A Commentary in Simple English on 1 Timothy

CHAPTER 1

Verses 1-2: Greeting

Paul begins most of his letters with his own name and the names of friends who were with him. But this letter does not speak of any other Christian friends with Paul. Perhaps this was because Timothy was such a close friend of Paul. The letter is just from Paul to Timothy himself.

In verse 1, Paul says that he has been made an 'apostle' by an order from God. An 'apostle' is someone who has been sent. And God sent the apostles of Christ to gather people into the first Christian churches. Paul speaks here about God as 'our Saviour'. The Greeks thought about their great 'god' Zeus as 'saviour'. The Roman Emperor, Nero, called himself 'saviour' too. But Nero was a lost sinner. Zeus had no life. So it is God who has life. Only God can save men and women who are lost. Many people today feel that they are lost. God alone can save them.

Paul speaks about God as our Saviour in these two letters to Timothy and in the letter to Titus. Usually he speaks about Jesus as our Saviour (Philippians 3:20; Ephesians 5:23).

Then Christ Jesus is our hope. This present time is the age when we are saved. But God's work in us will not be complete until Jesus comes again. Then we shall rise from the dead. Some people in Paul's day said that these things had already happened (2 Timothy 2:18). That meant that there was nothing more to hope for. But we have hope because we know that Jesus will come again; although we do not know when he will come.

In verse 2, Paul calls Timothy his 'real son in the faith'. This may mean that Timothy became a Christian when he heard Paul preach the Good News. It does mean that for years Paul and Timothy had worked well together, like a good son with a good father (1 Corinthians 4:17; Philippians 2:19-23). Many young Christians need an older Christian to work with them like this.

We shall find the word 'faith' quite often in this letter. It does not always mean exactly the same thing. It will help us if we ask just what Paul means each time we find the word 'faith'. Some of the uses of the word are these:-

1. It can mean all the things that Christian people believe. We speak about 'the Christian faith' (Acts 6:70). This is the Good News. It is still 'the Christian faith' even if we do not believe it.

2. Every Christian believes certain facts. Christ is 'the truth' (John 14:6). With our minds we believe what Scripture tells us. This is faith.

3. But then we have faith in Jesus and in God. This faith is trust. This faith is not just in the mind: it is in the heart (Romans 10:8-10). We have faith in Jesus because he is 'the life'. We can rest in Jesus and we can find peace.

4. Then there is a faith which works. Good works are faith at work. Real prayer is faith on fire. Faith does not let a man stay where he is. The man who has faith is on a journey to God and to glory. Jesus is 'the way'.

5. There is the faith which obeys God (Hebrews 11:8). If a man believes what God says to him, he obeys. A man who obeys God, believes (Acts 26:19; John 7:17).

We could add more to this list. But in this verse, Paul probably means that Timothy is his son in the Christian faith. We should think of the first of the meanings listed above.

Then Paul prays that God will give to Timothy his grace, mercy and peace. The word 'mercy', here means God's special care for someone who is in need. Grace is God's favour to us. He is our Father. We are his children. And this works for our good. Then we have peace in our hearts. Our trouble mostly come out from our own hearts. Only when we know that God has forgiven our sins can we know real peace in our hearts. And peace is among the best things which the Good News brings to Christian people.

Verses 3 - 7: The false teachers at Ephesus

Paul had few men to help him who were as useful to him as Timothy was. But Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus. It seems that Timothy found the work in Ephesus hard. He may even have asked Paul whether he could leave Ephesus. Timothy does not seem to have been a strong character like Titus.

So now Paul tells Timothy again to stay in Ephesus. He is to command some men not to teach. 'Command' is a word which was used in the army for an order.

Ephesus was a large and important church but there was trouble there. There was false teaching. We do not know much about it. The Jews in those days did not all believe and do the same things. But from what Paul says, these false teachers must have been Jews. Some things are clear. They did not use only the Scripture in their teaching (verse 4). They brought in other strange ideas which are not in the Bible. Then their teaching did not bring peace and love to the church. They made people argue with each other (verse 4). The more these people said, the less sense there was. They became more and more silly (verse 6). [1.1]

After we have spoken to people in the name of the Lord Jesus, we should ask ourselves some questions. We should ask whether we spoke Bible truth. We should ask whether there will be more peace and love in the church because we have spoken.

