I Timothy 1 v 18, 19 - Elders and Christians bringing the gospel into disrepute

 In verse 15 Paul stated the good news of the Messiah very succinctly. In verses 3 – 7 he stated that some were missing the mark with regard to this good news or gospel. Some were becoming absorbed in myths, others in endless genealogical details, and others wanted to be experts in Covenant law. Paul explained that divine is law is good but that it is not intended for the righteous. It is for the unrighteous and lawless. Paul agrees that before he became a Christian he was very lawless. He persecuted and oppressed Jews who were embracing Christianity. But he says that he acted in ignorance and despite his behaviour, God’s mercy through His anointed son, Jesus, super-abounded.

I have stayed with Paul’s account to Timothy because Paul now moves on to two Christians who had fallen into behaviour that also openly opposed the gospel and was bringing it into disrepute. How did the Apostle deal with these two Christians? Did he quote Levitical law and the Ten Commandments to them? That is what legalists would do. Let’s see what Paul did in the next three verses. 

‘I place alongside this injunction to you Timothy my child, down from the prophecies going before you, that you serve as a soldier within them, the good military service. 19 possessing entrustment and a good conscience', (I Timothy 1 v 18, 19a). First of all, Paul gives an exhortation to Timothy who is a ruling elder in this assembly. This exhortation was either based either on some earlier assessments by fellow Christians in relation to Timothy, or (more probably) on the basis of some revelations that Paul, or some other believers had received concerning Timothy. Paul tells Timothy to serve as a good soldier of the Messiah within the Ephesian assembly, particularly within their leaders. He encourages Timothy to hold on to faith and a good conscience. This leads Paul to make a statement about some of these leaders and especially about two wayward Christians named Hymenaeus and Alexander. 

Paul says that ‘some have pushed away, causing a shipwreck around entrustment', (I Timothy 1 v 19b). They have pushed away from the basic teaching of the gospel that Paul had announced to the Ephesians, as we have just seen. Hymenaeus and Alexander were two Christians who had a tendency to blaspheme – to defame, revile, to speak evil and irreverently. In other words, they were acting like ‘outsiders’ and bringing disrepute upon the gospel, God and Jesus. All of these people were causing a shipwreck around entrusting and being persuaded of the Messiah. They were creating opposition and resistance to the gospel. Thus Paul begins by exhorting Timothy not to be like them, but rather to ‘serve like a soldier holding on to faith and a good conscience’.

So what did Paul do with regard to Hymenaeus and Alexander? Did he refer them to Covenant law? No, although the principle and aim of Covenant law no doubt informed his decision. Christians are not summoned by God to then behave in a way that causes resistance to the gospel. Such behaviour is not down from the Breath of God. Christians ‘walking within the Breath’ do not regularly and persistently ‘rubbish’ God, Jesus or the gospel. Such speech and behaviour brings the gospel and the assembly into negative criticism and leads ‘outsiders’ into dismissal of the gospel. Paul’s decision was that since they were behaving like ‘outsiders’, opposing the gospel and bringing God and His Messiah into disrepute, he ‘handed them over to Satan’. They were no longer acknowledged as being associated with the Ephesian assembly. Help, support and fellowship was withdrawn from them and they were ‘back in the worldly arrangement’.

I Timothy 1 v 15 - 17 - The good news or gospel

 Paul brings his previous excessive opposition together with God’s free gift ‘Faithful the saying and deserving all acceptance, that Jesus Messiah came into the orderly arrangement to save and make whole self-forfeiters, of whom I am foremost’. (I Timothy 1 v 15). Paul by no means denies his previous behaviour but rather refers to his excessive opposition so as to reinforce the superabundant mercy of God in sending His only begotten son to deliver one who had such strong opposition. 

So what is the end result? ‘But by this means I was shown mercy, in order that within me, the foremost [self-forfeiter], Jesus Messiah might show forth absolutely all patience, as a pattern for those about to be believing on the basis of him, penetrating into perpetual life. 17 And to the King of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, solitary God, honour and praiseworthiness penetrating into the ages of the ages. Amen.' (I Timothy 1 v 16, 17). In effect, Paul says, ‘If God has shown mercy to me, who was such a prominent self-forfeiter opposing the gospel, then this is a pattern for those who are about to entrust Jesus. If I have been delivered from condemnation, then this is an encouragement to those who have not entered into such a degree of opposition, it means that they will also be delivered by entrustment in the Messiah'. Paul then breaks out into praise to God as King of the ages and seasons. 

