|
|
The Apostle Paul's First
Epistle to Timothy |
|
Chapter 1
|
|
1Paul, an apostle
of Messiah Yeshua according to the commandment
of God our Savior, and of Messiah Yeshua, who is
our hope,
This epistle, was written from the Apostle Paul
to arguably his greatest disciple, Timothy. Why
then does Paul include the title "apostle of
Messiah Yeshua?" Surely, Timothy was aware of
Paul's status as apostle of the Messiah.
Apparently, while the epistle was written
specifically to Timothy, who was in a position
of leadership among the assembly of Ephesus, the
instructions that Paul expected Timothy to carry
out had to be authorized by Apostolic
authority.
It is evident that Paul is emphasizing his
Apostolic authority by including the qualifying
statement "of the Messiah" in connection to his
apostleship. This phrase refers to the unique
authority that only comes from someone
commissioned by the Messiah Himself. In that
era, there were perhaps two kinds of apostles.
There were those who were simply ambassadors of
the various assemblies and then there were the
official ambassadors of the Messiah Himself. The
authority of the Apostles, the ones who were
witnesses of the resurrected Messiah, superseded
all other authority figures.
While someone like Timothy was in a position of
authority as commissioned by Paul, Paul was in a
position of higher authority because he was a
witness to the resurrected Messiah and was
specifically commissioned by Him. This is why
Paul can confidently say that his apostleship is
according to "the commandment of God." It's
interesting that the phrase "the commandment" is
used (even by Paul in this same epistle, see
6:14) to refer to the Torah. It's possible that
Paul was saying that his authority came from God
Himself just as the commandments of the Torah
came from God. If Paul believed and taught that
the commandments of God in the Torah were done
away with and had lost their authority, then
this reference to his apostleship being
according to "the commandment" of God would be a
non-sequitur.
Once again, Paul coupled God and the Master
Yeshua together in one sentence. This time, He
highlights that God is our saviour and the
Messiah is our hope. This makes sense since it
is God who works salvation in our lives through
the atoning work of the Messiah, our source of
hope.
2To Timothy, my true child in the faith:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and
Messiah Yeshua our Master.
Paul calls Timothy his "true child in the
faith," meaning Timothy was one who was a true
reflection of who Paul was. In addition to
consistently reflecting the attributes of their
father, a true child is one who also administers
the authority given by that father. As we will
see, Paul's hope is that Timothy will act on his
own behalf, correcting and guiding the assembly
in proper practice.
Paul once again includes "grace" and "peace" in
his greeting but this time he includes the word
"mercy." These words sum up our salvation in the
Messiah. In the Messiah, God has displayed His
grace towards us by giving us the hope of
eternal life. He has shown His mercy towards us
for not punishing us for our sin but instead
justifying us through the sacrifice of Messiah.
As a result of the grace and mercy that God
bestows upon us, we have peace; peace between
man and God.
3As I urged you upon my departure for
Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may
instruct certain men not to teach strange
doctrines,
Paul desired that Timothy remained at Ephesus so
that he could instruct certain men to not teach
strange doctrines. In our day, the myriad of
denominations, each with their own distinctive
theological perspective, has so incredibly
clouded the distinction between sound and
strange doctrine. Believers are hardly taught
how to properly interpret the Bible and are left
helpless and susceptible to the false teachings
of "wolves in sheep's clothing."
The Torah has much to say about how to know and
deal with false teaching. According to
Deuteronomy 13, if anyone, even a close family
member or friend, tries to entice you to go
after other gods, you should reject them. What
does it mean to "go after other gods?" It means
to not follow the commandments of God and to
instead devote oneself to things that God has
forbidden us to do. If one were to apply this
commandment to today's religious world, one
would have to reject both historic Judaism and
Christianity. Historic Judaism rejects Yeshua as
the Messiah and historic Christianity rejects
the Torah. Neither can be rejected if one wants
to follow the whole counsel of God's word. This
is why Messianic Judaism is so very important.
It maintains devotion to both the Messiah and
the Torah.
4nor to pay attention to myths and endless
genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation
rather than furthering the administration of God
which is by faith.