At the end of verse 4, Paul speaks about 'God's work'. This is the work which Timothy has to do. Paul uses a word which gives a picture of a very large house. In the house, there is one man who is the master. There are the people who make up his family. Then there are servants. The servants know what work they have to do. But still there is one servant who watches them to make sure that they do their work. This man is the 'steward'. And sometimes the steward has to tell them just what they are to do. The master of the house trusts the steward. The steward makes sure that everything is done in the house in the way that the master wishes. Paul uses this picture several times; you will find it in 3:5 and 3:15 where we have the word 'household'. [1.2]

Now the church is God's 'household'. God is the master of this house. And Timothy is the steward. He is there to make sure that God's family and servants do everything in the way that God wishes it to be done. We can only do our work as 'stewards' in the right way by faith.

When we come to verse 5, we see what it is that God wants. God wants love in his 'household' or church. This is God's 'command' or order. The word is like the soldiers' word which we have already had in verse 3. But this verse gives us some teaching which we do not find anywhere else. It tells us where love comes from.

1. Love comes out from a pure or clean heart. That means that our reasons for what we do are right. Sometimes what we do is not wrong: it may be quite good. But we do it for reasons that are wrong. That is not 'love'. Our purpose must be good.

2. Then love comes out from a good 'conscience'. Conscience means that I know with someone else. I know that I have sinned. God knows that I have sinned. And what is more, I know that God knows I have sinned. So I 'know with God'. That is a bad conscience. But when God forgives my sin, I have a good conscience. I know that God has forgiven me. And God knows too. Now as long as I have a bad conscience because of my sin, I cannot love other people as I should. The reason for this is plain enough. I love God because he first loved me. Jesus loved me so much that he died for me on the cross. That is why I can now have a good conscience.

3. Then love comes out from a 'sincere' faith. Our English word 'sincere' means 'without wax'. This is because in New Testament times, wax was used to fill cracks in 'marble', which is fine stone. If the marble was 'without wax' or 'sincere' there was nothing wrong with it. The seller had not hidden any faults.

Now although 'sincere' or 'genuine' is the word which you will find in many English Bibles, the word which Paul used gives us another picture. The word means 'without hypocrisy'. 'Hypocrisy' is a word which you will find quite often in the four Gospels. Actors on the stage in those days wore a 'mask' over their faces. They sometimes do still today. Dancers too will do this in many parts of the world. They pretend to be someone else. And the 'mask' shows who it is that they pretend to be. So in the church, a 'hypocrite' is a person who pretends to have faith. His faith is only like a mask over his face. If you could take the mask away you would see what he is really like.

So Paul says that there will be love in our life if we have real faith. If it is only a mask, God will know. Other people may not. But there will be no love.

In verse 7, Paul says that these 'false teachers' want to teach people about the Jewish law. They want to do the wrong thing. They should be preachers of the Good News! But they are not even good teachers of the law.

Verses 8 - 11: God's law

There were bad 'teachers of the law'. But this does not mean that the law is bad. Paul says now (verse 8) that the law is good. (See also Romans 7:12 and 14.) The Old Testament too teaches us that God's law is good (Psalm 119:39). [1.3]

There are many things which are good. Yet we can make bad use of them. The 'law teachers' made bad use of God's good law. The good use we can make of God's law is to take the mask away from sin. Sin likes to be thought quite good. The law takes the mask away so that we can see just how bad it is.

So in verse 9 we learn why God gave men his law. It was not to make good men better. God gave the law in order to stop men from doing what is wrong. Paul writes about this in detail in Romans 7:7-20. All men know what is right and wrong, but they may forget this. So God gives us his law in case we forget. (See Romans 2: 14 and 15.)

Paul then gives us a list of sins. First there are six words for sins against God. Then there are sins against other people. This is the way that the Ten Commandments are set out. (See Exodus 20:1-17.) Verses 1-8 there have to do with sins against God. This is to teach us that we must be right with God first. Only then can we be right with other people.

