In 1 Timothy 1, Paul begins his letter by warning Timothy about false teachers and urging him to use the Law properly and live according to the Gospel of Jesus.
Wes
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, Wes, first I want to just talk about the whole book, and the whole book is given, 1 Timothy is given, Paul says at the end of chapter 3, “So that people know how they ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” (paraphrase of 1 Timothy 3:15) Keeping it simple. Paul wrote it to shape up and to affect church life, involvement in specifically local church life. It’s part of a body of epistles that Paul wrote, called the Pastoral Epistles, which are helpful to pastors to help them to know how they can shepherd local churches.
And it buttresses the conviction I have that there is no more powerful weapon in the hand of God for the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ than a healthy local church. And yet, churches are consistently attacked by false doctrine. They’re attacked by sin and other issues, and every generation, and the Lord and his kindness has given us these epistles to help address this kind of timeless challenges Satan brings in every generation.
And so we’re going to walk through this beautiful pastoral epistle. This particular first chapter, he addresses false doctrine, false teachers that are coming in in the name of the law, the Jewish law, and so therefore he’s addressing the proper use of the law and the power of the gospel. So there’s just some incredible verses in here, really memorable verses that are going to shine, and I’m looking forward to talking about them.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read 1 Timothy 1:1-20.
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, our hope. To Timothy, my true child in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
Andy, what is the significance of the word command in verse 1, and how is Christ Jesus our hope?
Andy
Paul calls himself an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God, our Savior. If you read the account of Paul’s conversion (three of them, as a matter of fact, in the book of Acts), the glorious, resurrected Jesus isn’t giving Saul of Tarsus any choice. “Get up and go into the city, and you’ll be told what you must do.” (paraphrase of Acts 9:6) Well, there’s a command. And what must he do? He must be the apostle to the Gentiles. He is God’s chosen instrument.
God told Jesus, told Ananias who went to baptize him, “Go, this man is my chosen instrument, to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I’ll show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (paraphrase of Acts 9:15-16) Paul didn’t have an option here. He was commanded by God to be an apostle. But here’s the thing, as John wrote in his epistle, “God’s commands are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)
Rather Paul considers it a lavish grace to him to have this ministry. It is by the grace of God that he was called out of darkness into light, and then into extraordinary service that God counted him faithful to be an apostle. So all of this was by the command of God, but I think we Christians should always see God’s commands as promises as well, something he’s going to fulfill by the Spirit. But I love that word command.
Wes
And how is Christ Jesus our hope?
Andy
Oh, hope is such a beautiful, radiant word. I think hope is a feeling, a sense in the heart, that the future is bright, based on the promises of God. Jesus is the embodiment of our hope. It is because Christ died for our sins that we know we will not be condemned to hell. It is because Christ rose from the dead, that we know that we will live forever with God. Christ is our living hope. If he can be killed, our hope can be killed, but he can’t be killed. So he is the embodiment, the incarnation indeed of our hope. Jesus is all of our hope wrapped up in one place. So Jesus is our hope.
Wes
How is Paul’s relationship with Timothy a helpful pattern for discipleship in the church?
Andy
Yeah, it’s very, very important that we understand that those who are further along in age and in experience are required to mentor and train and to deliver the truth of the gospel and to exemplify it for those that are following along, parents with children, mentors, with those that are being trained. And so Paul’s somewhat, I would say almost spiritual adoption of Timothy in which he took him under his wing. We know from Act 16 that Timothy was of a Jewish mother, but a Gentile father.
He had not been circumcised, he was not really being raised in Judaism, but he had, and we find out in 2 Timothy, a godly mother and a godly grandmother that poured faith into him. So he was a unique individual with a unique situation, but didn’t have a father of any kind of impact at all, and nothing is said about the man, other than that he was a pagan. And so Paul stepped in and effectively I think adopted Timothy to be his son or child in the faith.
And so it’s a good pattern for us because pastors, those who are further along can find someone not in their biological family, and treat them as if they were their own son. Women in Titus 2 can do it with younger women as well. They can be like a mother to them even though they’re not biologically related. So it’s a beautiful pattern of mentorship and discipleship in a very intimate, strong, committed relationship, very similar to adoption.
Wes
In verses 3 through 11, Paul lays out his warning against false teachers of the law. What is the reason that Paul left Timothy in Ephesus, and what does the word command or charge teach us here about pastoral authority?
Andy
Okay, so let’s get our sense of the physicality and the geography of all this. Macedonia is in Europe. It’s in Greece, north of what we think of Greece, Athens, all that, Corinth, they’re all in the further south of modern Greece. Macedonia is its own country. Now, I’ve been there myself on a mission trip, so it’s in the far north area. Alexander the Great came from Macedonia. And so that is the whole area where Paul was summoned along with Silas originally to come over and help a man from Macedonia, and he went over to Philippi and set up.
So Paul’s saying at that point, perhaps he was going back for another trip. New Testament scholars have it all worked out – I probably should have done it before the podcast and figure out when exactly this would’ve happened. But that’s really what New Testament scholars do very well. At any rate, he’s leaving to go, I think back to Macedonia another time and to continue work there. And he’s leaving Timothy in Ephesus, which is in Asia Minor, a modern day Turkey. So he said, “I left you there so that you might command certain men not to teach false doctrines anymore.”
So this is a very strong leadership role that this young man, Timothy, is given to do. And the reason for it is the absolute vitality. It’s important for the absolutely, I would say, essential, nature of sound doctrine being taught in local churches. And I want you to be there to refute error and to be strong on this matter of the sound doctrine, which we’re going to get into in a moment. And that is a relationship between the law and gospel. “So I want you to stay there in Ephesus and command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer.”
Wes
What was the attraction of myths, endless genealogies, arguments and controversies, and how do these damaging characteristics in the work of these false teachers contrast with God’s true work, which is by faith?
Andy
Well, I get a sense as I read across the New Testament and these words are used. I don’t really know what the myths were. I don’t know how genealogies factored in. Let’s take the genealogies first. Genealogies would’ve been very important to the Jewish people. They would establish their connection to Abraham as the father. They considered themselves God’s chosen people and they were very racially aware. And so in the post exilic situation, we have Ezra and Nehemiah. If you were going to serve as a priest, you had to bring out proof, genealogical proof that you were a descendant from Aaron.
If you were going to serve in the temple, you had to prove that you are a Levite, because these roles were very much in the law of Moses tied to genealogy. They’re tied to your ancestry. However, everything changes with the coming of Christ. Jesus says, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Everyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (paraphrase of Matthew 12:48-50) He really redefines the family without undermining the biological family. He did say in Matthew 15, that anyone who curses his father and mother must be put to death, and you should care for your parents in their old age.
So, he doesn’t undermine the biological family in that sense, but Jesus really does redefine the family because of significantly what he taught to Nicodemus in John 3, “You must be born again.” And if you are born again, as John wrote in John 1, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born again by the Spirit and become children of God.” [paraphrase of John 1:12,13] So if you’re in that sense spiritually born again and a child of God, you are part of God’s family. And so that’s what matters is being a part of the spiritual family, just like I talked a moment ago about Paul’s adopting Timothy to be his son in the faith.
So, these Jewish people are hammering on genealogies in ways that I think would’ve been detrimental to the spread of the gospel among the Gentiles, where it didn’t matter where you are from, you are now part of God’s household. Jews and Gentiles alike are part of one new man, it says in Ephesians, part of the new family of God. So instead, these seem to be Jewish legalists that are also somewhat mystical. I think they’re bringing in myths. They’re bringing in some kind of things we don’t know that much about, but there’s a mysticism and a legalism mixture here that’s poisonous. And so that’s how I understand these Jewish false teachers of the law.