Specifically, in regards to the situation to
which Paul was writing, the strange doctrines
had to do with myths and genealogies; or, more
specifically, myths regarding genealogies. We
can't know for sure but it would certainly seem
that, if genealogies were involved, the false
teaching was associated with the prominent
notion of the day that salvation was only
available to those who had a legal Jewish status
(the heresy that Paul confronted in his epistle
to the Galatians). This is confirmed by the
parallel passage in Titus 1:10, which
specifically identifies the Circumcision group
as the false teachers. As we will see, it's
possible that the false teachers among the
Believers at Ephesus were mixing the
circumcision heresy (that only Jews and Jewish
converts are saved) with certain ascetic
practices. To Paul, however, neither the
circumcision heresy nor any extra Biblical
ascetic practice furthers the administration of
God. The phrase "administration of God" is used
elsewhere by Paul to refer to the unity of Jews
and Gentiles living out the commandments of God
in devotion to the Messiah. The administration
of God is furthered neither by achieving some
legal status in the Jewish community nor by
abstaining from things which God never asked us
to abstain from.
5But the goal of our instruction is love from
a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere
faith.
Instead, rather than focusing on myths and
genealogies, a Believing community should be
focused on obeying God’s commandments with all
of the right motives. The consistent teaching of
the Torah, highlighted by Yeshua and the
Apostles, is that obeying the Torah outwardly is
not enough. In order for one’s obedience to be
acceptable to God, one must obey with a sincere
and joyful attitude. A person’s aspirations of
obedience should never be for one’s own personal
gain. Rather, obedience should be based upon a
sincere faith, lived out with a good and clear
conscience.
6For some men, straying from these things,
have turned aside to fruitless discussion,
7wanting to be teachers of the Torah, even
though they do not understand either what they
are saying or the matters about which they make
confident assertions.
Without deliberate focus on obeying God with a
right heart, one can fall into the trap of
fruitless discussion. Fruitless discussion
refers to arguing for no purpose. Among God’s
people, there should be discussion regarding
God’s commandments. Our discussions, however,
must always further the administration of God.
In other words, discussion should always lead to
loving obedience and mutual up-building. All too
often, discussions have no real end goal other
than proving a certain point.
Essentially, what Paul is teaching here is that
if one wants to be a teacher of Torah, one must
be adequately equipped and teach in such a way
that entices people to genuine obedience to
God’s commandments. The Torah, being perfect,
condemns human beings and in the hands of
someone with evil or misguided intentions can do
much harm to the faith of others. |
|
|
|
8But we know that the Torah is good, if one
uses it lawfully,
Paul quickly clarifies that the Torah itself is
good but it must be used properly. The Greek
word for “good” could just as easily be
translated as “useful.” If Paul was simply
disregarding all applications of the Torah, he
would not have proclaimed the Torah’s
usefulness. In fact, the consistent teaching of
Paul is that for the Believer, the Torah is
holy, righteous, good and spiritual (Romans
7:12, 14) and that Believers are obligated
to uphold and keep the commandments of God (Romans
3:31; 1 Corinthians 7:19). Therefore, his
intention is to correct the misapplication of
the Torah by these false teachers who wanted to
be teachers of Torah but didn’t know what they
were talking about.
9realizing the fact that [Torah] is not made
for a righteous person, but for those who are
lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and
sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those
who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers
10and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers
and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is
contrary to sound teaching, 11according to the
glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I
have been entrusted.
The Greek word, here translated as "made," is
“keimai” and means “to lay down” or “to set
upon.” Paul’s point is simple and directly
answers the question of “how were the false
teachers misapplying the Torah?” The Torah is
not to be used to condemn those who are actively
endeavouring to obey God and His commandments.
For Believers, those whom God has fully
justified through the blood of the Messiah, the
Torah is supposed to be God’s loving instruction
on how to live a holy life. Yes, the Torah
should be used to gently correct Believers who
have erred but the process of correction is very
delicate.
The Torah should, however, be used in a
condemning way for unbelievers. In the case of
someone lost in their sins, the laws of Torah
must be “laid down” upon them. If God graciously
chooses to regenerate the unbeliever’s heart,
the condemning work of the Torah will lead the
unbeliever to the Saviour and to the salvation
He brings (Romans 10:4, Galatians 3:24).
Much could be said about why Paul chose to use
the specific phrases and words to describe the
lawless but the greater point is that none of
those things are in line with the sound teaching
of the Gospel. Hard as some modern teachers may
try to prove to contrary, the Apostle Paul was
not teaching Believers to abandon the
commandments of the Torah. The Torah was and is
the very foundation of the Gospel.
12I thank Messiah
Yeshua our Master, who has strengthened me,
because He considered me faithful, putting me
into service, 13even though I was formerly a
blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent
aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted
ignorantly in unbelief; 14and the grace of our
Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and
love which are found in Messiah Yeshua.