The Ten Commandments will help us to understand the rest of what Paul says here.

a) Exodus 20:12 says, 'Honour your father and your mother'. It is very wrong for a man to kill his father or mother. Nothing is more full of shame. Nothing is further away from the honour which we should give to the father and mother who gave life to us. So first in Paul's list of those who do wrong are those who kill their parents.

b) Next comes murder (Exodus 20:13).

c) Then next in Exodus 20 is the law that we should not have sex except with our own husband or wife. Paul's list of sins speaks not only of 'adultery' but also of sex acts between two men. This sin is not natural. It is far worse than adultery. It may have been all too common in Ephesus. It is a matter for shame today that it is a common sin and that many people pretend to think that there is nothing wrong in it.

d) The next commandment in Exodus (verse 15) is: 'You shall not steal.' The worst form of this is to steal not only things, but people. The word which Paul uses may mean 'slave traders' (Revelation 18:13). The slave trade was not only wrong. It was also always very cruel. Or the word may mean 'kidnappers'. To 'kidnap' means to steal someone, perhaps a child, from its parents and then to make them pay money before they return the child to its home.

e) The ninth commandment (Exodus 20:16) is: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.' This means to tell lies in a law court in order to harm some one else. This is what a 'perjurer' does. But Paul says that all lies are wrong. It is not only in a court of law that we must tell the truth. We can never help anyone else by telling a lie.

f) The last of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:17) is 'You shall not covet'. So this may be what Paul means at the end of verse 10 when he says: 'Whatever else. ‘These sins are against the teaching which makes 'healthy' Christians.

This teaching (verse 11) agrees with the Good News about the glory of God. God's law shows men just how bad sin is. Then sinners learn from what the law says that God hates sin. And healthy Christian teaching then says: 'Do not sin any more. Go to Jesus. He died to save you from your sins.' God's law is like medicine for those who are ill. Sin is like an illness. The Good News is like good food which gives good health.

At the end of verse 11, Paul says that God trusted him with this wonderful Good News. He will say more about this in verse 12. But what he means here is this: 'God could not trust the false teachers with the Good News.'

Verses 12 - 17: Paul's experience of the Good News

Paul had a very wonderful experience of God's grace. There are also some people today who have had a wonderful experience. Paul writes to Timothy, whose experience may have been more gentle. And today many Christians have had a simple, gentle experience of God's grace. There must be room in the church for both kinds of people. For 'Christ Jesus' is our one Lord. A wonderful experience will never make us proud.

So in verse 12, Paul says that Jesus has done three things for him.

1 Jesus has given Paul strength. We can read about what Paul suffered (2 Corinthians 11:23-27). Paul could only go on with his work because God gave him new strength. We too need God's strength (Philippians 4:13; Colossians 1:29). God gave Paul and the other apostles special strength to do their great work.

2 Jesus knew about Paul, and he knew that Paul could be trusted.

3 So he gave Paul his work to do. When God gives any Christian work to do, it is always service for the good of other people. We must be like Jesus. (See Mark 10:43-45.)

Verse 13 goes back to the time before Paul was a Christian. Paul uses stronger words here than anywhere else to say what he had once been like.

1 He was a 'blasphemer' (Acts 26:11). He spoke bitter hard things against God.

2 He was a 'persecutor' (Galatians 1:13; Acts 8:3). He did all that he could to destroy the church.

3 He was violent. He was cruel to the Christians. More than that, he enjoyed this cruelty.[1.4] He did not show mercy to the Christians. They knew the truth and they believed in Jesus. At that time, Paul did not know Jesus. Paul was the man who knew God's law well, but he broke the law. And God gave him mercy. God did not punish his sins.

So in verse 14 Paul says that God poured his grace out on him like a great flood of water (Romans 5:5). Mercy is a part of God's grace. Grace is God's favour to sinners who have no right to it (Romans 5:20).

The second part of verse 14 means one of two things.

a) Most people think that it means that God poured his grace on Paul. And at the same time God gave Paul faith and love. They took root in Paul's life.

b) But it could just be that the love is not the love which Paul had. It may be that it is the love which Jesus had for Paul. In that case, faith would not be the faith that Paul had in Jesus, but the faithfulness of Jesus to Paul. Romans 3:3 is the one place where it is clear that the word 'faith' is used to mean that God is faithful to us. But there may be quite a number of others which are not so clear.

In verse 15, we have the first of the 'faithful sayings' which we find only in the two letters to Timothy and the one to Titus. The other 'faithful sayings' are in 3:1; 3:16; 4:9; 2 Timothy 2:11-13 and Titus 3:8. They seem to be things that people often said in the churches in those days. Perhaps the words were used in worship. And Paul uses these words here and he says: 'Yes, this is right. Everyone should agree with this.' The saying here is: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'. (See Luke 19:10.) But when Paul speaks of 'sinners' he cannot stop himself. He has to say at once: 'I am the worst of sinners.'

God has chosen us and he will save us from our sins. We do not know why God chose us. But in v 16 Paul gives a reason why God chose to save him. If God can save the worst of sinners, then he can save any sinner. And God saved Paul, 'the worst of sinners'. So, Paul says, God is able to save any sinner. Paul is an example. What God did for Paul is like a rough drawing. It is to help us. The picture of our life when it is finished will not be the same as the finished picture of Paul's life. But when Paul sinned, Jesus waited until the right time. Then God saved Paul and the Holy Spirit changed him. And now Paul adds: 'There will be many other people who will believe the Good News about Jesus. My example will help them. They may lose much in this life. But they will gain far more. They will gain life for ever with God.'

Now this is still true today. We need to tell other people what God has done for us. We need to tell them about the change in our lives.

Verse 17 is a great verse full of praise to God. (See also 6:16.) Paul here says these things in praise of God:-

a) He is the King. (See also Revelation 15:3.) Many men have called themselves 'king'. But God is the real King who rules the whole world.

b) He is 'eternal' (Psa lm145:13). God did not begin. He will never end. He is the King of every age.

c) He is 'immortal'. We are all 'mortal'. We try to forget that we are 'mortal'. But we know that we shall die. And when we die, our bodies will quickly 'go bad' or decay. God will never change like that (Romans 1:23; 1 Peter 1:4 and 23).

d) God is 'invisible'. That means that we cannot see him. He is a spirit and he does not have a body which we can look at. Yet he does just as he pleases (Exodus 20:4; John 1:18; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 11:27).

e) He is the only God (Exodus 20:3).

Paul feels great pleasure and wonder as he thinks what God is like and about what God has done for him.

So the verse ends with the prayer that honour and glory may be given to God all through the ages to come.

Verses 18-20: Paul's orders to Timothy: Fight!

Paul again uses a word like the soldiers' word 'command' in verse 3 and 5. Once again he gives Timothy his orders. Really in the verses in between (6-17) Paul writes about other things. Now he comes back to his main point. Paul again calls Timothy 'my son'. Paul says to Timothy: 'You and I are like father and son. I have to give you orders. But they are not like the orders which a master gives to a servant.'

Timothy's 'fight' is to keep false teaching out of the church. Now today there are many people who think that this is no part of the work which a Christian minister should do. But Paul here says that it is part of a minister's work. And years before, Timothy had become a minister of Christ. When he became a minister the Spirit moved some of the people who were there to speak prophecies (4:14). Timothy is to remember what was in these prophecies. This will make him strong to do his work.

There are many promises in God's Word, the Bible. They are promises which God has given to us. We need these promises to make us strong to do our work for God. Timothy is to 'fight the good fight'. He is a soldier in Christ's army. But we must not think that we use the world's weapons when we 'fight'..(See also 2 Corinthians 10:4; 6:7; Ephesians 6:12-18.)

Verse 19 tells us what these weapons were which Timothy was to use. They were faith and a good conscience. It was to be his trust in God. And it was to be the knowledge that if he did anything wrong, he put it right. The reasons for what he did were to be pure and holy.

In the rest of verse 19 there is a different picture. It is no longer the picture of a Christian soldier. Now the picture is of a ship. Paul says that two men have pushed away from or 'rejected' a good conscience. It is safe to have a good conscience. But these men are like ships. They have pushed away from what is safe. And their faith has been 'shipwrecked'. Their faith has been broken as a storm or rocks will break a ship at sea. There are dangers in the Christian life. There are storms and rocks. We must keep 'a good conscience'. Then our faith will not break.

Hymenaeus may be the same as the man we find in 2 Timothy 2:17. This Alexander may be the same one as the Alexander in Acts 19:33 and in 2 Timothy 4:14. The Alexander in Mark 15:21 is not the same man.[1.5]

What Paul says at the end of the verse is very sad and serious. The church has had to put these two men out. In 1 Corinthians 5: 4,5 we can see another case which is very much like this one. It is the whole church which puts a man out from the church. Even Paul does not do this on his own.

This verse may mean that Paul did more to punish these men than to shut them out of the church (Acts: 1-11; 13:6-12; 19:13-16). But none of us today should think that we have the power which the apostles had. And remember verse 13. Paul had been 'a blasphemer'. The grace of God had changed him. It is the same grace of God which will teach these men not to 'blaspheme'.

Now it is always sad when people who belong to the church do something wrong. It is even more sad when what people do is so wrong that we have to put them out from the church. If we do this, we must only do it to try to help them. Here Paul wanted these two men to 'learn'. Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:15-17 what we should do. We never punish people who do wrong. God will do that. We try to bring people back to God and into the life of the church