still stubbornly unrepentant, he was put under the ban, which made him a person accursed, debarred from the society of men and the fellowship of God. In such a case a man might well be said to be handed over to Satan.

(ii) He may be saying that he has barred them from the Church and turned them loose in the world. In a heathen society it was inevitable that men should draw a hard and fast line between the Church and the world. The Church was God's territory; the world was Satan's; and to be debarred from the Church was to be handed over to that territory which was under the sway of Satan. The phrase may mean that these two troublers of the Church were abandoned to the world.

(iii) The third explanation is the most likely of the three. Satan was held to be responsible for human suffering and pain. A man in the Corinthian Church had been guilty of the terrible sin of incest. Paul's advice was that he should be delivered to Satan "for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1Co 5:5). The idea is that the Church should pray for some physical chastisement to fall on that man so that, by the pain of his body, he might be brought to the senses of his mind. In Job's case it was Satan who brought the physical suffering upon him (Job 2:6-7). In the New Testament itself we have the terrible end of Ananias and Sapphira (Act 5:5, Act 5:10), and the blindness which fell upon Elymas because of his opposition to the gospel (Act 13:11). It may well be that it was Paul's prayer that these two men should be subjected to some painful visitation which would be a punishment and a warning.

That is all the more likely because it is Paul's hope that they will be, not obliterated and destroyed, but disciplined out of their evil ways. To him, as it ought to be to us, punishment was never mere vindictive vengeance but always remedial discipline, never meant simply to hurt but always to cure.

Constable: 1Ti 1:3-20

II. TIMOTHY'S MISSION IN EPHESUS 1:3-20

In chapter 1 Paul charged Timothy to remain faithful to the task with which Paul had entrusted him in Ephesus. He began by reminding Timothy what that task was and how he should carry out his chief duty. Then he exhorted Timothy to be faithful. He reminded his young protégé of God's power to transform lives and warned him of the danger of acting contrary to his own spiritually sensitive conscience.

"The absence of . . . [a thanksgiving] here supports the observation . . . that 1 Timothy is really for the sake of the church as much as, or more than, for Timothy himself; what is taking place in the church gives no cause for thanksgiving."¹⁴

Constable: 1Ti 1:12-17

1. A positive encouragement 1:12-17

Paul thanked God for changing him to enable Timothy to appreciate the fact that God can transform even the worst of sinners and enable His saints to accomplish supernatural feats. What precipitated Paul's testimony here was the difficult situation Timothy faced in Ephesus made even harder by Timothy's personal tendency toward timidity. The evidence that Timothy tended to be timid, perhaps partly because of the strong opposition he faced, comes out more clearly later in this epistle.

"V. 11 with its assertion that the gospel was entrusted to Paul provides the setting for vv. 12-17. Paul demonstrates how this entrusting and his own reception of mercy and grace in Jesus Christ provides an illustration that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for any sinner, because it has been that to him, a terrible sinner."⁴⁰

1:12-14 Did God save Paul because He foresaw that Paul would be faithful (v. 12)? No, but God entrusted him with the ministry he had received at least in part for that reason.

"Not skill or knowledge but faithfulness is the first qualification for a minister of Christ (I Cor. 4:2)."⁴¹

Paul had not opposed Jesus Christ and His church because he wanted to dishonor God. Paul believed he was serving God by persecuting Christians. He was mistaken about who Jesus Christ is. For this reason God had mercy on him.⁴² The Greek word translated "violent aggressor" ("violent man," NIV; hubristes) means a proud, haughty man. Such a person heaps insulting language on others and or does some shameful act of wrong against them.

God poured out grace, trust, and love on Paul even though Paul had poured out blasphemy, persecution, and violence on God.

"Jesus recognized this principle when He prayed on the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34). Their ignorance did not save them, nor did Christ's prayer save them; but the combination of the two postponed God's judgment, giving them an opportunity to be saved."⁴³

1:15 Seven times in the Pastorals Paul evidently alluded to statements that had become proverbial in the early church. They may have been parts of early Christian hymns or catechisms (manuals for the training of new Christians; cf. 2:5-6; 3:16; 2 Tim. 1:9-10; 2:8-13; Titus 2:11-14; 3:3-7).⁴⁴ They may be restatements of what Jesus said about Himself (cf. Matt. 9:13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32; 19:10; John 12:46-47; 16:28; 18:37).⁴⁵ Paul probably alluded to one of these classic statements here, as seems likely from his use of the introductory, "It is a trustworthy statement." Here the great truth affirmed is that the purpose of Christ's incarnation was the salvation of sinners.

"The repeated formula is always attached to a maxim (relating either to doctrine or practice) on which full reliance can be placed."⁴⁶

Was Paul really the worst sinner of all time (cf. 1 Cor. 15:9; Eph. 3:8)? Obviously many people have lived longer in a more depraved condition than Paul did. He became a Christian relatively early in his adult life. Perhaps the apostle meant that he was the "foremost" sinner in the sense that his sin of aggressively tearing down the work that God was building up was the worst kind of sin. It was much worse than simply ignoring God and going one's own way.

Note, too, that Paul still regarded himself as a sinner though a forgiven one: ". . . I am foremost."

"The fact is that it is always the characteristic of a true saint to feel himself a real sinner. The air in a room seems to be clear, but when it is penetrated by the sunlight it is seen to be full of dust and other impurities: and so as men draw nearer to God, and are penetrated by the light of God (1 John i. 5), they see more clearly their own infirmities, and begin to feel for sin something of the hatred which God feels for it."⁴⁷

1:16 God was unusually merciful to Paul because He desired to make the apostle an example of how God can change the worst of sinners into the best of saints. His greatest enemy became His greatest servant. In the light of Paul's conversion no one should conclude that his or her sin is too great for God to forgive. God may be patient with anyone since He was patient with Paul.

1:17 Such grace prompted Paul to glorify God in this brief doxology. God is the King of the ages (sovereign), immortal (eternal), invisible (spiritual), and the only God (unique). To Him belong all honor and glory eternally. "Amen" means, "So be it." The Christians often uttered this word out loud in their meetings as did the Jews in their synagogues.

The reason Paul referred to his conversion in this section (1:12-17) was to encourage Timothy to be faithful in the ministry with which God had entrusted him (1:3-11). In his ministry at Ephesus Timothy would never encounter a more difficult case than Saul of Tarsus had been. The fact that God had completely transformed Paul shows that He can do the same to anyone. This gives hope to everyone who seeks to win people to Christ and to help them grow in Christ.

Constable: 1Ti 1:18-20

2. A negative warning 1:18-20

Paul next balanced his positive encouragement based on God's dealings with himself (vv. 12-17) with a negative warning based on God's dealings with two unfaithful ministers. He did this to challenge Timothy further to remain faithful to God as he discharged his duties. His thought returned to what he had written in verses 3-7.

1:18-19 The command to which Paul referred here is the one contained in verses 3 and 4. He now returned to the subject that he began there. Sometime in the past someone had given prophecies concerning Timothy's effectiveness as a servant of Christ (4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6; cf. Acts 13:2). We have no record of who gave them, when, or where, but Paul referred to them here to motivate Timothy to carry on. Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus (v. 3), but more importantly the Holy Spirit had placed him there.

"Here the believer is cast in the role of a soldier who is ordered out into battle. The weapons of this soldier, however, are not clever argumentation or inescapable logic, things that we might think best suited to debates with false teachers. On the contrary, Timothy is to avoid debates (2 Tim 2:23-25). Nor is the soldier's objective the destruction of his opponent. Appropriate strategy includes instructing, correcting erroneous views and urging repentance (see 2 Thess 3:14-15). The minister's weapons for this fight are the gospel and godly concern for the spiritual condition of the opponent. The goal is to protect the faith of those whom the false teachers seek to influence and, if possible, to win back those who have strayed (1:5). Only the gospel is sufficient for such work, as Paul has just taken great care to illustrate (1:11-16)."⁴⁸

As Timothy fought the good fight, he should continue to trust God and maintain a good conscience. A conscience, like a computer, programmed with the will of God can be a great asset to the Christian soldier. However if one violates his or her conscience so programmed, that person ignores a warning signal. The results can be disastrous. The conscience is the umpire of the soul. One's conscience enables him or her to feel dishonor, shame, and guilt.

"In the conflict which we wage outwardly against the enemy, our chief concern is with the inner state and disposition of the heart."⁴⁹

"One man said of his hypocritical pastor, He is such a good preacher, he should never get out of the pulpit; but he is such a poor Christian, he should never get into the pulpit!"⁵⁰

1:20 Paul cited two examples of casualties of this type with which Timothy was apparently familiar: Hymenaeus (cf. 2 Tim. 2:17) and Alexander (cf. 2 Tim. 4:14). Paul had turned them over to God's discipline because of their determination to continue living in a manner contrary to the will of God. This discipline would come on them through the agency of Satan so that they would repent and stop blaspheming God by their lives.

Handing someone over to Satan may mean that Satan had permission to inflict some illness or disability on the evildoer (cf. Job 2:6).⁵¹ It may also picture life outside the fellowship of the church as Satan's sphere (cf. 1 Cor. 5:5).⁵² Thus to deliver these men to Satan would mean that Paul had removed them from the church's fellowship and placed them in Satan's realm where they would experience his malice (cf. Acts 5:1-11; 13:11).⁵³ These men appear to have been leaders, teachers, and even elders in the Ephesian church. It was very rare for Paul to name names when referring to serious sinners. That he did so here indicates that he wanted everyone to know to whom he was referring.

"It is certainly a disciplinary or remedial and not a merely punitive penalty . . ."⁵⁴

"We should not misunderstand the nature of this process. It was not simply intended to cut out a cancer' in order to preserve the rest of the body, as some churches view it today. Neither is it a practice that the church today can afford to ignore, as if it were an aberration belonging to the Inquisition. Taken together, Matthew 18:15-17, 1 Corinthians 5:5, 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 and 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 reflect the development of a carefully measured process. Each step was designed to bring the erring individual to the point of admission and true change of mind and behavior. Even if the individual persisted in a stubborn refusal to change (like the two mentioned here), the final step of expulsion from the fellowship back into the hostile world was ultimately intended as a means (desperate and last-ditch though it be) of reclamation. To be handed over to Satan (compare 1 Cor 5:5) is to be exposed, without the protection God promises to his people, to the dangers of sin. For some it takes being cast off into the sea to realize the advantages on board ship [cf. Jonah]."⁵⁵

Hymenaeus and Alexander appear to have been genuine believers in view of how Paul described them here and in his other references to them in 2 Timothy.⁵⁶ Perseverance in faith and good works is not inevitable for the Christian. The many New Testament warnings against turning away from the Lord and the truth should make that fact obvious. There are also examples of Old Testament believers who did not remain faithful to the Lord (e.g., Lot, the Israelites in the wilderness, Saul, Solomon, Uzziah, et al.).

The Greek word translated "blaspheme" (blasphemein) means to "by contemptuous speech intentionally come short of the reverence due to God or to sacred things."⁵⁷

This first chapter deals with matters of vital importance to every Christian since we are all ministers of Jesus Christ. These matters are specially relevant to church leaders. In the communication of God's Word, our primary responsibility (2 Tim. 4:2), we should avoid speculation and seek to represent God's intention accurately (vv. 3-11). We can face our task optimistically since God has the power to transform even the worst of sinners into the greatest of saints (vv. 12-17). Nevertheless we should be careful not to go against the warnings of our consciences programmed with God's Word as we carry out our ministry.

College: 1Ti 1:1-20

1 TIMOTHY 1

I. THE SALUTATION (1:1-2)

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, ² To Timothy my true son in the faith:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus

Paul follows the normal pattern of the Hellenistic letter by first introducing himself as the author and then moving to address his audience. In 1 Timothy Paul calls himself an "apostle," a designation that is common in letters where his authority is in question or where he wishes to give added weight to his exhortations (1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians). On other occasions he will indicate his work as "servant" (Philippians) or "prisoner" (Philemon). It may on the surface seem strange that Paul will use such a designation to write to his "true son in the faith." That designation takes on special meaning, however, when one remembers that 1 Timothy was written to be read not only by Timothy but also by the entire church at Ephesus, a church facing false teachers who would likely have emphasized their authority.

by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

Paul notes that his authority was not self-acquired but rather came "by the command of God." Ordinarily Paul will indicate that he is an apostle "by the will of God" (2 Tim 1:1). One cannot help but wonder whether Paul is preparing Timothy for the charge or command to instruct the church to live as Christians ought by indicating that he himself has been issued a command by God.

The source of this command is "God our Savior and Christ." God is frequently referred to as "Savior" in the OT, indicating that he is the powerful deliverer. In the Roman world the term "savior" (swthvr , sôtçr ) was applied to the emperor in the emperor cult, in particular to Nero. Outside the Pastoral Epistles Paul never uses the term "savior" to refer to God the Father, rather reserving the term to describe the work of Jesus. In the Pastoral Epistles both God the Father (1 Tim 1:1; 2:3; 4:10; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4) and Jesus Christ the Son (Titus 1:4; 2:13; 3:6; 2 Tim 1:10) are designated "savior." Although Paul does not use the word savior to describe the Father in his other epistles, he still does designate the work of the Father as providing salvation for believers (1 Cor 1:21; 1 Thess 5:9).

Jesus is the source of the Christian's hope. Hope is not merely wishful thinking but indicates the desire of one who is earnestly expecting something. Here there is an eschatological note of the completion of the salvation that is offered through Jesus when he returns.

1:2 To Timothy my true son in the faith:

Paul both indicates the closeness of his relationship with Timothy and points to Timothy's authority by declaring him to be his "true son in the faith." He is Paul's "true," i.e., "legitimate" son. Knight has suggested three options for understanding the father-son relationship between Paul and Timothy: (1) Timothy may well have received the gospel through the preaching of Paul; (2) Paul may be describing his nurturing relationship with Timothy; he is an adopted son; or (3) Paul is simply indicating that he is older than Timothy both in physical years and in the faith. Knight is probably correct in concluding that Paul's primary emphasis is (1), but (2) and (3) may be included as well.

Not only is Paul encouraging Timothy with these words but perhaps also ensuring his positive reception by the church at Ephesus. Note that Timothy is Paul's son "in the faith." Is Paul referring to Timothy's faith in Christ which has produced this unique relationship, to his faithfulness to Christ as the sphere in which the relationship exists, or to the cause or belief system for which he and Paul labor? The middle option seems best to describe Paul's intent.

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

The threefold salutation of Paul, "grace, mercy and peace," is used by Paul only here and in 2 Tim 1:2 (cf. 2 John 3; Jude 2). Paul's normal greeting is simply "grace and peace." "Grace" (cavri" , charis ) represents the noun form of the Greek verb normally used in a greeting. It indicates the unmerited goodness of God. "Mercy" (e[leo" , eleos ) is God's help to the discouraged, the down-and-out. The verb form appears in 1 Tim 1:13, 16 where the plight of sinners and their need for divine favor is the focus. "Peace" (eijrhvnh , eirçnç ) represents the normal greeting among Jews, mlv ( shalom ) in Hebrew. The term refers not to absence of warfare, but to the wholeness of the relationship between a person and God.

II. PAUL'S CHARGE TO TIMOTHY (1:3-20)

A. THE CHARGE AND THE FALSE TEACHERS (1:3-7)

³ As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer ⁴ nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work - which is by faith. ⁵ The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

⁶ Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. ⁷ They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

Paul's primary concern in the remainder of this section is that "certain men" be instructed "not to teach false doctrines." He reminds Timothy of the real message of the gospel and warns against these false teachers' abuse of the law. Timothy must fight on and not follow the bad example of Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom Paul will mention in v. 20.

1:3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia,

The NIV translation of vv. 3-4 conceals the fact that the Greek text is a bit awkward. The text begins with "as," with no conclusion to the sentence: "As I urged you, journeying into Macedonia to stay . . . to command certain people not to teach. . . ." The KJV completes Paul's thought with "so do." Paul had previously warned the Ephesian elders about the coming of false teachers (Acts 20:29-30). That heresy has now arisen, and Paul instructs Timothy how he is to deal with it.

stay there in Ephesus

Paul's apparent ministry at Ephesus after being released from imprisonment at the end of Acts provides an interesting postscript to his telling the Ephesian elders that he would not see them again in Acts 20. It would seem that he does indeed see them and work with them. Timothy has stayed on at Ephesus at Paul's urging. This may indicate some reluctance on Timothy's part to stay on rather than travel with Paul. It may also be Paul's way of indicating to the Ephesian church that Timothy is acting on his behalf with his authority.

so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer

The word "command" is a very strong word. When followed by the word "not" and an infinitive, it carries the idea "forbid." Timothy is thus to forbid these people from teaching falsehood and devoting themselves to "myths and endless genealogies." The false teachers are spreading their falsehoods and spending their time in speculations that are both irrelevant and contrary to the gospel.

