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19 Holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. ~ 1 Timothy 1:19-20
In the previous verses, the Apostle Paul reminded Timothy to fight the battle that all believers in Christ are engaged in. The church in Ephesus was being attacked by false teachings through false teachers.
In v.19 we read, "Holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith."
We are in danger every time we forsake a life of faith in the God of the Bible and when we ignore the promptings of a conscience that has been sensitized to the truth by the Holy Spirit. In order to fight the fight the way it ought to be fought, we must first hold on to our faith, which means believing the truth which is only found in the scriptures.
Faith is both a verb and a noun. The faith is the content of truth and faith is believing in that truth. True faith is holding onto God's definitions of all things. We could say it's keeping faith in the faith. We must not swerve from the truth of God and we must not abandon the God of truth. The nice thing is the God of truth has promised not to abandon His children.
This brings us to the two key words in the entire epistle of 1 Timothy: doctrine and godliness. Truth and purity is the same as the faith and a good conscience. Believers in Christ are called to the truth; we are called to sound doctrine. The emphasis is on godliness which comes out of a sound doctrine or the definitions of the God of the Bible.
When we teach wrong doctrine, it is not that we do not understand, it is that we are accommodating evil. Rather than bowing to the false teaching which appeals to our flesh, we must come to the place where we are defined by God's word. The bottom line is our willingness to bow our wills to God's word whether we understand it or not.
once said, “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
In v.20 we read, "Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme."
The word the Apostle Paul uses here for blaspheme means to speak against God. It means to speak to the contrary regarding God's definition to any given subject. It means to embrace and to live by that which is contrary to God.
If we love someone, we will tell them the truth. To not tell them the truth is to care not for their eternity. The Apostle Paul instructed Timothy to hand these two false teachers over to Satan. Some have to be confronted in this way and if they aren't willing to repent, they have to be handed over to Satan. This both protects the vulnerable in the church and it confronts the blasphemers to the point of getting them to hopefully repent.
In 1 Corinthians 5, a man who called himself a believer was having an affair with his stepmother. While we should not judge another's motives, we are expected to be honest about each other’s conduct. Public and blatant disregard to God's word must be publicly addressed.
In 1 Corinthians 5:5, of this unrepentant brother, the Apostle Paul wrote, “deliver such an one unto Satan.” This
man had to be dealt with in this way because his sin could become common place in the church. He also had to be confronted so that his testimony could be restored. As is always, the goal of this type of discipline must be
redemptive. The goal is to shake him in such a way that he turns away
from that which will eventually destroy him.
When it involves people, the battle often is about loving them enough to tell them the truth. This
battle is to live redemptively among those who have lost their way, to be involved in their lives
and to give of ourselves in order to bring them back into a sound relationship with the truth and reality.
The Apostle Paul had mentioned earlier in this chapter that he was at one time guilty of blaspheming. He knew it first hand and there was no way that Hymenaeus and Alexander were going to go undetected by Paul. Paul went through his trials as a blasphemer so that he would be in the position to protect the church and possibly help the wayward. What a novel way to look at our trials, severe as they may be.
The cohorts of Satan are out to shipwreck us and our faith. It doesn't help that we have a sinful bent in our souls that has not been erased by our
new birth. God's definitions of things must be of utmost importance to us. The believer in Christ must not only protect the truth by appropriately teaching it, we must also live it. In fact, the best way to perpetuate the truth is by living it. Don't expect to be perfect at it, you will not be. But, the goal is to preserve that which preserves us.
