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ToBeLikeHim.com Return to Timothy Series Timothy Series - Lesson Three: 1 Timothy Chapter 1 Verses 3 - 7 John
Baugh Warnings
against False Teachers of the law: 3As I urged you when I
went into 5The goal of this
command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a
sincere faith. 6Some have
wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. 7They want to be teachers of the
law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so
confidently affirm. (1 Timothy 1:3-7) Keep The Doctrine True: In his
first letter to Timothy Paul gives Timothy counsel and guidance on how to
conduct himself in the leadership of the Church in At the
close of the book of Acts, Paul is imprisoned in Many
scholars believe that after his release from this first imprisonment, Paul
traveled with Timothy and Titus around the The
letters (1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus) are called Pastoral Epistles because
they contain qualifications for ministers and are filled with practical
instructions governing conduct in the local church. Scholars (mostly) agree
that these are the last of the letters from the pen of the apostle Paul to
two of his closest traveling companions. In the
letters to Timothy and Titus, Paul sends personal charges to these young
ministers, lists the qualifications for spiritual leadership, cautions his
spiritual sons regarding false teachers and apostasy and offers instruction
regarding conduct in the church. The
chronological setting of these epistles cannot be established with certainty,
but assuming harmony of the various scriptures leads to the conclusion that
Paul's ministry extended past the close of the Book of Acts in this way: 1. In
approximately AD 62 Paul was released from his Roman imprisonment. He left
Titus in Crete, Timothy in 2. He was
later imprisoned and wrote 2 Timothy, approximately AD 67 (2 Timothy 1:8). 1St Timothy 1:3-7 In his
instructions to Timothy, Paul first urged him to guard the teaching of the
church. In Paul's mind, teaching doctrine was the most important aspect of
the ministry of the church. It must be kept pure to the Gospel and unsullied.
Someone
said that, "The main thing is to see that the main thing remains the
main thing." The
principal task of the leadership of any church is to assure that the teaching
is in line with the gospel, the words recorded, concerning Jesus. Paul calls
it, "the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been
entrusted" (1st Timothy 1:11).
Paul knew that the Gospel was the body of teaching to which a church
should give itself. There are
many other subjects that are good and right for Christians to pursue but when
Christians come to church there is one body of teaching, and only one. The
church exists to declare this unique body of truth. Anything that differs is
not to be taught in church. When it
comes to teaching, Paul wrote to Timothy that the teaching in As strange
as it sounds, Paul had already indicated that the church in In verse
29 he says, "I
know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not
spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the
truth in order to draw away disciples after them.”(Acts 20:29-30 NIV) And So,
Timothy was in Timothy’s
first task was to stop certain teaching that was going on in There were
two possible sources for these problems: 1 - Gnosticism About this
time a false teaching called Gnosticism was coming into prominence. (in the
Greek language gnosis means knowledge.) The adherents to this belief held
many and somewhat varied beliefs such as: - Gnostics
claim to have a superior knowledge which was available only to a select few.
This belief placed an exaggerated value on the intellect. It denied that
knowledge was available to everyone and singled out only a select few. - Gnostics
believed matter was evil and that the mind was spiritual. In their opinion,
the mind was unrelated to anything physical. Therefore the mind could enjoy a
high and lofty relationship to God while the body participated in
unrestrained self-gratification. Another aspect of this thought process was
the prohibition of natural bodily activities such as eating or sex. (Food is
matter, therefore is evil; sexual activities—even in marriage—involve use of
the body, therefore are evil). - Gnostics
denied that Christ came in the flesh. (The body is evil. Therefore, God could
not become human flesh.) This belief led to denial of the virgin birth
because deity could not take the form of man. Gnostics held that Christ (God)
descended upon Jesus (man) at baptism and left before crucifixion. Scholarly
agreement is not uniform regarding Gnosticism. Some believe that it may not
have been a fully developed movement when the pastoral epistles were written.
Some scholars disagree, believing that Gnosticism existed before the birth of
Christ. Most scholars agree that these Gnostic thought patterns were
beginning to emerge at the time of Timothy was serving as Pastor at By the
time the Apostle John wrote his epistles (80-90 AD) this heresy was more
fully developed and his first epistle counters these beliefs in a
comprehensive manner. Looking at
1 Timothy 1:3-7, Gnosticism Stressed: V3 – False
doctrines In Acts
Luke tells us that many Jews were coming into the Christian Church. The Jews
had followed Genealogy for many generations. The importance of genealogy to
the Jews is evident from the Old Testament writings (and from both Matthew
and Luke’s writings). Additionally, Jewish literature was filled with
mythical tradition that most of the Jews of that day would know and might
attempt to insert in the teachings of Christianity. If the
problems in the church at Ephesus were coming from converted Jews, the myths
were most likely similar to those contained in the Old Testament's Apocrypha;
the fourteen additional books (located in time, between the Old Testament and
the New Testament) that are not contained in Protestant Bibles. The books of
the Apocrypha were never accepted by the Jews as Scripture, but were widely
circulated in the early centuries. They contain fanciful tales and
imaginative accounts, usually about wise men, who had remarkable teachings
about various themes. This may have been what was being taught along with the
Christian truth in Paul's
warnings to Timothy do not state that these teachers were blatant heretics
and if they were coming from Jewish converts they were not intended to be.
