1 Timothy 1:19-20

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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. 

Soren Kierkegaard 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.

 

1 Timothy 1:18

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Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well. ~ 1 Timothy 1:18

Whether you know it or not, due to the fact that you are in the family of God through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are engaged in a battle between good and evil, God and Satan. And, your involvement in this battle is of utmost importance.

In today's text, the Apostle Paul admonishes Timothy to engage further in this battle. The Apostle uses a Greek verb from which we get our English word “strategy” which means to fight as a soldier. The strategy is already in the word of God to be discovered on a daily basis: the strategy is prayer and obeying the word of God. 

This fight is not a brief fight, it is a long-term continual war. The believer in Christ is to gear himself up to fight this fight. This is a cosmic warfare of massive spiritual proportions. It is not a physical war, this is a war fought on the spiritual level.

Timothy was in Ephesus, and the Apostle Paul had left him there to battle against false teaching, teaching that is contrary to God's way of thinking and living. These false teachings had come into the church in Ephesus and these false teachers were in positions of prominence, power and influence. Godliness was under attack, and Timothy was being charged to confront it.

This war began long before the writing of Paul's first letter to Timothy. This war was begun by the rebellion against God of Lucifer who is a created angel. The Lord Jesus said of Lucifer in Luke 10:18, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” It was at that point that the Lord Jesus changed Lucifer's name to “Satan” which means enemy or adversary. This war has always been a battle between the will of Satan and the will of God.

In 2 Corinthians 10:4 we read, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” 

This means we dare not use our intellect, wisdom, or our natural talents in this war. This means we can topple Satan's kingdom by appropriating God's power through prayer and the word of God. 

In Ephesians 6, Paul instructs us to put on the armor of God, which begins with the belt of truth, a commitment to fight on the basis of God’s revealed truth. Then, we put on the breastplate of righteousness, which is the righteousness of Christ. We dare not fight out of our own goodness, it is not enough. This is why His righteousness has been applied to our moral account. Then, our feet must be covered by the gospel of the preparation of peace. Finally, our helmet is the helmet of the hope of eternal salvation, and our sword is the Word of God. 

The Word of God is not a fleshy weapon. When we go out and try to attack the kingdom of darkness with our own opinion, we will get no place. When we go out with the Word of God, things happen. The Word of God has tremendous power, and it is our primary weapon in this battle. 

Spirituality is learning to live out of the Word of God and we do so by thinking and obeying His word. To excel in whatever we are learning, we must first steep ourselves in God’s Word. When we place a tea bag in hot water and quickly bounce it up and down, we won’t have very good tea. However, if we steep it slowly, we will extract all of the flavor and the goodness out of the tea bag.

We must do the same thing with God’s Word if we want to really excel at warfare. I am learning that reading the word slowly and reflecting upon it throughout the day is the best way to incorporate it into my life. Steeping myself in God’s Word gives His Spirit who lives in me, to teach me throughout the day. This is the key to being successful at engaging in the battle. And, I am learning that the Lord teaches us in advance of our battles as we are faithful to be in His word and talk with Him about that which we are reading.

Joshua 1:8 says of God’s Word, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

There will always be walls of resistance in our minds and the minds of others that must be pulled down. These walls are thought processes that are not the thoughts of God found in His word. When our thoughts are being influenced and rearranged by God's word, we will begin to defeat demonic forces. 

When Joshua and his army marched around Jericho for a week, the spectators thought they were crazy. When the Jews trusted God and obeyed orders, they brought down the high walls and conquered the enemy (Josh. 6). Once the walls in our minds and those with whom we work, have been torn down, the door to the heart can be opened to His influence. This is not only true with God getting through to us, it is also true with regard to us getting through to those who have long been held captive by the Prince of darkness. 

Are you engaged in the fight?

 

 

1 Timothy 1:12-17

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12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. ~ 1 Timothy 1:12-17

In our text today, the Apostle Paul brings attention to the designation "Christ Jesus." The order is a reflection of the Apostle's conversion experience. It was the exalted Christ that he met on the Damascus Road. Christ is, in the New Testament, used 531 times more than any other title to describe the Lord Jesus. Christ comes from the Greek word χριστός (chrīstós), meaning "anointed one of God."

In v.12-13 we read, "12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief."

In these two verses, the Apostle reminds us of Christianity's bottom line. We once were the enemies of God but now we are on God's team through Christ Jesus our Lord. The cause for our former enemy status was our ignorance and unbelief. We were clueless to the goodness of God and the deceitfulness of the enemy. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance from our way to His. 

In Romans 2:4 we read, "You surely don't think much of God's wonderful goodness or of his patience and willingness to put up with you. Don't you know that the reason God is good to you is because he wants you to turn to him?"

After the Apostle came into a personal relationship with the Lord, he was given strength, he was considered trustworthy, and was appointed into His service. The same has happened to all who have believed, including you and me. The gulf that once was there between us and God has been bridged by the mercy of God. And, we now have a personal relationship with Him which, if we act on, will soar into a deeper intimacy with Him. And, as this happens, we begin to increasingly experience His heart for others, especially the lost.

