I Timothy 1 v 19b – 20 - Excommunication [2]

 In Corinthians Paul says, ‘…hand over one from of this sort to close beside Satan, penetrating towards the aim of the ruination of the flesh in order that the breath is being delivered to safety within the Day of the Lord’ (I Corinthians 5 v 5). Paul places his focus on the Day of the Lord which is associated with the fair Judgement of God by means of His Messiah, when secret matters of the heart and things done in darkness will be revealed. For the Apostle the Day of the Lord is in many ways the time of completion and fulfilment for Christians. It is the time of rousing up from out of the dead, standing up again, full redemption and the allotment of divine rewards and inheritance to Christians as sons and heirs in God’s house. 

 

The ‘breath’ being delivered is often interpreted by commentators to refer our ‘soul’, by which they tend to mean an immortal incorporeal ‘true self’ sheathed by our physical body. That’s according to orthodox Christian tradition anyway. I am proposing that our ‘breath’ is our inner ‘direction and movement of energy’, related to life, sensitivity and responsiveness to God. 

I suggest that if Christians are regarded and treated as an ‘outsider’ as a result of their excommunication, then this leads them to ‘necessary proportionate recompense of their wandering off course’ (Romans 1 v 27b). This recompense, this proportional and appropriate payment for wandering off course, may take a number of forms. Such an individual may become materially wealthy and/or successful – but lose their breath – their energy and sensitivity to the Lord and thus suffer loss within the Day of the Lord. Or they may suffer illness, or loss of their favourable situation or reputation, or experience adversity, regret, a sense of abandonment or isolation, or any number of such things. By experiencing such adverse circumstances the aim is that they come to see that they have turned to ‘broken cisterns’ instead of the ‘water of life’. The hope is that as a result they may turn back in repentance towards obedient trust in and sensitive responsiveness to God and His Messiah, thus delivering their breath now, at this present time, and thus receiving the beneficial future consequences of this within the Day of the Lord.

There we are, Paul is quite consistent. He was no legalist, nor was he a permissive liberal. Nor was he anti-law in the sense of opposing or negating the principles and aims of divine law. Christians are placed under the free gift of God by means of the Messiah, who fulfils the requirements of divine law on their behalf and pays the price required by law for their self-forfeiture. Paul was therefore against Christians referring to the external written codes of Levitical law as a means of godliness, arguing that Christians are not under Levitical law, or any written system of law for that matter. Rather, Christians have been transferred into a royal priesthood of the order of Melchizedek with Jesus the Messiah as their High Priest. The principles of divine law are written in the Christian’s deep inner core, and borne witness to by the indwelling Breath. So Christians are exhorted to walk around day-by-day within the sphere of the Breath. In other words, in this respect, the locus of the dynamic of the Christian life is within, rather than by reference to and imposition of external written codes. The focus is on union with the Messiah as their Lord and Saviour, and on the Breath enlightening and illuminating the Christian’s perception of unseen realities. It is on Christians co-working with God by exercising their mind, such that they reason things through to their proper conclusion. It is on carrying these enlightened principles and conclusions across from within into their speech and behaviour in practical beneficial love, especially to fellow Christians, so that they speak and behave consistently with their calling, and bring forth the primary Fruit of the Breath. In the process they are being transformed into the image of the Messiah as the Breath opposes the impulses of the Christian’s fleshly constitution. 

I Timothy 1 v 9c – 11 - The principles and aims of divine law

 The law is ‘for those threshing fathers, and threshing mothers, for murderers of man, 10 male prostitutes, men in bed with another man, those bringing men to his feet, liars, perjurers or false witnesses’, (I Timothy 1 v 9c – 10a). 

Some commentators propose that Paul is indeed following the Ten Commandments here in verses 9 - 11. But Paul is not quoting divine law or the Ten Commandments. What we need to note is this, the law is good and its moral principles and aims remain in place. Jesus does not introduce permissive licentiousness but a transfer of the principles and aims of divine law away from external written codes to these principles being written on the Christian’s heart, borne witness to by the Breath of God and union with the Messiah. Thus Paul does not make direct reference to the external written codes of the Ten Commandments when it comes to the righteous – Christians. Law, and divine law especially, is for those who are not righteous, for the type of individual who has deliberate irreverence, who is an ill-user of their father and mother. The Greek word means to ‘thresh’. ‘Thresh’ literally means to separate the edible grain from the straw or husks of a harvested plant, typically by beating, hence physical abuse, beating or hitting of parents. Law is for murderers, those who dominate other people and bring them under their feet, and deceitful liars.

Indeed, divine law is for ‘anyone else if opposing the healthy teaching 11 down from the good news of the honour and praiseworthiness of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted’, (I Timothy 1 v 10b – 11). There we have the general principle with regard to divine law. 

Divine law is for anyone setting him or herself in full opposition to, as irreconcilable to, or contrary to and adversarial to healthy teaching down from the gospel

I Timothy 1 v 3 – 5 - Christian teachers missing the mark

 Paul makes reference to law in his first letter to Timothy. At the start of his letter Paul reminds Timothy of the instructions that he had given to him before Paul left for a journey to Macedonia.

‘Just as I was travelling to Macedonia, I called you near to remain in place in Ephesus so that you might give instruction from close beside to any one not to teach differently. 4 Nor to hold their mind towards fables and endless genealogies which hold near searching questions and disputes, rather than administration of God’s household which is within entrustment’, (I Timothy 1 v 3 – 4).

Paul and Timothy were both at Ephesus and as Paul was about to make a journey to Macedonia he had some concerns about the teachers in the Ephesian assembly, so he called Timothy close beside. He instructed him to remain in Ephesus because he was concerned that some in the Ephesian assembly were beginning to teach ideas and principles that were contrary to, or hindering the good news that Paul had announced to the Ephesians. The problem was similar to what Paul had faced with the Galatians – some of the Ephesian teachers were drifting away from the gospel. So he called Timothy aside and instructed him not to allow any one to teach differently from the teaching Paul had already declared. Some in the Ephesian assembly were allowing themselves to be ‘side-tracked’, to be ‘knocked off course’ because they were paying attention to myths and fables. There were many such false stories circling in society and some of these Christian teachers were paying too much attention to them in their teaching. Other Christian teachers were focussing their minds on endless genealogies, going into deep examination of them and engaging in the different opinions and disputes that arose from them. The problem was that such interests were drawing attention away from the administration of God’s household, of Christians, which does not reside in such disputes, but within faith. 

‘But the aim of the instruction is practical benevolent love from out of a clean heart, good conscience and sincere entrustment’, (I Timothy 1 v 5). Paul was not trying to be negatively critical, nor was he being divisive or merely protecting his own opinions. Rather, his aim in giving this instruction to Timothy was that the Ephesian Christians would mature into practical benevolent love from out of a deep inner core that was clean, and had a good conscience and sincere persuasion and entrustment. His concern was that some were already missing the mark.