Paul used his story of salvation to show Timothy
what spiritual characteristics a man must have
in order to be known as a legitimate leader. God
isn't so much interested in using great people
to do His work as He's interested in taking
sinners, transforming them and using them to do
His work. In doing this, God displays His grace
and Paul's story could possibly be the
quintessential example. Instead of simply laying
down the law upon Paul, God showed him mercy. By
this, we can learn that showing mercy should
always be preferable than simply laying down
God's Law upon people.
15It is a trustworthy statement, deserving
full acceptance, that Messiah Yeshua came into
the world to save sinners, among whom I am
foremost of all. 16Yet for this reason I found
mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Yeshua the
Messiah might demonstrate His perfect patience
as an example for those who would believe in Him
for eternal life.
In his combat against false teachers, Paul
showed that humility is an essential quality of
a true teacher of God’s word. A true teacher of
God’s word will never simply condemn others but
will always recall their own salvation
experience (specifically that they did not
deserve the grace God bestowed upon them). The
revelation that Messiah came to save sinners,
people who do not deserve salvation, should
result in the Believer imitating God's
magnanimous attributes in how we treat others.
The story of Paul's heart conversion, going from
a self-righteous persecutor of Believers to one
of the greatest followers of Messiah ever, has
and will continue to be the best example of
God's mercy. Paul's story continues to encourage
Believers to fight the good fight and to not
give up on God because God certainly does not
give up on us.
17Now to the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen.
Paul, most likely flowing from a heart of
gratitude for the salvation God had given him,
inserted a bracha (a liturgical blessing). The
phrase "King eternal" can just as easily be
translated "king of the universe," which is from
the standard formula for a blessing in
traditional Judaism. Paul also alludes to the
Shema by stating the oneness of God.
To the Apostle Paul, the one who is "only God"
is immortal and invisible, two attributes that
actually exclude Yeshua from being ontologically
God.
18This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my
son, in accordance with the prophecies
previously made concerning you, that by them you
fight the good fight, 19keeping faith and a good
conscience, which some have rejected and
suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.
The meaning of the word in Greek that Paul used,
here translated as "command," is like a military
order. In other words, Paul placed a duty before
Timothy to fight against false teachers and
their false doctrine. This was his
responsibility, which was previously confirmed
to him through a prophetic utterance. There were
perhaps two different types of prophecies that
were spoken in the Apostolic era. Since the
cannon of Scripture was still open, it was
possible to receive direct revelation from God,
which was later written down as Scripture. The
other type of prophecy, which is still active
today, is simply the proclamation of God's
already revealed word in the Scriptures.
Apparently, upon Timothy’s ordination as
overseer, there were certain prophetic
utterances that confirmed his position. While
this can be taken in a sensational and overly
supernatural, it’s just as plausible that the
prophetic utterances were simply passages of the
Tanakh spoken over Timothy. Just as Joshua
continued the ministry of Moses, so too, it
would seem that Timothy continued the ministry
of Paul.
In fighting the good fight, Timothy’s strength
would be staying true to God’s revealed word,
the Tanakh (“keeping faith”), through a good and
clear conscience. While the false teachers were
straying from the truth and were destined for
failure (“shipwreck”), Timothy was to stand
firm.
20Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they
will be taught not to blaspheme.
Two of the false teachers were two men named
Hymenaueus and Alexander, who were most likely
leaders in the assembly. The chilling
declaration that Paul handed over these men to
Satan might seem severe and cold at first but
are actually acts of grace towards them. To hand
someone over to Satan is to abandon them to
their sin but with the result that they may hit
rock-bottom and come to repentance. At the very
least, abandoned people over to the influence of
Satan will either prove or disprove whether a
person is truly saved and transformed by God.
Job was handed over by God Himself to Satan and
yet Job persevered. Job persevered because he
was a true Believer. Both Peter and Judas were
handed over to Satan but only Peter persevered.
Specifically, in this context here, to be
“handed over to Satan” refers to being
excommunicated. It’s not helpful to anyone to
condone sin or overlook sin within an assembly,
especially among leadership. It’s best to remove
them from a position of influence and abandon
them to their sin. If they are truly Believers,
they will repent and can be restored. If they do
not repent, they will show that they were never
Believers and it’s a good thing that they are no
longer a part of the community. A great example
comes from the Gospels and the parable of the
prodigal son. The father let his son go and his
son was free to sin. The son’s sin, however,
caught up with him and eventually came to
repentance. It would have been no help to the
son for his father to let him stay in his house
and overlook the son’s sin. This is the
importance of making a distinction.
|
|