Wes
Paul asserts that some people have wandered away or deviated or strayed from love, from a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith, which is ultimately the aim of all that Paul is writing to them. What do these verses teach us about the value of these things, and the danger of wandering from them?
Andy
Well, I think putting it all together in this chapter, the law doesn’t save. The law cannot save you, and the law cannot produce these things that Paul lists in verse 5. The law does not produce love. It can command love, but it doesn’t make you loving. It cannot make your heart pure. It cannot give you a good conscience or a sincere faith. These things are worked in us by grace, and so law and grace are contrasted here in this sense, and Paul’s going to say, “Look, the law has a good function, and we can talk about that.”
But it doesn’t promote these things. It doesn’t produce these things. So the goal of the gospel, really the goal of sound pastoral ministry, the goal of our command is love. Ultimately, I think that boils it all down. Ultimately, when we’re in heaven, we will be in a world of love in which the two commandments of the law, the two great commandments are perfected in every respect in the people of God. We will love God vertically with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength. We will love one another horizontally, perfectly.
But it wasn’t reading the laws of Moses on a page that produced that. It is the sovereign work of grace through the gospel of Jesus, the blood shed on the cross. Jesus, our hope, Jesus fulfills the law in us, but these false teachers of the law are trying by the old manner of the law to produce something that it never can. So fundamentally what we’re looking for is love, genuine love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, the real deal, not whitewashed tombs, faking it like the Pharisees would do, looking good on the outside, but corrupt on the inside. No, no, no, a genuine work of love for God and love for others. That’s the goal of our ministry.
Wes
At the end of verse 6, Paul asserts that those who have swerved from or wandered away from these things have done so into vain discussion, and then he goes on to characterize them in verse 7. How does Paul characterize the false teachers in these verses?
Andy
Well, he says in verse 7 that they are confidently asserting or affirming things. They’re very bold, they’re domineering, they’re tyrannical. And all you have to do is just look at how they behaved with Jesus when he would heal somebody on the Sabbath, and they would come after him. Remember that woman that was bent over for many years, and Jesus sets her free. She was enslaved by Satan, that resulted in a physical impairment, and he set her free. A daughter of Abraham, he calls her. And they come after him and her.
The man born blind in John 9 ends up being kicked out of the synagogue, because he just told the truth about how he was healed. That’s the viciousness of the Pharisees, these legalists. And I think these individuals that Paul’s addressing here are similar. They make confident assertions about things they don’t understand, and they use them to domineer other people. So they yearn to use the law, but they don’t really understand what the law is for. So these are the false teachers that Paul left Timothy there in Ephesus to refute.
Wes
What does Paul assert about the law in verse 8, and what does it mean that people need to use the law lawfully, as it says in the ESV translation?
Andy- Yeah, so Paul says this in great detail and unfolds it in Romans 6, 7 and 8, but essentially Romans 7, he says, “The law is good. The law is holy and righteous and good.” (paraphrase of Romans 7:12) Jesus was asked, which is the greatest commandment and the law, and I decided it a few moments ago, the first and greatest commandment is this, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” And the second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. So Jesus is saying they sum up everything. Paul says in Romans 13, all of the commands, the horizontal commands are summed up in this one law, “Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor, therefore love is the summation of the perfection of the law.” (paraphrase of Romans 13:9-10) So that is good. How could we look at that and say that that’s not good? And I think in the end, it is the point of religion.
It’s the point of Jesus’s incarnation, death on the cross and resurrection, is to perfect that law in the people of God, that we would in fact love God with every fiber of our being and love each other perfectly. That’s the whole point of everything. So that is good. The existence of the law is good if you know how to use it properly, and that’s where things get difficult, that we would understand the connection between law and gospel and how they work together.
Wes
Andy, what are the purposes of the law as we understand them from scripture? What can the law do, and what is the law not intended to do?
Andy
Well, I think here the law is given, in these verses the law is given for overtly wicked people to restrain them in their wickedness. So if you look at it that way in terms of its civil or societal role, law is essential to restrain evil, to hold evil from running amuck. We could look at it that way. It’s for openly wicked people. Now, soteriologically, that is in the doctrine of salvation, law plays the role of convicting us of sin, showing us what sin is. We would not have known what sin was if the law had not told us, both in sins of omission and co-mission, what we shouldn’t do and what we should do. There’s lots of clarity and definition. So the law defines sin and convicts us of sin. Jesus said it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. “I’ve not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32) The law tells you, “That’s what you are. You are a sinner who needs to repent.”
So that is a proper use of the law before salvation. It brings you to Christ, it brings you to the cross. It brings you crushed to the cross. Now you look at the two great commandments. Can you imagine anyone really understanding, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor every moment of your life the way you love yourself.” And saying, “I’ve done those.” Who could ever say that? Charles Spurgeon said, “That’s like trying to get to the heavens by taking the first step on the Himalayas.” You can’t do it. You haven’t done it. It’s impossible.
Now here’s what the law does. The law says, “Yes, but Christ did do it perfectly.” The law defines Christ’s righteousness. He did those two commandments every day of his life. That is the perfect righteousness of Christ won for us over a lifetime of pleasing his Father. And then Jesus shed blood for our violation of the law. The law demands death if we break it, and we have broken it. So, Jesus paid that death penalty, and then rising again into newness of life, he then offers us, first of all, positional righteousness, as though we had perfectly obeyed those two commandments every day of our lives, which we didn’t, but he offers us his own righteousness as a gift positionally.
“He did those two commandments every day of his life. That is the perfect righteousness of Christ won for us over a lifetime of pleasing his Father.”
Then the Holy Spirit works these two commandments in us day by day: fighting sin, loving God, loving others as best we can, convicting us when we don’t, and that’s sanctification the rest of our lives. Then we’re told at the moment of death, and then again at the moment of the second coming of Christ and the resurrection, all of that is completely perfected in us, so we do love God and love others, and the law defines all of this. But what the law cannot do is work it, it cannot achieve it. That’s something only the grace of God in Christ can do.
Wes
Andy, you alluded to this as we began talking about those purposes of the law. And Paul says, “The law is made not for the righteous, but for lawbreakers and rebels.” What should we make of the extended list of sinners that we find in verses 9 and 10, are there any particularly that stand out?
Andy
Sure, there are many, and I think that the listing of sin is essential. We need to be told. It’s like going to a physician saying, “I don’t feel well.” And he says, “I’m sorry you don’t feel well. Take this generic medicine for people who don’t feel well.” They would never do that, they’re going to ask more questions, “What part of you doesn’t feel well? How long has it been going on?” They’re doing diagnosis. So we need specific words such as covetousness, what is it? I would not have known what coveting was, but then I learned what it was, and I do it.
And then other specific sins. So, you look at this list, and it gets very, very specific. Adulterer, as we learn what adultery is, it is sex outside of marriage between at least one married person and someone who’s not their spouse. That’s adultery. And we understand what that is. We just go through the list. One thing that has come up recently in terms of race relations and the issue of slavery is how wicked it is to be a slave trader. How that’s a fundamentally evil thing to do, to snatch someone from their village or their place and surround them with a net and drag them off into slavery is overt wickedness. And so it’s listed here.
So that was relevant for trying to understand the issue of slavery. Liars, the scripture says, “All men are liars, everybody lies at some point,” et cetera. So he lists. And to be able to look at that and say, “I see some of these sins in me. I don’t see them all, but I know that they’re all listed in one place.” So God sees them in one sense as all the same. You are in some sense the same to me as a slave trader, because you’re a liar. And so I think the list, the specificity is helpful. Now, let me say something about the law was not made for the righteous. If we were righteous, we wouldn’t need the law.
