1 Timothy1chapter 1

1 Timothy 1:1-2

Paul's opening ties his apostleship to a double office in the Godhead, God our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, the title Saviour applied to the Father here and to the Son later in the letter, a firm witness to the deity shared between them. Timothy is named my own son in the faith, the language of Acts 16:1-3 and 2 Timothy 1:5 standing behind it, a spiritual fatherhood rather than a natural one. The greeting's grace, mercy, and peace adds mercy to Paul's usual pair, a word he keeps for Timothy and Titus, the tenderness of a father writing to a young man under heavy strain.

1 Timothy 1:3-4

Paul's charge to Timothy sets the letter's whole agenda, that he remain at Ephesus and stop men from teaching a different doctrine, heterodidaskalein, a word Paul coins for the occasion. The fables and endless genealogies are read by most of the old writers as Jewish speculation grown up around the Old Testament's names and lists, the same soil that later produced rabbinic haggadah, rather than a developed Gnostic system already in place. Such teaching breeds questions, disputes without end, and stands opposed to godly edifying, the doctrine thread's opening move against its own opposite.

1 Timothy 1:5-6

Against speculation Paul sets the true aim of all teaching, charity out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, three inward marks rather than one outward performance. The false teachers have swerved from this target, missing the mark like an archer, and turned aside unto vain jangling, talk that leads nowhere and settles nothing. Sound doctrine is judged here by its fruit as much as its content, a test the whole letter will keep applying.

1 Timothy 1:7

The false teachers wanted the rabbi's seat without the rabbi's grasp, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. Their confidence outran their competence, a common danger the letter names before it corrects, since a teacher's first debt is to know his own subject. Paul will answer their misuse of the law directly in the next verses rather than reject the law itself.

1 Timothy 1:8-11

Paul corrects the false teachers without discarding the law, we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully, its proper use being to name sin rather than to justify the righteous. The list that follows runs the Decalogue's own order, murderers of fathers and mothers echoing the fifth commandment, whoremongers and those who defile themselves with mankind echoing the seventh, menstealers echoing the eighth, an old catechetical pattern more than one commentator has traced. The list closes wide open, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, folding every remaining sin under the glorious gospel Paul was entrusted to preach.

1 Timothy 1:12-14

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord: Paul turns from the law to his own history, thanking Christ Jesus for counting him faithful and putting him into the ministry, though he was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. He obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief, a distinction the old writers press, unbelief lessening guilt without removing it, since his ignorance was itself culpable in a man so zealous for the law. The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, grace and gift multiplying together where sin had been greatest.

1 Timothy 1:15-16

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners: The first of the letter's three faithful sayings states the gospel at its plainest, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, Paul's own case exhibit rather than a bare formula. In me first is read by most of the old commentators as foremost or chief rather than merely first in time, Paul standing as the pattern case for how far the longsuffering of Christ will reach. The saying's design is stated outright, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting, Paul's conversion written as a standing exhibit for every later convert who thinks himself past reach.

1 Timothy 1:17

The doxology bursts out of Paul's own testimony rather than standing apart from it, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, four attributes piled up to answer the false teachers' endless genealogies with the one true and unsearchable God. Eternal is literally of the ages, immortal names freedom from decay, invisible names what is beyond sight, and only wise stands against the vain jangling of verse 6. Honour and glory for ever and ever closes the first movement of the letter on pure worship before the charge resumes.

1 Timothy 1:18-19

The charge frame that opened the letter at verse 3 returns by name, this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, the same verb family as the deposit Timothy will be told to guard at 6:20. According to the prophecies which went before on thee ties Timothy's calling to specific words spoken over him, likely at his ordination, prophecy functioning as a real means of guidance and commissioning in the early church. Holding faith and a good conscience together is the charge's aim, since some who let one go made shipwreck of the other, doctrine and life sinking or standing together.

1 Timothy 1:20

Hymenaeus and Alexander are named as the shipwreck's evidence, men Paul delivered unto Satan, the same phrase used of the Corinthian offender at 1 Corinthians 5:5, read by most of the old writers as formal exclusion from the church into the adversary's domain outside its protection, an act of apostolic authority rather than a private curse. The purpose named is remedial, that they may learn not to blaspheme, discipline aimed at recovery rather than mere punishment. Both texts treat the powers of darkness as real, Satan's domain a place a soul can be handed into and, it is hoped, learn its way back out of.