Beginning the study of Timothy 1 & 2

Lately I keep finding myself quoting verses from 1 and 2 Timothy, so today I’m going to try and do a study on both of these books. I plan to finish the Book of Genesis soon, then get back to John. I think I have a touch of Bible nerd ADD.

Facts about 1 Timothy

• Written in AD 62 through AD 66
• Written by the apostle Paul
• This letter addressed false doctrine and set up leadership in the church in Ephesus
• The key lessons in this book is love and faith in the church, reaching all people including those that are marginalized by the community and hope and Jesus as king of the world in spite of suffering

This book is structured into four parts

• Chapter 1 goes over the purpose of the Torah
• Chapters 2 and three address the problems caused by false teachers
•  Chapters 4 through 6a addresses the false teachings directly
• Chapter 6 B is it called to be rich in generosity

My source material about the origins of 1 Timothy comes from a couple of places. The first is the Bible Project, linked here —–> Bible Project. The second source is from The Rose book of Bible Charts, Maps & Time Lines by Rose Publishing.

Timothy was a young follower of Jesus Christ. He had a passion and love for the Lord that Paul recognized. Paul mentored Timothy for several years before sending him off on missions to minister in some of the churches that Paul started.

Paul got word that the church in Ephesus had been infiltrated by false teachers spreading incorrect teachings about Jesus. Paul sent or left Timothy at Ephesus to confront these false teachers and restore order to the community while Paul traveled on to Macedonia. 1 Timothy is a letter of instruction that Paul sent to Timothy instructing him how to fulfill his mission.

I plan to read through 1 and 2 Timothy slowly and hopes of absorbing the wealth of information these two epistles contain.

1 Timothy

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

² Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

Timothy was a young man who studied with Paul to become a disciple.

³ As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

Paul had to go to Macedonia, but what was going on in Ephesus with the false teachers was very important, so Paul had Timothy say behind and address the issues at the church there. There were teachers there that were teaching false doctrine.

⁴ Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

In addition to teaching false doctrines, the Church at Ephesus had those who were redirecting Christians from sound doctrine and directing them into contemplating myths and these spiritual genealogies that were part of the pagan practices. Essentially, these false teachers were redirecting people away from the study of the word and into these pointless studies that would lead the person into apostasy.
The goal of the enemy is to distract Christians from the sound Gospel message and get them focused on anything from pointless pondering to avenues of study that don’t matter when it comes to salvation…. and sometimes even into idol worship or paganism.

⁵ Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

These false teachers were busy teaching others to get wrapped up in these pointless things that don’t serve the Lord. The goal is to put them back on the path of having love flowing from a pure heart and good conscience…. strong in faith. So Timothy is going to bring them to repentance so they turn away from the pointless and turn back to Jesus.

⁶ From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;

Vain jangling is pointless, non-edifying talk. Instead of speaking about Jesus and edified speech, people were giving themselves over to pointless discussions. Of course, the people involved felt like their discussions were helpful or useful.

⁷ Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

These false teachers try to teach the Law, but they don’t have an understanding of the plan of God.

⁸ But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;

The Law is a picture of the perfect God. If we completely kept the Law, we would be perfect. We can’t though because we are sinful in our very nature. If we transgress the Law in even the smallest way, we brake the entire Law with this imperfection. Since all of us have sinned, none of us will be made perfect under the Law. God knew this and provided for us another way. Jesus came to the earth and because transgressing the Law required a sacrifice, Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins, shedding his blood to cover and wash away our transgression and making us perfect through his blood so we are reconciled to God. What we could not achieve by keeping the Law because we are sinful, we can obtain by receiving this gift of salvation from Jesus. It is by his grace we are saved. This is the perfect plan of God.
What was happening at Ephesus is there were teachers who were making salvation complicated by teaching the Law as a way to Salvation. It was clear that none of us can keep the Law, and we will all fail at any attempts to. When Jesus came we were unburdened with keeping the Law to obtain salvation because Jesus gave us salvation through grace, we were freed by the Law of Grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus is a complete work… it doesn’t need to be assisted by keeping the Law. Keeping the Law was replaced by Grace. And yet here we were at Ephesus dealing with teachers who were burdening people with the keeping of the Law. They were teaching that salvation requires more than just faith in the grace of God, it requires keeping the law too.

⁹ Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

¹⁰ For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

The Law exposed the sin in our lives and gave us a way to deal with our sin through following the law of sacrifice. In Leviticus 7 we read about the laws given regarding atoning for sins by sacrificing animals. There are strict rules that had to be obeyed in making these sacrifices. These things were not given for righteous men because the righteous don’t sin…. they were given for sinners who do sin so they can atone for their sins. The 10 commandments clearly stated what the sins of mankind were… and as it turned out… everyone was guilty. The word says in Romans 3:10-12 ¹⁰ As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:¹¹ There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.¹² They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
The Law looked forward to when Jesus would come and provide the sacrifice for our sins, once and for all…. reconciling us to God, perfecting us so that we don’t need the Law that was made for sinners, in Jesus we are made perfect before God. When Jesus came, the Law was fulfilled and a new Law came to replace it… the Law of Grace and salvation through the perfect sacrifice, Jesus, who shed his own blood to wash away our sins and cover our sinful nature with his eternal grace. What keeping the Law could not do, Jesus did it for us. So any adding to this or additional requirements are a departure from salvation through GRACE. So these false teachers at Ephesus were teaching people a plan that wasn’t possible to keep…. it FRUSTRATED the perfect plan of Salvation and made it impossible again… undoing the very work Jesus came to do.

¹¹ According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

¹² And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

¹³ Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

¹⁴ And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

¹⁶ Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

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

¹⁸ This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;

¹⁹ Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

When we are no longer trusting in Jesus and his payment for our sins, aka being saved by grace, we are no longer walking in the faith because we aren’t capable of keeping the Law… and even if we could keep the Law starting right this second, we would still have a past to deal with, so the only salvation that mankind can have is through Grace and departing from that is to walk away from the faith.

²⁰ Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Hymenaeus and Alexander were two brothers in the Lord who departed salvation through grace and had become as Paul put it, “shipwrecked” in the faith. Paul delivered them to Satan… which means he was no longer covering them in prayer or allowed to sit in fellowship with the other Christians and Paul was delivering them to be put into a tribulation to bring them to repentance so they could be restored to the faith.