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First Timothy

Moody Press

I. THE CHARGE TO TIMOTHY CONCERNING FALSE TEACHERS, 1:3-20

CHAPTER 1, constituting the first main division of the Epistle, deals with the first duty laid upon Timothy as the apostolic representative at Ephesus. He is to check the false teachers at work in and around Ephesus. The chapter falls into three paragraphs. Paul states the substance and details of the charge to Timothy (vv. 3-11), expresses his thanksgiving to God for his relation to the Gospel (vv. 12-17), and renews the charge with special thought of its recipient.

1. The Charge to Timothy to Preserve the Purity of the Gospel, vv. 3-11

Paul at once launches into the purpose of his writing. Timothy is urged to carry out the charge given to him at Ephesus when Paul left for Macedonia. His first task is to deal with the false teachers perverting the Gospel. He details the nature of the charge given to Timothy (vv. 3, 4), states the aim of the Gospel charge (v. 5), and sets forth the reasons necessitating the task laid upon him (vv. 6-11).

a. The nature of the charge, vv. 3, 4. These verses give us the historical setting and occasion for the letter. In delineating the nature of the charge Paul indicates the circumstances for its impartation (v. 3a) as well as its contents (vv. 3b, 4).

1) The impartation of the charge, v.3a. "As Iexhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia." These words clearly imply that Paul and Timothy had been together at Ephesus and that when Paul left for Macedonia Timothy was urged to remain to carry out the task assigned to him. These historical references to Paul's movements cannot be fitted into the Acts story. On the second missionary journey Paul touched at Ephesus but from there he left for Palestine and not Macedonia. On the third missionary journey Timothy was with him at Ephesus and from there Paul left for Macedonia, but then Timothy accompanied him into Macedonia. It is evident that this Epistle belongs to the time following Paul's first imprisonment at Rome.

Apparently upon his release at Rome, Paul sailed for Ephesus, visited Colossae as he had promised Philemon (v.22), and returned to Ephesus, where he met Timothy coming from Philippi. A survey of the situation in and around Ephesus revealed the need to check the false teachers there. Paul urged Timothy to remain to deal with the situation while he went to Macedonia in accord with his promise to visit the Philippians (Phil. 2:24). Paul turned the work over to Timothy as his representative.

Paul begins with "as" but does not write the corresponding "so." The construction is left incomplete, but the completing thought is easily supplied. This our translations do in the italicized words at the end of verse 4. The words "so do I now," supplied in the American Standard Version, are less forceful than the "so do" in the King James. Paul was more concerned that Timothy charge the false teachers than that he should merely tarry at Ephesus. That Paul had some such conclusion in mind is obvious, but the expression of it was "lost in the abundance of the thoughts that streamed in on him" (Huther). Horton remarks, "This eager breathlessness of a writer who is too absorbed in the matter to remember the grammar is a mark of Paul's style." It is characteristically Pauline but amatter which a forger could hardly duplicate.

Paul reminds Timothy of a previous exhortation given him. "As I exhorted thee." It implies that they had discussed the matter and that the charge had been orally given. In this letter "Paul repeats in writing what he had orally outlined for Timothy, both in order that Timothy might have it black on white, and that he might present it as written evidence to those who objected to Timothy's activities" (Lenski). The verb translated "exhorted" may imply that Timothy was reluctant to accept the responsibility. Paul felt that Timothy, with his experience from years of association with him, could well take care of the matter, so urged him "to continue on" at Ephesus while he went to Macedonia.

2) The contents of the charge, vv. 3b, 4. The task of Timothy was to check and suppress the strange teaching being propagated in the territory. "That thou mightest charge certain men." The term "charge" is the regular word for "an order" passed along the line and implies authority. As Paul's representative, he is to use that authority in dealing with these "certain men." Paul does not name them but refers to them as "certain ones."

These men are to be charged "not to teach a different doctrine." These words translate a negative and a present infinitive in the original. The construction implies that they are now doing it but that they must stop. The word heteros in the compound infinitive means "another of a different kind." These men were mingling strange and incongruous elements with their teaching of the Gospel. Because of their irrelevance and variance from the Gospel these elements might easily become hostile to it. By mingling with it elements that were foreign to its essential nature they were in reality changing the whole character of the Christian teaching. Doctrine inconsistent with the nature of the Gospel becomes false doctrine. Such teachings must be resisted. The apostolic teaching was the norm by which all teaching must be measured.