1:4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.

Many scholars have argued that the "endless genealogies" refer to the second century gnostic emanations that proceed like a progression of ripples from the one true God. One need not propose such a drastic solution. Such speculative exploration of genealogies and myths can clearly be seen in Judaism. The occurrence of the same word "myths" (muvqoi , mythoi ) in Titus 1:14 with the clarifying adjective "Jewish" supports this conclusion. The term "myths" also appears in 1 Tim 4:7 where Paul terms them "old wives' tales." Myths are seen as enticing and attractive snares which would lure hearers from the truth. In Titus 3:9 Paul reflects on genealogies that are "unprofitable and useless."

These promote controversies rather than God's work - which is by faith.

All of this speculation was bound to promote "controversies rather than God's work - which is by faith." The phrase "God's work" (oijkonomiva , oikonomia ) refers to the stewardship of another's property, here God's. The work of God which had been entrusted to believers, his plan for redeeming his people, was being perverted by this heresy. In a manner that is characteristic of Paul, he informs his readers that God's work is accomplished through faith.

1:5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

The goal of Timothy's "command" (paraggeliva , parangelia ) is love, a quality which is not likely to be found among the false teachers. This love issues from (1) a pure heart, (2) a good conscience, and (3) a sincere faith. From a biblical perspective the heart is the seat of the will. A "pure heart" is then the conscience which wills to do what is right and noble. For Paul the "conscience" is the inner awareness of moral right and wrong (Rom 13:5; 1 Cor 8:10). Since the conscience can become calloused and marred (1 Tim 4:2; Titus 1:15), the Christian must so live within the will of God that his conscience is trained (1 Cor 8:7-12). "Sincere faith" refers to a genuine faith. In fact the Greek word behind "sincere" (ajnupovkrito" , anypokritos ) could well be rendered "unhypocritical."

1:6 Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk.

The "some" of v. 6 were the same persons as the "certain men" of v. 3. The false teachers have wandered away from the pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith of v. 5. "Wandered away" comes from a Greek word (ajstocevw , astocheô ) which means "to miss the mark" or "to go beyond the goal." The false teachers have missed the mark set for them by a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Instead they have turned to meaningless talk. "Meaningless talk" represents a single word in the original which could literally be rendered "empty or useless discourse." All of the talk of the false teachers leads nowhere. It may draw some followers, but it does not produce the godly life.

1:7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

These false teachers want to be known as "teachers of the law." Like many of the Jewish rabbis of the day, they suggest extravagant interpretations of the Old Testament stories and laws pretending to be scholars. These men have no real grasp of the intent of the sacred Scriptures and little concern with regard to the gospel's implications for Christian living. Here one can see the Jewish character of the false teaching at Ephesus. Like some modern day preachers these men may hide the gospel with senseless minutiae.

B. THE LAWFUL USE OF THE LAW (1:8-11)

⁸ We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. ⁹ We also know that law ^a is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰ for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers - and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine ¹¹ that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

^a 9 Or that the law

1:8 We know that the law is good

Paul does not want his readers to misunderstand his last statement about the false teachers and their relationship with the law. The law is "good" because it reflects the will of God. The difficulty is not in the law but in the false teachers' ignorance of its intent and their misuse of it. "Ignorance" and "mindlessness" are recurring descriptions of the false teachers in the Pastoral Epistles (1 Tim 6:4, 20; Titus 1:15; 3:9; 2 Tim 2:23). The law (Paul is here using that term in a much broader sense than the Ten Commandments or law of Moses) is itself an honorable and valuable resource for the Christian. Paul himself uses adjectives like "holy," "spiritual," "just," and "good" to describe it (Rom 7:12-14; cf. Gal 3:23-26 for Paul's understanding of its value).

if one uses it properly.

Proper use of the law was to make it clear that actions or sins like those in vv. 9-10 were wrong. The adverb "properly" (nomivmw" , nomimôs , sometimes literally rendered "lawfully") appears only here and in 2 Tim 2:5. God intended that the law bring human beings to a consciousness of sin (Rom 5:12; 6:23; 7:11, 13).

1:9 We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious;

The purpose of law is the restraint of evil-doing. The purpose of the law is to be seen not in what it does to or for the "righteous," but rather in relation to those who practice evil. Paul begins his vice list by using three pairs of adjectives which describe these sinful people in terms of their relationship with God and may well be seen as paralleling the earlier section of the Decalogue: "lawbreakers and rebels" (those who willfully break the law and rebel against it); "the ungodly and sinful" (those whose disobedient lifestyle indicates that God has no place in their lives); and "the unholy and irreligious" (those who have no sense of the sacred).

for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 1:10 for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers

As Fee has noted, Paul's catalogue of vices bears a striking resemblance to the Ten Commandments (the fifth commandment through the ninth). These lawless people are "those who kill their fathers or mothers," a very gruesome way to break the fifth commandment (Exod 20:12; cf. Exod 21:15); "murderers" (literally "man-slayers," i.e., those who break the sixth commandment; cf. Exod 21:13); "adulterers" (literally "the sexually immoral") and "perverts" ("homosexuals"), both groups would break commandment seven (Exod 21:14); "slave traders" (literally "those who catch a man by the foot"), perhaps not too far a stretch to be seen as breakers of the eighth commandment (Exod 21:15); and "liars and perjurers," those who bear false witness and break the ninth commandment (Exod 21:16). The order of these vices is hardly accidental. Paul is demonstrating that God gave the law, not for idle speculation and meaningless talk, but to prohibit sin.

- and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine

Paul completes his list with a phrase designed to cover all the bases: "and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine." A final summation of this sort is quite common for Paul (Rom 13:9; Gal 5:21). The term "sound doctrine" will appear regularly in the Pastoral Epistles (1 Tim 1:10; 6:3; Titus 1:9, 13; 2:2, 8). Literally, the phrase (uJgiainouvsh/ didaskaliva/ , hygiainousç didaskalia ; cf. the English word "hygiene") might be translated "healthy teaching." This metaphor provides a clear contrast with the sick, "unhealthy interest" or craving of the false teachers in 6:4 and the teaching of these folks which "will spread like gangrene" in 2 Tim 2:17. Knight suggests that his metaphorical use of medical language may be the result of Paul's association with Luke the physician. While this may be true, it is also possible that Paul is simply using a common figure of speech.

1:11 that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God,

This sound doctrine is teaching which "conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God." The original reads literally "to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God," providing the translator with two alternatives: 1) a descriptive genitive, "the glorious gospel"; or 2) a genitive of content, "the gospel which is the manifestation of God's glory." The differences between the two choices are minimal. The gospel is glorious because it manifests the glory of God. "Blessed" (makavrio" , makarios ) is used of God only here and in 6:15 although it is frequently used in such a fashion by Philo. Paul probably intends to indicate that "blessedness" rests in and comes from God.

which he entrusted to me.

Paul concludes this section by noting that God had "entrusted" (pisteuvw , pisteuô ) him with the gospel and the doctrine. His use of this verb indicates that God had faith in him and that the gospel was a trust given to his care (cf. Rom 3:2; 1 Cor 9:17; Gal 2:4; 1 Thess 2:4; 1 Tim 2:7; 2 Tim 1:11; 2:9; Titus 1:3).

C. PAUL'S OWN MINISTRY, A POSITIVE EXAMPLE (1:12-17)

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. ¹³ Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. ¹⁴ The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. ¹⁶ But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. ¹⁷ Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.

Paul now expands on the personal reference of the last phrase of verse 11, expressing his gratitude to Jesus who empowered him ("given strength," ejnduvnamai , endynamai ), deeming him trustworthy ("faithful," pistov" , pistos ) and "appointing [him] to his service" ("ministry," diakoniva , diakonia ).

1:13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man,

Paul notes that God could well have looked at his former life and denied him such a privilege. After all he was "once a blasphemer" (having denied what God had done and said in Jesus) and "a persecutor" (Acts 22:4, 7; 26:11) and a "violent man" (one who acted as an insolent bully, a thoroughly objectionable fellow with outrageous disregard of other men's rights, cf. Acts 9:1, 2; 22:4, 5, 19, 20; 26:10, 11; Gal 1:13).

I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.

But God had shown him mercy. Paul sees the reason for this mercy in the fact that he "acted in ignorance and unbelief," not that he merits the mercy, but that he was not acting in defiance. Here Paul is not minimizing the significance of his sin, but rather indicating something of its nature. His sin was not one that was "presumptuous" or "defiant" (Num 15:22-31).

1:14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

While many would question the authorship of this book, the theology of this passage is thoroughly Pauline. Grace had been "poured out abundantly" upon Paul; that grace then stimulated his own faith and love. God's actions are always prior to man's. It is noteworthy that faith and love are located "in Christ Jesus."

1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance:

In verse 15 Paul elaborates upon the grace God had shown him in Christ Jesus. This passage is the first of five sections in the Pastoral Epistles that contain the term "trustworthy saying" (1 Tim 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; Titus 3:8; 2 Tim 2:11). Two of the passages contain the additional affirmation that the saying "deserves full acceptance" (this verse and 1 Tim 4:9). Three issues arise when the formula appears: 1) Does the formula follow or precede the trustworthy saying? Here the formula obviously precedes the saying; in 4:9 it follows the saying; scholars debate the order in 3:1. 2) What portion of the verse or verses in question contain the trustworthy saying? 3) Just what is the meaning of the formula?

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners

The saying which appears here - "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" - emphasizes both the incarnation and the redemptive work of Christ; Christ came and he came to save. The origin of the saying has been much debated. It seems likely that Paul is simply citing something that these Christians have frequently heard preached and perhaps have themselves recited or sung.

- of whom I am the worst.

The simple mention of the word "sinners" causes Paul once again to reflect upon his own life. The term "worst" is literally "first" (prw'to" , prôtos ). The term refers not to the sequence of Paul's sin or conversion but to its magnitude. This may well seem to be an exaggeration to the reader, but for Paul it is no exaggeration (1 Cor 15:9, 10; Gal 1:13; Eph 3:8). As Lea and Griffin put it, "[Paul] never got beyond a response of wonder and gratitude to God's act of saving him 'warts and all.' We must never move beyond the excitement and joy our conversion generates in us."

1:16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

In v. 16 Paul repeats the fact that he "was shown mercy" (v. 13) and his evaluation of his own sinfulness as "worst of sinners" (v. 15), but this time he gives reason that God had "shown mercy" on terrible sinner Paul. Christ Jesus was clearly demonstrating "his unlimited patience" (literally "the all longsuffering," thΙn a{pasan makroqumivan , tçn hapasan makrothymian ) to Paul which serves as an "example" of that patience for all believers. Paul is contending that, if God can be patient with him and show mercy to him, any believer should have confidence that he too can be forgiven and "receive eternal life."

1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The fact that God has shown mercy on him and that same mercy is available to all "those who would believe in him" leads Paul to break into a doxology. Such a reflection on the grace of God is not unusual in Paul's letters (cf. Rom 1:25; 9:5; 11:36; Gal 1:5; Eph 3:21; Phil 4:20; 1 Tim 6:17).

He begins by designating God as "the King eternal." This phrase (oJ basileuΙ" tw'n aijwvnwn , ho basileus tôn aiônôn ) may mean either "eternal king" (NASB, NIV) or "king of the ages" (RSV, NEB, NRSV). Perhaps one should not be too concerned about the difference since the king over all ages differs little from the eternal king.

Paul continues by describing God as "immortal" (literally "incorruptible"), "invisible" (cf. Rom 1:20; Col 1:15), and "the only God" (cf. this theme throughout the OT, especially Deut 6:4). On account of God's nature all "honor and glory" are due him "for ever and ever." The "amen," common as the sign of assent to a prayer or proclamation in the synagogue and in the early church, serves as the conclusion of this doxology (cf. Rom 1:25; 9:5; 11:36; 16:27; Gal 3:21; Eph 3:21; Phil 4:20; 1 Tim 6:17).

The doxology concludes the digression on Paul's ministry and God's grace begun at v. 12. Paul is now ready to return to instructions for Timothy regarding the false teachers and his ministry.

D. THE NEGATIVE EXAMPLE OF HYMENAEUS AND ALEXANDER (1:18-20)

¹⁸ Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, ¹⁹ holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. ²⁰ Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

1:18 Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction

Vv. 18-20 return to the discussion of vv. 3-7. This is even clearer in Greek than in English. The word translated "instruction" (paraggeliva , parangelia ) in v. 18 also appeared in vv. 3 and 5 where it was translated "command" in the NIV. The material in this section is not mere repetition. Paul is concerned that Timothy endure whatever hardship may come his way and thus fulfill his ministry. Paul uses examples of two failed ministers and their ministries to drive home his message.

in keeping with the prophecies once made about you,

Paul's instructions to Timothy are not merely his whim; they are "in keeping with the prophecies once made" about him. Paul will later refer to Timothy's "spiritual gift" (likely his ministry, 4:14) which was accompanied by a "prophetic message" from the elders and by the laying on of hands. It seems likely that Timothy's Spirit-bestowed gift was his ministry, something recognized through some prophecy when Timothy was originally designated to assist Paul in his missionary work. This is consistent with the Spirit's designation of Barnabas and Saul in Acts 13:1-3.

so that by following them you may fight the good fight,

By means of these prophecies Timothy is to "fight the good fight." The battle against Satan and heterodoxy is a genuine one. Paul's description of the "fight" (strateiva , strateia ) is a term filled with the military imagery of strategy, tactics, and preparation for an all-out battle.

1:19 holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

In fighting the good fight Timothy must hold on to or keep faith and a good conscience - two of the three qualities that accompanied Paul's charge in v. 5. "Conscience" becomes the compass of one's life. Rejecting or repudiating it results in spiritual shipwreck. Although conscience can be mistaught or defiled, one who refuses to be sensitive to his conscience will lose his faith. In 1 Timothy Paul places special emphasis on both "good conscience" and "sound doctrine." One should note Paul's change in metaphor from the soldier ("fight the good fight") to the sailor ("shipwrecked their faith").

1:20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander,

Hymenaeus and Alexander, along with certain others, provide Paul with examples of those who have rejected conscience and made shipwreck of their faith. Hymenaeus will be mentioned again later with Philetus in 2 Tim 2:17. Other than these two brief references and his occurrence in the second-century apocryphal work Acts of Paul and Thecla , he is unknown. There are two other references to an Alexander who is connected to Ephesus: Acts 19:33-34 where a Jew by that name was hindered from speaking by a rowdy crowd and 2 Tim 4:14-15 where Paul warns Timothy about a metal worker bearing that name. Although many will link the Alexander of this passage with the Alexanders in one or both of the other texts, it is impossible to demonstrate that this is the case with any certainty. Fee is likely correct in suggesting that this Alexander may well be the one of 2 Tim 4:14-15.

whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

Paul states that he has handed these men "over to Satan" in order that they might be "taught not to blaspheme." The serious state of these men and the threat they offered to the church had led Paul to place an anathema on them. There has been much debate about the phrase and the parallel in 1 Cor 5:5 "hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature" (literally "that his body") "may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord." There are at least two primary interpretations for the phrase to "hand over to Satan": some would suggest that Paul was allowing Satan to inflict the evil doers with physical illness, and others that the term is a semi-technical reference to disfellowshipping. The latter interpretation for this text and 1 Cor 5:5 seems most likely. Paul is turning the sinner back over to Satan's sphere of influence and removing offenders from the fellowship of believers. The point of such action for Paul is always the redemption of the sinner. Here the discipline is clearly that they might learn "not to blaspheme." Discipline is to teach, not to punish. Here Paul hopes that turning the offenders over to the influence of Satan will teach them not to insult the Lord with their words and deeds.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

Introduction / Outline

Robertson: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

First Timothy

Probably a.d. 65 From Macedonia

By Way of Introduction

Assuming the Pauline authorship the facts shape up after this fashion. Paul had been in Ephesus (1Ti_1:3) after his arrival from Rome, which was certainly before the burning of Rome in a.d. 64. He had left Timothy in charge of the work in Ephesus and has gone on into Macedonia (1Ti_1:3), possibly to Philippi as he had hoped (Phi_2:24). He wishes to help Timothy meet the problems of doctrine (against the Gnostics), discipline, and church training which are increasingly urgent. There are personal touches of a natural kind about Timothy’s own growth and leadership. There are wise words here from the greatest of all preachers to a young minister whom Paul loved.

