1 Timothy 1:19

1:19 To do this ¹  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 Timothy 3:9

3:9 holding to the mystery of the faith ²  with a clear conscience.

1 Timothy 5:12

5:12 and so incur judgment for breaking their former pledge. ³ 

1 Timothy 6:21

6:21 By professing it, some have strayed from the faith. ⁴  Grace be with you all. ⁵ 

1 Timothy 1:2

1:2 to Timothy, my genuine child in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord!

1 Timothy 1:4-5

1:4 nor to occupy themselves with myths and interminable genealogies. ⁶  Such things promote useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan ⁷  that operates by faith. 1:5 But the aim of our instruction ⁸  is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. ⁹ 

1 Timothy 1:14

1:14 and our Lord’s grace was abundant, bringing faith and love in Christ Jesus. ¹⁰ 

1 Timothy 2:15

2:15 But she will be delivered through childbearing, ¹¹  if she ¹²  continues in faith and love and holiness with self-control.

1 Timothy 3:13

3:13 For those who have served well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves ¹³  and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ 

1 Timothy 6:11

6:11 But you, as a person dedicated to God, ¹⁵  keep away from all that. ¹⁶  Instead pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness.

1 Timothy 2:7

2:7 For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle – I am telling the truth; ¹⁷  I am not lying – and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

1 Timothy 4:1

Timothy’s Ministry in the Later Times

4:1 Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will desert the faith and occupy themselves ¹⁸  with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings, ¹⁹ 

1 Timothy 4:6

4:6 By pointing out such things to the brothers and sisters, ²⁰  you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, having nourished yourself on the words of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. ²¹ 

1 Timothy 4:12

4:12 Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in your speech, conduct, love, faithfulness, ²²  and purity.

1 Timothy 5:8

5:8 But if someone does not provide for his own, ²³  especially his own family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

1 Timothy 6:10

6:10 For the love of money is the root ²⁴  of all evils. ²⁵  Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains.

1 Timothy 6:12

6:12 Compete well ²⁶  for the faith and lay hold of that eternal life you were called for and made your good confession ²⁷  for ²⁸  in the presence of many witnesses.

[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…”

[3:9]  ² sn The mystery of the faith is a reference to the revealed truths of the Christian faith.

[5:12]  ³ tn Grk “incurring judgment because they reject their first faith.”

[6:21]  ⁴ tn Grk “have deviated concerning the faith.”

[6:21]  ⁵ tc Most witnesses (א² D¹ Ψ Ï sy) conclude this letter with ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”). Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, the earliest and best witnesses (א* A D* F G 33 81 1739* 1881 it sa) lack the particle, indicating that the letter concluded with “Grace be with you all.”

[1:4]  ⁵ sn Myths and interminable genealogies. These myths were legendary tales characteristic of the false teachers in Ephesus and Crete. See parallels in 1 Tim 4:7; 2 Tim 4:4; and Titus 1:14. They were perhaps built by speculation from the patriarchal narratives in the OT; hence the connection with genealogies and with wanting to be teachers of the law (v. 7).

[1:4]  ⁶ tc A few Western mss (D* latt Ir) read οἰκοδομήν (oikodomhn, “[God’s] edification”) rather than οἰκονομίαν (oikonomian, “[God’s] redemptive plan”), which is read by the earliest and best witnesses.

[1:5]  ⁶ tn Grk “the instruction,” referring to orthodox Christian teaching and ministry in general, in contrast to that of the false teachers mentioned in 1:3-4.

[1:5]  ⁷ tn Grk “love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

[1:14]  ⁷ tn Grk “with faith and love in Christ Jesus.”

[2:15]  ⁸ tn Or “But she will be preserved through childbearing,” or “But she will be saved in spite of childbearing.” This verse is notoriously difficult to interpret, though there is general agreement about one point: Verse 15 is intended to lessen the impact of vv. 13-14. There are several interpretive possibilities here, though the first three can be readily dismissed (cf. D. Moo, “1 Timothy 2:11-15: Meaning and Significance,” TJ 1 [1980]: 70-73). (1) Christian women will be saved, but only if they bear children. This view is entirely unlikely for it lays a condition on Christian women that goes beyond grace, is unsupported elsewhere in scripture, and is explicitly against Paul’s and Jesus’ teaching on both marriage and salvation (cf. Matt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:8-9, 26-27, 34-35; 1 Tim 5:3-10). (2) Despite the curse, Christian women will be kept safe when bearing children. This view also is unlikely, both because it has little to do with the context and because it is not true to life (especially life in the ancient world with its high infant mortality rate). (3) Despite the sin of Eve and the results to her progeny, she would be saved through the childbirth – that is, through the birth of the Messiah, as promised in the protevangelium (Gen 3:15). This view sees the singular “she” as referring first to Eve and then to all women (note the change from singular to plural in this verse). Further, it works well in the context. However, there are several problems with it: [a] The future tense (σωθήσηται, swqhshtai) is unnatural if referring to the protevangelium or even to the historical fact of the Messiah’s birth; [b] that only women are singled out as recipients of salvation seems odd since the birth of the Messiah was necessary for the salvation of both women and men; [c] as ingenious as this view is, its very ingenuity is its downfall, for it is overly subtle; and [d] the term τεκνογονία (teknogonia) refers to the process of childbirth rather than the product. And since it is the person of the Messiah (the product of the birth) that saves us, the term is unlikely to be used in the sense given it by those who hold this view. There are three other views that have greater plausibility: (4) This may be a somewhat veiled reference to the curse of Gen 3:16 in order to clarify that though the woman led the man into transgression (v. 14b), she will be saved spiritually despite this physical reminder of her sin. The phrase is literally “through childbearing,” but this does not necessarily denote means or instrument here. Instead it may show attendant circumstance (probably with a concessive force): “with, though accompanied by” (cf. BDAG 224 s.v. δία A.3.c; Rom 2:27; 2 Cor 2:4; 1 Tim 4:14). (5) “It is not through active teaching and ruling activities that Christian women will be saved, but through faithfulness to their proper role, exemplified in motherhood” (Moo, 71). In this view τεκνογονία is seen as a synecdoche in which child-rearing and other activities of motherhood are involved. Thus, one evidence (though clearly not an essential evidence) of a woman’s salvation may be seen in her decision to function in this role. (6) The verse may point to some sort of proverbial expression now lost, in which “saved” means “delivered” and in which this deliverance was from some of the devastating effects of the role reversal that took place in Eden. The idea of childbearing, then, is a metonymy of part for the whole that encompasses the woman’s submission again to the leadership of the man, though it has no specific soteriological import (but it certainly would have to do with the outworking of redemption).

[2:15]  ⁹ tn There is a shift to the plural here (Grk “if they continue”), but it still refers to the woman in a simple shift from generic singular to generic plural.

[3:13]  ⁹ sn The statement those who have served well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves is reminiscent of Jesus’ teaching (Matt 20:26-28; Mark 10:43-45) that the one who wishes to be great must be a servant (διάκονος [diakonos], used here of deacons) of all, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve (διακονέω [diakonew], as in 1 Tim 3:10, 13).

[3:13]  ¹⁰ sn In the phrase the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the term faith seems to mean “what Christians believe, Christian truth,” rather than personal trust in Christ. So the whole phrase could mean that others will come to place greater confidence in them regarding Christian truth; but the word “confidence” is much more likely to refer to their own boldness to act on the truth of their convictions.

[6:11]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “O man of God.”

[6:11]  ¹¹ tn Grk “flee these things.”

[2:7]  ¹¹ tc Most mss (א* D² H 33^vid Ï) have ἐν Χριστῷ (en Cristw) after λέγω (legw) to read “I am telling the truth in Christ,” but this is probably an assimilation to Rom 9:1. Further, the witnesses that lack this phrase are early, important, and well distributed (א² A D* F G P Ψ 6 81 1175 1739 1881 al sy co). It is difficult to explain the shorter reading if it is not original.

[4:1]  ¹² tn Or “desert the faith by occupying themselves.”

[4:1]  ¹³ tn Grk “teachings of demons” (speaking of the source of these doctrines).

[4:6]  ¹³ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[4:6]  ¹⁴ sn By pointing out…you have followed. This verse gives a theme statement for what follows in the chapter about Timothy’s ministry. The situation in Ephesus requires him to be a good servant of Christ, and he will do that by sound teaching and by living an exemplary life himself.

[4:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “faith.”

[5:8]  ¹⁵ tn That is, “his own relatives.”

[6:10]  ¹⁶ tn This could be taken to mean “a root,” but the phrase “of all evils” clearly makes it definite. This seems to be not entirely true to life (some evils are unrelated to love of money), but it should be read as a case of hyperbole (exaggeration to make a point more strongly).

[6:10]  ¹⁷ tn Many translations render this “of all kinds of evil,” especially to allow for the translation “a root” along with it. But there is no parallel for taking a construction like this to mean “all kinds of” or “every kind of.” The normal sense is “all evils.”

[6:12]  ¹⁷ tn This phrase literally means “compete in the good competition of the faith,” using words that may refer to a race or to a boxing or wrestling match: “run the good race” or “fight the good fight.” The similar phrase in 1 Tim 1:18 uses a military picture and is more literally “war the good warfare.”

[6:12]  ¹⁸ sn At some point in Timothy’s life, he publicly acknowledged Jesus as the resurrected Lord, perhaps either at his baptism or his ordination as a minister of the gospel. With this reminder of the historical moment of his good confession, Timothy is encouraged to remain steadfast in his faith and to finish his life as a minister in the same way it began (see G. W. Knight, Pastoral Epistles [NIGTC], 264-65).

[6:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “confessed the good confession.”