Paul opens 1 Timothy with the words, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” It was according to the command of God and of Christ that Paul became an apostle. In his earlier Epistles, he told us that he was an apostle through the will of God (1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:1). The command of God is a definite expression, a further direction, of the will of God.
God our Savior (1 Tim. 1:1; 4:10; Titus 2:13) and our Savior God (1 Tim. 2:3; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4) are titles particularly ascribed to God in these three books, which take God’s salvation as a strong base for the teachings concerning God’s New Testament economy (1:15-16; 2:4-6; 2 Tim. 1:9-10; 2:10; 3:15; Titus 2:14; 3:5-7). It was according to the command of such a saving God, a Savior God, not according to the command of the law-giving God, a demanding God, that Paul became an apostle.
In 1:1 Paul speaks of “Christ Jesus our hope.” Christ Jesus is not only God’s Anointed (Christ) to be our Savior (Jesus) that we may be saved to gain the eternal life of God, but also our hope to bring us into the full blessing and enjoyment of this eternal life. The hope of eternal life revealed in Titus 1:2 as the base and condition of Paul’s apostleship, and the blessed hope revealed in Titus 2:13, which is the appearing we are waiting for of the glory of the great God and our Savior, are all wrapped up with the Person of God’s Messiah, our Savior. Hence, He Himself is our hope, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). It was according to the command not only of our Savior God, but also of the One Who has saved us with eternal life and will bring us into the glory of this life, that Paul became an apostle. His command is of the eternal life and is to be fulfilled by the eternal life, in contrast to the command of the law-giving God, which was of letters and which was to be fulfilled by human effort, without the supply of eternal life.
In verse 2 Paul continues his word of introduction: “To Timothy, genuine child in faith: grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” In Greek the name Timothy is timotheos, composed of time, meaning honor, and theos, meaning God. Thus, it means to honor God. Timothy became a genuine child of Paul, not by natural birth, but in faith, that is, in the sphere and element of faith; not naturally, but spiritually.
In verse 3 Paul says, “Even as I urged you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach differently.” Paul’s word about “going into Macedonia” must refer to his travels after his liberation from the first imprisonment in Rome. Probably he wrote this Epistle from Macedonia, which is made up of what is today northern Greece and southern Bulgaria.
In verse 3 Paul refers to “certain ones.” These were dissenting ones, as mentioned in verse 6 and in Galatians 1:7; 2:12.
To teach differently was to teach myths, unending genealogies (v. 4), and the law (vv. 7-8), all of which were vain talking (v. 6) and differed from the apostles’ teaching centered upon Christ and the church.
Paul’s Epistles are the completion of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal purpose and economy (Col. 1:25). His ministry completes the revelation concerning the all-inclusive Christ and His universal Body, the church as His fullness to express Him. Concerning the church as the Body of Christ, there are two sides: life and practice. From Romans through 2 Thessalonians, a full revelation is given concerning the life of the church, including its nature, responsibility, and function. Now, from 1 Timothy through Philemon, a detailed revelation concerning the practice of the church is presented. This pertains to the administration and shepherding of a local church. For this the first thing needed is to terminate the differing teachings of the dissenters, which distract the saints from the central line and ultimate goal of God’s New Testament economy (vv. 4-6). The differing teachings in 1:3-4, 6-7; 6:3-5, 20-21, and the heresies in 4:1-3, are the seed, the source, of the church’s decline, degradation, and deterioration dealt with in the second book.
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