JFB: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

GENUINENESS.--The ancient Church never doubted of their being canonical and written by Paul. They are in the Peschito Syriac version of the second century. MURATORI'S Fragment on the Canon of Scripture, at the close of the second century, acknowledges them as such. IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 1; 3.3.3; 4.16.3; 2.14.8; 3.11.1; 1.16.3], quotes 1Ti 1:4, 1Ti 1:9; 1Ti 6:20; 2Ti 4:9-11; Tit 3:10. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [Miscellanies, 2, p. 457; 3, pp. 534, 536; 1, p. 350], quotes 1Ti 6:1, 1Ti 6:20; Second Timothy, as to deaconesses; Tit 1:12. TERTULLIAN [The Prescription against Heretics, 25; 6], quotes 1Ti 6:20; 2Ti 1:14; 1Ti 1:18; 1Ti 6:13, &c.; 2Ti 2:2; Tit 3:10-11. EUSEBIUS includes the three in the "universally acknowledged" Scriptures. Also THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH [To Autolychus, 3.14], quotes 1Ti 2:1-2; Tit 3:1, and CAIUS (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 6.20]) recognizes their authenticity. CLEMENT OF ROME, in the end of the first century, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians [29], quotes 1Ti 2:8. IGNATIUS, in the beginning of the second century, in Epistle to Polycarp, [6], alludes to 2Ti 2:4. POLYCARP, in the beginning of the second century [Epistle to the Philippians, 4], alludes to 2Ti 2:4; and in the ninth chapter to 2Ti 4:10. Hegisippus, in the end of the second century, in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.32], alludes to 1Ti 6:3, 1Ti 6:20. ATHENAGORAS, in the end of the second century, alludes to 1Ti 6:16. JUSTIN MARTYR, in the middle of the second century [Dialogue with Trypho, 47], alludes to Tit 3:4. The Gnostic MARCION alone rejected these Epistles.

The HERESIES OPPOSED in them form the transition stage from Judaism, in its ascetic form, to Gnosticism, as subsequently developed. The references to Judaism and legalism are clear (1Ti 1:7; 1Ti 4:3; Tit 1:10, Tit 1:14; Tit 3:9). Traces of beginning Gnosticism are also unequivocal (1Ti 1:4). The Gnostic theory of a twofold principle from the beginning, evil as well as good, appears in germ in 1Ti 4:3, &c. In 1Ti 6:20 the term Gnosis ("science") itself occurs. Another Gnostic error, namely, that "the resurrection is past," is alluded to in 2Ti 2:17-18. The Judaism herein opposed is not that of the earlier Epistles, which upheld the law and tried to join it with faith in Christ for justification. It first passed into that phase of it which appears in the Epistle to the Colossians, whereby will-worship and angel-worship were superadded to Judaizing opinions. Then a further stage of the same evil appears in the Epistle to the Philippians (Phi 3:2, Phi 3:18-19), whereby immoral practice accompanied false doctrine as to the resurrection (compare 2Ti 2:18, with 1Co 15:12, 1Co 15:32-33). This descent from legality to superstition, and from superstition to godlessness, appears more matured in the references to it in these Pastoral Epistles. The false teachers now know not the true use of the law (1Ti 1:7-8), and further, have put away good conscience as well as the faith (1Ti 1:19; 1Ti 4:2); speak lies in hypocrisy, are corrupt in mind, and regard godliness as a means of earthly gain (1Ti 6:5 Tit 1:11); overthrow the faith by heresies eating as a canker, saying the resurrection is past (2Ti 2:17-18), leading captive silly women, ever learning yet never knowing the truth, reprobate as Jannes and Jambres (2Ti 3:6, 2Ti 3:8), defiled, unbelieving, professing to know God, but in works denying Him, abominable, disobedient, reprobate (Tit 1:15-16). This description accords with that in the Catholic Epistles of St. John and St. Peter, and, in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This fact proves the later date of these Pastoral Epistles as compared with Paul's earlier Epistles. The Judaism reprobated herein is not that of an earlier date, so scrupulous as to the law; it was now tending to immortality of practice. On the other hand, the Gnosticism opposed in these Epistles is not the anti-Judaic Gnosticism of a later date, which arose as a consequence of the overthrow of Judaism by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, but it was the intermediate phase between Judaism and Gnosticism, in which the Oriental and Greek elements of the latter were in a kind of amalgam with Judaism, just prior to the overthrow of Jerusalem.

The DIRECTIONS AS TO CHURCH GOVERNORS and ministers, "bishop-elders, and deacons," are such as were natural for the apostle, in prospect of his own approaching removal, to give to Timothy, the president of the Church at Ephesus, and to Titus, holding the same office in Crete, for securing the due administration of the Church when he should be no more, and at a time when heresies were rapidly springing up. Compare his similar anxiety in his address to the Ephesian elders (Act 20:21-30). The Presbyterate (elders; priest is a contraction from presbyter) and Diaconate had existed from the earliest times in the Church (Act 6:3; Act 11:30; Act 14:23). Timothy and Titus, as superintendents or overseers (so bishop subsequently meant), were to exercise the same power in ordaining elders at Ephesus which the apostle had exercised in his general supervision of all the Gentile churches.

The PECULIARITIES OF MODES OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION, are such as the difference of subject and circumstances of those addressed and those spoken of in these Epistles, as compared with the other Epistles, would lead us to expect. Some of these peculiar phrases occur also in Galatians, in which, as in the Pastoral Epistles, he, with his characteristic fervor, attacks the false teachers. Compare 1Ti 2:6; Tit 2:14, "gave Himself for us," with Gal 1:4; 1Ti 1:17; 2Ti 4:18, "for ever and ever," with Gal 1:5 : "before God," 1Ti 5:21; 1Ti 6:13; 2Ti 2:14; 2Ti 4:1, with Gal 1:20 : "a pillar," 1Ti 3:15, with Gal 2:9 : "mediator," 1Ti 2:5, with Gal 3:20 : "in due season," 1Ti 2:6; 1Ti 6:15; Tit 1:3 with Gal 6:9.

TIME AND PLACE OF WRITING.--The First Epistle to Timothy was written not long after Paul had left Ephesus for Macedon (1Ti 1:3). Now, as Timothy was in Macedon with Paul (2Co 1:1) on the occasion of Paul's having passed from Ephesus into that country, as recorded, Act 19:22; Act 20:1, whereas the First Epistle to Timothy contemplates a longer stay of Timothy in Ephesus, MOSHEIM supposes that Paul was nine months of the "three years" stay mostly at Ephesus (Act 20:31) in Macedonia, and elsewhere (perhaps Crete), (the mention of only "three months" and "two years," Act 19:8, Act 19:10, favors this, the remaining nine months being spent elsewhere); and that during these nine months Timothy, in Paul's absence, superintended the Church of Ephesus. It is not likely that Ephesus and the neighboring churches should have been left long without church officers and church organization, rules respecting which are giver in this Epistle. Moreover, Timothy was still "a youth" (1Ti 4:12), which he could hardly be called after Paul's first imprisonment, when he must have been at least thirty-four years of age. Lastly, in Act 20:25, Paul asserts his knowledge that the Ephesians should not all see his face again, so that 1Ti 1:3 will thus refer to his sojourn at Ephesus, recorded in Act 19:10, whence he passed into Macedonia. But the difficulty is to account for the false teachers having sprung up almost immediately (according to this theory) after the foundation of the Church. However, his visit recorded in Acts 19:1-41 was not his first visit. The beginning of the Church at Ephesus was probably made at his visit a year before (Act 18:19-21). Apollos, Aquila and Priscilla, carried on the work (Act 18:24-26). Thus, as to the sudden growth of false teachers, there was time enough for their springing up, especially considering that the first converts at Ephesus were under Apollos' imperfect Christian teachings at first, imbued as he was likely to be with the tenets of PHILO of Alexandria, Apollos' native town, combined with John the Baptist's Old Testament teachings (Act 18:24-26). Besides Ephesus, from its position in Asia, its notorious voluptuousness and sorcery (Act 19:18-19), and its lewd worship of Diana (answering to the Phœnician Ashtoreth), was likely from the first to tinge Christianity in some of its converts with Oriental speculations and Asiatic licentiousness of practices. Thus the phenomenon of the phase of error presented in this Epistle, being intermediate between Judaism and later Gnosticism (see above), would be such as might occur at an early period in the Ephesian Church, as well as later, when we know it had open "apostles" of error (Rev 2:2, Rev 2:6), and Nicolaitans infamous in practice. As to the close connection between this First Epistle and the Second Epistle (which must have been written at the close of Paul's life), on which ALFORD relies for his theory of making the First Epistle also written at the close of Paul's life, the similarity of circumstances, the person addressed being one and the same, and either in Ephesus at the time, or at least connected with Ephesus as its church overseer, and having heretics to contend with of the same stamp as in the First Epistle, would account for the connection. There is not so great identity of tone as to compel us to adopt the theory that some years could not have elapsed between the two Epistles.

However, all these arguments against the later date may be answered. This First Epistle may refer not to the first organization of the Church under its bishops, or elders and deacons, but to the moral qualifications laid down at a later period for those officers when scandals rendered such directions needful. Indeed, the object for which he left Timothy at Ephesus he states (1Ti 1:3) to be, not to organize the Church for the first time, but to restrain the false teachers. The directions as to the choice of fit elders and deacons refer to the filling up of vacancies, not to their first appointment. The fact of there existing an institution for Church widows implies an established organization. As to Timothy's "youth," it may be spoken of comparatively young compared with Paul, now "the aged" (Phm 1:9), and with some of the Ephesian elders, senior to Timothy their overseer. As to Act 20:25, we know not but that "all" of the elders of Ephesus called to Miletus "never saw Paul's face" afterwards, as he "knew" (doubtless by inspiration) would be the case, which obviates the need of ALFORD'S lax view, that Paul was wrong in this his positive inspired anticipation (for such it was, not a mere boding surmise as to the future). Thus he probably visited Ephesus again (1Ti 1:3; 2Ti 1:18; 2Ti 4:20, he would hardly have been at Miletum, so near Ephesus, without visiting Ephesus) after his first imprisonment in Rome, though all the Ephesian elders whom he had addressed formerly at Miletus did not again see him. The general similarity of subject and style, and of the state of the Church between the two Epistles, favors the view that they were near one another in date. Also, against the theory of the early date is the difficulty of defining, when, during Paul's two or three years' stay at Ephesus, we can insert an absence of Paul from Ephesus long enough for the requirements of the case, which imply a lengthened stay and superintendence of Timothy at Ephesus (see, however, 1Ti 3:14, on the other side) after having been "left" by Paul there. Timothy did not stay there when Paul left Ephesus (Act 19:22; Act 20:1; 2Co 1:1). In 1Ti 3:14, Paul says, "I write, hoping to come unto thee shortly," but on the earlier occasion of his passing from Ephesus to Macedon he had no such expectation, but had planned to spend the summer in Macedon, and the winter in Corinth, (1Co 16:6). The expression "Till I come" (1Ti 4:13), implies that Timothy was not to leave his post till Paul should arrive; this and the former objection, however, do not hold good against MOSHEIM'S theory. Moreover, Paul in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders prophetically anticipates the rise of false teachers hereafter of their own selves; therefore this First Epistle, which speaks of their actual presence at Ephesus, would naturally seem to be not prior, but subsequent, to the address, that is, will belong to the later date assigned. In the Epistle to the Ephesians no notice is taken of the Judaeo-Gnostic errors, which would have been noticed had they been really in existence; however, they are alluded to in the contemporaneous sister Epistle to Colossians (Col. 2:1-23).

Whatever doubt must always remain as to the date of the First Epistle, there can be hardly any as to that of the Second Epistle. In 2Ti 4:13, Paul directs Timothy to bring the books and cloak which the apostle had left at Troas. Assuming that the visit to Troas referred to is the one mentioned in Act 20:5-7, it will follow that the cloak and parchments lay for about seven years at Troas, that being the time that elapsed between the visit and Paul's first imprisonment at Rome: a very unlikely supposition, that he should have left either unused for so long. Again, when, during his first Roman imprisonment, he wrote to the Colossians (Col 4:14) and Philemon (Phm 1:24), Demas was with him; but when he was writing 2Ti 4:10, Demas had forsaken him from love of this world, and gone to Thessalonica. Again, when he wrote to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon, he had good hopes of a speedy liberation; but here in 2Ti 4:6-8, he anticipates immediate death, having been at least once already tried (2Ti 4:16). Again, he is in this Epistle represented as in closer confinement than he was when writing those former Epistles in his first imprisonment (even in the Philippians, which represent him in greater uncertainty as to his life, he cherished the hope of soon being delivered, Phi 2:24; 2Ti 1:16-18; 2Ti 2:9; 2Ti 4:6-8, 2Ti 4:16). Again (2Ti 4:20), he speaks of having left Trophimus sick at Miletum. This could not have been on the occasion, Act 20:15. For Trophimus was with Paul at Jerusalem shortly afterwards (Act 21:29). Besides, he would thus be made to speak of an event six or seven years after its occurrence, as a recent event: moreover, Timothy was, on that occasion of the apostle being at Miletum, with Paul, and therefore needed not to be informed of Trophimus' sickness there (Act 20:4-17). Also, the statement (2Ti 4:20), "Erastus abode at Corinth," implies that Paul had shortly before been at Corinth, and left Erastus there; but Paul had not been at Corinth for several years before his first imprisonment, and in the interval Timothy had been with him, so that he did not need to write subsequently about that visit. He must therefore have been liberated after his first imprisonment (indeed, Heb 13:23-24, expressly proves that the writer was in Italy and at liberty), and resumed his apostolic journeyings, and been imprisoned at Rome again, whence shortly before his death he wrote Second Timothy.

EUSEBIUS [Chronicles, Anno 2083] (beginning October, A.D. 67), says, "Nero, to his other crimes, added the persecution of Christians: under him the apostles Peter and Paul consummated their martyrdom at Rome." So JEROME [On Illustrious Men], "In the fourteenth year of Nero, Paul was beheaded at Rome for Christ's sake, on the same day as Peter, and was buried on the Ostian Road, in the thirty-seventh year after the death of our Lord." ALFORD reasonably conjectures the Pastoral Epistles were written near this date. The interval was possibly filled up (so CLEMENT OF ROME states that Paul preached as far as "to the extremity of the west") by a journey to Spain (Rom 15:24, Rom 15:28), according to his own original intention. MURATORI'S Fragment on the Canon of Scripture (about A.D. 170) also alleges Paul's journey into Spain. So EUSEBIUS, CHRYSOSTOM, and JEROME. Be that as it may, he seems shortly before his second imprisonment to have visited Ephesus, where a new body of elders governed the Church (Act 20:25), say in the latter end of A.D. 66, or beginning of 67. Supposing him thirty at his conversion, he would now be upwards of sixty, and older in constitution than in years, through continual hardship. Even four years before he called himself "Paul the aged" (Phm 1:9).

From Ephesus he went into Macedonia (1Ti 1:3). He may have written the First Epistle to Timothy from that country. But his use of "went," not "came," in 1Ti 1:3, "When I went into Macedonia," implies he was not there when writing. Wherever he was, he writes uncertain how long he may be detained from coming to Timothy (1Ti 3:14-15). BIRKS shows the probability that he wrote from Corinth, between which city and Ephesus the communication was rapid and easy. His course, as on both former occasions, was from Macedon to Corinth. He finds a coincidence between 1Ti 2:11-14, and 1Co 14:34, as to women being silent in Church; and 1Ti 5:17-18, and 1Co 9:8-10, as to the maintenance of ministers, on the same principle as the Mosaic law, that the ox should not be muzzled that treadeth out the corn; and 1Ti 5:19-20, and 2Co 13:1-4, as to charges against elders. It would be natural for the apostle in the very place where these directions had been enforced, to reproduce them in his letter.

The date of the Epistle to Titus must depend on that assigned to First Timothy, with which it is connected in subject, phraseology, and tone. There is no difficulty in the Epistle to Titus, viewed by itself, in assigning it to the earlier date, namely, before Paul's first imprisonment. In Act 18:18-19, Paul, in journeying from Corinth to Palestine, for some cause or other landed at Ephesus. Now we find (Tit 3:13) that Apollos in going from Ephesus to Corinth was to touch at Crete (which seems to coincide with Apollos' journey from Ephesus to Corinth, recorded in Act 18:24, Act 18:27; Act 19:1); therefore it is not unlikely that Paul may have taken Crete similarly on his way between Corinth and Ephesus; or, perhaps been driven out of his course to it in one of his three shipwrecks spoken of in 2Co 11:25-26; this will account for his taking Ephesus on his way from Corinth to Palestine, though out of his regular course. At Ephesus Paul may have written the Epistle to Titus [HUG]; there he probably met Apollos and gave the Epistle to Titus to his charge, before his departure for Corinth by way of Crete, and before the apostle's departure for Jerusalem (Act 18:19-21, Act 18:24). Moreover, on Paul's way back from Jerusalem and Antioch, he travelled some time in Upper Asia (Act 19:1); and it was then, probably, that his intention to "winter at Nicopolis" was realized, there being a town of that name between Antioch and Tarsus, lying on Paul's route to Galatia (Tit 3:12). Thus, First Timothy will, in this theory, be placed two and a half years later (Act 20:1; compare 1Ti 1:3).