When we will be in heaven, perfectly righteous, we will have superseded the law. We will not need to be commanded to love God and love each other. We will. And so I’ve used this analogy before. I don’t personally need to be commanded to not hijack a plane. It’s not in my nature. But the TSA doesn’t know that. And so I understand I have to be treated like everyone else because they can’t tell the difference.
But I know this, when I enter the new Jerusalem whose gates are standing open constantly because there’s no threats anymore, and only the pure and righteous may enter in there, we don’t need the law anymore. We will have superseded it. But does that mean we won’t love God with all our hearts and mind and strength? No, we just don’t need to be commanded, and there won’t be any penalties. No penalties needed. So that’s what I think it means. The law was not made for the righteous but for wicked people.
Wes
How does Paul summarize all sin at the end of verse 10 and into verse 11?
Andy
Yeah, anything that’s contrary to sound doctrine. So fundamentally, the doctrine goes first. The teaching goes first. The prohibitions go first. God’s word goes first. “You may eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from this tree.” All right? That’s a boundary. All sin then is transgression of the law. So all sin can be defined as a violation of the word of God, an abrogation of a boundary set up by the word of God. It’s contrary to sound doctrine.
Wes
So, Andy, in contrast to this listing of sins that we’ve just been looking at, verse 11 is a glorious exploration of the nature of God and the glory of the gospel. What do we find in verse 11 as we move through this chapter in 1 Timothy?
Andy
Well, you might read it and say, “Okay, yeah, that’s a happy verse and all that.” But I think some meticulous translation of the Greek words behind this really kind of opened this up for me a number of years ago, it was really John Piper in his book, The Pleasures of God, that showed this to me. And you could rephrase verse 11, things that conform to the glorious good news. The gospel is good news of the happy God. Makarios is a sense of deep, rich happiness. God is happy being God. He’s a happy being, and that’s good news because we’re going to go be with him forever.
Imagine if he were like Jack and the Beanstalk giant, fee-fi-fo-fum, and all that, and you’re going up the beanstalk to spend forever with him. I mean, he’s in a bad mood all the time. And sadly, many people think of God as essentially always in a bad mood. God is not always in a bad mood. The only thing that brings God down or makes God sad is his compassion to us wicked sinners that are messing everything up. If God weren’t compassionate, he would just be on his own happy and say it’s your problem, or He just destroy us and get rid of the tumor.
But because God is loving and compassionate, he grieves, he’s sorrowful. He hears Israel in bondage and crying out and wants to help them. He’s compassionate. That’s the only thing that makes God anything other than perfectly happy. But God is essentially a happy being. And the argument is within the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, genuinely love being with each other, genuinely love each other. So, God at Jesus’ baptism says, “This is my son whom I love, with him I am,” what? “Well pleased.”
So here’s the good news of the gospel. Once the sin problem is addressed, and however weighty and massive it is, it’s still just a temporary problem that God’s going to address through Christ. Once that’s addressed, he’s going to draw us, the redeemed, up into his happiness. He’s going to say, “Enter into the joy of your master.” You’re going to find out just how happy a being I am, because you’re going to be just as happy as I am. So that’s 1 Timothy 1:11.
Wes
The rest of the chapter, really, Paul reflects on the application, I think in some sense of this verse as he reflects on God’s grace toward him in Christ, his grace toward him as the chief of all sinners. So as we unpack that, having this verse in the background of all of that is helpful for us. Paul mentions God giving him strength and then speaks of his ministry. As we move into verse 12, how do we see strength in Paul’s ministry, and what does it mean that God counted Paul faithful?
Andy
Well, Paul had to have immense strength in his ministry because he was just beaten up everywhere he went to preach the gospel. He was imprisoned for years. It took strength to not give up or get weary or grow discouraged. In Philippians, he talks about being spared sorrow upon sorrow, and yet Philippians is an epistle of joy. And so, God, you know, and again in that same epistle, he says, “I can do everything through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) There’s a strength to contentment. The contentment he describes in Philippians, “I’ve learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.” (paraphrase of Philippians 4:12)
“Paul had to have immense strength in his ministry because he was just beaten up everywhere he went to preach the gospel. He was imprisoned for years. It took strength to not give up or get weary or grow discouraged.”
So, here’s how I see strength in Paul. He was always joyful, always content, despite overwhelmingly negative circumstances, that takes immense strength. And he never gave up. He is the embodiment of what he commanded the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:58, where he says, “Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” That was Paul. He never stopped, right to the end, right to his final trial as described in 2 Timothy 4, he never stopped preaching the gospel. He never gave up. And that’s immense strength, and it’s motivational for me.
Wes
And what does it mean that God counted Paul faithful?
Andy
Well, he knew Paul. He knew just like he said, “Nathaniel, here’s the true Israel. There’s no guile.” Here’s a man who you give him a mission to do, he’s going to pursue it. He was doing that as a Pharisee. And this is interesting, the mystery of conversion doesn’t change every aspect of somebody’s wiring and personality, it just uses it for the glory of God.
Paul was a determined, passionate pursuer of his own glory in Pharisaism, and the glory of Judaism, and willing to go to Damascus and hunt down Christians. All right. Well, God just took all that wiring and used it for Christ and for the glory of God, and for pursuing lost people, and all that. So he knew Paul would be faithful because he made him that way. From birth he was wired to be this kind of a man. He counted him faithful. He would do what he had promised to do.
Wes
In verse 13, how does Paul describe his life before his conversion, and what is the relationship between ignorance and sin?
Andy
Well, he says, “I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man,” in my translation. Blasphemer, he says in another place. “I try to force Christians to blaspheme.” This is focused on Jesus. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, all manner are of sin and blasphemy against the Son of man will be forgiven.” Jesus is the most blasphemed person that there’s ever been, and he’s blasphemed because he’s God. You can only blaspheme God. The blaspheme is to speak words of disrespect or dishonor to God. And Paul did that with Jesus. You know, he says in Corinthians, “No one can say Jesus is cursed speaking by the Spirit.”
I bet he said things like that in his unconverted state. “I wish that cursed man had never lived,” this kind of thing, speaking harsh words about Jesus. But he did it in ignorance. He didn’t really understand what he was talking about, and he got an education on the road to Damascus, like, “Do you know who you’re dealing with? Do you know who I am?” “No, I didn’t know who you are. You are the Lord, glorious, resurrected Lord.” So, he understood, and he said, “Wait a minute now, I’ve been blaspheming you.” “Yes.” “So I was a blasphemer.”
He didn’t blaspheme the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but God didn’t take it kindly because he really did love his son, and he’s like, “You were blaspheming.” So he called himself a blasphemer. He certainly was a persecutor and a violent man. He was dragging off men and women and throwing them in prison. Women, dragging women. I mean, think of what that day was like. You’re all sweaty after throwing this woman in jail and clanging the doors behind her, and it’s like, “Ah, that’s a good day’s work right there.” It’s like, “No, you’re an evil man. You’re a persecutor. You’re violent.”
He might’ve even struck women or dragged off children. I mean, it’s ugly. It’s an ugly thing. But he was doing it all he thought in service to God. But he says, “That’s what I was, I was a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent man. Despite all of this, however, I was shown mercy,” he says, “Because I acted in ignorance.” (paraphrase of 1 Timothy 1:13) And the question you asked is weighty. What is the difference between ignorance, and was it unbelief? Well, he says he acted in ignorance and unbelief. I think fundamentally, this is where I think the blasphemy against the Spirit comes.
You have all the evidence you need. It’s all spread out in front of you. And despite that, you’re ascribing the miracles of Jesus to Satan. There’s nothing more that can be done. You have all the information. Paul didn’t have all the information. There were significant facts that he lacked. That’s what ignorance is. “I acted in ignorance. I didn’t know what I was doing.” But to some degree, the entire human race is acting in ignorance. So we don’t want to excuse sin. Paul’s not trying to excuse his sin here. He’s saying, “I just didn’t know who Jesus was.”