I Timothy 1 v 12 – 14 - Self-forfeiture before being brought forth by God

Paul anticipates a potential objection. Didn’t he once persecute Christians? Didn’t he once engage in a mission to hunt down Hebrew Christians to force them to turn back to Judaism? Didn’t he stand by as an observer who approved of Stephen being stoned to death? Isn’t he like one of the very people who he has just being describing – one strongly opposed to Christian teaching? So he goes on to say, ‘I have thankfulness for the [one] having strengthened me, Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, that he led me faithfully, having placed me into service, 13 formerly being a blasphemer, a persecutor and damaging insulter’. (I Timothy 1 v 12 – 13a). Paul admits that this is exactly what he was like. But then he adds, ‘But I was shown mercy, because being ignorant I constructed within lack of faith, 14 and the graciousness of our Lord exceedingly abounded, in company with entrustment and beneficial love within the Messiah, Jesus’, (I Timothy 1 v 13b – 14). In effect, one of the things he is saying is that Christians do not act in the kind of ways that he has just been describing. He says, ‘Yes, its is true. I did act in that way, as persecutor and blasphemer, but I was acting in ignorance, within lack of knowledge and perception, and what I was doing was in the sphere of lack of entrustment and persuasion. This was how I was before I became a Christian.’ He then says that despite his excessive opposition, the free gift and mercy of God and His Messiah ‘exceedingly abounded’ – it was superabundant, it went beyond his self-forfeiture and was super-plentiful. God’s graciousness came in company with persuasion and entrustment – faith – and practical beneficial love within God’s anointed the Messiah.  

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 9a - Christian legalist objections

 '....law is not lying outstretched for the equitable and righteous’, (I Timothy 1 v 9a). 

‘Aha!’ says the legalist, ‘What the Apostle means is that Christians are not under the ‘Ceremonial Law’. But Christians do remain under the ‘Moral Law’ such as the Ten Commandments’. I have argued that this division into two different aspects or facets of divine law is not entirely incorrect, but if pressed too far it negates the unity of Covenant law as a comprehensive integrated whole, a unified arrangement. But in any case, it is very clear from what follows that Paul is not talking about the Ceremonial aspects of divine law but its Moral aspects, because he goes on to talk about murderers, liars and prostitutes who clearly come under the Moral aspects or facets of divine law.

‘Ah! But,’ says the legalist, ‘It is true that Christians are indeed ultimately acquitted as judicially approved within the Messiah because of their union in him. But at the moment, even though the Breath of God is dwelling in their deepest inner core, Christians do not always walk around within the Breath, they do not always follow the leading of the Breath. They don’t always think things through to a correct conclusion and then act appropriately and consistently. Sometimes they are overtaken by fleshly impulses and that is when they need to be directed to divine law in order to drive them to the Messiah seeking forgiveness’. 

‘By no means’, says Paul. ‘For Christians, the reference point is no longer the external codes written in stone, instead their locus is the Messiah, and the principles of law are written on their hearts - the Ground of their thoughts, faculty of choice and affections. The Messiah fulfils the requirements of the law on their behalf, he has paid the price for their self-forfeiture, and as they entrust the Messiah, their self-forfeiture is removed as far as the east is from the west. As they perceive the practical, beneficial, love of the Messiah shown to them, and as they emulate it by carrying it across into their speech and behaviour, they bring forth the Fruit of the Breath. In this way the Messiah is made complete and they are being changed into his image. The dynamic is from within, it is not on the basis of the imposition of external written codes. This is the dynamic of the New Covenant of the blood of the Messiah, and the new royal priesthood into which Christians have been placed. Christians are not under the authority of external written codes of Levitical law, but under the free gift of God by means of His only begotten son.  

Law is for the unrighteous

That is the basic principle when it comes to using law legitimately. And if we are in any doubt, Paul lists the type of individual that he has in mind. Law is not for the righteous ‘but for the lawless and those not subject to rule, for those without reverence, self-forfeiting, for those without reverence or regard for what should be set apart, crossing the threshold, gaining improper entrance’, (I Timothy 1 v 9b). Law is for those without law, for the unruly and insubordinate, and divine law is for those without respect, self-forfeiting in their contempt for that which should be set apart and clean. The word usually translated into English as ‘profane’ means ‘crossing the threshold, gaining improper entrance’. In literal terms it is like a brutish individual entering a set-apart place of godly devotion without having any respect or reverence. Paul goes on to explain in a little more detail. 

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).