ALFORD'S argument for classing the Epistle to Titus with First Timothy, as written after Paul's first Roman imprisonment, stands or falls with his argument for assigning First Timothy to that date. Indeed, HUG'S unobjectionable argument for the earlier date of the Epistle to Titus, favors the early date assigned to First Timothy, which is so much akin to it, if other arguments be not thought to counterbalance this. The Church of Crete had been just founded (Tit 1:5), and yet the same heresies are censured in it as in Ephesus, which shows that no argument, such as ALFORD alleges against the earlier date of First Timothy, can be drawn from them (Tit 1:10-11, Tit 1:15-16; Tit 3:9, Tit 3:11). But vice versa, if, as seems likely from the arguments adduced, the First Epistle to Timothy be assigned to the later date, the Epistle to Titus must, from similarity of style, belong to the same period. ALFORD traces Paul's last journey before his second imprisonment thus: To Crete (Tit 1:5), Miletus (2Ti 4:20), Colosse (fulfilling his intention, Phm 1:22), Ephesus (1Ti 1:3; 2Ti 1:18), from which neighborhood he wrote the Epistle to Titus; Troas, Macedonia, Corinth (2Ti 4:20), Nicopolis (Tit 3:12) in Epirus, where he had intended to winter; a place in which, as being a Roman colony, he would be free from tumultuary violence, and yet would be more open to a direct attack from foes in the metropolis, Rome. Being known in Rome as the leader of the Christians, he was probably [ALFORD] arrested as implicated in causing the fire in A.D. 64, attributed by Nero to the Christians, and was sent to Rome by the Duumvirs of Nicopolis. There he was imprisoned as a common malefactor (2Ti 2:9); his Asiatic friends deserted him, except Onesiphorus (2Ti 1:16). Demas, Crescens, and Titus, left him. Tychicus he had sent to Ephesus. Luke alone remained with him (2Ti 4:10-12). Under the circumstances he writes the Second Epistle to Timothy, most likely while Timothy was at Ephesus (2Ti 2:17; compare 1Ti 1:20; 2Ti 4:13), begging him to come to him before winter (2Ti 4:21), and anticipating his own execution soon (2Ti 4:6). Tychicus was perhaps the bearer of the Second Epistle (2Ti 4:12). His defense was not made before the emperor, for the latter was then in Greece (2Ti 4:16-17). Tradition represents that he died by the sword, which accords with the fact that his Roman citizenship would exempt him from torture; probably late in A.D. 67 or A.D. 68, the last year of Nero.

Timothy is first mentioned, Act 16:1, as dwelling in Lystra (not Derbe, compare Act 20:4). His mother was a Jewess named Eunice (2Ti 1:5); his father, "a Greek" (that is, a Gentile). As Timothy is mentioned as "a disciple" in Act 16:1, he must have been converted before, and this by Paul (1Ti 1:2), probably at his former visit to Lystra (Act 14:6); at the same time, probably, that his Scripture-loving mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois, were converted to Christ from Judaism (2Ti 3:14-15). Not only the good report given as to him by the brethren of Lystra, but also his origin, partly Jewish, partly Gentile, adapted him specially for being Paul's assistant in missionary work, laboring as the apostle did in each place, firstly among the Jews, and then among the Gentiles. In order to obviate Jewish prejudices, he first circumcised him. He seems to have accompanied Paul in his tour through Macedonia; but when the apostle went forward to Athens, Timothy and Silas remained in Berea. Having been sent back by Paul to visit the Thessalonian Church (1Th 3:2), he brought his report of it to the apostle at Corinth (1Th 3:6). Hence we find his name joined with Paul's in the addresses of both the Epistles to Thessalonians, which were written at Corinth. We again find him "ministering to" Paul during the lengthened stay at Ephesus (Act 19:22). Thence he was sent before Paul into Macedonia and to Corinth (1Co 4:17; 1Co 16:10). He was with Paul when he wrote the Second Epistle to Corinthians (2Co 1:1); and the following winter in Corinth, when Paul sent from thence his Epistle to the Romans (Rom 16:21). On Paul's return to Asia through Macedonia, he went forward and waited for the apostle at Troas (Act 20:3-5). Next we find him with Paul during his imprisonment at Rome, when the apostle wrote the Epistles to Colossians (Col 1:1), Philemon (Phm 1:1), and Philippians (Phi 1:1). He was imprisoned and set at liberty about the same time as the writer of the Hebrews (Heb 13:23). In the Pastoral Epistles, we find him mentioned as left by the apostle at Ephesus to superintend the Church there (1Ti 1:3). The last notice of him is in the request which Paul makes to him (2Ti 4:21) to "come before winter," that is about A.D. 67 [ALFORD]. EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.42], reports that he was first bishop of Ephesus; and [NICOPHORUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.11], represents that he died by martyrdom. If then, St. John, as tradition represents, resided and died in that city, it must have been at a later period. Paul himself ordained or consecrated him with laying on of his own hands, and those of the presbytery, in accordance with prophetic intimations given respecting him by those possessing the prophetic gift (1Ti 1:18; 1Ti 4:14 2Ti 1:6). His self-denying character is shown by his leaving home at once to accompany the apostle, and submitting to circumcision for the Gospel's sake; and also by his abstemiousness (noted in 1Ti 5:23) notwithstanding his bodily infirmities, which would have warranted a more generous diet. Timidity and a want of self-confidence and boldness in dealing with the difficulties of his position, seem to have been a defect in his otherwise beautiful character as a Christian minister (1Co 16:10; 1Ti 4:12; 2Ti 1:7).

The DESIGN of the First Epistle was: (1) to direct Timothy to charge the false teachers against continuing to teach other doctrine than that of the Gospel (1Ti. 1:3-20; compare Rev 2:1-6); (2) to give him instructions as to the orderly conducting of worship, the qualifications of bishops and deacons, and the selection of widows who should, in return for Church charity, do appointed service (1Ti. 2:1-6:2); (3) to warn against covetousness, a sin prevalent at Ephesus, and to urge to good works (1Ti. 6:3-19).

JFB: 1 Timothy (Outline)

• ADDRESS: PAUL'S DESIGN IN HAVING LEFT TIMOTHY AT EPHESUS, NAMELY, TO CHECK FALSE TEACHERS; TRUE USE OF THE LAW; HARMONIZING WITH THE GOSPEL; GOD'S GRACE IN CALLING PAUL, ONCE A BLASPHEMER, TO EXPERIENCE AND TO PREACH IT; CHARGES TO TIMOTHY. (1Ti. 1:1-20)
• PUBLIC WORSHIP. DIRECTION AS TO INTERCESSIONS FOR ALL MEN, SINCE CHRIST IS A RANSOM FOR ALL. THE DUTIES OF MEN AND WOMEN RESPECTIVELY IN RESPECT TO PUBLIC PRAYER. WOMAN'S SUBJECTION; HER SPHERE OF DUTY. (1Ti 2:1-15)
• RULES AS TO BISHOPS (OVERSEERS) AND DEACONS. THE CHURCH, AND THE GOSPEL MYSTERY NOW REVEALED TO IT, ARE THE END OF ALL SUCH RULES. (1Ti. 3:1-16) Translate as Greek, "Faithful is the saying." A needful preface to what follows: for the office of a bishop or overseer in Paul's day, attended as it was with hardship and often persecution, would not seem to the world generally a desirable and "good work."
• PREDICTION OF A COMING DEPARTURE FROM THE FAITH: TIMOTHY'S DUTY AS TO IT: GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO HIM. (1Ti. 4:1-16)
• GENERAL DIRECTIONS AS TO HOW TIMOTHY SHOULD DEAL WITH DIFFERENT CLASSES IN THE CHURCH. (1Ti. 5:1-25)
• EXHORTATIONS AS TO DISTINCTIONS OF CIVIL RANK; THE DUTY OF SLAVES, IN OPPOSITION TO THE FALSE TEACHINGS OF GAIN-SEEKERS; TIMOTHY'S PURSUIT IS TO BE GODLINESS, WHICH IS AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION: SOLEMN ADJURATION TO DO SO AGAINST CHRIST'S COMING; CHARGE TO BE GIVEN TO THE RICH. CONCLUDING EXHORTATION. (1Ti. 6:1-21)

TSK: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

This Epistle bears the impress of its genuineness and authenticity, which are corroborated by the most decisive external evidence; and its Divine inspiration is attested by the exact accomplishment of the prediction which it contains respecting the apostasy in the latter days. This prophecy is similar in the general subject to that in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, though it differs in the particular circumstances; and exactly corresponds with that of the prophet Daniel on the same subject (Dan 11:38). This important prediction might be more correctly rendered, " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall apostatize from the faith, giving heed to erroneous spirits, and doctrines concerning demons, through the hypocrisy of liars, having their consciences seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats," etc. How applicable these particulars are to the corruptions of the Church of Rome need scarcely be insisted on. The worship of saints in that church is essentially the same with the worship of demons among the heathen; which has been established in the world by books forged in the name of the Apostles and saints, by lying legends of their lives, by false miracles ascribed to their relics, and by fabulous dreams and relations; while celibacy was enjoined and practised under pretence of chastity, and abstinence under pretence of devotion. None but the SPIRIT OF GOD could foresee and foretell these remarkable events.

TSK: 1 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

1Ti 1:1, Timothy is put in mind of the charge which was given unto him by Paul at his going to Macedonia; 1Ti 1:5, Of the right use and end of the law; 1Ti 1:11, Of Saint Paul’s calling to be an apostle; 1Ti 1:20, and Hymenaeus and Alexander.

Poole: 1 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

ARGUMENT

Timothy is thought to have been a native of Lystra in Lycaonia, Act 16:1 . His mother, Eunice, was a Jewess, Act 16:1 ; a believer, 2Ti 1:5 . His father a Greek, Act 16:1 , but (possibly) proselyted to the Jewish religion. They gave Timothy his name, signifying thereby their pious desire that their son should fear and honour God, and be put in mind of his duty by his name. They bred him up in the knowledge of the Scriptures from a child. When it was he first became a disciple to Paul doth not appear; but it appears from 2Ti 3:11 , that he was with Paul at Antioch and Iconium, which was before he came to Lystra, Act 16:1 , where Paul circumcised him. After this Paul made him his companion, and sent him upon several messages. He was a sickly person, 1Ti 5:23 , but eminent in gifts and graces, 2Ti 1:5 3:15 1Co 4:17 . After this he was ordained a minister by Paul and the presbytery, 2Ti 1:6 . He became very dear to Paul for his faithfulness, Phi 2:19-21 ; so as he calls him his beloved son, and faithful, 1Co 4:17 , his son in the faith, 1Ti 1:2 , his dearly beloved son, his fellow worker, fellow labourer, & c. Paul left him a time at Thessalonica and Berea, Act 17:13,14 ; then sent for him to Athens, Act 17:15 . He came to him at Corinth, Act 18:5 . Thence he sent him into Macedonia, Act 19:22 . From thence he came to Corinth, and goes with Paul into Asia. Act 20:4 ; where Paul entreats him to stay some time at Ephesus, as an evangelist, to settle the churches there, 2Ti 4:5 . From thence he sends for him to Rome, 2Ti 4:9 , and sends Tychicus in his room to Ephesus, 2Ti 4:12 . Paul having left Timothy, a young man, in this great trust, being himself to be absent, writes this Epistle to him, to encourage him against all dangers, and to direct him in the management of his office. The scope of the Epistle is to direct Timothy in the first place, and then all ministers of the gospel, how to behave themselves in the ministerial work, as to preaching, praying, government, opposing gainsayers, &c.; so as it is the most perfect direction we have in all Scripture for the discharge of the ministerial office. The time when Paul wrote this Epistle is uncertainly judged, but guessed to be the one and twentieth year after Christ’ s death, and about the nineteenth after Paul’ s conversion; it is certain it was when he was in Macedonia, and before he returned to Ephesus, Act 19:1 .

1 TIMOTHY CHAPTER 1

1Ti 1:1,2 The salutation.

1Ti 1:3,4 Timothy is put in mind of the charge before given him by Paul.

1Ti 1:5-7 The end of the commandment is charity, from which

some had turned aside to teach the law, which they

understood not.

1Ti 1:8-11 The scope of the law was to condemn wickedness, which

is the design of the gospel also.

1Ti 1:12-17 Paul blesseth God for calling him to the ministry

notwithstanding his great demerit, whereby all

penitent sinners that believe are assured of mercy

through Christ.

1Ti 1:18-20 He urgeth Timothy to a due discharge of his trust,

warning him of some who had deserted the truth, of

whom Hymeneus and Alexander had been delivered by

him unto Satan.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ one immediately sent by Jesus Christ, by his voice from heaven, Act 9:15 , though not by his voice upon earth, as those, Mat 10:1-42 .

By the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ:

through the will of God 1Co 1:1 , not his permissive, but preceptive will; and this is the same with his being called to be an apostle, Rom 1:1 1Co 1:1 . By our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father not being excluded, but the Son only being named, to whom the mediatory kingdom was committed.

Which is our hope: our hope there is no more in the Greek, that is, the object of our hope: as when it is said, Gen 31:53 , that Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac, that is, by the Deity whom his father feared. This glorious eulogy belongs to our Saviour, in whom there is a concurrence of all that is requisite to free us from destructive evils, and to make us everlastingly happy: for he is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Hence the Gentiles without Christ are said to be without hope, Eph 2:12 . And from hence it is evident that Jesus Christ is the eternal God, for if he were only a man, though in excellence above all others, he could not be our hope, for cursed is he that trusteth in man, Jer 17:5 .

MHCC: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

The design of the epistle appears to be, that Timothy having been left at Ephesus, St. Paul wrote to instruct him in the choice of proper officers in the church, as well as in the exercise of a regular ministry. Also, to caution against the influence of false teachers, who by subtle distinctions and endless disputes, corrupted the purity and simplicity of the gospel. He presses upon him constant regard to the greatest diligence, faithfulness, and zeal. These subjects occupy the first four chapters; the fifth chapter instructs respecting particular classes; in the latter part, controversies and disputes are condemned, the love of money blamed, and the rich exhorted to good works.

MHCC: 1 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

(1Ti 1:1-4) The apostle salutes Timothy.

(1Ti 1:5-11) The design of the law as given by Moses.

(1Ti 1:12-17) Of his own conversion and call to the apostleship.

(1Ti 1:18-20) The obligation to maintain faith and a good conscience.

Matthew Henry: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The First Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy

Hitherto Paul's epistles were directed to churches; now follow some to particular persons: two to Timothy, one to Titus, and another to Philemon - all three ministers. Timothy and Titus were evangelists, an inferior order to the apostles, as appears by Eph 4:11, Some prophets, some apostles, some evangelists. Their commission and work was much the same with that of the apostles, to plant churches, and water the churches that were planted; and accordingly they were itinerants, as we find Timothy was. Timothy was first converted by Paul, and therefore he calls him his own son in the faith: we read of his conversion, Act 16:3.

The scope of these two epistles is to direct Timothy how to discharge his duty as an evangelist at Ephesus, where he now was, and where Paul ordered him for some time to reside, to perfect the good work which he had begun there. As for the ordinary pastoral charge of that church, he had very solemnly committed it to the presbytery, as appears from Act 20:28, where he charges the presbyters to feed the flock of God, which he had purchased with his own blood.

Matthew Henry: 1 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

After the inscription (1Ti 1:1, 1Ti 1:2) we have, I. The charge given to Timothy (1Ti 1:3, 1Ti 1:4). II. The true end of the law (1Ti 1:5-11), where he shows that it is entirely agreeable to the gospel. III. He mentions his own call to be an apostle, for which he expresses his thankfulness (1Ti 1:12-16) IV. His doxology (1Ti 1:17). V. A renewal of the charge to Timothy (1Ti 1:18). And of Hymenaeus and Alexander (1Ti 1:19, 1Ti 1:20).

Barclay: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL

The Letters Of Paul

There is no more interesting body of documents in the New Testament than the letters of Paul. That is because of all forms of literature a letter is most personal. Demetrius, one of the old Greek literary critics, once wrote, "Every one reveals his own soul in his letters. In every other form of composition it is possible to discern the writercharacter, but in none so clearly as the epistolary." (Demetrius, On Style, 227). It is just because he left us so many letters that we feel we know Paul so well. In them he opened his mind and heart to the folk he loved so much; and in them, to this day, we can see that great mind grappling with the problems of the early church, and feel that great heart throbbing with love for men, even when they were misguided and mistaken.