Wes
It’s powerful as we think about our own call to share the gospel, that there’s important information that people need to know about the person and work of Christ, that we have a responsibility to share with them.
Andy
Amen.
Wes
How does Paul celebrate the grace of God in his life, in verse 14?
Andy
“It was poured out on me abundantly, a river of grace.” And it never stops. It’s not like, “There, we’re done needing grace.” It’s like, I picture it standing under a shower, a river of grace coming, and grace specifically, I think, I always think of it as tied to sin. I don’t feel the holy angels ever received grace or needed it, but we need grace because we’re sinners. So I think of this shower of grace that says we’re standing in grace in Romans 5:2. I think of evil stuff coming out of our spiritual pores as we live, and they need to be washed away. Like how often? All the time.
We speak in pride, we speak in selfishness, we speak for wrong things every day. We think wrong things. And it’s just sin is coming out of it, it’s oozing out, and it gets washed away. Washed away by the blood of Christ, by the determination of God to cleanse us and cleanse us. I mean, honestly, Wes, it says if we confess our sins, 1 John 1:9, “He’s faithful and just and will forgive us our sins,” and what? “Purify us from all unrighteousness.” Well, here’s the thing, how many sins that we commit do we actually confess? What percentage?
Wes
Oh, man, it’s got to be small.
Andy
It’s small. And how much are we cleansed from? All of them. And so, it’s not that we shouldn’t confess, and we shouldn’t do work like, “Search me, oh God, and show me my faults.” We should do that. But just understand, you don’t see them all, and yet God cleanses you. The grace of God was poured out on me abundantly.
Wes
Verse 15 is one of the great statements of the gospel and a tremendous comfort to Christians with guilty consciences as well as to non-Christians under the conviction of the law. What more do we learn in verse 15 about God’s grace in Christ?
Andy
Wes, I would say I’ve used this one verse literally more times I can count over 25 years in ministry here, in counseling situations in which someone is crushed because of habitual sin, some addiction, maybe to pornography or some other thing, and they just can’t seem to get on top of it. The very thing they hate, they do. And they feel it’s certain they must not be a Christian at this point. They’ve sinned their way out, and they’re grieved over it, they’re broken over it, but they don’t know what to do.
I’ve gone to this verse again and again. “Now here’s a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance,” by you. By you. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst.” Now the great mystery to me here is the present tense, am, “Of whom I am the worst.” He says, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor, and a violent man. I am now the greatest sinner on earth.” Head scratcher. How is Paul the Apostle, the writer of the book of Romans, the one who goes from place to place preaching the gospel at great cost, how could he possibly consider himself presently the greatest sinner on earth?
Now, one of it could be that’s just his way of talking about his history from which he was saved, I guess. I think that just honoring the present tense, the way I understand it is, Paul is more potently aware, vividly aware of his own sin more than anybody else’s because he knows his heart. And he also says, “to him who much has been given much is required.” He was given a vision of the resurrected Christ, a prophetic gift. He was given the book of Romans before he ever wrote it, in his mind understanding it. He was given all that.
And still, as he says in Romans 7, the very thing, “I hate, I do, and the thing I want to do, I don’t do, I must be the greatest sinner, because I’ve been given the greatest privileges and I still live like this.” Anyway, if Paul can say that about himself, Wes, how much more could you and I say that about ourselves? “I am right now the greatest sinner I know.” And I think that’s humble. But he says, “Look, Christ came to save me, and he’s going to save me.”
Wes
Yeah, that reminder of our constant and ongoing need of grace is exemplified in Paul’s own writing about his own life and ministry. How is Paul an amazing display of the patience of Christ, and for whom does Paul say the example was given in verse 16?
Andy
First of all, let me step back and look at the whole chapter right now and say, what’s going on here is a clear contrast between law and gospel, or law and grace. The experts in the law, the Jewish legalists that Paul sent Timothy to refute, think you can be saved by law. You can’t. Let me show you how you can be saved. Look at me. I am the example of what the gospel does. Law didn’t save me. I was trying to live out the law. I thought if you’d asked me, I was perfectly living out the law. It didn’t save me, it made me self-righteous.
So this is a contrast. This is an example of what the grace of God in Christ does. He’s using himself as an example, and he is the timeless example for 20 centuries of the church history. If God can save Saul of Tarsus, he can save anyone. That’s the argument here. Do you see that? It’s like, “Look, I am an example of God’s unlimited patience.”
I mean, he could have struck me down. He could’ve struck me dead on the road to Damascus, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Go to hell. Depart from me, you who are cursed.” He could have done that right there and then, but he didn’t. He said, “I’m going to use you. I’m going to forgive you, and I’m going to use you.” Now that’s unlimited patience and grace.
Wes
How does the doxology of verse 17 fit into the chapter? And what does this doxology teach us about God?
Andy
Okay, so I know a little church history on this. Jonathan Edwards would claim this as his converting verse. A lot of people would choose some verse in Romans, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ.” Romans 6:23 probably saved far more people than 1 Timothy 1:17. But Jonathan Edwards grew up in a New England, Puritan home, saturated in deep theology from childhood. He was himself a spiritual prodigy, still not and he believed unconverted.
Still not, sorry, as he believed, converted, until one day as a young teen he read this, “Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, to the only God be honor and glory forever and ever.” 1 Timothy1:17 What that did is, the words shown, the glory of a being that he wanted to know, but he knew he didn’t know. He was on the outside, and he wanted in. And so this is a stunning verse, a doxology verse.
He’s a king. He’s eternal. He’s immortal. He’s invisible. To him, be honor and glory. “I want to live,” Jonathan Edwards thought, “I want to live for the honor and glory of such a being. I want to submit to his kingly reign in my life. I want him.” It was his converting verse. So what it does for me is it says, “What kind of being must there be waiting for us to see fully?” Now we just see through a glass darkly, then face-to-face. What will that be like?
Wes
And all of this is drawn up into this final exhortation and warning that Paul gives to Timothy in verses 18 through 20. How does Paul conclude this chapter in this charge? And what final thoughts do you have on this passage?
Andy
Well, he’s talking about some prophecies that were made about Timothy’s ministry. We find out later in chapter 4, when the elders laid their hands on him. He says, “Live up to them. Live up to what you are exhorted to do. Be faithful, Timothy, in your ministry.” And if you follow them, you’re going to fight the good fight of the faith. You’re going to fight for doctrine. You’re going to fight for holiness, and you’re going to hold on to a sound doctrinal base, and to a living faith by resisting sin, by walking holy. All of that.
So it’s doctrine, it’s holiness. “By doing this, Timothy, you will finish your race,” as Paul himself said he would finish his in 2 Timothy, “I fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith.” And he says, “Look, other people have rejected these, and they have made,” he calls it, “a shipwreck of their faith.” And so it’s a warning to all of us. So we all know people that walked it seems, with Christ for a while and then turned their back on Him. And those people are warnings.
He names names here. He names Hymenaeus and Alexander, who he says, “I’ve handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.” That’s church discipline language, because they have made a shipwreck of their faith. They were excommunicated. And he says, “Look at them, be fearful. And you, Timothy, you finish your race.” Oh, what a magnificent chapter. I’m looking forward to the rest of the study. It’s been pretty awesome. Fundamentally, this is about the limitations of the law, the beauty of the law, but the limitations of the law, but the supreme glory of God in the gospel, and Paul as the quintessential example of a sinner saved by grace.
