Reflections on 1 Timothy 1

1 Timothy 01 (Contemporary English Version)


1. From Paul. God our Savior and Christ Jesus commanded me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, who gives us hope.
2. Timothy, because of our faith, you are like a son to me. I pray that God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind and merciful to you. May they bless you with peace!
3. When I was leaving for Macedonia, I asked you to stay on in Ephesus and warn certain people there to stop spreading their false teachings.
4. You needed to warn them to stop wasting their time on senseless stories and endless lists of ancestors. Such things only cause arguments. They don't help anyone to do God's work that can only be done by faith.
5. You must teach people to have genuine love, as well as a good conscience and true faith.
6. There are some who have given up these for nothing but empty talk.
7. They want to be teachers of the Law of Moses. But they don't know what they are talking about, even though they think they do.
8. We know that the Law is good, if it is used in the right way.
9. We also understand that it wasn't given to control people who please God, but to control lawbreakers, criminals, godless people, and sinners. It is for wicked and evil people, and for murderers, who would even kill their own parents.
10. The Law was written for people who are sexual perverts or who live as homosexuals or are kidnappers or liars or won't tell the truth in court. It is for anything else that opposes the correct teaching
11. of the good news that the glorious and wonderful God has given me.
12. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. He has given me the strength for my work because he knew that he could trust me.
13. I used to say terrible and insulting things about him, and I was cruel. But he had mercy on me because I didn't know what I was doing, and I had not yet put my faith in him.
14. Christ Jesus our Lord was very kind to me. He has greatly blessed my life with faith and love just like his own.
15. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." This saying is true, and it can be trusted. I was the worst sinner of all!
16. But since I was worse than anyone else, God had mercy on me and let me be an example of the endless patience of Christ Jesus. He did this so that others would put their faith in Christ and have eternal life.
17. I pray that honor and glory will always be given to the only God, who lives forever and is the invisible and eternal King! Amen.
18. Timothy, my son, the instructions I am giving you are based on what some prophets once said about you. If you follow these instructions, you will fight like a good soldier.
19. You will be faithful and have a clear conscience. Some people have made a mess of their faith because they didn't listen to their consciences.
20. Two of them are Hymenaeus and Alexander. I have given these men over to the power of Satan, so they will learn not to oppose God.
    
    

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    Paul, in this first letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, gives a charge to the young man. He is to remain in Ephesus, while Paul moves on to Macedonia, and deal with false teachers in the Ephesian church. To strengthen him for this battle, Paul reminds him of "the prophecies previously made about you" (1:18) which were in keeping with Paul's instructions. Though it is not known when or by whom these prophecies were made, they convinced Paul of Timothy's fitness for this battle with the false teachers, and he also wanted them to convince Timothy. Having this assurance of his calling, Timothy was to enter the battle "having faith and a good conscience." (1:19) Without this combination of faith and good conscience Timothy would go the way of others who rejected them and "suffered the shipwreck of their faith."
    
    These false teachers with whom Timothy was to do battle were giving attention to "attention to myths and endless genealogies" and wanted "to be teachers of the law, although they don't understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on." (1:7) In part, what these "wannabe" teachers didn't understand is that the law cannot make one righteous nor is it for the righteous person. The law was intended to be a teacher that points out sin. Therefore, it was meant for "the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral and homosexuals, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching based on the glorious gospel of the blessed God." (1:9-11) So by insisting that people turn to the law, these false teachers were turning them away from their only hope of salvation and righteousness - Jesus Christ.
    
    The teaching that is "trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance" is this: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1:15)