The Difficulty Of Letters

At the same time, there is often nothing so difficult to understand as a letter. Demetrius (On Style, 223) quotes a saying of Artemon, who edited the letters of Aristotle. Artemon said that a letter ought to be written in the same manner as a dialogue, because it was one of the two sides of a dialogue. In other words, to read a letter is like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. So when we read the letters of Paul we are often in a difficulty. We do not possess the letter which he was answering; we do not fully know the circumstances with which he was dealing; it is only from the letter itself that we can deduce the situation which prompted it. Before we can hope to understand fully any letter Paul wrote, we must try to reconstruct the situation which produced it.

The Ancient Letters

It is a great pity that Paulletters were ever called epistles. They are in the most literal sense letters. One of the great lights shed on the interpretation of the New Testament has been the discovery and the publication of the papyri. In the ancient world, papyrus was the substance on which most documents were written. It was composed of strips of the pith of a certain bulrush that grew on the banks of the Nile. These strips were laid one on top of the other to form a substance very like brown paper. The sands of the Egyptian desert were ideal for preservation, for papyrus, although very brittle, will last forever so long as moisture does not get at it. As a result, from the Egyptian rubbish heaps, archaeologists have rescued hundreds of documents, marriage contracts, legal agreements, government forms, and, most interesting of all, private letters. When we read these private letters we find that there was a pattern to which nearly all conformed; and we find that Paulletters reproduce exactly that pattern. Here is one of these ancient letters. It is from a soldier, called Apion, to his father Epimachus. He is writing from Misenum to tell his father that he has arrived safely after a stormy passage.

"Apion sends heartiest greetings to his father and lord Epimachus.

I pray above all that you are well and fit; and that things are

going well with you and my sister and her daughter and my brother.

I thank my Lord Serapis [his god] that he kept me safe when I was

in peril on the sea. As soon as I got to Misenum I got my journey

money from Caesar--three gold pieces. And things are going fine

with me. So I beg you, my dear father, send me a line, first to let

me know how you are, and then about my brothers, and thirdly, that

I may kiss your hand, because you brought me up well, and because

of that I hope, God willing, soon to be promoted. Give Capito my

heartiest greetings, and my brothers and Serenilla and my friends.

I sent you a little picture of myself painted by Euctemon. My

military name is Antonius Maximus. I pray for your good health.

Serenus sends good wishes, Agathos Daimonboy, and Turbo,

Galloniuson." (G. Milligan, Selections from the Greek Papyri,

36).

Little did Apion think that we would be reading his letter to his father 1800 years after he had written it. It shows how little human nature changes. The lad is hoping for promotion quickly. Who will Serenilla be but the girl he left behind him? He sends the ancient equivalent of a photograph to the folk at home. Now that letter falls into certain sections. (i) There is a greeting. (ii) There is a prayer for the health of the recipients. (iii) There is a thanksgiving to the gods. (iv) There are the special contents. (v) Finally, there are the special salutations and the personal greetings. Practically every one of Paulletters shows exactly the same sections, as we now demonstrate.

(i) The Greeting: Rom_1:1 ; 1Co_1:1 ; 2Co_1:1 ; Gal_1:1 ; Eph_1:1 ; Phi_1:1 ; Col_1:1-2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:1 .

(ii) The Prayer: in every case Paul prays for the grace of God on the people to whom he writes: Rom_1:7 ; 1Co_1:3 ; 2Co_1:2 ; Gal_1:3 ; Eph_1:2 ; Phi_1:3 ; Col_1:2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:2 .

(iii) The Thanksgiving: Rom_1:8 ; 1Co_1:4 ; 2Co_1:3 ; Eph_1:3 ; Phi_1:3 ; 1Th_1:3 ; 2Th_1:3 .

(iv) The Special Contents: the main body of the letters.

(v) Special Salutations and Personal Greetings: Rom 16 ; 1Co_16:19 ; 2Co_13:13 ; Phi_4:21-22 ; Col_4:12-15 ; 1Th_5:26 .

When Paul wrote letters, he wrote them on the pattern which everyone used. Deissmann says of them, "They differ from the messages of the homely papyrus leaves of Egypt, not as letters but only as the letters of Paul." When we read Paulletters we are not reading things which were meant to be academic exercises and theological treatises, but human documents written by a friend to his friends.

The Immediate Situation

With a very few exceptions, all Paulletters were written to meet an immediate situation and not treatises which he sat down to write in the peace and silence of his study. There was some threatening situation in Corinth, or Galatia, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, and he wrote a letter to meet it. He was not in the least thinking of us when he wrote, but solely of the people to whom he was writing. Deissmann writes, "Paul had no thought of adding a few fresh compositions to the already extant Jewish epistles; still less of enriching the sacred literature of his nation. He had no presentiment of the place his words would occupy in universal history; not so much that they would be in existence in the next generation, far less that one day people would look at them as Holy Scripture." We must always remember that a thing need not be transient because it was written to meet an immediate situation. All the great love songs of the world were written for one person, but they live on for the whole of mankind. It is just because Paulletters were written to meet a threatening danger or a clamant need that they still throb with life. And it is because human need and the human situation do not change that God speaks to us through them today.

The Spoken Word

One other thing we must note about these letters. Paul did what most people did in his day. He did not normally pen his own letters but dictated them to a secretary, and then added his own authenticating signature. (We actually know the name of one of the people who did the writing for him. In Rom_16:22 Tertius, the secretary, slips in his own greeting before the letter draws to an end). In 1Co_16:21 Paul says, "This is my own signature, my autograph, so that you can be sure this letter comes from me." (compare Col_4:18 ; 2Th_3:17 .)

This explains a great deal. Sometimes Paul is hard to understand, because his sentences begin and never finish; his grammar breaks down and the construction becomes involved. We must not think of him sitting quietly at a desk, carefully polishing each sentence as he writes. We must think of him striding up and down some little room, pouring out a torrent Paul composed his letters, he had in his mindeye a vision of words, while his secretary races to get them down. When of the folk to whom he was writing, and he was pouring out his heart to them in words that fell over each other in his eagerness to help.

INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS TO TIMOTHY AND TITUS

Personal Letters

1 and 2 Timothy and Titus have always been regarded as forming a separate group of letters, different from the other letters of Paul. The most obvious difference is that they, along with the little letter to Philemon, are written to persons, whereas all other Pauline letters are written to Churches. The Muratorian Canon, which was the earliest official list of New Testament books, says that they were written "from personal feeling and affection." They are private rather than public letters.

Ecclesiastical Letters

But it very soon began to be seen that, though these are personal and private letters, they have a significance and a relevance far beyond the immediate. In 1Ti_3:15 their aim is set down. They are written to Timothy "that you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God." So, then, it came to be seen that these letters have not only a personal significance, but also what one might call an ecclesiastical significance. The Muratorian Canon says of them that, though they are personal letters written out of personal affection, "they are still hallowed in the respect of the Catholic Church, and in the arrangement of ecclesiastical discipline." Tertullian said that Paul wrote "two letters to Timothy and one to Titus, which were composed concerning the state of the Church (de ecclesiastico statu)." It is not then surprising that the first name given to them was Pontifical Letters, that is, written by the pontifex, the priest, the controller of the Church.

Pastoral Letters

Bit by bit they came to acquire the name by which they are still known--The Pastoral Epistles. In writing of I Timothy Thomas Aquinas, as long ago as 1274, said, "This letter is as it were a pastoral rule which the Apostle delivered to Timothy." In his introduction to the second letter, he writes, "In the first letter he gives Timothy instructions concerning ecclesiastical order; in this second letter he deals with a pastoral care which should be so great that it will even accept martyrdom for the sake of the care of the flock." But this title, The Pastoral Epistles, really became affixed to these letters in 1726 when a great scholar, Paul Anton by name, gave a series of famous lectures on them under that title.

These letters then deal with the care and organization of the flock of God; they tell men how to behave within the household of God; they give instructions as to how Godhouse should be administered, as to what kind of people the leaders and pastors of the Church should be, and as to how the threats which endanger the purity of Christian faith and life should be dealt with.

The Growing Church

The supreme interest of these letters is that we get in them a picture of the infant Church. In those early days it was an island in a sea of paganism. The people in it were only one remove from their heathen origin. It would have been so easy for them to relapse into the pagan standards from which they had come; the tarnishing atmosphere was all around. It is most significant that missionaries tell us that of all letters the Pastoral Epistles speak most directly to the situation of the younger Churches. The situation with which they deal is being re-enacted in India, in Africa, in China every day. They can never lose their interest because in them we see, as nowhere else, the problems which continually beset the growing Church.

The Ecclesiastical Background Of The Pastorals

From the beginning these letters have presented problems to New Testament scholars. There are many who have felt that, as they stand, they cannot have come directly from the hand and pen of Paul. That this is no new feeling may be seen from the fact that Marcion, who, although he was a heretic, was the first man to draw up a list of New Testament books, did not include them among Paulletters. Let us then see what makes people doubt their direct Pauline authorship.

In them we are confronted with the picture of a Church with a fairly highly developed ecclesiastical organization. There are elders (1Ti_5:17-19 ; Tit_1:5-6 ); there are bishops, superintendents or overseers (1Ti_3:1-7 ; Tit_1:7-16 ); there are deacons (1Ti_3:8-13 ). From 1Ti_5:17-18 we learn that by that time elders were even salaried officials. The elders that rule well are to be counted worthy of a double pay and the Church is urged to remember that the labourer is worthy of his hire. There is at least the beginning of the order of widows who became so prominent later on in the early Church (1Ti_5:3-16 ). There is clearly here a quite elaborate structure within the Church, too elaborate some would claim for the early days in which Paul lived and worked.

The Days Of Creeds

It is even claimed that in these letters we can see the days of creeds emerging. The word faith changed its meaning. In the earliest days it is always faith in a person; it is the most intimate possible personal connection of love and trust and obedience with Jesus Christ. In later days it became faith in a creed; it became the acceptance of certain doctrines. It is said that in the Pastoral Epistles we can see this change emerging.

In the later days men will come who will depart from the faith and give heed to doctrines of devils (1Ti_4:1 ). A good servant of Jesus Christ must be nourished in the words of faith and good doctrine (1Ti_4:6 ). The heretics are men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith (2Ti_3:8 ). The duty of Titus is to rebuke men that they may be sound in the faith (Tit_1:13 ).

This comes out very particularly in an expression peculiar to the Pastorals. Timothy is urged to keep hold of "the truth that has been entrusted to you" (2Ti_1:14 ). The word for that has been entrusted is paratheke (G3866). Paratheke means a deposit which has been entrusted to a banker or someone else for safe-keeping. It is essentially something which must be handed back or handed on absolutely unchanged. That is to say the stress is on orthodoxy. Instead of being a close, personal relationship to Jesus Christ, as it was in the thrilling and throbbing days of the early Church, faith has become the acceptance of a creed. It is even held that in the Pastorals we have echoes of the earliest creeds.

"God was manifested in the flesh;

Vindicated in the Spirit;

Seen by angels;

Preached among the nations;

Believed on in the world;

Taken up in glory" (1Ti_3:16 ).

That indeed sounds like the fragment of a creed to be recited.

"Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from

David, as preached in my gospel" (2Ti_2:8 ).

That sounds like a reminder of a sentence from an accepted creed.

Within the Pastorals there undoubtedly are indications that the day of insistence on acceptance of a creed has begun, and that the days of the first thrilling personal discovery of Christ are beginning to fade.

A Dangerous Heresy

It is clear that in the forefront of the situation against which the Pastoral Epistles were written there was a dangerous heresy which was threatening the welfare of the Christian Church. If we can distinguish the various characteristic features of that heresy, we may be able to go on to identify it.

It was characterized by speculative intellectualism. It produced questions (1Ti_1:4 ); those involved in it doted about questions (1Ti_6:4 ); it dealt in foolish and unlearned questions (2Ti_2:23 ); its foolish questions are to be avoided (Tit_3:9 ). The word used in each case for questions is ekzetesis (compare G1567 and G2214), which means speculative discussion. This heresy was obviously one which was a play-ground of the intellectuals, or rather the pseudo-intellectuals of the Church.

It was characterized by pride. The heretic is proud, although in reality he knows nothing (1Ti_6:4 ). There are indications that these intellectuals set themselves on a plane above the ordinary Christian; in fact they may well have said that complete salvation was outside the grasp of the ordinary man and open only to them. At times the Pastoral Epistles stress the word all in a most significant way. The grace of God, which brings salvation, has appeared to all men (Tit_2:11 ). It is Godwill that all men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1Ti_2:4 ). The intellectuals tried to make the greatest blessings of Christianity the exclusive possession of a chosen few; and in contradistinction the true faith stresses the all-embracing love of God.

There were within that heresy two opposite tendencies. There was a tendency to asceticism. The heretics tried to lay down special food laws, forgetting that everything God has made is good (1Ti_4:4-5 ). They listed many things as impure, forgetting that to the pure all things are pure (Tit_1:15 ). It is not impossible that they regarded sex as something unclean and belittled marriage, and even tried to persuade those who were married to renounce it, for in Tit_2:4 the simple duties of the married life are stressed as being binding on the Christian.

But this heresy also issued in immorality. The heretics even invaded private houses and led away weak and foolish women in evil desires (2Ti_3:6 ). They professed to know God, but denied him by their deeds (Tit_1:16 ). They were out to impose upon people and to make money out of their false teaching. To them gain was godliness (1Ti_6:5 ); they taught and deceived for base gain (Tit_1:11 ).

On the one hand this heresy issued in an unchristian asceticism, and on the other it produced an equally unchristian immorality.

It was characterized, too, by words and tales and genealogies. It was full of godless chatter and useless controversies (1Ti_6:20 ). It produced endless genealogies (1Ti_1:4 ; Tit_3:9 ). It produced myths and fables (1Ti_1:4 ; Tit_1:14 ).

It was at least in some way and to some extent tied up with Jewish legalism. Amongst its devotees were those of the circumcision (Tit_1:10 ). The aim of the heretics was to be teachers of the law (1Ti_1:7 ). It pressed on men Jewish fables and the commandments of men (Tit_1:14 ).

Finally, these heretics denied the resurrection of the body. They said that any resurrection that a man was going to experience had been experienced already (2Ti_2:18 ). This is probably a reference to those who held that the only resurrection the Christian experienced was a spiritual one when he died with Christ and rose again with him in the experience of baptism (Rom_6:4 ).

The Beginnings Of Gnosticism

Is there any heresy which fits all this material? There is, and its name is Gnosticism. The basic thought of Gnosticism was that all matter is essentially evil and spirit alone is good. That basic belief had certain consequences.

The Gnostic believed that matter is as eternal as God; and that when God created the world he had to use this essentially evil matter. That meant that to them God could not be the direct creator of the world. In order to touch this flawed matter he had to send out a series of emanations--they called them aeons--each one more and more distant from himself until at last there came an emanation or aeon so distant that it could deal with matter and create the world. Between man and God there stretched a series of these emanations, each with his name and genealogy. So Gnosticism literally had endless fables and endless genealogies. If a man was ever to get to God, he must, as it were, ascend this ladder of emanations; and to do that he needed a very special kind of knowledge including all kinds of passwords to get him past each stage. Only a person of the highest intellectual calibre could hope to acquire this knowledge and know these passwords and so get to God.

Further, if matter was altogether evil, the body was altogether evil. From that, two opposite possible consequences sprang. Either the body must be held down so that a rigorous asceticism resulted, in which the needs of the body were as far as possible eliminated and its instincts, especially the sex instinct, as far as possible destroyed; or it could be held that, since it was evil, it did not matter what was done with the body and its instincts and desires could be given full rein. The Gnostic therefore became either an ascetic or a man to whom morality had ceased to have any relevance at all.

Still further, if the body was evil, clearly there could be no such thing as its resurrection. It was not the resurrection of the body but its destruction to which the Gnostic looked forward.

All this fits accurately the situation of the Pastoral Epistles. In Gnosticism we see the intellectualism, the intellectual arrogance, the fables and the genealogies, the asceticism and the immorality, the refusal to contemplate the possibility of a bodily resurrection, which were part and parcel of the heresy against which the Pastoral Epistles were written.

One element in the heresy has not yet been fitted into place--the Judaism and the legalism of which the Pastoral Epistles speak. That too finds its place. Sometimes Gnosticism and Judaism joined hands. We have already said that the Gnostics insisted that to climb the ladder to God a very special knowledge was necessary; and that some of them insisted that for the good life a strict asceticism was essential. It was the claim of certain of the Jews that it was precisely the Jewish law and the Jewish food regulations which provided that special knowledge and necessary asceticism; and so there were times when Judaism and Gnosticism went hand in hand.

It is quite clear that the heresy at the back of the Pastoral Epistles was Gnosticism. Some have used that fact to try to prove that Paul could have had nothing to do with the writing of them, because, they say, Gnosticism did not emerge until much later than Paul. It is quite true that the great formal systems of Gnosticism, connected with such names as Valentinus and Basilides, did not arise until the second century; but these great figures only systematized what was already there. The basic ideas of Gnosticism were there in the atmosphere which surrounded the early Church, even in the days of Paul. It is easy to see their attraction, and also to see that, if they had been allowed to flourish unchecked, they could have turned Christianity into a speculative philosophy and wrecked it. In facing Gnosticism, the Church was facing one of the gravest dangers which ever threatened the Christian faith.