Of the mercy of God, Thomas Merton once wrote, "But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God's love precisely because of his shortcomings, can begin to be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his own illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God."

Mercy has to do with misery. Grace has to do with guilt. Grace takes away the guilt, whereas mercy takes away the misery that accompanies the guilt. The undeserved relief of misery that comes with saving grace came to the Apostle Paul, as it has to all who have ever believed and will ever believe.

In v.14 we read, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” 

And now, the Apostle introduces the grace of God. Whereas the grace of God pardons us of sin, the mercy of God gives us His calling on our lives. Grace will always be greater than sin, but if we do not access God's grace through His Son, we will remain judged by our sin. And, we can not access God's grace through none other than the Lord Jesus. Notice that we not only receive grace but along with it comes faith and love. When grace comes, with it comes faith and love. This means when God saved us, He granted us the grace to trust Him. Even our faith in Him is a gift.

In v.15 we read, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst."

If the Lord Jesus can save the worst of sinners like Saul of Tarsus who was intercepted by the Lord Himself while he was on the road to Damascus to round up Christians to be jailed for believing in the Lord Jesus, He can save any sinner. No one is beyond His reach.

In v.16 we read, “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” 

We are all displays of God's great mercy once we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. The ultimate purpose of our salvation is to glorify God, to demonstrate His power and His long-suffering in our lives. Even those false teachers that were creating such havoc in Ephesus were not beyond the reach of God's mercy and grace. Those who believe that some are beyond the Lord's reach do not understand His vast mercy and grace.

In v.17 we read, "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." 

Once we have seen the Lord for ourselves, we will unmistakably speak of Him in an accurate and believable way. This is the ultimate response to God's grace. Once we became Christian and saw Him with our hearts, we possessed a thankful heart toward Him. Gratitude is the first breath that comes out of a saved soul. Gratitude turns what we have into enough and that enough will always be Him.

1 Timothy 1:8-11

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8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. ~ 1 Timothy 1:8-11

The Apostle in the previous verses highlighted the believer's need for love to be our motivation behind correcting false teaching. False teachers were using the Old Testament law to teach doctrines which were leading people away from the grace of God which is the access point to His love. And, through their false teachings, these false teachers were causing division among the believers in Ephesus. The Apostle Paul used the word "conscience" twenty-one times in all of his writings, and six of these references are in 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus. 

The word conscience means “to know with.” Conscience is the inner judge that accuses us when we have done wrong and approves when we have done right. It is possible to sin against the conscience so that it becomes “defiled” according to Titus1:15. Repeated sinning hardens the conscience so that it becomes “seared” to the truth, like scar tissue. 

The false doctrine in the church at Ephesus was due to the misuse of the Old Testament law. These false teachers did not understand the content or the purpose of God’s law.They were leading believers out of the freedom of grace into the bondage of legalism, a tragedy that still occurs today. The flesh (the sinfulness that is still within us) loves religious legalism because rules and regulations enable us to appear holy without really having a change of heart. It is only in the context of grace do we best understand the love of God for us which determines how much we are enabled to love others.

The lawful use of the law is to expose, restrain, and convict the lawless. The law cannot save us, it can only reveal our need for the Savior. When we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we were freed from the curse of the law, and the righteousness of Christ was applied to our account before God. The law and the gospel go hand in hand, for the law without the gospel is diagnosis without remedy. And the gospel without law is only  salvation for people who don’t believe they need to be saved.

In v.8 we read, “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.” God gave man the law for a reason; to hold our sinfulness in check. However, these false teachers were using it as a means of salvation. The false teacher believes the law is the standard by which mankind merit God's favor which we know is impossible for any of us. And, of course, this is why the Lord Jesus came in the first place. Only He could bridge the huge gap created by our rebellion against God.

In v.9-10 we read, “9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine.” 

The law is for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for those who are trapped in their sinful behavior that is contrary to God's definitions of things,. The law is good but the law alone is not the good news. The law alone is bad news. The law condemns, preparing us for the good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The law crushes the sinner. Then, by the gospel, God lifts up the broken who have been made willing to cry out for grace and mercy.

In v.11 we read, "the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me."

A proper understanding of the law is rendered by the gospel, which declares mankind is separated from God by our sinfulness and man cannot redeem himself. But Jesus Christ came into the world, God in human flesh, died on the cross, was raised the third day for our justification, and by faith in him and the grace of God we can be forgiven of our sin. That is the gospel. 

To rightly define the law is part of the gospel; that’s why the Apostle Paul then writes in v.11, “the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel.” We show love in various ways. The Apostle, in our text, reminds us that we love people when we tell them about the reality of their sinful condition so that they can be saved. Many today say that this is not loving, telling others of their sinful condition. They would see the love in this if they were to die and spend eternity in hell. I mean, what is more important than where one spends eternity?

Finally, notice the final phrase in v.11, "which he entrusted to me." This means that we get the message right. The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple; mankind is separated from God, God sent His Son to bridge the separation, and if one believes in the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, he shall be saved. Christianity is not about good people getting better. The Gospel is good news for helpless people who can not be good enough to earn God's favor. And, it is out of our helpless posture that we see God's enormous love for us and we grow in our love for Him and others.