They may have been from Jewish men of the congregation who, in many ways,
were good teachers, but they were beginning to introduce ideas that were
derived, basically, from Jewish philosophy and in variance with the Gospel. Verses 6
and 7, state that these men were "longing to be teachers of the
law." Perhaps they were Jewish converts, attempting to inject Jewish
fables, myths and genealogies, into the church at The
problem with this is that it is essential that there be unity in the teaching
of a church. Differences of style and presentation are common and fine. There
also are different gifts, which vary, among teachers. There are different
choices of subjects of the revelation of God. The heart of Christ's truth,
however, must remain unsullied (unaltered), because the Scripture is the most
powerful weapon the Church has to correct error and to deliver people from
bondage into freedom. The teaching of the truth, therefore, must be central
in the ministry of the Church. A Personal Experience Most
pastors and teachers in A good
friend working in the missionary field of sub-Saharan Africa states that
there is a huge need for teachers to come and work with Pastors and
Laypersons there, saying that "the average Sunday School Teacher from
the USA is a giant of biblical knowledge compared to many African pastors and
teachers". He says that " One thing
can be said of African pastors, though. Most of them are hungry for the truth
of the Gospel and eager to share it with their brothers and sisters in
Christ. In their efforts to share the Gospel, Christian Pastors in Back to Timothy: So what was wrong with these myths
and Genealogies? Jesus
said, "By their fruits you shall know them," (Matt 7:20 KJV). Any time a
teaching is brought forth, one might ask, "What does it lead people to
do?" Paul tells
us very plainly that the teaching in Timothy
was urged to turn these teachers away from this type of teaching because it
was unhealthy and unprofitable. It resulted in a congregation engrossed in
speculative mind adventures. So, how was Timothy to accomplish such a task?
Paul urged him to contrast this teaching with the true revelation of
scripture. He was to charge these teachers not to "occupy themselves
with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations, rather than
the divine training that is in faith." In Paul's
opinion these teachers should have been studying and teaching a deposit of
truth given by God to men, and appropriated by faith. In Paul’s mind, faith
is not merely belief. Faith is trusting God and acting on the basis of facts
which God has revealed in Scripture. God's body
of truth (Scripture) is unique in the world. It is the secret of how to
release men and women from the bondage of evil (sin) in their lives to
deliver them into the wonderful freedom of the sons and daughters of God. That
is the nature of the gospel. It is so powerful and so radical that it is
always under subtle attack both from without and within. That is why it is so
necessary to ensure that the teaching is accurate and true and biblical,
because, when it is, it delivers people, it frees people, it changes whole
families; it has a powerful effect upon society. Continuing In Verse
5, Paul traces the course of love back to its source, its origin. Paul writes
about, "love that issues from a pure heart," and behind that,
"a good conscience," and behind that, "sincere faith." Beginning
at the end, faith is believing what God has said about the total end of our
old life and the impartation of a new life identified with the righteousness
of Christ -- that is what we believe. We are new people; we are not the same.
Everything of corrective nature in Christianity is to come back to that
source. Therefore,
love begins with sincere faith that the great facts of the gospel are
personally true of us. We are the ones who died in Christ, and rose again
with him, and are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. When we
believe those things, our actions will begin to change. We will begin to see
that some of the things we have been doing, and the way we have been living
are not consistent with a changed life. They no longer are the normal
outworking of a heart that has been made anew in Jesus Christ. Then, these
things begin to fade. People of
conscience do not have to be forced to stop things; they begin to see that
these things are inconsistent with a changed life and it affects their
conscience. That is what Paul means when he speaks of a "good
conscience." Conscience is the judge of our behavior. It affects the way
we act, either accusing us or excusing us. And, as we begin to be consistent
in our actions (with what we really are), we have a good conscience. We see
ourselves forgiven, restored and accepted, the past washed away. Yesterday,
with its sins and mistakes, is cleansed. Every day we begin anew on this
basis, living according to a good conscience. Living to
the demands of a good conscience results in a pure heart. Our inner attitudes
begin to change because we are no longer the same people we once were. Our
thoughts also begin to change as we are less often led to do the things we
should not be doing. The changes in our attitudes and thoughts purify our
hearts. Then, as those things occur, we begin to become vessels for the
flowing out of the love of God. Paul said
in Romans 5, "The
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given
unto us," (Rom 5:5). Love
begins to touch us and those around us. That is the gospel. That is the good
news. There is a
fourth thing Paul tells Timothy about these teachers. Timothy is to recognize
their true state. Today, we would say, “Where they are coming from”. Certain
persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion,
desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are
saying or the things about which they make assertions. (1 Tim 1:6-7) In other
words, these teachers had become "doctrinal wanderers," wandering
about from one aspect of human speculation and philosophy to another. If you
watch people like this over the course of time, one thing is characteristic
of them: they never stay with one subject but are always pursuing some new
theological and philosophical fad. This
doctrinal wandering results in what Paul calls, "vain discussion."
(The New English Bible calls it "a wilderness of words,". Paul said
their motive was a desire for position and reputation, not to see that the
truth is taught or that lives are changed. They desired to be "teachers
of the law," motivated by ambitious pride. Yet, Paul said they did not
understand what they were saying or the sources from which they took their
knowledge. Though they appeared to be impressive teachers, they were without
any real understanding of reality. It is
always important to remain true to the apostolic witness of the truth as it
is in Jesus. Copyright © 2008, ToBeLikeHim Ministries |