The Language Of The Pastorals

The most impressive argument against the direct Pauline origin of the Pastorals is a fact which is quite clear in the Greek but not so clear in any English translation. The total number of words in the Pastoral Epistles is 902, of which 54 are proper names; and of these 902 words, no fewer than 306 never occur in any other of Paulletters. That is to say more than a third of the words in the Pastoral Epistles are totally absent from Paulother letters. In fact 175 words in the Pastoral Epistles occur nowhere else in the New Testament at all; although it is only fair to say that there are 50 words in the Pastoral Epistles which occur in Paulother letters and nowhere else in the New Testament.

Further, when the other letters of Paul and the Pastorals say the same thing they say it in different ways, using different words and different turns of speech to express the same idea.

Again, many of Paulfavourite words are absent entirely from the Pastoral Epistles. The words for the cross (stauros, G4716) and to crucify (stauroun, G4717) occur 27 times in Paulother letters, and never in the Pastorals. Eleutheria (G1657) and the kindred words which have to do with freedom occur 29 times in Paulother letters, and never in the Pastorals. Huios (G5207), "son," and huiothesia (G5206), "adoption," occur 46 times in Paulother letters, and never in the Pastorals.

Moreover, Greek has many more of those little words called particles and enclitics than English has. Sometimes they indicate little more than a tone of voice; every Greek sentence is joined to its predecessor by one of them; and they are often virtually untranslatable. Of these particles and enclitics there are 112 which Paul uses altogether 932 times in his other letters that never occur in the Pastorals.

There is clearly something which has to be explained here. The vocabulary and the style make it hard to believe that Paul wrote the Pastoral Epistles in the same sense as he wrote his other letters.

PaulActivities In The Pastorals

But perhaps the most obvious difficulty of the Pastorals is that they show Paul engaged in activities for which there is no room in his life as we know it from the book of Acts. He has clearly conducted a mission in Crete (Tit_1:5 ). And he proposes to spend a winter in Nicopolis, which is in Epirus (Tit_3:12 ). In Paullife as we know it that particular mission and that particular winter just cannot be fitted in. But it may well be that just here we have stumbled on the solution to the problem.

Was Paul Released From His Roman Imprisonment?

Let us sum up. We have seen that the Church organization of the Pastorals is more elaborate than in any other Pauline letter. We have seen that the stress on orthodoxy sounds like second or third generation Christianity, when the thrill of the new discovery is wearing off and the Church is on the way to becoming an institution. We have seen that Paul is depicted as carrying out a mission or missions which cannot be fitted into the scheme of his life as we have it in Acts. But Acts leaves it quite uncertain what happened to Paul in Rome. It ends by telling us that he lived for two whole years in a kind of semi-captivity, preaching the gospel without hindrance (Act_28:30-31 ). But it does not tell us how that captivity ended, whether in Paulrelease or his execution. It is true that the general assumption is that it ended in his condemnation and death; but there is a by no means negligible stream of tradition which tells that it ended in his release, his liberty for two or three further years, his reimprisonment and his final execution about the year A.D. 67.

Let us look at this question, for it is of the greatest interest.

First, it is clear that when Paul was in prison in Rome, he did not regard release as impossible; in fact, it looks as if he expected it. When he wrote to the Philippians, he said that he was sending Timothy to them, and goes on, "And I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself shall come also" (Phi_2:24 ). When he wrote to Philemon, sending back the runaway Onesimus, he says, "At the same time prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be granted to you" (Phm_1:22 ). Clearly he was prepared for release, whether or not it ever came.

Second, let us remember a plan that was very dear to Paulheart. Before he went to Jerusalem on that journey on which he was arrested, he wrote to the Church at Rome, and in that letter he is planning a visit to Spain. "I hope to see you in passing," he writes, "as I go to Spain." "I shall go on by way of you," he writes, "to Spain" (Rom_15:24 , Rom_15:28 ). Was that visit ever paid?

Clement of Rome, when he wrote to the Church at Corinth about A.D. 90, said of Paul that he preached the gospel in the East and in the West; that he instructed the whole world (that is, the Roman Empire) in righteousness; and that he went to the extremity (terma, the terminus) of the West, before his martyrdom. What did Clement mean by the extremity of the West? There are many who argue that he meant nothing more than Rome. Now it is true that someone writing away in the East in Asia Minor would probably think of Rome as the extremity, of the West. But Clement was writing from Rome; and it is difficult to see that for anyone in Rome the extremity of the West could be anything else but Spain. It certainly seems that Clement believed that Paul reached Spain.

The greatest of all the early Church historians was Eusebius. In his account of Paullife he writes: "Luke who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, brought his history to a close at this point, after stating that Paul had spent two whole years at Rome as a prisoner at large, and preached the word of God without constraint. Thus, after he had made his defence, it is said that the Apostle was sent again on the ministry of preaching, and that on coming to the same city a second time he suffered martyrdom" (Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History, 2.22.2). Eusebius has nothing to say about Spain, but he did know the story that Paul had been released from his first Roman imprisonment.

The Muratorian Canon, that first list of New Testament books, describes Lukescheme in writing Acts: "Luke related to Theophilus events of which he was an eye-witness, as also, in a separate place, he evidently declares the martyrdom of Peter (he probably refers to Luk_22:31-32 ); but omits the journey of Paul from Rome to Spain."

In the fifth century, two of the great Christian fathers are definite about this journey. Chrysostom in his sermon on 2Ti_4:20 says: "Saint Paul after his residence in Rome departed to Spain." Jerome in his Catalogue of Writers says that Paul "was dismissed by Nero that he might preach Christgospel in the West."

Beyond doubt a stream of tradition held that Paul journeyed to Spain.

This is a matter on which we will have to come to our own decision. The one thing which makes us doubt the historicity of that tradition is that in Spain itself there is not and never was any tradition that Paul had worked and preached there, no stories about him, no places connected with his name. It would be indeed strange if the memory of such a visit had become totally obliterated. It could well be that the whole story of Paulrelease and journey to the west arose simply as a deduction from his expressed intention to visit Spain (Rom 15 ). Most New Testament scholars do not think that Paul was released from his imprisonment; the general consensus of opinion is that his only release was by death.

Paul And The Pastoral Epistles

What then shall we say of Paulconnection with these letters? If we can accept the tradition of his release, and of his return to preaching and teaching, and of his death as late as A.D. 67, we might well believe that as they stand they came from his hand. But, if we cannot believe that--and the evidence is on the whole against it--are we to say that they have no connection with Paul at all?

We must remember that the ancient world did not think of these things as we do. It would see nothing wrong in issuing a letter under the name of a great teacher, if it was sure that the letter said the things which that teacher would say under the same circumstances. To the ancient world it was natural and seemly that a disciple should write in his mastername. No one would have seen anything wrong in one of Pauldisciples meeting a new and threatening situation with a letter under Paulname. To regard that as forgery is to misunderstand the mind of the ancient world. Are we then to swing completely to the other extreme and say that some disciple of his issued these letters in Paulname years after he was dead, and at a time when the Church was much more highly organized than ever it was during his lifetime?

As we see it, the answer is no. It is incredible that any disciple would put into Paulmouth a claim to be the chief of sinners (1Ti_1:15 ); his tendency would be to stress Paulholiness, not to talk about his sin. It is incredible that anyone writing in the name of Paul would give Timothy the homely advice to drink a little wine for the sake of his health (1Ti_5:23 ). The whole of 2Tim 4 is so personal and so full of intimate, loving details that no one but Paul could have written it.

Wherein lies the solution? It may well be that something like this happened. It is quite obvious that many letters of Paul went lost. Apart from his great public letters, he must have had a continuous private correspondence; and of that we possess only the little letter to Philemon. It may well be that in the later days there were some fragments of Paulcorrespondence in the possession of some Christian teacher. This teacher saw the Church of his day and his locality in Ephesus threatened on every side. It was threatened with heresy from without and from within. It was threatened with a fall away from its own high standards of purity and truth. The quality of its members and the standard of its office-bearers were degenerating. He had in his possession little letters of Paul which said exactly the things that should be said, but, as they stood, they were too short and too fragmentary to publish. So he amplified them and made them supremely relevant to the contemporary situation and sent them out to the Church.

In the Pastoral Epistles we are still hearing the voice of Paul, and often hearing it speak with a unique personal intimacy; but we think that the form of the letters is due to a Christian teacher who summoned the help of Paul when the Church of the day needed the guidance which only he could give.

FURTHER READING

Timothy

D. Guthrie, The Pastoral Epistles (TC; E)

W. Lock, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC; G)

E. F. Scott, The Pastoral Epistles (MC; E)

E. K. Simpson, The Pastoral Epistles

Abbreviations

CGT: Cambridge Greek Testament

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC: Moffatt Commentary

TC: Tyndale Commentary

E: English Text

G: Greek Text

Barclay: 1 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

The Royal Command (1Ti_1:1-2)

The Hope Of The World (1Ti_1:1-2 Continued)

Timothy, My Son (1Ti_1:1-2 Continued)

Grace, Mercy And Peace (1Ti_1:1-2 Continued)

Error And Heresy (1Ti_1:3-7)

The Speculations Of The Greeks (1Ti_1:3-7 Continued)

The Ethics Of Heresy (1Ti_1:3-7 Continued)

The Mind Of The Heretic (1Ti_1:3-7 Continued)

The Mind Of The Christian Thinker (1Ti_1:3-7 Continued)

Those Who Need No Law (1Ti_1:8-11)

Those Whom The Law Condemns (1Ti_1:8-11 Continued)

The Cleansing Word (1Ti_1:8-11 Continued)

Saved To Serve (1Ti_1:12-17)

The Means Of Conversion (1Ti_1:12-17 Continued)

The Unforgotten Shame And The Undying Inspiration (1Ti_1:12-17 Continued)

The Summons Which Cannot Be Denied (1Ti_1:18-20)

Despatched On God's Campaign (1Ti_1:18-20 Continued)

A Stern Rebuke (1Ti_1:18-20 Continued)

Constable: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Historical background

Timothy apparently became a Christian as a result of Paul's missionary work in Lystra (Acts 14:6-23). He joined Paul on the second missionary journey when the apostle's evangelistic team passed through that area where Timothy lived (Acts 16:1-3). On the second journey Timothy helped Paul in Troas, Philippi, Berea, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth. During the third journey he was with Paul in Ephesus. From there Paul sent him to Macedonia (Acts 19:22). Later he was with Paul in Macedonia (2 Cor. 1:1, 19) and apparently traveled with the apostle to Corinth (Rom. 16:21). On the return trip to Ephesus, Timothy accompanied Paul through Macedonia as far as Troas (Acts 20:3-6). Still later Timothy was with Paul in Rome (Col. 1:1; Phile. 1; Phil. 1:1), and from there he probably made a trip to Philippi (Phil. 2:19-23).

At the end of the Book of Acts, Paul was under house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:30-31). Our knowledge of his activities after that time comes mainly from scanty references in his epistles and conjectures since we have no canonical history of his work.

Following his trial before Caesar and his acquittal, Paul evidently left Rome. He made his way eastward and eventually arrived in Ephesus. While in Ephesus Paul doubtless visited other churches in the area and later set out for Macedonia and probably for other provinces intending to continue his pioneer missionary work (cf. Rom. 15:24, 28). When Paul departed from Ephesus he left Timothy in charge as his special representative to continue the work there (1 Tim. 1:3). Sometime after that Timothy evidently wrote to Paul probably asking if he could leave Ephesus perhaps to rejoin Paul. Paul responded with this letter in which he instructed Timothy to remain in Ephesus and to continue his needed ministry until Paul would rejoin him there (3:14; 4:13).

Timothy's function in Ephesus was to represent Paul to the church.¹ He evidently was not an elder in that church. Paul spoke of the Ephesian elders in this epistle as individuals different from Timothy.

When Paul had met with the Ephesian elders toward the end of his third missionary journey, he had warned them about false teachers who would arise in their midst (Acts 20:29-30). This situation had happened (cf. 1:6; 6:21; 2 Tim. 2:18). Evidently Hymenaeus and Alexander were two of those "wolves" (1:20). Paul alluded to others in this epistle as well (1:3-11; 4:1-5; 6:3-10). We shall consider their errors in the exposition to follow.

If Caesar released Paul from prison in Rome in the early 60s A.D., he may have written this epistle in the middle 60s, perhaps 63-66 A.D. Paul's reference to his going from Ephesus to Macedonia (1:3) suggests that he may have been in Macedonia when he wrote 1 Timothy. Nevertheless, since we have no other references to guide us, he could have been in any one of a number of other provinces as well.

The authorship of the Pastorals is a major critical problem in New Testament studies, but I believe the arguments for Pauline authorship are most convincing.²

"The majority of modern scholars maintain that the Pastoral Epistles are pseudepigraphical--that is, written pseudonymously (in Paul's name) sometime after Paul's death (so Dibelius and Conzelmann, Brox, Barrett, Hanson, Houlden, Karris, Hultgren). Most today locate these three letters around the turn of the century, suggesting that the author aimed to revive Pauline teaching for his day or to compose a definitive and authoritative Pauline manual for denouncing heresy in the postapostolic church."³

Purpose

First and 2 Timothy and Titus are called "Pastoral Epistles" because Paul wrote them to pastors (shepherds) of churches outlining their pastoral duties.⁴ Their main pastoral duties were to defend sound doctrine and to maintain sound discipline.⁵

"The pastoral Epistles are primarily practical rather than theological. The emphasis lies rather on the defense of doctrine than on its explication or elaboration. The distinctively doctrinal passages comprise only a small part of the whole; Timothy and Titus had already been instructed."⁶

Message⁷

All three of the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) deal with the same subject: the order of the local church. Paul had already expounded the doctrines of the church universal and the ministry of the saints in Christ's body in his other epistles. In these he also gave some direction concerning life in the local churches. Now in the Pastorals he expounded on the effective operation of the local church as a microcosm of the universal church. Remember that the church is people.

First Timothy deals with two aspects of the subject of order in the local church: the life of the church, and the leadership of the church. Titus elaborates on the leadership of the church. Second Timothy elaborates on the life of the church. First Timothy is more general and fundamental. Titus expounds how to set the church in order, and 2 Timothy expounds the leader's personal responsibility.

In 1 Timothy, Paul taught that the function of the local church is to proclaim God's truth in the world. He also taught that the function of the church leaders (Timothy and the elders) is to expound God's truth in the church. The purpose for which the church exists is the proclamation of God's truth in the world. The purpose for which the leaders of the church exist is the exposition of God's truth in the church. This is the message statement.

These are the same points Paul made in Ephesians 4:11-12 concerning the universal church. The saints are to do the work of the ministry, and the gifted men (apostles, prophets, etc.) are to equip the saints for their work. In 1 Timothy he applied the same truth to the local church.

On the one hand then the purpose of the church is to declare God's truth to the world (3:14-16). The key terms in this central passage are "church" and "mystery of godliness."

The local church is an instrument God designed to support and display His truth. Every individual believer is a light in a dark world. God has called us to let our light shine among men (Matt. 5:14-16).

The local church exists to support and display the light of the testimony of believers, not only individually but also corporately.

The "mystery of godliness" is essentially Christ. It is more broadly the truth that the church proclaims that centers on Christ. It is a mystery in that we know it only by special revelation. "Godliness" means piety. This word describes faith in Christ worked out in everyday living. Where does one find godliness? We see it in concrete manifestation in Jesus Christ (3:16). Paul summarized the three stages of His ministry in the three couplets of an ancient hymn. These are His past humiliation, His present proclamation, and His future glorification.

The purpose of the local church then is to proclaim godliness. We do this by presenting Christ and by demonstrating before the world godlike behavior ourselves by the power of the Holy Spirit. Audio witness builds on visual witness.

The purpose of the leaders of the local church, in the second place, is to expound the truth in the church. Church leaders do this by teaching, by exhortation, and by example. The exposition of the truth is not only spoken or written communication (teaching) followed by intellectual comprehension. It also requires encouragement and sensitivity to the condition of the learners (exhortation). The church leader prepares others to reveal God's truth most importantly by exemplifying the truth and illustrating it in his or her life. Truth must be incarnate in the teacher before the learner can thoroughly grasp it. God did this for us in the incarnation of His Son. Jesus said, "You are the light of the world," not, "You announce the light of the world."

Paul drew several implications from these truths.

Notice first some implications concerning the purpose of the local church.