Scholars are not agreed as to the source and precise nature of these divergent elements which these men were introducing. Some see in this teaching the influence of Gentile gnostic philosophy with its speculative views of religious beliefs and practices. Such incipient gnostic elements did circulate in Asia during the latter half of the first century and may have been present here. But that the false teaching combatted in the Pastorals had already become Gnostic in character is doubtful. The Jewish character of the teaching here denounced is obvious. These men claimed to be "teachers of the law" (v. 7). They were occupied with "fables and endless genealogies" (v. 4). In 4:7 Paul characterizes the teaching as "profane and old wives' fables," and in Titus 1:14 these fables are stamped as being Jewish. By their introduction of and preoccupation with matters incongruous with the Gospel they corrupted it. Lilley characterizes them thus:

Some tried to dazzle the minds of the people with matters that lay outside the sphere of revelation altogether. Others did indeed handle a Biblical theme, but in their ignorance and presumption were unable to expound it in its true relations and proportions. The one class took up fables and genealogies (v. 4): the other professed to teach the Mosaic law (v. 6).

These men Timothy is to charge "not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies." The word "to give heed to" means not merely to give attention to but to attach oneself to, to adhere to. The tense shows that they were doing this but must stop it. With the words "fables and endless genealogies," apparently two phases of the same aberration, Paul gives a more precise statement of the teaching. In New Testament usage the word translated "fables," from which we get our word "myth," means an invention, a fiction, a falsehood; it denotes something without historical reality. They were fanciful tales such as abound in the rabbinical writings. They were apparently bound up with their fictitious amplifications of the Old Testament genealogies. These genealogies were expanded, the names of wives invented, additional stories woven into them, and given wild allegorical interpretations. Paul calls them "endless" because these inventions led to no certain conclusions.

Such things ("which"—literally, "things of this character") are to be avoided because of what they do and what they fail to do. Their positive effect is to "minister questionings." Occupation with them furnishes occasion for arguments and disputes.

The negative reason for avoiding them is that they do not further "a dispensation of God which is in faith." They are not practical. By being occupied with them the Gospel is relegated to the rear and the saving purpose of God is not furthered.

The reading in the King James Version, "godly edifying" rests on a very inferior reading. The reading of the American Standard Version, following the preponderance of manuscript evidence (oikonomian theou), is more difficult. The expression "dispensation of God" has been differently understood. If taken objectively it means God's method or plan of administering salvation to the world. These fables and genealogies do not help that work of grace which God is carrying on but rather hinder it. It seems better to interpret it subjectively as denoting "the work of man as a steward of God." Teachers of the Gospel are stewards of God, entrusted with the duty of administering God's grace and salvation to mankind through a clear proclamation of the Gospel. The added phrase, "which is in faith," means that this trust committed to God's stewards is exercised in the sphere of faith. The teaching of these men did not further saving faith since they dealt with their pet fancies and speculations rather than the Word of God.

b. The aim of the charge, v. 5. "But the aim of the charge is love." The translation "the commandment" in the King James Version must not mislead us to think that Paul is referring to the Mosaic law or part thereof. It is the noun form of the verb "charge" in verse 3. The charge is not merely Paul's charge to Timothy but rather the charge which Timothy is to give to the false teachers. The "but" introduces the contrast between Timothy's message and that of these pretended "law-teachers." Their teaching produced strife and contention, but the charge of Timothy has as its aim the production of true and pure love. It was such love that prompted Paul to give the charge to Timothy and this charge is aimed at producing such love in the hearts of these deluded teachers. Their sterile occupation with their fables and genealogies blocks its development. The aim of Gospel ministry is the production of love.