Wes
This has been episode 1 in our 1 Timothy Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 2, entitled, Prayer, Salvation, and Women, where we’ll discuss 1 Timothy 2:1-15. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys Podcast, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, Wes, first I want to just talk about the whole book, and the whole book is given, 1 Timothy is given, Paul says at the end of chapter 3, “So that people know how they ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” (paraphrase of 1 Timothy 3:15) Keeping it simple. Paul wrote it to shape up and to affect church life, involvement in specifically local church life. It’s part of a body of epistles that Paul wrote, called the Pastoral Epistles, which are helpful to pastors to help them to know how they can shepherd local churches.
And it buttresses the conviction I have that there is no more powerful weapon in the hand of God for the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ than a healthy local church. And yet, churches are consistently attacked by false doctrine. They’re attacked by sin and other issues, and every generation, and the Lord and his kindness has given us these epistles to help address this kind of timeless challenges Satan brings in every generation.
And so we’re going to walk through this beautiful pastoral epistle. This particular first chapter, he addresses false doctrine, false teachers that are coming in in the name of the law, the Jewish law, and so therefore he’s addressing the proper use of the law and the power of the gospel. So there’s just some incredible verses in here, really memorable verses that are going to shine, and I’m looking forward to talking about them.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read 1 Timothy 1:1-20.
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, our hope. To Timothy, my true child in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
Andy, what is the significance of the word command in verse 1, and how is Christ Jesus our hope?
Andy
Paul calls himself an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God, our Savior. If you read the account of Paul’s conversion (three of them, as a matter of fact, in the book of Acts), the glorious, resurrected Jesus isn’t giving Saul of Tarsus any choice. “Get up and go into the city, and you’ll be told what you must do.” (paraphrase of Acts 9:6) Well, there’s a command. And what must he do? He must be the apostle to the Gentiles. He is God’s chosen instrument.
God told Jesus, told Ananias who went to baptize him, “Go, this man is my chosen instrument, to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I’ll show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (paraphrase of Acts 9:15-16) Paul didn’t have an option here. He was commanded by God to be an apostle. But here’s the thing, as John wrote in his epistle, “God’s commands are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)
Rather Paul considers it a lavish grace to him to have this ministry. It is by the grace of God that he was called out of darkness into light, and then into extraordinary service that God counted him faithful to be an apostle. So all of this was by the command of God, but I think we Christians should always see God’s commands as promises as well, something he’s going to fulfill by the Spirit. But I love that word command.
Wes
And how is Christ Jesus our hope?
Andy
Oh, hope is such a beautiful, radiant word. I think hope is a feeling, a sense in the heart, that the future is bright, based on the promises of God. Jesus is the embodiment of our hope. It is because Christ died for our sins that we know we will not be condemned to hell. It is because Christ rose from the dead, that we know that we will live forever with God. Christ is our living hope. If he can be killed, our hope can be killed, but he can’t be killed. So he is the embodiment, the incarnation indeed of our hope. Jesus is all of our hope wrapped up in one place. So Jesus is our hope.
Wes
How is Paul’s relationship with Timothy a helpful pattern for discipleship in the church?
Andy
Yeah, it’s very, very important that we understand that those who are further along in age and in experience are required to mentor and train and to deliver the truth of the gospel and to exemplify it for those that are following along, parents with children, mentors, with those that are being trained. And so Paul’s somewhat, I would say almost spiritual adoption of Timothy in which he took him under his wing. We know from Act 16 that Timothy was of a Jewish mother, but a Gentile father.
He had not been circumcised, he was not really being raised in Judaism, but he had, and we find out in 2 Timothy, a godly mother and a godly grandmother that poured faith into him. So he was a unique individual with a unique situation, but didn’t have a father of any kind of impact at all, and nothing is said about the man, other than that he was a pagan. And so Paul stepped in and effectively I think adopted Timothy to be his son or child in the faith.
And so it’s a good pattern for us because pastors, those who are further along can find someone not in their biological family, and treat them as if they were their own son. Women in Titus 2 can do it with younger women as well. They can be like a mother to them even though they’re not biologically related. So it’s a beautiful pattern of mentorship and discipleship in a very intimate, strong, committed relationship, very similar to adoption.
Wes
In verses 3 through 11, Paul lays out his warning against false teachers of the law. What is the reason that Paul left Timothy in Ephesus, and what does the word command or charge teach us here about pastoral authority?
Andy
Okay, so let’s get our sense of the physicality and the geography of all this. Macedonia is in Europe. It’s in Greece, north of what we think of Greece, Athens, all that, Corinth, they’re all in the further south of modern Greece. Macedonia is its own country. Now, I’ve been there myself on a mission trip, so it’s in the far north area. Alexander the Great came from Macedonia. And so that is the whole area where Paul was summoned along with Silas originally to come over and help a man from Macedonia, and he went over to Philippi and set up.
So Paul’s saying at that point, perhaps he was going back for another trip. New Testament scholars have it all worked out – I probably should have done it before the podcast and figure out when exactly this would’ve happened. But that’s really what New Testament scholars do very well. At any rate, he’s leaving to go, I think back to Macedonia another time and to continue work there. And he’s leaving Timothy in Ephesus, which is in Asia Minor, a modern day Turkey. So he said, “I left you there so that you might command certain men not to teach false doctrines anymore.”
So this is a very strong leadership role that this young man, Timothy, is given to do. And the reason for it is the absolute vitality. It’s important for the absolutely, I would say, essential, nature of sound doctrine being taught in local churches. And I want you to be there to refute error and to be strong on this matter of the sound doctrine, which we’re going to get into in a moment. And that is a relationship between the law and gospel. “So I want you to stay there in Ephesus and command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer.”
Wes
What was the attraction of myths, endless genealogies, arguments and controversies, and how do these damaging characteristics in the work of these false teachers contrast with God’s true work, which is by faith?
Andy
Well, I get a sense as I read across the New Testament and these words are used. I don’t really know what the myths were. I don’t know how genealogies factored in. Let’s take the genealogies first. Genealogies would’ve been very important to the Jewish people. They would establish their connection to Abraham as the father. They considered themselves God’s chosen people and they were very racially aware. And so in the post exilic situation, we have Ezra and Nehemiah. If you were going to serve as a priest, you had to bring out proof, genealogical proof that you were a descendant from Aaron.
If you were going to serve in the temple, you had to prove that you are a Levite, because these roles were very much in the law of Moses tied to genealogy. They’re tied to your ancestry. However, everything changes with the coming of Christ. Jesus says, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Everyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (paraphrase of Matthew 12:48-50) He really redefines the family without undermining the biological family. He did say in Matthew 15, that anyone who curses his father and mother must be put to death, and you should care for your parents in their old age.
So, he doesn’t undermine the biological family in that sense, but Jesus really does redefine the family because of significantly what he taught to Nicodemus in John 3, “You must be born again.” And if you are born again, as John wrote in John 1, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born again by the Spirit and become children of God.” [paraphrase of John 1:12,13] So if you’re in that sense spiritually born again and a child of God, you are part of God’s family. And so that’s what matters is being a part of the spiritual family, just like I talked a moment ago about Paul’s adopting Timothy to be his son in the faith.
So, these Jewish people are hammering on genealogies in ways that I think would’ve been detrimental to the spread of the gospel among the Gentiles, where it didn’t matter where you are from, you are now part of God’s household. Jews and Gentiles alike are part of one new man, it says in Ephesians, part of the new family of God. So instead, these seem to be Jewish legalists that are also somewhat mystical. I think they’re bringing in myths. They’re bringing in some kind of things we don’t know that much about, but there’s a mysticism and a legalism mixture here that’s poisonous. And so that’s how I understand these Jewish false teachers of the law.
Wes
Paul asserts that some people have wandered away or deviated or strayed from love, from a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith, which is ultimately the aim of all that Paul is writing to them. What do these verses teach us about the value of these things, and the danger of wandering from them?
Andy
Well, I think putting it all together in this chapter, the law doesn’t save. The law cannot save you, and the law cannot produce these things that Paul lists in verse 5. The law does not produce love. It can command love, but it doesn’t make you loving. It cannot make your heart pure. It cannot give you a good conscience or a sincere faith. These things are worked in us by grace, and so law and grace are contrasted here in this sense, and Paul’s going to say, “Look, the law has a good function, and we can talk about that.”
But it doesn’t promote these things. It doesn’t produce these things. So the goal of the gospel, really the goal of sound pastoral ministry, the goal of our command is love. Ultimately, I think that boils it all down. Ultimately, when we’re in heaven, we will be in a world of love in which the two commandments of the law, the two great commandments are perfected in every respect in the people of God. We will love God vertically with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength. We will love one another horizontally, perfectly.
But it wasn’t reading the laws of Moses on a page that produced that. It is the sovereign work of grace through the gospel of Jesus, the blood shed on the cross. Jesus, our hope, Jesus fulfills the law in us, but these false teachers of the law are trying by the old manner of the law to produce something that it never can. So fundamentally what we’re looking for is love, genuine love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, the real deal, not whitewashed tombs, faking it like the Pharisees would do, looking good on the outside, but corrupt on the inside. No, no, no, a genuine work of love for God and love for others. That’s the goal of our ministry.
Wes
At the end of verse 6, Paul asserts that those who have swerved from or wandered away from these things have done so into vain discussion, and then he goes on to characterize them in verse 7. How does Paul characterize the false teachers in these verses?
Andy
Well, he says in verse 7 that they are confidently asserting or affirming things. They’re very bold, they’re domineering, they’re tyrannical. And all you have to do is just look at how they behaved with Jesus when he would heal somebody on the Sabbath, and they would come after him. Remember that woman that was bent over for many years, and Jesus sets her free. She was enslaved by Satan, that resulted in a physical impairment, and he set her free. A daughter of Abraham, he calls her. And they come after him and her.
The man born blind in John 9 ends up being kicked out of the synagogue, because he just told the truth about how he was healed. That’s the viciousness of the Pharisees, these legalists. And I think these individuals that Paul’s addressing here are similar. They make confident assertions about things they don’t understand, and they use them to domineer other people. So they yearn to use the law, but they don’t really understand what the law is for. So these are the false teachers that Paul left Timothy there in Ephesus to refute.
Wes
What does Paul assert about the law in verse 8, and what does it mean that people need to use the law lawfully, as it says in the ESV translation?
Andy- Yeah, so Paul says this in great detail and unfolds it in Romans 6, 7 and 8, but essentially Romans 7, he says, “The law is good. The law is holy and righteous and good.” (paraphrase of Romans 7:12) Jesus was asked, which is the greatest commandment and the law, and I decided it a few moments ago, the first and greatest commandment is this, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” And the second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. So Jesus is saying they sum up everything. Paul says in Romans 13, all of the commands, the horizontal commands are summed up in this one law, “Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor, therefore love is the summation of the perfection of the law.” (paraphrase of Romans 13:9-10) So that is good. How could we look at that and say that that’s not good? And I think in the end, it is the point of religion.
It’s the point of Jesus’s incarnation, death on the cross and resurrection, is to perfect that law in the people of God, that we would in fact love God with every fiber of our being and love each other perfectly. That’s the whole point of everything. So that is good. The existence of the law is good if you know how to use it properly, and that’s where things get difficult, that we would understand the connection between law and gospel and how they work together.
Wes
Andy, what are the purposes of the law as we understand them from scripture? What can the law do, and what is the law not intended to do?
Andy
Well, I think here the law is given, in these verses the law is given for overtly wicked people to restrain them in their wickedness. So if you look at it that way in terms of its civil or societal role, law is essential to restrain evil, to hold evil from running amuck. We could look at it that way. It’s for openly wicked people. Now, soteriologically, that is in the doctrine of salvation, law plays the role of convicting us of sin, showing us what sin is. We would not have known what sin was if the law had not told us, both in sins of omission and co-mission, what we shouldn’t do and what we should do. There’s lots of clarity and definition. So the law defines sin and convicts us of sin. Jesus said it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. “I’ve not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32) The law tells you, “That’s what you are. You are a sinner who needs to repent.”
So that is a proper use of the law before salvation. It brings you to Christ, it brings you to the cross. It brings you crushed to the cross. Now you look at the two great commandments. Can you imagine anyone really understanding, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor every moment of your life the way you love yourself.” And saying, “I’ve done those.” Who could ever say that? Charles Spurgeon said, “That’s like trying to get to the heavens by taking the first step on the Himalayas.” You can’t do it. You haven’t done it. It’s impossible.
Now here’s what the law does. The law says, “Yes, but Christ did do it perfectly.” The law defines Christ’s righteousness. He did those two commandments every day of his life. That is the perfect righteousness of Christ won for us over a lifetime of pleasing his Father. And then Jesus shed blood for our violation of the law. The law demands death if we break it, and we have broken it. So, Jesus paid that death penalty, and then rising again into newness of life, he then offers us, first of all, positional righteousness, as though we had perfectly obeyed those two commandments every day of our lives, which we didn’t, but he offers us his own righteousness as a gift positionally.
“He did those two commandments every day of his life. That is the perfect righteousness of Christ won for us over a lifetime of pleasing his Father.”
Then the Holy Spirit works these two commandments in us day by day: fighting sin, loving God, loving others as best we can, convicting us when we don’t, and that’s sanctification the rest of our lives. Then we’re told at the moment of death, and then again at the moment of the second coming of Christ and the resurrection, all of that is completely perfected in us, so we do love God and love others, and the law defines all of this. But what the law cannot do is work it, it cannot achieve it. That’s something only the grace of God in Christ can do.
Wes
Andy, you alluded to this as we began talking about those purposes of the law. And Paul says, “The law is made not for the righteous, but for lawbreakers and rebels.” What should we make of the extended list of sinners that we find in verses 9 and 10, are there any particularly that stand out?
Andy
Sure, there are many, and I think that the listing of sin is essential. We need to be told. It’s like going to a physician saying, “I don’t feel well.” And he says, “I’m sorry you don’t feel well. Take this generic medicine for people who don’t feel well.” They would never do that, they’re going to ask more questions, “What part of you doesn’t feel well? How long has it been going on?” They’re doing diagnosis. So we need specific words such as covetousness, what is it? I would not have known what coveting was, but then I learned what it was, and I do it.
And then other specific sins. So, you look at this list, and it gets very, very specific. Adulterer, as we learn what adultery is, it is sex outside of marriage between at least one married person and someone who’s not their spouse. That’s adultery. And we understand what that is. We just go through the list. One thing that has come up recently in terms of race relations and the issue of slavery is how wicked it is to be a slave trader. How that’s a fundamentally evil thing to do, to snatch someone from their village or their place and surround them with a net and drag them off into slavery is overt wickedness. And so it’s listed here.
So that was relevant for trying to understand the issue of slavery. Liars, the scripture says, “All men are liars, everybody lies at some point,” et cetera. So he lists. And to be able to look at that and say, “I see some of these sins in me. I don’t see them all, but I know that they’re all listed in one place.” So God sees them in one sense as all the same. You are in some sense the same to me as a slave trader, because you’re a liar. And so I think the list, the specificity is helpful. Now, let me say something about the law was not made for the righteous. If we were righteous, we wouldn’t need the law.
When we will be in heaven, perfectly righteous, we will have superseded the law. We will not need to be commanded to love God and love each other. We will. And so I’ve used this analogy before. I don’t personally need to be commanded to not hijack a plane. It’s not in my nature. But the TSA doesn’t know that. And so I understand I have to be treated like everyone else because they can’t tell the difference.
But I know this, when I enter the new Jerusalem whose gates are standing open constantly because there’s no threats anymore, and only the pure and righteous may enter in there, we don’t need the law anymore. We will have superseded it. But does that mean we won’t love God with all our hearts and mind and strength? No, we just don’t need to be commanded, and there won’t be any penalties. No penalties needed. So that’s what I think it means. The law was not made for the righteous but for wicked people.
Wes
How does Paul summarize all sin at the end of verse 10 and into verse 11?
Andy
Yeah, anything that’s contrary to sound doctrine. So fundamentally, the doctrine goes first. The teaching goes first. The prohibitions go first. God’s word goes first. “You may eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from this tree.” All right? That’s a boundary. All sin then is transgression of the law. So all sin can be defined as a violation of the word of God, an abrogation of a boundary set up by the word of God. It’s contrary to sound doctrine.
Wes
So, Andy, in contrast to this listing of sins that we’ve just been looking at, verse 11 is a glorious exploration of the nature of God and the glory of the gospel. What do we find in verse 11 as we move through this chapter in 1 Timothy?
Andy
Well, you might read it and say, “Okay, yeah, that’s a happy verse and all that.” But I think some meticulous translation of the Greek words behind this really kind of opened this up for me a number of years ago, it was really John Piper in his book, The Pleasures of God, that showed this to me. And you could rephrase verse 11, things that conform to the glorious good news. The gospel is good news of the happy God. Makarios is a sense of deep, rich happiness. God is happy being God. He’s a happy being, and that’s good news because we’re going to go be with him forever.
Imagine if he were like Jack and the Beanstalk giant, fee-fi-fo-fum, and all that, and you’re going up the beanstalk to spend forever with him. I mean, he’s in a bad mood all the time. And sadly, many people think of God as essentially always in a bad mood. God is not always in a bad mood. The only thing that brings God down or makes God sad is his compassion to us wicked sinners that are messing everything up. If God weren’t compassionate, he would just be on his own happy and say it’s your problem, or He just destroy us and get rid of the tumor.
But because God is loving and compassionate, he grieves, he’s sorrowful. He hears Israel in bondage and crying out and wants to help them. He’s compassionate. That’s the only thing that makes God anything other than perfectly happy. But God is essentially a happy being. And the argument is within the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, genuinely love being with each other, genuinely love each other. So, God at Jesus’ baptism says, “This is my son whom I love, with him I am,” what? “Well pleased.”
So here’s the good news of the gospel. Once the sin problem is addressed, and however weighty and massive it is, it’s still just a temporary problem that God’s going to address through Christ. Once that’s addressed, he’s going to draw us, the redeemed, up into his happiness. He’s going to say, “Enter into the joy of your master.” You’re going to find out just how happy a being I am, because you’re going to be just as happy as I am. So that’s 1 Timothy 1:11.
Wes
The rest of the chapter, really, Paul reflects on the application, I think in some sense of this verse as he reflects on God’s grace toward him in Christ, his grace toward him as the chief of all sinners. So as we unpack that, having this verse in the background of all of that is helpful for us. Paul mentions God giving him strength and then speaks of his ministry. As we move into verse 12, how do we see strength in Paul’s ministry, and what does it mean that God counted Paul faithful?
Andy
Well, Paul had to have immense strength in his ministry because he was just beaten up everywhere he went to preach the gospel. He was imprisoned for years. It took strength to not give up or get weary or grow discouraged. In Philippians, he talks about being spared sorrow upon sorrow, and yet Philippians is an epistle of joy. And so, God, you know, and again in that same epistle, he says, “I can do everything through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) There’s a strength to contentment. The contentment he describes in Philippians, “I’ve learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.” (paraphrase of Philippians 4:12)
“Paul had to have immense strength in his ministry because he was just beaten up everywhere he went to preach the gospel. He was imprisoned for years. It took strength to not give up or get weary or grow discouraged.”
So, here’s how I see strength in Paul. He was always joyful, always content, despite overwhelmingly negative circumstances, that takes immense strength. And he never gave up. He is the embodiment of what he commanded the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:58, where he says, “Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” That was Paul. He never stopped, right to the end, right to his final trial as described in 2 Timothy 4, he never stopped preaching the gospel. He never gave up. And that’s immense strength, and it’s motivational for me.
Wes
And what does it mean that God counted Paul faithful?
Andy
Well, he knew Paul. He knew just like he said, “Nathaniel, here’s the true Israel. There’s no guile.” Here’s a man who you give him a mission to do, he’s going to pursue it. He was doing that as a Pharisee. And this is interesting, the mystery of conversion doesn’t change every aspect of somebody’s wiring and personality, it just uses it for the glory of God.
Paul was a determined, passionate pursuer of his own glory in Pharisaism, and the glory of Judaism, and willing to go to Damascus and hunt down Christians. All right. Well, God just took all that wiring and used it for Christ and for the glory of God, and for pursuing lost people, and all that. So he knew Paul would be faithful because he made him that way. From birth he was wired to be this kind of a man. He counted him faithful. He would do what he had promised to do.
Wes
In verse 13, how does Paul describe his life before his conversion, and what is the relationship between ignorance and sin?
Andy
Well, he says, “I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man,” in my translation. Blasphemer, he says in another place. “I try to force Christians to blaspheme.” This is focused on Jesus. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, all manner are of sin and blasphemy against the Son of man will be forgiven.” Jesus is the most blasphemed person that there’s ever been, and he’s blasphemed because he’s God. You can only blaspheme God. The blaspheme is to speak words of disrespect or dishonor to God. And Paul did that with Jesus. You know, he says in Corinthians, “No one can say Jesus is cursed speaking by the Spirit.”
I bet he said things like that in his unconverted state. “I wish that cursed man had never lived,” this kind of thing, speaking harsh words about Jesus. But he did it in ignorance. He didn’t really understand what he was talking about, and he got an education on the road to Damascus, like, “Do you know who you’re dealing with? Do you know who I am?” “No, I didn’t know who you are. You are the Lord, glorious, resurrected Lord.” So, he understood, and he said, “Wait a minute now, I’ve been blaspheming you.” “Yes.” “So I was a blasphemer.”
He didn’t blaspheme the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but God didn’t take it kindly because he really did love his son, and he’s like, “You were blaspheming.” So he called himself a blasphemer. He certainly was a persecutor and a violent man. He was dragging off men and women and throwing them in prison. Women, dragging women. I mean, think of what that day was like. You’re all sweaty after throwing this woman in jail and clanging the doors behind her, and it’s like, “Ah, that’s a good day’s work right there.” It’s like, “No, you’re an evil man. You’re a persecutor. You’re violent.”
He might’ve even struck women or dragged off children. I mean, it’s ugly. It’s an ugly thing. But he was doing it all he thought in service to God. But he says, “That’s what I was, I was a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent man. Despite all of this, however, I was shown mercy,” he says, “Because I acted in ignorance.” (paraphrase of 1 Timothy 1:13) And the question you asked is weighty. What is the difference between ignorance, and was it unbelief? Well, he says he acted in ignorance and unbelief. I think fundamentally, this is where I think the blasphemy against the Spirit comes.
You have all the evidence you need. It’s all spread out in front of you. And despite that, you’re ascribing the miracles of Jesus to Satan. There’s nothing more that can be done. You have all the information. Paul didn’t have all the information. There were significant facts that he lacked. That’s what ignorance is. “I acted in ignorance. I didn’t know what I was doing.” But to some degree, the entire human race is acting in ignorance. So we don’t want to excuse sin. Paul’s not trying to excuse his sin here. He’s saying, “I just didn’t know who Jesus was.”
Wes
It’s powerful as we think about our own call to share the gospel, that there’s important information that people need to know about the person and work of Christ, that we have a responsibility to share with them.
Andy
Amen.
Wes
How does Paul celebrate the grace of God in his life, in verse 14?
Andy
“It was poured out on me abundantly, a river of grace.” And it never stops. It’s not like, “There, we’re done needing grace.” It’s like, I picture it standing under a shower, a river of grace coming, and grace specifically, I think, I always think of it as tied to sin. I don’t feel the holy angels ever received grace or needed it, but we need grace because we’re sinners. So I think of this shower of grace that says we’re standing in grace in Romans 5:2. I think of evil stuff coming out of our spiritual pores as we live, and they need to be washed away. Like how often? All the time.
We speak in pride, we speak in selfishness, we speak for wrong things every day. We think wrong things. And it’s just sin is coming out of it, it’s oozing out, and it gets washed away. Washed away by the blood of Christ, by the determination of God to cleanse us and cleanse us. I mean, honestly, Wes, it says if we confess our sins, 1 John 1:9, “He’s faithful and just and will forgive us our sins,” and what? “Purify us from all unrighteousness.” Well, here’s the thing, how many sins that we commit do we actually confess? What percentage?
Wes
Oh, man, it’s got to be small.
Andy
It’s small. And how much are we cleansed from? All of them. And so, it’s not that we shouldn’t confess, and we shouldn’t do work like, “Search me, oh God, and show me my faults.” We should do that. But just understand, you don’t see them all, and yet God cleanses you. The grace of God was poured out on me abundantly.
Wes
Verse 15 is one of the great statements of the gospel and a tremendous comfort to Christians with guilty consciences as well as to non-Christians under the conviction of the law. What more do we learn in verse 15 about God’s grace in Christ?
Andy
Wes, I would say I’ve used this one verse literally more times I can count over 25 years in ministry here, in counseling situations in which someone is crushed because of habitual sin, some addiction, maybe to pornography or some other thing, and they just can’t seem to get on top of it. The very thing they hate, they do. And they feel it’s certain they must not be a Christian at this point. They’ve sinned their way out, and they’re grieved over it, they’re broken over it, but they don’t know what to do.
I’ve gone to this verse again and again. “Now here’s a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance,” by you. By you. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst.” Now the great mystery to me here is the present tense, am, “Of whom I am the worst.” He says, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor, and a violent man. I am now the greatest sinner on earth.” Head scratcher. How is Paul the Apostle, the writer of the book of Romans, the one who goes from place to place preaching the gospel at great cost, how could he possibly consider himself presently the greatest sinner on earth?
Now, one of it could be that’s just his way of talking about his history from which he was saved, I guess. I think that just honoring the present tense, the way I understand it is, Paul is more potently aware, vividly aware of his own sin more than anybody else’s because he knows his heart. And he also says, “to him who much has been given much is required.” He was given a vision of the resurrected Christ, a prophetic gift. He was given the book of Romans before he ever wrote it, in his mind understanding it. He was given all that.
And still, as he says in Romans 7, the very thing, “I hate, I do, and the thing I want to do, I don’t do, I must be the greatest sinner, because I’ve been given the greatest privileges and I still live like this.” Anyway, if Paul can say that about himself, Wes, how much more could you and I say that about ourselves? “I am right now the greatest sinner I know.” And I think that’s humble. But he says, “Look, Christ came to save me, and he’s going to save me.”
Wes
Yeah, that reminder of our constant and ongoing need of grace is exemplified in Paul’s own writing about his own life and ministry. How is Paul an amazing display of the patience of Christ, and for whom does Paul say the example was given in verse 16?
Andy
First of all, let me step back and look at the whole chapter right now and say, what’s going on here is a clear contrast between law and gospel, or law and grace. The experts in the law, the Jewish legalists that Paul sent Timothy to refute, think you can be saved by law. You can’t. Let me show you how you can be saved. Look at me. I am the example of what the gospel does. Law didn’t save me. I was trying to live out the law. I thought if you’d asked me, I was perfectly living out the law. It didn’t save me, it made me self-righteous.
So this is a contrast. This is an example of what the grace of God in Christ does. He’s using himself as an example, and he is the timeless example for 20 centuries of the church history. If God can save Saul of Tarsus, he can save anyone. That’s the argument here. Do you see that? It’s like, “Look, I am an example of God’s unlimited patience.”
I mean, he could have struck me down. He could’ve struck me dead on the road to Damascus, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Go to hell. Depart from me, you who are cursed.” He could have done that right there and then, but he didn’t. He said, “I’m going to use you. I’m going to forgive you, and I’m going to use you.” Now that’s unlimited patience and grace.
Wes
How does the doxology of verse 17 fit into the chapter? And what does this doxology teach us about God?
Andy
Okay, so I know a little church history on this. Jonathan Edwards would claim this as his converting verse. A lot of people would choose some verse in Romans, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ.” Romans 6:23 probably saved far more people than 1 Timothy 1:17. But Jonathan Edwards grew up in a New England, Puritan home, saturated in deep theology from childhood. He was himself a spiritual prodigy, still not and he believed unconverted.
Still not, sorry, as he believed, converted, until one day as a young teen he read this, “Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, to the only God be honor and glory forever and ever.” 1 Timothy1:17 What that did is, the words shown, the glory of a being that he wanted to know, but he knew he didn’t know. He was on the outside, and he wanted in. And so this is a stunning verse, a doxology verse.
He’s a king. He’s eternal. He’s immortal. He’s invisible. To him, be honor and glory. “I want to live,” Jonathan Edwards thought, “I want to live for the honor and glory of such a being. I want to submit to his kingly reign in my life. I want him.” It was his converting verse. So what it does for me is it says, “What kind of being must there be waiting for us to see fully?” Now we just see through a glass darkly, then face-to-face. What will that be like?
Wes
And all of this is drawn up into this final exhortation and warning that Paul gives to Timothy in verses 18 through 20. How does Paul conclude this chapter in this charge? And what final thoughts do you have on this passage?
Andy
Well, he’s talking about some prophecies that were made about Timothy’s ministry. We find out later in chapter 4, when the elders laid their hands on him. He says, “Live up to them. Live up to what you are exhorted to do. Be faithful, Timothy, in your ministry.” And if you follow them, you’re going to fight the good fight of the faith. You’re going to fight for doctrine. You’re going to fight for holiness, and you’re going to hold on to a sound doctrinal base, and to a living faith by resisting sin, by walking holy. All of that.
So it’s doctrine, it’s holiness. “By doing this, Timothy, you will finish your race,” as Paul himself said he would finish his in 2 Timothy, “I fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith.” And he says, “Look, other people have rejected these, and they have made,” he calls it, “a shipwreck of their faith.” And so it’s a warning to all of us. So we all know people that walked it seems, with Christ for a while and then turned their back on Him. And those people are warnings.
He names names here. He names Hymenaeus and Alexander, who he says, “I’ve handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.” That’s church discipline language, because they have made a shipwreck of their faith. They were excommunicated. And he says, “Look at them, be fearful. And you, Timothy, you finish your race.” Oh, what a magnificent chapter. I’m looking forward to the rest of the study. It’s been pretty awesome. Fundamentally, this is about the limitations of the law, the beauty of the law, but the limitations of the law, but the supreme glory of God in the gospel, and Paul as the quintessential example of a sinner saved by grace.
Wes
This has been episode 1 in our 1 Timothy Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 2, entitled, Prayer, Salvation, and Women, where we’ll discuss 1 Timothy 2:1-15. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys Podcast, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