In view of its purpose the local church must be careful to present an unchanged gospel. There must be no majoring in the minors, no claim to "higher knowledge," and no distortion of the truth. In this epistle Paul warned Timothy about all these threats to the purity of God's truth. Preachers and teachers take note. We should be creative in delivering the message, but we must not be creative in the content of the message.

Second, the local church's worship must be unceasing. This was Paul's point when he gave instructions concerning the priority of prayer in church life (2:1-7).

Third, the local church must persevere in its ministry without failing. If it is to do this it needs leaders who incarnate the truth and consistently minister to and motivate the saints. Thus the need for qualified leaders is obvious (3:1-13). Personal example is every bit as important as persuasive explanation.

Note also some implications of the truth that the purpose of the church leader is to expound God's truth to the saints. These are the same as those already pointed out for the church, but they are true of the leader on a personal level.

First, the leader must be absolutely loyal to the truth. "Preach the Word!" (2 Tim. 4:2).

Second, his behavior toward others must be consistent. He must have a deep commitment to fulfilling his purpose of being a good example as well as to his purpose of communicating verbally.

Third, in his personal life he must persevere. He must continue to let God's truth sit in judgment on his life. He must continue to be responsive to the truth. He must also continue to behave in harmony with the truth. Watch out for spiritual calluses.

By way of application let me point out three things the church needs to watch out for and then three things the church leader should beware of. They are very similar.

The local church, Paul warns in this epistle, should beware of false doctrine. By this I mean any doctrine that deviates from the essential teaching of the faith. This will weaken her testimony to the world. Guard the doctrine of your church.

Second, the church should beware of a failure in prayer. This will hinder both her witness to the world and her own growth in godliness (cf. James 4:2; John 15:5).

Third, the church should beware of feeble government. By feeble government I mean government by elders and deacons who lack godly character. Too often church leaders gain appointment for other reasons. Church oversight must fulfill the purposes of God's truth by men who incarnate God's truth. Don't recognize elders too soon, or at all, if they are unqualified.

The dangers to the church leader correspond to these. There must be no failure in his doctrine, nor in his duty, nor in his diligence. If we know and respond to God's truth we will be free from those influences that would hinder us from fulfilling our ministry.

Teaching is life-changing not only to the extent people understand it and appreciate its importance but also to the extent that the life of the teacher illustrates it. We can be completely orthodox and effective in our methods of presentation. However if our life does not harmonize with what we say, those who listen will reject what we say. Not only does our preaching then become ineffective, it also becomes blasphemous. The life of the preacher can promote the growth of his church as much as his pastoral skill. People will put up with many deficiencies, and we all have many, if they can have a good example of a sincere Christian. You can be effective because you have God's Word, God's Spirit, and God's grace.

Constable: 1 Timothy (Outline)

Outline

I. Salutation 1:1-2

II. Timothy's mission in Ephesus 1:3-20

A. The task Timothy faced 1:3-11

B. Exhortations to be faithful 1:12-20

1. A positive encouragement 1:12-17

2. A negative warning 1:18-20

III. Instructions concerning the life of the local church 2:1-4:5

A. The priority of prayer in church life 2:1-7

B. The primary responsibilities of the men and the women in church meetings 2:8-15

C. The qualifications for church leaders 3:1-13

1. Qualifications for elders 3:1-7

2. Qualifications for deacons 3:8-13

D. The nature of the local church 3:14-16

E. The problem of apostasy in the church 4:1-5

IV. Instructions concerning leadership of the local church 4:6-5:25

A. The leader's personal life and public ministry 4:6-16

B. Basic principles of effective interpersonal relationships 5:1-2

C. How to deal with widows and elders 5:3-25

1. Provisions for widows 5:3-16

2. The discipline and selection of elders 5:17-25

V. Instructions for groups within the church 6:1-19

A. Slaves 6:1-2

B. False teachers 6:3-10

C. Those committed to Christ 6:11-16

D. The wealthy 6:17-19

VI. Concluding charge and benediction 6:20-21

Constable: 1 Timothy

1 Timothy

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_____. S.v. "prophetes, prophelikos, propheteuo . . .," by Helmut Kramer, Rolf Rendtorff, Rudolf Meyer, and Gerhard Friedrich. 6 (1968):781-861.

Thiessen, Henry Clarence. Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962.

Towner, Philip H. 1-2 Timothy & Titus. The IVP New Testament Commentary series. Downers Grove, Il., and Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1994.

_____. The Goal of Our Instruction. Sheffield: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 1989.

Trench, Richard Chenevix. Synonyms of the New Testament. Reprint ed., London: James Clarke & Co., 1961.

Ukleja, P. Michael. "Homosexuality in the New Testament." Bibliotheca Sacra 140:560 (October-December 1983):350-58.

Wallis, Wilbur B. "The First Epistle to Timothy." In Wycliffe Bible Commentary, pp. 1367-81. Edited by Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison. Chicago: Moody Press, 1962.

Waltke, Bruce K. "1 Corinthians 11:2-16: An Interpretation." Bibliotheca Sacra 135:537 (January-March 1978):46-57.

White, Newport J. D. "The First and Second Epistles to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus." In Expositor's Greek Testament. 5 vols. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1910.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Faithful. BE Books series. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1984.

Wilkin, Robert N. "Saving Faith and Apostasy: Do Believers Ever Stop Believing?" Grace Evangelical Society News 6:11 (November 1991):1, 4.

Winter, B. W. "Providentia for the Widows of ! Timothy 5:3-16." Tyndale Bulletin 39 (1988):83-99.

Witmer, John A. "The Truth about Error." Bibliotheca Sacra 124:495 (July-September 1967):248-53.

Wuest, Kenneth S. The Pastoral Epistles in the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

THE FIRST

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE,

TO TIMOTHY.

INTRODUCTION.

St. Paul passing through Lycaonia, about the year 51, some of the brethren at Derbe or Lystra recommended to him a disciple, by name Timothy, who from his infancy had studied the Holy Scriptures. St. Paul took him, making him his companion and fellow-labourer in the gospel: and not to offend the Jews, who could not be ignorant that Timothy's father was a Gentile, he caused him to be circumcised. Afterwards he ordained him bishop of Ephesus. (Witham) --- St. Paul writes this epistle to his beloved Timothy, to instruct him in the duties of a bishop, both in respect to himself and to his charge; and that he ought to be well informed of the good morals of those on whom he was to impose hands: Impose not hands lightly upon any man. He tells him also how he should behave towards his clergy. This epistle was written about thirty-three years after our Lord's ascension; but where it was written is uncertain: the more general opinion is, that it was in Macedonia. (Challoner) --- After his epistles to the Churches, now follow those to particular persons; to Timothy and Titus, who were bishops, and to Philemon. Timothy was the beloved disciple of St. Paul, whom he frequently styles his son; but it is not certain that they were at all related. After having accompanied the apostle in many of his travels, the latter at last ordained him bishop, and fixed him permanently at Ephesus. Shortly after he wrote him this epistle, to instruct him in the episcopal duties, as he was but young for those great functions. He might be then about thirty-five. He mentions, likewise, in short the chief heresies which were then making mischief at Ephesus, and gives regulations and instructions for different states of persons in the Church. St. Timothy, who had been so long the disciple of St. Paul, and who never left him except when ordered by his master, could not be ignorant of his duties, but it was destined for the use of bishops of every age. Hence St. Augustine says that such as are destined to serve the Church, should have continually before their eyes the two epistles to Timothy and that to Titus.

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Gill: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 1 TIMOTHY

Timothy, to whom this epistle is written, was eminent for his early piety and acquaintance with the sacred Scriptures; his mother was a Jewess, and his father a Greek, which was the reason why he was not circumcised in his infancy. Mention is made in the second epistle to him of his mother Eunice, and grandmother Lois, as believers, and of his knowledge of the Scriptures from a child: this excellent person the apostle meeting with at Lystra, and having a good report of him from the brethren there, he chose him to be his companion in his travels, and to assist him in the spread of the Gospel; and knowing that it would be very disagreeable to the Jews to hear the word of God from the lips of an uncircumcised person, he took him and circumcised him, becoming all things to all, that he might gain some. This being done, he went along with him into several parts, and he made great use of him, in preaching the word, planting churches, and writing epistles; he sent him to various places with messages from him, to Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica; and now had left him at Ephesus, where he besought him to abide for a while; for that he was the bishop, pastor, or overseer of that church is not likely, since his residence here was not constant, and was afterwards called away from hence by the apostle, who desired his stay there, under whom, and by whose directions, he acted while there; and seeing that this church had elders, bishops, or overseers, whom the Holy Ghost had set over them, whom the apostle called to him at Miletus, and gave them some advice and instructions. The design of Timothy's continuance there was to check growing errors and heresies, and to take care of, and preserve the discipline of God's house; and to charge him with these things was the design of this epistle; in which he teaches him how to behave himself in the church of God, by taking heed to his doctrine and conversation; and gives rules relating to the qualifications of bishops and deacons, and to the care of widows, and with regard to church censures, and the becoming walk and conversation of all sorts of persons of every office, age, sex, rank, and order. This epistle is thought to be written about the year 55.

Gill: 1 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 1 TIMOTHY 1

In this chapter, after the inscription and salutation, the apostle having entreated Timothy to abide at Ephesus, observes, that his end was, that he might check the false teachers there, whom he describes; and then he gives an account of his apostleship, and also of his conversion, to the encouragement of sinners, and to the glory of the grace of God; and closes with an exhortation to Timothy to constancy and perseverance in his Christian warfare. The inscription and salutation are in 1Ti 1:1 and much in the common form; and whereas, when he went into Macedonia, he desired Timothy to continue at Ephesus, his end was, to restrain the false teachers from preaching the doctrine they did, which was contrary to the Gospel, fabulous, useless, and unedifying, 1Ti 1:3 for though these men set up for teachers of the law, they went off, and strayed from its general end, which was love with faith, through their ignorance of it, 1Ti 1:5 not but that the law itself was good, as Gospel ministers full well knew; which is said to prevent an objection against them, as laying it aside as useless; but the abuse of it is what is complained of, it being made for some persons, and not for others who are mentioned, between which, and the sound doctrine of the Gospel, there is an agreement, 1Ti 1:8 which leads on the apostle to observe his call to the office of a preacher of it by Christ, his qualification for it, and investiture with it, for which he gives thanks, 1Ti 1:12 And in order to illustrate the grace of God in converting him first, and then making him a minister of the word, he takes notice of his state and condition before conversion, what a vile sinner he had been, and of the abundant grace God bestowed on him in it, 1Ti 1:13 And that this case of his might not seem strange and incredible, he observes, that this is the sum of the Gospel, that Christ came into the world to save the chief of sinners, such an one as he was, 1Ti 1:15. And besides, the end of the Lord in his conversion was, by the pattern of longsuffering he showed in him, that others might be encouraged to believe in Christ also, 1Ti 1:16 and then for all this grace bestowed on him, he ascribes honour and glory to God, 1Ti 1:17 and renews his charge to Timothy to fight manfully against the false teachers, to which he should be the more induced by the consideration of the prophecies that went before of him, 1Ti 1:18 and to hold faith and good conscience, which had been dropped by some professors; of which instances are given in Hymenaeus and Philetus, 1Ti 1:19.

College: 1 Timothy (Book Introduction)

FOREWORD

A movement which prides itself in its back-to-the-Bible underpinnings and its plea for unity should welcome any effort of the stature of the College Press NIV Bible Commentary. The exegesis of the biblical text must always be at the heart of who we are, and the effort to do so in a way that reaches across lines that have divided our movement signals an emphasis on the original hallmarks of the movement.

Having taught Bible and Greek at David Lipscomb University for eleven years, I have come to appreciate how many good commentaries there are on nearly every book in the New Testament. I am, in some ways, reluctant about adding another book to that pile. All of those commentaries have helped to shape my understanding of the biblical text for its original audiences and its import for Christians today.

I especially want to thank my family who have supported me and encouraged me when I spend hours at my computer typing away, my students whose questions have always caused me to look at the biblical text in fresh ways, and my colleagues who have always served as a constant encouragement.

When I was asked to participate as an author in this project, I was hesitant. When I was asked to write on Timothy and Titus, I was even more hesitant. To be a part of this series is an honor. To undertake writing a commentary on 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus is a challenging task. This is, after all, the section of Scripture that has fueled the debate about the role of women, has been at the heart of effort to redefine church leadership, and has provided encouragement to those who feel as if they "have fought the good fight" and are about to "finish the course." I began the study hoping for wonderful insights, and, although I gained a few, I came out of the study convinced that many of the more traditional interpretations were still reasonable. I discovered that, although I did not have all the answers, Paul's advice to those two young preachers and to their churches still made sense both for Paul's original audiences and for the preacher and his church today. May we today heed the words of Paul to "guard what has been entrusted to" our care and to "preach the Word."

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

While several passages in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus have provided the fodder for tomes of theological discussion (e.g., 1 Tim 2:9-15 and the role of women; 1 Tim 3:11 and deaconesses; 1 Tim 3:1-8 and Titus 1:6-9 and the characteristics of those to serve as elders), the real value of these epistles lies in their message to two young ministers, to second generation believers in Ephesus and to a young church facing a pagan world in Crete. These epistles provide teaching which the church in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries needs to hear.

The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus stand in a very close relationship to one another. They are written to fellow workers of the Apostle Paul; they are bound together by similar content: false teachers who bear similar characteristics, a discussion of church leaders, similar situations for the churches addressed, and the same basic time frame.

1 and 2 Timothy and Titus have been known as the Pastoral Epistles since the eighteenth century. As early as the thirteenth century Thomas Aquinas referred to 1 Timothy as a "pastoral rule." In 1703 D.N. Berdot described Titus as a "Pastoral Epistle," based on the assumption that it was an instruction manual for a pastor. In reality, neither the term "pastor" nor its equivalent, "shepherd," appears in any of the three epistles. Paul Anton popularized the term in lectures he delivered on Timothy and Titus published posthumously in 1753-1755. Anton applied the term "Pastoral Epistles" to all three epistles.

Although the term "the Pastoral Epistles" has become a convenient designation for these three epistles which have much in common, it can be misleading. These epistles are not really a manual of pastoral theology. Only a fraction of these books contains what could be termed ecclesiastical teaching (1 Tim 3:1-13; 5:3-22; Titus 1:5-9). The three epistles are very different. There is nothing within the epistles that would indicate they were written from the same place and time or that the author intended them to be studied together.

AUTHORSHIP

A crucial issue in the Pastoral Epistles (PE) is the authorship of the epistles. Despite widespread denial of Pauline authorship in modern times, ancient authors generally accepted the works as authentic epistles of the Apostle Paul. Serious challenges to Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles began in the nineteenth century, especially with the forceful challenge espoused by Schleiermacher in 1807.

Testimony of the Books Themselves

The letters claim to be by Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus (1 Tim 1:1; Titus 1:1; 2 Tim 1:1). This assertion matches claims of the other Pauline letters. The author describes himself as "a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent man" (1 Tim 1:13), a description which fits the account of Paul's pre-Christian life as seen in Acts. The author describes Timothy and Titus as his spiritual sons (1 Tim 1:2; Titus 1:4); this too is in full accord with their relationship to Paul as seen in Acts and the other Pauline epistles. The epistles frequently refer to events in the Apostle's life and mention co-workers like Tychicus, Apollos, Barnabas, and Mark who are known from the other Pauline epistles.

With all of this data in mind, it is little wonder that there was almost unanimous agreement regarding Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles for nearly 1800 years.

Attestation by the Early Church

The early church clearly regarded Paul as the author of the Pastoral Epistles. Clement of Alexandria (ca. 155-ca. 220) frequently referred to and cited the Pastoral Epistles. He even cited 1 Tim 6:20, "what is falsely called knowledge," and ascribed the passage to "the apostle." Similarly Origen, his student, ascribed 1 Tim 1:15 to Paul: "Moreover, Paul, who himself also at a later time became an apostle of Jesus, says in his epistle to Timothy, 'This is a faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.'" Eusebius (ca. 265-ca. 339) attributed the Pastoral Epistles to Paul. He said, "The epistles of Paul are fourteen, all well known and beyond doubt. It should not, however, be overlooked that some have set aside the epistle to the Hebrews." The Muratorian Canon (ca. 200) refers to the Pastoral Epistles as Pauline. The extensive citations of the Pastoral Epistles by the church fathers, including Justin Martyr, Polycarp, Ignatius, and Irenaeus, demonstrate the early consensus that the Pastoral Epistles are Pauline.

The evidence is not, however, all positive. According to Tertullian, Marcion (ca. 140) excluded the Pastoral Epistles from his canon. Marcion, of course, rejected any book which did not fit his heretical view of Christianity. He omitted Matthew, Mark, and John; and he accepted only a mutilated copy of Luke. It seems likely that Marcion objected to the Pastoral Epistles because of their denunciation of tenets of his brand of Christianity (cf. 1 Tim 1:8; 6:20; 2 Tim 3:16).