The ultimate source of this love is the love of God poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). It is implanted on the condition of faith, but the soil in which it grows is described as being "out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned." The one preposition with the three nouns unites them as a unit. "A pure heart" is a heart made pure in affection and single in purpose by faith. It is enabled to discern the presence and love of God. The "heart" in Scripture denotes the inward center of human life as the seat of spiritual emotions and desires. The word "conscience" quite literally means "knowing with" and "represents the self sitting in judgment on self; it stands for the self- conscious and rational element in the man" (Bernard). A "good conscience" is one that has been freed from the guilt of sin by the application of Christ's blood and is conscious of cherishing no impure, wicked motives. Faith is "unfeigned" or "unhypocritical" when it is not a mere lipfaith, mere pretense, but the sincere trust and confidence of the heart. "An unclean heart cannot have a conscience that is good and a faith that is unhypocritical" (Lenski). When the whole moral and spiritual nature is thus purified by the Gospel it becomes a fertile soil that bears an abundant harvest of love. But their occupation with their fables and genealogies and their pretensions as interpreters of the law choked the harvest in the lives of these men.

c. The reason for the charge, vv. 6-11. The reason necessitating the charge Paul views from the standpoint of the failure of the false teachers themselves (vv. 6, 7) as well as from the viewpoint of the truth concerning the law itself (vv. 8-11)

1) The failure of the false teachers, w. 6, 7. Their failure lies both in the departure involved in their lives and the impure motive behind their teaching. Paul continues with a relative clause where in English we would have begun with a new sentence. "From which things" refers to those mentioned in verse 5. The failure of these teachers, to whom he again refers by the indefinite "some," lay in the sad fact that they have departed from the "pure heart and conscience good and faith unhypocritical" at which the Gospel aimed. The fact about them is that they "having swerved have turned aside." "Having swerved" is literally "having missed the mark" and graphically sets forth the change of aim which has come into their spiritual career. They once professed to follow the Gospel aim, but there came a day when they swerved away from it and "turned aside" on a different path. So instead of reaching the true goal, they turned off to "vain talking." The word translated "vain" is mataios which means vain in the sense that it does not lead to the goal; it is futile and ineffectual for its intended purpose. There was some content in what these teachers said, but it contributed nothing to the furtherance of the Christian life. Their vain talking, arising out of their occupation with their fables and genealogies and their views of the law, was antagonistic to evangelical results. The experience of these men is instructive. It was their failure in the moral realm which led to their perversion of the Gospel. "The heart is the real source of error in religion. Sin blinds the spiritual perceptions and perverts the spiritual judgment. All false religious tendencies originate in a perverted heart" (Harvey).

In verse 7 Paul indicates their motive—"desiring to be teachers of the law." The word "desiring" implies that it was their continuing wish or resolution. They aimed at being professional interpreters of the law. They coveted the honor and respect which was paid to the acknowledged teachers of the Mosaic law. That they wanted to be "teachers of the law" plainly shows that the false teaching had its roots in Judaism, but it does not thereby follow that these were the Judaizers whom Paul combatted in Galatians. Their desire to be exponents of the law was good but they failed because they lacked the necessary qualifications. "Though they understand neither what they say, nor whereof they confidently affirm." They were insincere and misguided and did not speak from inner conviction but made up for its lack by the strenuousness with which they set forth their assertions. They failed clearly to apprehend the real significance of the law in its relations to the Gospel, nor did they truly understand the implications of the subjects concerning which they dogmatized.

2) The true knowledge concerning the law, vv. 8-11. Having exposed the failure of the false teachers to understand the use of the law, Paul now sets forth the truth concerning it. He thus shows his own understanding on the matter and guards against any suspicion that he is against the law. He presents the true nature of the law (v. 8), indicates its purpose (vv. 9, 10), and proclaims the harmony of a proper view of the law with the Gospel (v. 11).

a) The nature of the law, v. 8. His view is based upon knowledge—"but we know." "The Apostle places the declaration of his knowledge, which he has learned in the school of the Holy Ghost, against the arrogant view of the false Gnosis" (Van Oosterzee). The truth is that "the law is good." It is in accord with divine holiness, truth, and justice. (See Paul's elaboration in Rom. 7:12-16). But there is one condition, "if a man use it lawfully." By "lawfully" he means not that which the law permits but that it must be used according to its original spirit and intention. "The law itself, because it is law, dictates its lawful use and condemns every abuse as unlawful" (Lenski).

b) The purpose of the law, vv. 9, 10. The purpose of the law is considered both negatively (v. 9a) and positively (vv. 9b, 10). He points out that the law is not intended for a righteous man but for sinners. In their ignorance the false teachers reversed these facts. He passes from their ignorance to true knowledge by saying "but knowing this," thus appealing to general knowledge.

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Excerpted from First Timothy by D. Edmond Hiebert. Copyright © 1957 The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. Excerpted by permission of Moody Press.
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