An additional bit of negative evidence is seen in the apparent absence of the Pastoral Epistles from ⁴⁶ of the Chester Beatty papyri. The codex dates from the mid-third century and contains Pauline epistles. Portions of the manuscript are missing. It lacks a portion of Romans which stood at the beginning of the codex, a portion of 1 Thessalonians, and all of 2 Thessalonians. Most scholars feel that the manuscript did not have room for the Pastoral Epistles and Philemon, which are also missing.

If one looks only at external evidence, the victory would clearly be won in favor of acceptance of the Pastoral Epistles as Pauline.

Modern Times

Until the nineteenth century the Pastoral Epistles were deemed authentic and Pauline. The first attack on apostolic authorship was made by Schmidt (1804) and Schleiermacher (1807).

Today Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles is disputed on five grounds:

Historical Allusions. Scott has said, "That Paul cannot have been the author [of the PE] is most clearly apparent when we examine the historical framework of the letters." The problem may be summarized as follows: the Pastoral Epistles do not fit into the historical framework of Acts and the Pauline epistles. Acts mentions only two imprisonments: Caesarea and Rome.

The modern reader is not provided with many of the details of Paul's early life (i.e., the period described in Acts). Nowhere in Acts, or for that matter anywhere in the Pauline corpus outside 2 Corinthians, can one find Paul's frequent imprisonments, his five beatings, or his three shipwrecks (2 Cor 11:23-27). Also one is not bound to place the events described in the Pastoral Epistles into the period described in Acts. In fact the situation there seems to indicate likelihood of Paul's being released from prison. The traditional interpretation which proposes a release from the imprisonment mentioned in Acts during which 1 Timothy and Titus were written and a subsequent Roman imprisonment as described in 2 Timothy has much to offer and provides few difficulties. There is nothing improbable about Paul being released from prison, engaging in the kind of ministry indicated in 1 Timothy and Titus, and then later being imprisoned again with death being imminent.

Ecclesiastical Situation. It is argued that the church situation described in the Pastoral Epistles is akin to the second century and far too developed for Paul. At this juncture it is worth noting that very little of the Pastoral Epistles can really be termed "ecclesiastical teaching."

Paul does have an interest in ecclesiastical matters: he and Barnabas appoint elders (Acts 14:23); Paul addresses the bishops and deacons at Philippi (Phil 1:1); Paul lists pastor-teachers among the divine gifts provided to the early church (Eph 4:11-13); and Paul calls for the elders at Ephesus on his way to Rome, calling upon them to oversee (verb from which the noun "bishop" comes) and shepherd (verb from which the noun "pastor" comes) their flocks (Acts 20:13-35).

Nothing in the Pastoral Epistles would demand the later phenomenon of monarchical bishops. As Carson, Moo, and Morris have noted, "Clearly none of this amounts to much in the way of organization, certainly to nothing more than can have appeared in the church in comparatively early days."

The Nature of the False Teaching. It is usually assumed that all three Pastoral Epistles face the same false teaching, an assumption which has been questioned in recent years. Many have wanted to see the Pastoral Epistles addressing a heresy seen only after the early second century and therefore as being non-Pauline. Easton argued that the Pastoral Epistles painted a picture of Christianity threatened by a "coherent and powerful heresy," a heresy which claimed to be more profound than the revelation of the Church. That the heresy seen here is "coherent and powerful" and that one must see it as second century Gnosticism is still to be demonstrated. The heresy or heresies seen in the Pastoral Epistles betray a strong Jewish element much akin to what one meets in the Qumran literature and the apocryphal work, Jubilees. There are no real grounds to see the false teaching confronted in the Pastoral Epistles as something which would not, indeed did not (cf. Colossians), arise in Paul's lifetime.

It does seem that the false teaching and false teachers encountered in all three of the Pastoral Epistles are of the same sort. They have similar tendencies and use similar language even though every element seen in one book may not appear in the other. One must simply piece together the elements that compose this heresy: emphasis on myths and genealogies (1 Tim 1:4; Titus 1:14; 3:9; 2 Tim 4:4); concern for the Law and Jewishness (1 Tim 1:7; Titus 1:10, 14; 3:9); emphasis on "knowledge" (1 Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 3:6-9); controversy, speculation and arguments (1 Tim 1:4, 6; 6:4, 20; Titus 1:10; 3:9; 2 Tim. 2:14, 16, 23; 3:1-5); immorality (1 Tim 1:19, 20; Titus 1:15, 16; 2 Tim 2:16, 19; 3:1-5); deception (1 Tim 4:1-3; Titus 1:10-13; 2 Tim 3:6-13); some ascetic practices (1 Tim 4:1-5); and teaching for material gain (1 Tim 6:5; Titus 1:11; 2 Tim 3:2-4).

Vocabulary and Style. As Guthrie has noted, "the majority of those who favor the non-Pauline authorship of the Epistles are swayed more by linguistic considerations than by any of the objections mentioned above." Perhaps no scholar has presented this argument for non-Pauline authorship in stronger fashion than P.N. Harrison. Harrison built upon the work of previous scholars to argue that the vocabulary and style of the Pastoral Epistles indicated that they did not share the same author as the ten epistles generally accepted as Pauline.

Harrison noted that well over one third of the words, excluding proper names, used in the Pastoral Epistles occur nowhere else in the New Testament. Many of the words used in the Pastoral Epistles and the universally accepted Pauline epistles have different meanings. Many of the words used only in the Pastoral Epistles are found in the early church fathers and in the apologists. On the surface Harrison's arguments seem most convincing; however, Carson, Moo, and Morris have noted that one could use the same line of argument to suggest that the three Pastoral Epistles were themselves written by different authors.

In examining the style of the Pastoral Epistles, Harrison gives special emphasis to particles, prepositions, and pronouns - elements that are indicative of style which an imitator might not follow. After noting a drastic difference in usage, he concludes that it is unlikely that "within a very few years we should find the same writer producing three epistles without once happening to use a single word in all that list - one or the other of which has hitherto appeared on the average nine times to every page that Paul wrote. " Guthrie, however, has noted that Harrison's data is selective and "would seem to be invalid."

One must allow any author to use differing vocabulary and styles which would fit a differing situation, audience, purpose, and time frame. Arguments offered thus far on the basis of vocabulary and style neither prove nor disprove Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles.

The Theology of the Pastoral Epistles. It has been argued that the theology of the Pastoral Epistles is not that of Paul: the cross is no longer the center of theology, and there is undue emphasis on works. This argument fails to take into consideration the whole of the teaching, both in the ten epistles generally accepted as Pauline and in the Pastoral Epistles as a whole. Hendriksen has rightly noted, "The truth is that the doctrine taught and presupposed in the Pastorals is clearly the same as that which is held before us in the ten [Pauline epistles]." Hendriksen goes on to list nine theological concepts, including salvation by grace through faith, which are central to the ten epistles generally accepted as Pauline and then delineates their occurrence in the Pastoral Epistles.

Modern Solutions to These Issues. Several solutions have been offered to these apparent inconsistencies by serious critics. Some have suggested one must simply opt for non-apostolic authorship. Others, like Harrison (1921), Scott (1936), and Easton (1948), have suggested non-Pauline authorship for the documents as a whole while allowing for a few genuine Pauline fragments.

A central issue in the discussion is the attitude of the early church toward the pseudepigrapher. Carson, Moo, and Morris have noted that the contention that pseudonymous epistles circulated freely and were widely accepted by early Christians cannot be supported. Tertullian spoke of a church leader who composed writings which wrongly bore the name of Paul. Even though this was done out of love, the man was dismissed from his office. Similarly, the Muratorian Canon says that forgeries in Paul's name were to be rejected. As Carson, Moo, and Morris have noted, "Nowhere is evidence cited that any member of the New Testament church accepted the idea that a pious believer could write something in the name of an apostle and expect the writing to be welcomed." Indeed discussion of canonicity tended to focus on the issue of authorship.

The traditional position of Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles fits the data. One who deems these works to be authentic Pauline epistles is not without support from a good number of excellent scholars (cf. Carson, Fee, Guthrie, Hendriksen, Johnson, Moo, and Morris). When one accepts Pauline authorship, the issues of language and style remain. They are still more like Paul than different from Paul. Is the change due simply to subject? Can it be an aging Paul? Should one see an amanuensis as the one responsible for the differences? The final words of Fee on the issue of authorship of the Pastoral Epistles are worth repeating:

To say that Paul is the author of the Pastoral Epistles means that the letters ultimately come from him in the historical settings contained within them. It does not say how they came from him; the final answer to that question is not available to us.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

INTRODUCTION

PLACE OF ORIGIN AND DATE

Little can be said with certainty of Paul's location when he penned 1 Timothy. Although Paul does not say explicitly that he was in Macedonia, he appears to indicate that he had been in Ephesus with Timothy, had left Timothy behind, and had gone on to Macedonia: "As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus" (1:3).

If Paul was released from "house arrest" in Rome as the data in Acts 28:30 and the prison epistles might suggest and wrote this epistle at a subsequent time, the date for 1 Timothy would likely be 63-66. A chronology of Paul's life from Acts would indicate his imprisonment lasted until 61/62. The Neronian persecution of 64 would indicate that his release should precede that date. Eusebius recorded that Paul died in 67. If one accepts those dates, Paul would have penned 1 Timothy between 63 and 66.

Other suggestions are given by those who would contend that Paul died at the height of the Neronian persecution of 64. Some would, therefore, provide a date of 62-63 for composition of 1 Timothy. Robinson has suggested Paul's departure for Macedonia, leaving behind Timothy in Ephesus (1:3), reflects the situation seen in Acts 20:1-4. He, therefore, places 1 Timothy within the historical data of Acts and suggests a date of 55. Scholars who argue for pseudonymity generally date the epistle during the second century (cf. Kümmel).

A date of 63-66 seems best to fit the data currently available.

DESTINATION AND AUDIENCE

Although on the surface 1 Timothy seems to be personal correspondence between Paul and Timothy, his son in the faith, there is much in the epistle that indicates Paul intended the letter to be read and heeded by the congregation at Ephesus. "Grace be with you" in 6:21 is plural. Many of Paul's admonitions to Timothy (e.g., "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young," 4:21) may also have served to advise the church of their correct path of action.

Timothy is well known from Acts and the epistles of Paul. He was a native of Lystra; his mother was Jewish and his father a Gentile. About A.D. 49 he became a co-worker of Paul. As a young man likely converted and trained by Paul, Paul found a special place in his heart for him (1 Cor 4:17; Phil 2:22; 1 Tim 1:2). Timothy appears alongside Paul in the opening greetings of several epistles (2 Cor 1:1; Phil 1:1; Col 1:1; 1 Thess 1:1; 2 Thess 1:1). He was undoubtedly considered a trusted colleague and co-worker (1 Thess 3:2) who could be trusted to be sent on special missions (1 Cor 16:10; Phil 2:20). If one accepts the traditional site for the place of writing of the prison epistles, Timothy was with Paul in Rome (Col 1:1; Phlm 1). He has, at this juncture, been left behind in Ephesus to set things in order. He is a young man (see the discussion of 1 Tim 4:12) who was perhaps not in the best of health (1 Tim 5:23).

The church where Timothy was laboring found itself in the midst of the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. Ephesus housed a famous shrine to Artemis, the great mother goddess, known by the Romans as Diana of the Ephesians. Upon arriving at Ephesus Paul met a group of disciples whose knowledge of the gospel was so incomplete that it would seem they were still looking for the Messiah and they clearly knew nothing of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7). Paul's next encounter was with a group of Jews, the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest. These men were seeking to do exorcisms in the name of Jesus (Acts 19:8-16). The citizens of Ephesus were so impressed with what happened to these men and with the preaching of Paul that many came to belief. Some who had previously practiced sorcery even burned their books (Acts 19:17-20). During this stay Timothy worked with Paul at Ephesus before being sent by Paul on to Macedonia (Acts 19:21-22). Feeling the pinch of their pocketbooks, the silversmiths, who made their livelihood selling images of Artemis, instigated a riot that led to Paul's moving on to other fields (Acts 19:23-20:1). Paul's love and concern for the Ephesian church did not end there. As Paul headed along the coast of Asia Minor on his way to Jerusalem, he summoned the elders from that church to meet him at Miletus. Paul warns them of the impending dangers, especially the false teachers, and charges them to watch after the flock (Acts 20:13-38). These dangers facing the church are a recurrent theme whenever the church at Ephesus is mentioned (1 Cor 16:8-9; Eph 4:14, 17-24; 5:6-14; Rev 2:6). The nature of Paul's correspondence with Timothy in the two epistles addressed to him follows this same theme.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF 1 TIMOTHY

Perhaps the greatest contribution 1 Timothy makes is the insight it provides into Paul's view of ministry: his own, that of Timothy, and that of the church (elders/bishops, deacons, women, and believers called to godliness). The church today needs to heed that call to ministry and godliness. Paul's emphasis on prayer (2:8), the demeanor of women in worship (2:9-15), the relationships between the old and the young (5:1-2), the treatment of widows (5:3-16), the response of slaves to their masters and ultimately to the Lord (6:1-2), and the warning against arrogance and trusting in wealth (6:17-19) produce a book rich in wisdom for the believer.

Paul does warn of needless controversies which do not produce growth. While the "godless myths" (1:4), forbidding of marriage, and enforcing of food laws (4:3) may seem far removed from the issues facing the church today, it is not immune from "an unhealthy interest in controversies and arguments that result in envy, quarreling, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction" (6:4-5). Similarly the modern church should give heed to Paul's warning against those "who think that godliness is a means to financial gain" (6:5).

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

SELECTED

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allan, J.A. "The 'In Christ' Formula in the Pastoral Epistles," New Testament Studies 10 (1963) 115-121.

Barclay, William. The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon ( DSB rev. ed.). Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975.

. "Paul's Certainties VII. Our Security in God - 2 Timothy 1,12," Expository Times 69 (1958) 324-327.

Barnett, Paul W. "Wives and Women's Ministry (1 Timothy 2:11-15)," Evangelical Quarterly 61 (1989) 225-238.

Barrett, C.K. The Pastoral Epistles ( NCB). Oxford: Clarendon, 1963.

Berdot, D.N. Exercitatio theologica-exegetica in epistulam Pauli ad Titum. 1703.

Bernard, J.H. The Pastoral Epistles. Thornapple Commentaries, 1899; reprinted Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980.

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. The Role Relationship of Men and Women. Revised ed. Phillipsburg, NJ. 1985.

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-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

ABBREVIATIONS

BAGD Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker Greek Lexicon (2nd. ed.)

DSB Daily Study Bible

ICC International Critical Commentary

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JSNT Journal of Studies for the New Testament

KJV King James Version

LWC Living Word Commentary

LXX Septuagint

MNTC Moffatt New Testament Commentary

NAC New American Commentary

NCB New Clarendon Bible

NCBC New Century Bible Commentary

NEB New English Bible

NIBC New International Bible Commentary

NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

NTC New Testament Commentary

NTS New Testament Studies

PNTC Pelican New Testament Commentary

RSV Revised Standard Version

TBC Torch Bible Commentaries

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. by

Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich

TEV Today's English Version

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

College: 1 Timothy (Outline)

OUTLINE

I. THE SALUTATION - 1:1-2

II. PAUL'S CHARGE TO TIMOTHY - 1:3-20

A. The Charge and the False Teachers - 1:3-7

B. The Lawful Use of the Law - 1:8-11

C. Paul's Own Ministry, A Positive Example - 1:12-17

D. The Negative Example of Hymenaeus and Alexander - 1:18-20

III. DIRECTION FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP - 2:1-15

A. Prayers by All for All - 2:1-7

B. Respective Roles of Men and Women - 2:8-15

IV. DIRECTIONS FOR CHURCH ;LEADERS - 3:1-16

A. Bishops/Overseers - 3:1-7

B. Deacons and "Women" - 3:8-13

C. The Basis for These Directions - 3:14-16

V. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR TIMOTHY - 4:1-16

A. The Apostasy Timothy Was to Face - 4:1-5

B. The Discipline of a Good Minister - 4:6-16

VI. RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY - 5:1-6:2

A. The Minister and the Church - 5:1-2

B. The Care of Widows - 5:3-16

1. Family Responsibilities - 5:3-8

2. Widows to Be Enrolled - 5:9-10

3. Younger Widows - 5:11-15

4. Women and Widows - 5:16

C. Elders - 5:17-25

D. Slaves - 6:1-2

VII. FINAL EXHORTATIONS - 6:3-21

A. An Indictment of False Teachers - 6:3-5

B. Godliness, Contentment, and Money - 6:6-10

C. A Charge to Timothy - 6:11-16

D. Instructions for the Rich - 6:17-19

E. Paul's Final Charge to Timothy 6:20-21

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV