As I urged you when I was going into Macedonia, stay at Ephesus that you might command certain men not to teach a different doctrine, and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than God’s stewardship, which is in faith— but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith, from which things some, having missed the mark, have turned away to vain talking, desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say, nor about what they strongly affirm.
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As I urged you when I was going into Macedonia, stay at Ephesus that you might command certain men not to teach a different doctrine, and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than God’s stewardship, which is in faith— but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith, from which things some, having missed the mark, have turned away to vain talking, desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say, nor about what they strongly affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a person uses it lawfully, as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine, according to the Good News of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
Parallel Translations
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As I urged you when I was going into Macedonia, stay at Ephesus that you might command certain men not to teach a different doctrine,
and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than God’s stewardship, which is in faith—
but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith,
from which things some, having missed the mark, have turned away to vain talking,
desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say, nor about what they strongly affirm.
-
As I besought the to abyde styll in Ephesus when I departed into Macedonia even so do that thou commaunde some that they teache no nother wise:
nether geve hede to fables and genealogies which are endlesse and brede doutes more then godly edyfyinge which is by fayth:
for the ende of the commaundement is love that cometh of a pure herte and of a good conscience and of fayth vnfayned:
from the which thinges some have erred and have turned vnto vayne iangelinge
because they wolde be doctours the scripture and yet vnderstonde not what they speake nether wherof they affirme.
Show all 3 translations
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As I besought thee to abide still in Ephesus, when I departed into Macedonia, so doe, that thou mayest warne some, that they teach none other doctrine,
Neither that they giue heede to fables and genealogies which are endles, which breede questions rather then godly edifying which is by fayth.
For the end of the commandement is loue out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith vnfained.
From the which things some haue erred, and haue turned vnto vaine iangling.
They would be doctours of the Law, and yet vnderstande not what they speake, neither whereof they affirme.
Cross-references (99)
- 1 Timothy 4:7 (v4) But refuse profane and old wives’ fables. Exercise yourself toward godliness.
- Titus 1:14 (v4) not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
- Titus 3:9 (vv4, 6) but shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
- 1 Timothy 1:19 (v5) holding faith and a good conscience, which some having thrust away made a shipwreck concerning the faith,
- Galatians 5:22 (v5) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
Show all 96 cross-references
- 2 Timothy 2:22 (vv4–5) Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
- Galatians 5:13-14 (v5) For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.…
- 2 Timothy 4:4 (v4) and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn away to fables.
- 2 Peter 1:16 (v4) For we didn’t follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were…
- Titus 1:10 (v6) For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
- Romans 1:22 (v7) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
- 2 Timothy 1:5 (v5) having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and, I am…
- 2 Timothy 2:23-24 (v6) But refuse foolish and ignorant questionings, knowing that they generate strife. The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle toward…
- 1 Timothy 6:3-5 (v4) If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which…
- Mark 12:28-34 (v5) One of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together, and knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is…
- Galatians 1:6-7 (v3) I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”, but there isn’t another…
- 1 Timothy 6:3 (v3) If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which…
- 1 Timothy 6:20 (v4) Timothy, guard that which is committed to you, turning away from the empty chatter and oppositions of what is falsely called knowledge,
- 1 Timothy 6:20-21 (v6) Timothy, guard that which is committed to you, turning away from the empty chatter and oppositions of what is falsely called knowledge,…
- 2 Timothy 1:3 (v5) I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day
- 2 Timothy 2:14 (v4) Remind them of these things, charging them in the sight of the Lord, that they don’t argue about words, to no profit, to the subverting of…
- Hebrews 13:9 (v4) Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which…
- 1 Peter 1:22 (v5) Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from…
- 1 Peter 3:16 (v5) having a good conscience. Thus, while you are spoken against as evildoers, they may be disappointed who curse your good way of life in…
- 2 Peter 2:12 (v7) But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are…
- 2 John 1:9-10 (v3) Whoever transgresses and doesn’t remain in the teaching of Christ, doesn’t have God. He who remains in the teaching has both the Father and…
- Romans 10:4 (v5) For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
- 1 Timothy 6:11 (v4) But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.
- Titus 1:9-11 (v3) holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those…
- 1 Peter 3:21 (v5) This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward…
- 2 Peter 1:7 (v5) and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love.
- 2 John 1:7 (v3) For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don’t confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the…
- 2 Corinthians 1:12 (vv4–5) For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of…
- Psalms 51:10 (v5) Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.
- Romans 13:8-10 (v5) Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not…
- 1 Timothy 3:9 (v5) holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
- 1 Timothy 6:4 (v7) he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil…
- 2 Timothy 2:16-18 (v4) But shun empty chatter, for it will go further in ungodliness, and those words will consume like gangrene, of whom is Hymenaeus and…
- Titus 1:15 (v5) To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience…
- Acts 23:1 (v5) Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, “Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until today.”
- Galatians 3:5 (v7) He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
- Galatians 5:3-4 (v7) Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are alienated from Christ, you who…
- 1 Timothy 3:16 (v4) Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached…
- 1 Timothy 5:15 (v6) For already some have turned away after Satan.
- 1 Peter 4:8 (v5) And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
- 1 John 4:7-14 (v5) Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love…
- Psalms 24:4 (v5) He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.
- Matthew 5:8 (v5) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
- Matthew 12:35 (v5) The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.
- Acts 15:9 (v5) He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
- Acts 24:16 (v5) In this I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men.
- Romans 2:19-21 (v7) and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher…
- Romans 9:1 (v5) I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit
- Romans 14:15 (v5) Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
- 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 (v5) Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. But if anyone thinks…
- 1 Corinthians 13:1–14:1 (v5) If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have the…
- Galatians 3:2 (v7) I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
- Ephesians 4:12-16 (v4) for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the…
- 2 Timothy 2:18 (v6) men who have erred concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past, and overthrowing the faith of some.
- 2 Timothy 3:7 (v7) always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
- 2 Timothy 4:10 (v6) for Demas left me, having loved this present world, and went to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia; and Titus to Dalmatia.
- Titus 1:1 (v4) Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s chosen ones, and the knowledge of the truth which…
- Titus 1:10-11 (v7) For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped: men who…
- Hebrews 10:22 (v5) let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed…
- James 4:8 (v5) Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Matthew 15:14 (v7) Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
- John 9:40-41 (v7) Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind,…
- Acts 20:1-3 (v3) After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, took leave of them, and departed to go into Macedonia. When he had gone through…
- 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 (v4) I now rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved to repentance. For you were grieved in a godly way, that you might…
- Galatians 4:21 (v7) Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law?
- Galatians 5:6 (v5) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.
- Colossians 2:6-11 (v3) As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were…
- 1 Timothy 4:6 (v3) If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the…
- 1 Timothy 4:11 (v3) Command and teach these things.
- 1 Timothy 6:4-5 (v6) he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil…
- Hebrews 9:14 (v5) how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from…
- Hebrews 13:18 (v5) Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things.
- 1 John 3:3 (v5) Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
- 1 John 3:23 (v5) This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded.
- Isaiah 29:13-14 (v7) The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from…
- Jeremiah 4:14 (v5) Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?
- Jeremiah 8:8-9 (v7) “ ‘How do you say, “We are wise, and Yahweh’s law is with us?” But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made that a lie. The wise men…
- Matthew 23:16-24 (v7) “Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is…
- John 3:9-10 (v7) Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?
- Acts 18:19 (v3) He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
- Acts 19:1-10 (v3) While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found certain disciples. He said to them,…
- Ephesians 4:14 (v3) that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in…
- Philippians 2:24 (v3) But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.
- 1 Timothy 5:7 (v3) Also command these things, that they may be without reproach.
- 1 Timothy 6:10 (v3) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves…
- 1 Timothy 6:17 (v3) Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be arrogant, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the…
- Revelation 2:1-2 (v3) “To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp…
- Revelation 2:14 (v3) But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling…
- Revelation 2:20 (v3) But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to…
- Acts 15:1 (v7) Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.”
- Hebrews 11:5-6 (v5) By faith, Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony…
96 distinct cross-references across this passage (99 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv3–7 3. As I besought thee Either the syntax is…
3. As I besought thee Either the syntax is elliptical, or the particle ἵνα is redundant; and in both cases the meaning will be obvious. First, he reminds Timothy why he was besought to remain at Ephesus. It was with great reluctance, and through hard necessity, that he parted with a companion so dearly beloved and so faithful, in order that he might laboriously hold the part of his deputy, which no other man would have been competent to fill; and, therefore, Timothy must have been powerfully excited by this consideration, not only not to throw away his time, but to conduct himself in an excellent and distinguished manner.
I wish that thou shouldst forbid any. Thus, by way of inference, he exhorts him to oppose the false teachers who corrupted pure doctrine. In the injunction given to Timothy, to occupy his place at Ephesus, we ought to observe the holy anxiety of the Apostle; for while he labored so much to collect many churches he did not leave the former churches destitute of a pastor. And indeed, as an ancient writer remarks, “To keep what has been gained is not a smaller virtue than to make new acquisitions.” The word forbid denotes power; for Paul wishes to arm him with power to restrain others.
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Not to teach differently The Greek word (ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν) which Paul employs, is a compound, and, therefore, may either be translated, “to teach differently,” or after a new method, or, “to teach a different doctrine.” The translation given by Erasmus, (sectari,) “to follow,” does not satisfy me; because it might be understood to apply to the hearers. Now Paul means those who, for the sake of ambition, brought forward a new doctrine.
If we read it, “to teach differently,” the meaning will be more extensive; for by this expression he will forbid Timothy to permit any new forms of teaching to be introduced, which do not agree with the true and pure doctrine which he had taught. Thus, in the Second Epistle, he recommends ὑποτύπωσις, that is, a lively picture of his doctrine. (2 Timothy 1:13.) For, as the truth of God is one, so is there but one plain manner of teaching it, which is free from false ornament, and which partakes more of the majesty of the Spirit than of the parade of human eloquence. Whoever departs from that, disfigures and corrupts the doctrine itself; and, therefore, “to teach differently,” must relate to the form.
If we read it, “to teach something different,” it will relate to the matter. Yet it is worthy of observation, that we give the name of another doctrine not only to that which is openly at variance with the pure doctrine of the gospel, but to everything that either corrupts the pure gospel by new and borrowed inventions, or obscures it by ungodly speculations. For all the inventions of men are so many corruptions of the gospel; and they who make sport of the Scriptures, as ungodly people are accustomed to do, so as to turn Christianity into an act of display, darken the gospel. His manner of teaching therefore, is entirely opposed to the word of God, and to that purity of doctrine in which Paul enjoins the Ephesians to continue.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3–7 This whole Epistle consisteth in admonitions, wherein all the…
This whole Epistle consisteth in admonitions, wherein all the duties of a faithful Pastor are lively set out. And the first admonition is this, that no innovation be made either in the Apostle’s doctrine itself, or in the manner of teaching it.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–7 3 As I besought thee to abide still at…
3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
Ver. 3. That they teach no other doctrine] Either for matter or manner, for substance or circumstance. What hideous heresies are today broached and preached among us in city and country. See Mr Edwards’ Gangrena, the first and second part.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 7 Ephesus was a great city in Asia the Less,…
Ephesus was a great city in Asia the Less, whither Paul came, Act 19:1; where Demetrius raised a tumult against him, which the town clerk appeased, as we read there. From thence he
went into Macedonia, Act 20:1-3. Upon this his motion into Macedonia (as divines judge) he left Timothy at Ephesus. The end of leaving him at Ephesus was, that he might
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charge some that they preached no other doctrine, that is, none contrary to what he had preached, none contrary to the doctrine of the gospel, Gal 1:8,9. What power was here committed to Timothy is by some questioned; supposing (which is very probable) there were a greater number of disciples than could meet in one assembly, his power was more than pastoral, for he had a power over the teachers. Whether this power was extraordinary, or ordinary, and what God intended ever to continue in the chnrch, is the question. Those who make it to be such, make it to be episcopal; those that make it extraordinary, say it was the work of an evangelist, 2Ti 4:5. That there was such an officer in the primitive church appears from Act 21:8; Eph 4:11. That this was Timothy’s work appears from 2Ti 4:5. Nor is it a new thing, but very common in the settlement of all new governments, to authorize some special commissioners, and to give them an extraordinary power for a time, till the government can be settled and things brought into a fixed order. If we consider the words without prejudice:
I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, they seem to signify that Timothy was not the established bishop of Ephesus; for to what end should the apostle desire a bishop to reside in his own diocess, which he could not forsake without neglecting his duty, and the offence of God? This were a tacit reflection, as if he were careless of his duty. And the word abide, prosmeinai, does not necessarily import his constant residence there; for it is used to signify continuance for some time only; as it is said of the apostle, that he remained many days at Corinth, Act 18:18, when his stay there was only for some months. The intention of the apostle seems to be that Timothy should continue for a while at Ephesus, and not accompany him in his voyage to Macedonia, as he was wont to do upon other occasions. And it is evident by the sacred history, that about six months after Timothy was with the apostle in Greece, that he went with him to Macedonia, and Troas, and Miletus, Act 20:1,4, where the apostle sent for the elders or bishops of Ephesus, to leave his last solemn charge with them. In short, if Timothy had been appointed the bishop of Ephesus, the apostle would probably have given this title of honour to him in the inscription of his Epistle. Upon the impartial considering of the whole matter, though the passion of prelacy is so ingenious as to discover so many mysteries and mitres in a few plain words, (viz. that Timothy was bishop of that city, metropolitan of the province, and primate of all Asia), yet it is most likely that Timothy was left only for some time with a kind of apostolical power in the church of Ephesus; of which power this was one branch, authoritatively to command seducers not to teach another doctrine than what was taught by the apostles, who were Divinely illuminated: a Divine rule, and most worthy of perpetual observation by all in the office of the ministry. And this showeth the mighty proneness of men, as to deviate in their conversations, from the right ways, so in their judgments from the truths of God, otherwise Paul had no need to have left Timothy for that end in this church so newly planted.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Note here, 1. The tender care which St. Paul…
Note here, 1. The tender care which St. Paul took of the new planted church at Ephesus; when his office called him into Macedonia, he leaves Timothy behind him at Ephesus, to water what he had planted, and to build upon that foundation which he had laid; When I went into Macedonia, I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus.
Note, 2. The charge and command which St. Paul left with Timothy at his departure from him, to take care that no new or strange doctrine be taught, or any other doctrine received by the church, than what was delivered by him: Charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
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But who are these?
Very probably they were the judaizing teachers, who strenously endeavoured to corrupt the purity, and deprave the somplicity of the gospel.
Thence learn, 1. That though the doctrine of Christ and his apostles was abundantly sufficient to salvation, yet the church of Christ, even in the earliest days of Christianity, were in very great danger of being corrupted early by other doctrines than those delivered by them.
Learn, 2. That it is the great duty, and ought to be the special care, of the ministers of God, that no new or strange doctrine be broached in the church of Christ; I besought thee--that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v5 Here the apostle instructs Timothy how to guard against…
Here the apostle instructs Timothy how to guard against the judaizing teachers, or others who mingled fables and endless genealogies with the gospel. He shows the use of the law, and the glory of the gospel.
I. He shows the end and uses of the law: it is intended to promote love, for love is the fulfilling of the law, Rom 13:10.
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1. The end of the commandment is charity, or love, Rom 13:8. The main scope and drift of the divine law are to engage us to the love of God and one another; and whatever tends to weaken either our love to God or love to the brethren tends to defeat the end of the commandment: and surely the gospel, which obliges us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us (Mat 5:44) does not design to lay aside or supersede a commandment the end whereof is love; so far from it that, on the other hand, we are told that though we had all advantages and wanted charity, we are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, Co1 13:1. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another, Joh 13:35. Those therefore who boasted of their knowledge of the law, but used it only as a colour for the disturbance that they gave to the preaching of the gospel (under pretence of zeal for the law, dividing the church and distracting it), defeated that which was the very end of the commandment, and that is love, love out of a pure heart, a heart purified by faith, purified from corrupt affections. In order to the keeping up of holy love our hearts must be cleansed from all sinful love; our love must arise out of a good conscience, kept without offence. Those answer the end of the commandment who are careful to keep a good conscience, from a real belief of the truth of the word of God which enjoins it, here called a faith unfeigned. Here we have the concomitants of that excellency grace charity; they are three: - (1.) A pure heart; there it must be seated, and thence it must take its rise. (2.) A good conscience, in which we must exercise ourselves daily, that we may not only get it, but that we may keep it, Act 24:16. (3.) Faith unfeigned must also accompany it, for it is love without dissimulation: the faith that works by it must be of the like nature, genuine and sincere. Now some who set up for teachers of the law swerved from the very end of the commandment: they set up for disputers, but their disputes proved vain jangling; they set up for teachers, but they pretended to teach others what they themselves did not understand. If the church be corrupted by such teachers, we must not think it strange, for we see from the beginning it was so. Observe, [1.] When persons, especially ministers, swerve from the great law of charity - the end of the commandment, they will turn aside to vain jangling; when a man misses his end and scope, it is no wonder that every step he takes is out of the way. [2.] Jangling, especially in religion, is vain; it is unprofitable and useless as to all that is good, and it is very pernicious and hurtful: and yet many people's religion consists of little else but vain jangling. [3.] Those who deal much in vain jangling are fond and ambitious to be teachers of others; they desire (that is, they affect) the office of teaching. [4.] It is too common for men to intrude into the office of the ministry when they are very ignorant of those things about which they are ton speak: they understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm; and by such learned ignorance, no doubt, they edify their hearers very much!
2. The use of the law (Ti1 1:8): The law is good, if a man use it lawfully. The Jews used it unlawfully, as an engine to divide the church, a cover to the malicious opposition they made to the gospel of Christ; they set it up for justification, and so used it unlawfully. We must not therefore think to set it aside, but use it lawfully, for the restraint of sin. The abuse which some have made of the law does not take away the use of it; but, when a divine appointment has been abused, call it back to its right use and take away the abuses, for the law is still very useful as a rule of life; though we are not under it as under a covenant of works, yet it is good to teach us what is sin and what is duty. It is not made for a righteous man, that is, it is not made for those who observe it; for, if we could keep the law, righteousness would be by the law (Gal 3:21): but it is made for wicked persons, to restrain them, to check them, and to put a stop to vice and profaneness. It is the grace of God that changes men's hearts; but the terrors of the law may be of use to tie their hands and restrain their tongues. A righteous man does not want those restraints which are necessary for the wicked; or at least the law is not made primarily and principally for the righteous, but for sinners of all sorts, whether in a greater or less measure, Ti1 1:9, Ti1 1:10. In this black roll of sinners, he particularly mentions breaches of the second table, duties which we owe to our neighbour; against the fifth and sixth commandments, murderers of fathers and mothers, and manslayers; against the seventh, whoremongers, and those that defile themselves with mankind; against the eighth, men-stealers; against the ninth, liars and perjured persons; and then he closes his account with this, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Some understand this as an institution of a power in the civil magistrate to make laws against such notorious sinners as are specified, and to see those laws put in execution.
II. He shows the glory and grace of the gospel. Paul's epithets are expressive and significant; and frequently every one is a sentence: as here (Ti1 1:11), According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Let us learn hence, 1. To call God blessed God, infinitely happy in the enjoyment of himself and his own perfections. 2. To call the gospel the glorious gospel, for so it is: much of the glory of God appears in the works of creation and providence, but much more in the gospel, where it shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul reckoned it a great honour put upon him, and a great favour done him, that this glorious gospel was committed to his trust; that is, the preaching of it, for the framing of it is not committed to any man or company of men in the world. The settling of the terms of salvation in the gospel of Christ is God's own work; but the publishing of it to the world is committed to the apostles and ministers. Note here, (1.) The ministry is a trust, for the gospel was committed unto this apostle; it is an office of trust as well as of power, and the former more than the latter; for this reason ministers are called stewards, Co1 4:1. (2.) It is a glorious trust, because the gospel committed to them is a glorious gospel; it is a trust of very great importance. God's glory is very much concerned in it. Lord, what a trust is committed to us! How much grace do we want, to be found faithful in this great trust!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv3–7 As I besought thee to abide, still at Ephesus,....…
As I besought thee to abide, still at Ephesus,.... Where it seems he now was, being left here by the apostle, and where he was desired by him to continue:
when I went into Macedonia; not when he went his first journey there, for Timothy was then along with him, Act 16:3 and so he seems to be in his journey through it, in Act 20:3. It may be this may refer to a journey which Luke has given no account of:
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that thou mightest charge some, that they teach no other doctrine; than the doctrine of Christ and his apostles; than what had been preached by the apostle at Ephesus, and the saints there had received; than what was agreeably to the Scriptures of truth, and was according to godliness; for all other doctrines must be divers and strange ones: nor would he have them teach in another way, in new words, but hold fast the form of sound words; for new words often produce new doctrines: the apostle perhaps by other doctrine chiefly respects the doctrine of justification by the works of the law. It seems as if there were some teachers in this place the apostle was suspicious of, or he had heard that they began to innovate in the doctrine of faith; wherefore he desires Timothy to continue a while, in order to be a check on these persons, and to charge them not to introduce any new doctrine; for it was only "some", and not all that taught there, he was so to charge. Some refer this to hearers; and render, the words, "that they follow no other doctrine"; but it seems best to understand it of teachers; the Syriac and Arabic versions render the words as we do.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Charge some to teach no other doctrine - Than…
Charge some to teach no other doctrine - Than I have taught. Let them put nothing in the place of it, add nothing to it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Verse 3. I besought thee] The apostle had seen…
Verse 3. I besought thee] The apostle had seen that a bad seed had been sown in the Church; and, as he was obliged to go then into Macedonia, he wished Timothy, on whose prudence, piety, and soundness in the faith he could depend, to stay behind and prevent the spreading of a doctrine that would have been pernicious to the people's souls. I have already supposed that this epistle was written after Paul had been delivered from his first imprisonment at Rome, about the end of the year 64, or the beginning of 65. See the preface. When, therefore, the apostle came from Rome into Asia, he no doubt visited Ephesus, where, ten years before, he had planted a Christian Church, and, as he had not time to tarry then, he left Timothy to correct abuses.
That thou mightest charge some] He does not name any persons; the Judaizing teachers are generally supposed to be those intended; and the term τισι, some, certain persons, which he uses, is expressive of high disapprobation, and at the same time of delicacy: they were not apostles, nor apostolic men; but they were undoubtedly members of the Church at Ephesus, and might yet be reclaimed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3, 5 1Ti 1:3-4. As I besought thee — Παρεκαλεσα σε,…
1Ti 1:3-4. As I besought thee — Παρεκαλεσα σε, I entreated thee. It is observed by Beza, that by using this soft expression the apostle hath left a singular example of modesty, to be imitated by superiors in their behaviour toward their inferiors in the church. When I went into Macedonia, (Act 20:1,) that thou mightest charge some — Who appeared to be inclined to introduce their own corrupt notions into the church; that they teach no other doctrine — Than I have taught. Let them put nothing in the place of it, add nothing to it. These teachers were probably Judaizers, and members of the church at Ephesus; for with other teachers Timothy could have little influence. In not mentioning the names of these corrupt teachers, the apostle showed great delicacy, hoping that they might still be reclaimed. The same delicacy he had observed in his treatment of the false teacher or teachers at Corinth, and of the incestuous person there. Neither give heed to fables — To fabulous Jewish traditions, so as either to teach or regard them; and endless genealogies — Questions about their genealogies. The apostle does not speak of those recorded in the Scriptures, but of the long intricate pedigrees whereby many of the Jews strove to prove their descent from certain persons: which minister questions — Which lead only to useless and endless controversies; rather than godly edifying — The promotion of holiness, which leads men to God; which is in faith — Which edification is by faith in the great truths of the Scriptures, and in Christ, of whom the Scriptures testify as the Redeemer and Saviour of lost sinners.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3–7 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus…
As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus - It is clear from this, that Paul and Timothy had been laboring together at Ephesus, and the language accords with the supposition that Paul had been compelled to leave before he had completed what he had designed to do there. See the Intro. Section 2.
When I went into Macedonia - Having been driven away by the excitement caused by Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen; Act 20:1. See the Intro. Section 2, 3.
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That thou mightest charge some - The word charge here - παραγγειλης parangeilēs - seems to mean more than is commonly implied by the word as used by us. If it had been a single direction or command, it might have been given by Paul himself before he left, but it seems rather to refer to that continuous instruction which would convince these various errorists and lead them to inculcate only the true doctrine. As they may have been numerous - as they may have embraced various forms of error, and as they might have had plausible grounds for their belief, this was evidently a work requiring time, and hence Timothy was left to effect this at leisure. It would seem that the wrath which had been excited against Paul had not affected Timothy, but that he was permitted to remain and labor without molestation. It is not certainly known who these teachers were, but they appear to have been of Jewish origin, and to have inculcated the special sentiments of the Jews respecting the law.
That they teach no other doctrine - That is, no other doctrine than that taught by the apostles. The Greek word here used is not found in the classic writers, and does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament, except in 1Ti 6:3 of this Epistle, where it is rendered “teach otherwise.” We may learn here what was the design for which Timothy was left at Ephesus.
(1) It was for a temporary purpose, and not as a permanent arrangement. It was to correct certain errors prevailing there which Paul would have been able himself soon to correct if he had been suffered to remain. Paul expected soon to return to him again, and then they would proceed unitedly with their work; 1Ti 4:13; 1Ti 3:15.
(2) It was not that he might be the “Bishop” of Ephesus. There is no evidence that he was “ordained” there at all, as the subscription to the Second Epistle declares (see the notes on that subscription), nor were the functions which he was to perform, those of a prelatical bishop. He was not to take the charge of a “diocese,” or to ordain ministers of the “second rank,” or to administer the rite of confirmation, or to perform acts of discipline. He was left there for a purpose which is specified, and that is as far as possible from what are now regarded as the appropriate functions of a prelatical bishop. Perhaps no claim which has ever been set up has had less semblance of argument than that which asserts that Timothy was the “Bishop of Ephesus.” See this clause examined in my “Inquiry into the Organization and Government of the Apostolic Church,” pp. 84-107.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Not to teach otherwise;[2] i.e. than what I taught…
Not to teach otherwise;[2] i.e. than what I taught them. (Witham) --- The distinctive mark of a heretic, is the teaching differently from that which they found generally taught and believed in the unity of the Catholic Church before their time. The Greek word admirably expresses this; Greek: eterodidaskalein. Had Luther and the other original reformers attended to this, the peace of the Church would not have been so disturbed.
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Ne aliter docerent, Greek: me eterodidaskalein, aliud docere.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v3 Occasion for the writing of this Epistle.—Preliminary description and…
II
Occasion for the writing of this Epistle.—Preliminary description and condemnation of the heretical teachers who had appeared at Ephesus, who misunderstood equally the nature both of the Law and of the Gospel
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1Ti_1:3-11
3As8 I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions [questionings], rather than godly edifying [the dispensation of God]9 which is in faith: so do. 5Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: 6From which some haying swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; 7Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding 8[considering] neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a man use10 it lawfully; 9Knowing this, that the law is not made [set forth = posita] for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,11 for man-slayers, 10For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine: 11According to the glorious gospel [the gospel of glory] of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust [which I have been entrusted with].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Ver.3. Besought. For the occasion and object of this exhortation, see the Introduction. Timothy must remain at Ephesus, προσμεῖναι (the same word occurs in Act_18:18), in order, by his presence, to oppose the evil which was becoming apparent there. The simplest explanation of this somewhat singular phrase, is, that Paul had already, at Ephesus, given this injunction to Timothy, and had then left him in order to set out on his journey to Macedonia. According to Chrysostom, the form in which this admonition is couched is a proof of the friendly spirit of the Apostle towards Timothy: “οὐ γὰρ ἐ͂ιπεν: ἐπέταξα, οὐδὲ ἐκέλευσα, οὐδὲ παρῆ̣νεσα, ὰλλὰ τί; παρεκάλεσά σε.”—Some. In Other places, also, the Apostle speaks, without any personal designation, of those whom he calls upon Timothy to oppose (1Ti_1:6; 1Ti_1:19; 1Ti_4:1; 2Ti_2:18). Timothy knew them from his own experience, and needed, therefore, no more exact advice. He was to charge them, not at once publicly (Matthies), yet in an earnest and emphatic way, to teach no other doctrine than that which the Apostle had before delivered. Ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν (comp. 1Ti_6:3; Tit_1:13). The word indicates the strange elements that may mingle with the teaching of the gospel, and easily assume a character hostile to it. The same warning Paul bad already given, in another form, to the elders of the church (Act_20:29). The pure doctrine, in which men must steadfastly abide, is naturally, in his thought, identical with his gospel (2Ti_2:8).
1Ti_1:4. Fables and endless genealogies (comp. Tit_1:14; 1Ti_4:7; 2Ti_4:4; Tit_3:9). It is difficult to know with certainty what μῦθοι and γενεαλογίαι are here specially meant. From all that we gather, however, in this Epistle, it is most probable that reference is made to fables of Jewish form and origin, which were endlessly spun out, and had called forth much dispute in the church. “Although there were many fables among the heathen, yet the Apostle has in special view the Jewish traditiones; for it was asserted that Moses had not written down all the mysteries revealed by God, but had given much orally to the elders, by whom they were handed down as a traditional law, or Kabbala, although these Jewish notions were mostly of their own invention, and in part, too, drawn from heathen philosophy;” Starke. The genealogical records here mentioned appear also to have been mainly of Jewish origin, and, as we know, were held in high repute, and gave occasion for many useless and curious questions; although we need not entirely exclude a reference to the doctrine of Emanation, taught by the heretical schools. The ζητήσεις are nothing but the foolish questions (Tit_3:9), which lead to strife and discord. This love of fables and genealogies is held by the Apostle in such great aversion, because it furnished such material for dispute, rather than for a right knowledge of the essential way of redemption (οἰκονομία). “Μᾶλλον, non semper comparationis sed sæpius correctionis et oppositionis nota est (comp. 2Ti_1:4);” Glassius. Most commentators agree that the clause which begins the third verse should be understood to close at the end of the fourth verse, with an οὕτω καὶ νῦν παρακαλῶ, which certainly might be most fitly inserted in this place. Otherwise it must be supposed that the Apostle, after a long digression (1Ti_1:5-7), takes up again, at 1Ti_1:18, the thread of the broken exhortation; 1Ti_1:5 or 1Ti_1:12 forms no perfect conclusion.
1Ti_1:5. The end of the commandment. It is a question, whether reference is made to the command given by Paul, in 1Ti_1:3, to Timothy, or, in a wider sense, to the Divine commandment in general, which Timothy is to impress upon his hearers. The latter is the more probable, since the Apostle begins forthwith to oppose a false view of the Mosaic law. “Παραγγελία, practical teaching as the chief element of the διδασκαλία ὑγιαίνουσα; a contract to the μῦθοι;” De Wette.—End; Luther: The sum, as this word designates that to which we are chiefly to look, and toward which we are to strive. “The ultimate aim of all the admonitions of the Christian preacher should be practical—to call out a true love;” Olshausen. Even to Timothy, Paul writes very little of the mysteries of Christianity, that, by his example, he may yet more put to shame this germinal Gnosticism.—Charity out of a pure heart, &c. Love, “the bond of all Christian virtues,” the fruit of the tree, whose root, faith, is presupposed as already existing, and commended at the close of the exhortation. This love can only spring out of a pure heart, cleansed from all selfishness and evil desires; out of a good conscience, which, being free from the guilt of sin, and reconciled with God, can then first love in truth; and from an unfeigned faith.—Unfeigned, ἀνυπόκριτος; that is, no empty thought or fancy, but a spiritual light and spiritual life not consisting in words, but in a living assurance of the heart, and proving its life in its fruits. Without real faith there is no good-conscience; without a reconciliation of the conscience there is no pure heart; without a pure heart there is no true Christian love conceivable. Thus all are blended in the closest union. [Alford: “It is faith—not the pretence of faith, the mere Scheinglaube of the hypocrite. Wiesinger well remarks, that we see that the general character of these false teachers, as of those against whom Titus is warned, was not so much error in doctrine, as leading men astray from the earnestness of the loving Christian life to useless and vain questionings, ministering only strife.”]
1Ti_1:6. From which vain jangling.Ὧν, that is, from the Christian dispositions and virtues mentioned in 1Ti_1:5. The polemic character of the Epistle of Paul appears immediately after the statement of the τέλος τῆς παραγγελίας. The heretics were separatists, ἀστοχήσαντες; they had failed of the end which the Apostle has set forth—the same word occurs in 1Ti_6:21; 2Ti_2:18—and were thus astray in a false path, because they had turned εἰς ματαιολογίαν. The etymology indicates the meaning of this word, which, besides, is found only here. (Tit_1:10, ματαιολόγοι occurs). Here is suggested that waste of words, that empty talk, in which there can be found no rational sense, no unity of conviction. Compare the βέβηλοι κενοφωνίαι (1Ti_6:20), and the βέβηλοι καί γραώδεις μῦθοι (1Ti_4:7; Tit_3:9). The character of this vain jangling is more exactly defined by what immediately follows, in 1Ti_1:7.
1Ti_1:7. Teachers of the law, νομοδιδάσκαλοι, not in a good, but in a bad, unevangelical sense of this word; men who so mixed together law and gospel, that the latter was weakened, and who would likewise force a Mosaic system upon the Christian, in the notion that they themselves had pierced deeper than others into its nature and spirit. It is the same Jewish legalism, which, in its special relation to the Gentiles, the Apostle opposes in Rom_12:17 and Gal_6:12; because, in its inmost spirit, it is in irreconcilable conflict with Christian truth and freedom. In the keenest way, throughout the following verses, it is held up to view in its utter nakedness, μὴ νοοῦντες, κ.τ.λ. “Bonus doctor debet esse intelligent, simulque certus: istis, inquit Paulus, utrumque deest;” Bengel. They themselves understand not what they say, nor whereof they affirm. If we may draw a distinction between these two expressions, the former seems to mean the subjective opinions, the expressed ideas, the fictions of these men; while the second designates the objective views, the material, on which they based their convictions with the greatest confidence, but into which, according to the assertion of Paul, they had no clear insight. So also Raphelius: “Qui neque ea, quæ loquuntur satis intelligant, neque quibus de rebus loquantur, considerant.” What these νομοδιδάσκαλοι held as to the unaltered authority of the Mosaic law, rested on their plain ignorance of the very purpose of the law; which is therefore, in the 8th and following verses, designedly placed by the Apostle in its true light. It appears, also, from this whole argument, that these heretics were not already separated from the community, or in opposition to it—in which case Timothy could have had no further influence over them—but they were still within its pale. It is worthy of note, too, that they continually sought authority in the writings of the Old Testament for their half-heathen speculations.
1Ti_1:8. But we know. An authoritative apostolic οἴδαμεν, of quite other worth than that of the Scribes and Pharisees (Joh_9:29; Joh_9:31). The Apostle places the declaration of his knowledge, which he had learned in the school of the Holy Ghost, against the arrogant view of the false Gnosis. Perhaps its advocates had thought to raise a suspicion against him, as if he despised the law, or, at least, denied it any real worth. He opposes to this his doctrine, which he fully knows will be received by Timothy—that the law is good (properly, beautiful, καλός), and in itself blameless (comp. Rom_7:12); yet only on condition that every man use the same lawfully, νομίμως, which was not done by these heretics. A play upon the word; as if to say, that the law must be fulfilled according to law. We have special cause to be thankful that the true definition of the law has been so fully stated by Paul in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, as rightly to explain 1Ti_1:8-10. Νομίμως is the use of the law by the man who allows it to exercise its proper office, who is brought by it to a knowledge of his own sin and liability to punishment. “This knowledge will give us its spirit and intent—not room for idle questions and subtleties, nor for self-deception through a feigned and outward righteousness. This lawful use of the law is meant by Christ, when He promises life to those who keep the law (Luk_10:28; Luk_18:20, et seq;)” Von Gerlach. It is self-evident, also, that Paul in this place speaks not of the hearer or the reader of the law, but solely of its application by its teachers, who may well reflect on the verses which follow.
1Ti_1:9. That the law is not made for a righteous man. It is not strange that this passage should at first awaken surprise in many readers, and that, at the time of the Reformation, it should have been controverted by Agricola. The first question is, whom the Apostle means by this righteous man—a question which is at once answered by the antithesis following it, ἀνόμοις δὲ, κ.τ.λ. In distinction from this, the person meant by δίκαιος may be one whose life is righteous and moral according to the requirements of the law. But since, according to the invariable doctrine of the Apostle, all who are under the law are also under the curse of the law, so that by the works of the law no flesh can be justified (Gal_3:10; Rom_3:20), it follows, that by the righteous Christian man must be meant one who has been justified by faith in Christ, and wholly renewed by the Holy Spirit (justus per justificationem, et per sanctificationem). Of such a man Paul says, that the law is not made for him, νόμος οὐ κεῖται. As the article is wanting before νόμος, it may be thought that only a general proposition is stated as to the nature and purpose of any moral code (Chrysostom, Brentano). But the mention of the gospel in contrast with the law (1Ti_1:11), and the argument against the νομοδιδάσκαλοι (1Ti_1:7), imperatively requires us here to understand the Mosaic law alone. On the omission of the article, see Winer’sGrammar, in loco. This law, then, is not made for the righteous man; that is, it is not given to him, as such. When De Wette says, “This view of the law seems foreign to the Apostle,” he seems to forget entirely such passages as Gal_5:18-23. The thought, that the letter of the Mosaic law possesses no more binding force for the redeemed in Christ, is so entirely Pauline, that it forms one of the main pillars of his whole doctrinal structure. It certainly gives also a fulfilment of the law from the Christian standpoint, as it is announced in Rom_3:31; Rom_8:4, and in other places. But in this passage the Apostle expressly shows its meaning for the wholly unconverted, in order to expose more clearly the folly of those heretics who will put the law by the side of, or even above the gospel, for the Christian. [Augustin on Psalms 1 : “Justus non est sub lege, quia in lege Domini est voluntas ejus; qui enim in lege est, secundum legem agitur; ille ergo liber est; hic servus.” Hooker, Eccl. Pol., B. 1, c. 8. “A law is a directive rule unto goodness of operation. The rule of Divine operation is the definitive appointment of God’s own wisdom set down within Himself. The rule of natural agents that work by necessity is the determination of the wisdom of God, known to God, but not unto them. The rule of voluntary agents on earth is the venture that reason giveth concerning the goodness of those things which they are to do. Neither must we suppose that there needeth one rule to know the good, and another the evil by. For he that knoweth the straight, doth even thereby discern the crooked. Goodness in actions is like unto straightness; wherefore, that which is done well, we term right.”—W.]—But for the lawless. In contrast to this true spirit of law, the Apostle now names a long list of evildoers, for whom the law remained in full force; a list in which one familiar with the Pauline writings will not expect completeness, systematic order, or logical strictness, in its various conceptions; yet which by no means lacks connection, and has clearly this thought at the bottom, that they who are most zealous for the law often most grossly transgress it (comp. Rom_2:20). He names, at the outset, two by two, six classes of wicked men—ἀνόμοις καί ἀνυποτάκτοις; that is, such as care nothing for the law, and have altogether refused obedience to it (comp. Tit_1:6-10); ἀσεβέσι καὶ ἁμαρτολοῖς, godless (comp. Tit_2:12) and gross sinners, who have no fear of God in their hearts (comp. Rom_4:5; Rom_5:6). Here the hostile attitude toward God becomes more prominent, while the preceding two are violators of the law in general. Ἀνοσίοις καὶ βεβήλοις blend both the first conceptions, as the irreligious and profane, here depicted, are alike despisers of the Holy God, and of His holy law. Here follow, more in detail, certain specimina mali, from which we may suppose that, with the exception of the last vitium, ἐπιόρκοις, the various statutes of the second table passed before the mind of the Apostle. He names the murder of father and mother—those who violate the first commandment with promise (Eph_6:2), and grossly abuse their parents (πατραλοίας; ὁ τὸν πατέρα ἀτιμάζων, τύπτων ἢ κτείνων; Hesychius). Murderer, consequently a breaker of the sixth commandment, ἀνδροφόνοις; in the New Testament an ἃπαξ λεγόμενον. Further, those who sin against the seventh commandment, commit fornication with women (πόρνοις), or with the male sex (ἀρσενοκοίταις), comp. Rom_1:27; both natural and unnatural crime (comp. Leviticus 19, 23). Then follow transgressions of the eighth commandment, here wholly concerning men—the sin of man-stealing, specially forbidden in Exo_21:16; Deu_24:7; ἀνδραποδισταῖς, plagiariis. It was, besides, no rare crime among the Greeks to steal boys or girls, that they might be sold into slavery. Lastly follow those who break the ninth commandment, ψεῦσται, ἐπίορκοι; such as deliberately speak falsehood, or swear to a falsehood, or break an oath already taken. By the following εί τε ἕτερον, κ.τ.λ., we may suppose meant transgression against the tenth commandment, which is here omitted. We find, however, in this catalogus-criminum, no orderly reference to the commandments of the first table; and Bengel has clearly gone too far, when he writes, “Paulus pro ordine decalogi hic nominat injustos.” This is true only of the second half of the decalogue.—And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Sound doctrine—one of the expressions characteristic of the Pastoral Epistles (comp. 2Ti_4:3; Tit_2:1, and elsewhere). Not healthful doctrine is meant (Luther), nor a sound morality (Leo), but the Christian teaching in general is approved in its inner soundness, as opposed to the ματαιολογία of the heretics. This phrase is used also to express those symptoms of disease which St. Paul saw with grief springing up in the church (comp. 2Ti_2:17). [It is observable that the word “wholesome” occurs nine times in the Pastoral Epistles, and always in reference to doctrine; Wordsworth.—W.]
1Ti_1:11. According to the glorious gospel committed to my trust.Κατά is not used here for the more exact definition of sound doctrine, as some have thought; for, in that case, τῆ̣ would have to be repeated before κατά; nor need it be supposed in apposition to ἀντίκειται, which would give a very awkward conclusion. 1Ti_1:11 is an addition, which refers to the whole preceding line of thought, and means that, according to the gospel of Paul, the law has no other purpose than that fully explained in 1Ti_1:6-10. The Apostle would have us understand, that his view of the law is not the fruit of his private opinion, but rather the true summary of the gospel committed to him. This qualification of the gospel is really apologetic. The gospel of glory, τῆς δόξης, not signifying ἔνδοξον (Heydenreich), in the sense of blessed, glorious doctrine, but the gospel by which the glory of God in Christ has become manifest to the world; whose especial and chief substance is this Divine glory (2Co_4:4), and indeed the glory of the blessed God, τοῦ μακαρίου Θεοῦ (comp. 1Ti_6:15). If God Himself be blessed, then the revelation of His glory, which has been proclaimed, not through the law, but through the gospel, will be full of blessing. Perhaps the repeated use of the epithet in this Epistle has a certain reference to the system of Æons taught by the heretics. This gospel is committed in trust to Paul, ὃ ἐπιστεύθην ἐγώ. A peculiarly Pauline construction, on which, comp. Winer, Gramm. N. T., p. 40. In other places, too, the Apostle speaks with warmth of this his dear prerogative; as Rom_15:16; Eph_3:8; Col_1:25. Those who oppose the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles, are therefore wrong in thinking such emphatic reference to his person and his office at all extraordinary. The consciousness which Paul had of his high calling, rises with redoubled power as he contends with the heretics; and in this letter to his friend and scholar he follows the warm outpouring of his spirit, not in a logical order, yet in harmony with his whole thought, as we read in 1Ti_1:12-17.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Two opposite views, in regard to the character and condition of the early Christian Church have prevailed, with more or less success, in our time, both of which are disproved in the opening verses of the first Pastoral Epistle. In the one view, it is thought that the apostolic age was a kind of paradisaic state of the young community—a state full of love, and innocence, and purity; in contrast with which the post-apostolic age seems a fall, like that of our first parents (Thiersch, and others). In the other view, there was at first only a chaos of manifold parties and tendencies, out of which there gradually rose, in the second century, after many conciliatory efforts, the harmonious structure of the Catholic church (Tübingen school). But the little we have already learned from the Epistle to Timothy neither favors the one nor the other view. It is apparent that already, soon after A. D. 60, heresies and factions sprang up in the church, hostile to the original spirit of Christianity, which the Apostle believed that he must oppose with all his energy. We find that the germs of Gnosticism, whose formal development we can trace in the second century under manifold shapes, were already broadcast in the second half of the first century. But, on the other hand, this error appears only as a fleck of rust on the pure metal of that truth, earlier taught and fully acknowledged. We see the Apostle, clothed with an authority which no one can defy with impunity, and rising high above the strife of parties. His gospel is no other in substance than that proclaimed by his fellow-Apostles, and by his and their coworkers. His word becomes the sharp but healthful corrective of the errorists, who have gained head so early; and it remains the norm of its development for the church, in the second and the succeeding centuries.
2. The characteristic marks of the heretics of the first century rise here already to our view. A sickly search after the discovery of the unattainable, with a thankless misconception of simple truth; an undue valuing of lesser things, with a depreciation of the essentials of Christianity; a striving after their own honor, while they cared little for the edification of believers; a fastening of their own philosophic theories on the falsely-interpreted letter of the Scriptures, whose spirit they sadly misconceived; a denial of the practical nature of Christianity, while its real freedom is abused as an allowance to the flesh; a falsehood as to the special relation between the law and the gospel of Christ;—all these symptoms of disease are found anew, in countless forms, among the sectaries and heretics of later days.
3. The Apostle is alike removed from the one-sided view either of a love without faith, or of a faith without love. He will neither have the fruit without the tree, nor the tree without the fruit. He knows only the one requirement of the gospel—love; yet only the love blossoming in a heart purified through faith. Here, as afterwards more frequently, purity of faith and purity of conscience are linked in their inmost relationship.
4. “Love, out of a pure heart,” &c. In this Statement of the chief requisite of Christianity there is confirmed the essential unity of theology and morality, whose arbitrary separation so often does unmeasured injury to each, and has kept many from the right understanding of the gospel.
5. We have here a weighty help toward answering the question, how far the Mosaic law has a binding power. But fully to understand the Apostle’s mode of thought upon this subject, the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians must be specially compared. Here, also, Paul appears the same glowing and zealous advocate, as he had before shows himself, of the right of Christian freedom. While he exalts the worth of the law in its own proper sphere, beyond any disparagement, he shows its entire insufficiency whenever it is placed by the side of, or above the gospel.
6. We find the chief forms of Judaism in the time of our Lord, again existing in His earliest church—Pharisaism and Sadduceeism. Against this united power of self-righteousness and unrighteousness, the disciple no less than the Master is pledged to bear the sword of the Spirit with all power (Mat_16:6).
7. A precept, of the first importance in pastoral theology, is here given by the Apostle to the preachers of the Word. It is not enough to preach the truth free from all error; but they are also bound to contend with every energy against error. Persecution of heretics is indeed unchristian and unevangelical, and its frightful traces remain on many a page of Church history, marked with blood and tears. Yet he would be no less to blame, who, like Timothy a ruler in the church, capable of large in fluence, should allow the errorist to go unchecked, and remain satisfied, if not himself corrupted by the leaven of error. The bee which has lost its sting can produce no more honey. The saying of Calvin is that of every true witness of Jesus Christ: “A dog barks loudly when one seizes his master; and should I be silent when the truth of God is assailed?” Polemics against leading heretics ought not to be the chief staple of gospel preaching; nor should this be wholly and always lost sight of.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
No doctrine should be permitted or preached in the church but the unadulterated apostolic doctrine.—The relation of Mythology to Christianity.—The difference between the holy “mystery of the gospel,” and a sickly mysticism.—A sermon whose first and last fruit is strife and dispute, instead of the promotion of the Divine way of redemption, is thereby self-condemned.—The sum of the commandment: (1) No Christianity without love; (2) no Christian love without purity of heart; (3) no purity of heart without a good conscience; (4) no good conscience without an unsullied faith.—How far we may swerve from the end of the Divine revelation, even when we believe ourselves very near to it.—The attitude of the Christian toward the law.—Among the confessors of the gospel there were and are at all times (1) some, who are neither under the law nor under grace; (2) others, who are indeed under the law, but not yet under grace; (3) others, who are under grace, and no more under the law.—The worth of the law as a bar, as a mirror, as a seal. [German: Riegel, Spiegel, u. Siegel.]—For whom the law is given, and for whom not.—The Christian redeemed from the curse of the law, so that the righteousness required by the law is fulfilled in him.—Every gross or slight, open or concealed immorality, is directly opposed to sound doctrine.—A noble eulogy of the gospel: (1) The gospel of the glory of God; (2) this God, the blessed God; (3) through this blessed God, the ministry of the gospel is entrusted to a man like Paul.—Every estimate of the law that does not accord with the gospel of Paul deserves to be rejected.—The ceaseless alternation of Legalism and Antinomianism in the Christian Church: (1) Its traces; (2) its causes; (3) its import; (4) its only remedy.—[Ignatius: Ἀρχὴ μὲν πίστις, τέλος τὲ ἀλάπη. Faith the beginning, but love the end, or final cause.—W.]
Starke: Osiander: The pure doctrine is a great gift of God, therefore it is to be guarded well; a costly loan, therefore to be well laid out.—Lange’s Opus Bibl.: Pure doctrine and a godly life must always go together.—Hedinger: What helps not growth in godliness, we ought to banish from church and school.—Anton: If the enemy cannot else lead us astray in our Christianity, he sings to us of high things, which common Christians do not know.—Lange’s Op.: Theologians must especially care that they do not become loose talkers, and thus corrupters of others.—In nothing is pride more perceptible, more hurtful, and perilous, than in spiritual things.—Every preacher of the gospel is also a teacher of the law; for the gospel shows how man can and ought to hold the law of God in the gospel way.—Quesnel: Gospel doctrine does not so hold up faith as to bend the law (1Co_9:21).—Sins must not be judged by human fancy, but according to the law and the gospel.—Sins that are forbidden in the law, are also contrary to the gospel (Rom_3:31).—Anton: In the office of preacher, the whole aim must be to know the gospel as a gospel of the glory of God (2Co_4:6).
[Cudworth, Sermon I.: Christ came not into the world to fill our heads with mere speculations, to kindle a fire of wrangling and contentious dispute, whilst, in the mean time, our hearts remain all ire within toward God. Christ was vitæ magister, not scholæ; and he is the best Christian whose heart beats with the purest pulse toward heaven; not he, whose head spinneth out the finest cobwebs. Ink and paper can never make us Christians—can never beget a new nature, a living principle in us—can never form Christ, or any true notions of spiritual things, in our hearts. A painter that would draw a rose, though he may flourish some likeness of it in figure and color, yet he can never paint the scent and fragrancy.—Donne, Sermons: As the soul is infused by God, but diffused over the whole body, and so there is a man; so faith is infused from God, but diffused into our works, and so there is a saint. Practice is the incarnation of faith; faith is incorporate and manifest in a body by works.—W.]
Footnotes:
[1][Latin: Incipit ad Timotheum prima. English Version: The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy; which is a translation of the title in the Recepta.
[2]1Ti_1:1.—[χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ, instead of Ἰησ. Χριστ., the reading of the Recepta, and of Lachmann also. The Sinaiticus has Ἰησ.—E. H.]
[3]1Ti_1:1.—[κατ’ ἐπιταγήν. So all the authorities. The Sinaiticus has κατ’ ἐπαγγελίαν = according to the promise, &c.; cf. 1Ti_1:1. But the true reading, doubtless, is the received.—E. H.]
[4]1Ti_1:1.—[Θεοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν; the order of these words varies much in the later MSS. See Tischendorf; so Huther.—E. H.]
[5]1Ti_1:1.—Received text: Lord Jesus Christ. [Omitted by Lachmann and Tischendorf; found in the Sinaiticus. In the Minuscules, καὶ is left out, or placed sometimes before σωτῆρος, according to Huther.—E. H.]
[6]1Ti_1:2.—[ἡμῶν; in the Recepta, but to be omitted; is omitted by our author in his text.—E. H.]
[7]1Ti_1:2.—[Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ; so Lachmann and Tischendorf, supported by the weightiest authorities. The Sinaiticus the same.—E. H.]
[8]1Ti_1:3.—[No apodosis to καθώς. Lachmann brackets 1Ti_1:5-17; but this scarcely meets the case. Perhaps we had better supply, with our author, at the end of 1Ti_1:4, so now also I exhort thee. So likewise Conybeare and Howson.—E. H.]
[9]1Ti_1:4.—Dispensation (Haushaltung), according to the reading οἰκονομίαν, instead of the οἰκοδομίαν of the Recepta, which has scarcely any critical confirmation at all. The reading οἰκονομίαν is supported by such weighty authorities (now also by the Sinaiticus), that its accuracy cannot be doubted. Matthäi says: “οἰκονομἰαν, ita omnes omnino mei, ac ii quidem, qui scholia habent, etiam in scholiis uti quoque interpretes editi. οἰκοδομίαν nihil nisi error est typothetarum Erasmi, δ cum ν confuso nisi Erasmus deliberate ita correxerit ad latinum: ædificationem;” Huther.
[10]1Ti_1:8.—[Lachmann, on the authority of A., reads χρήσητοι; the rest have χρῆται. So also the Sinaiticus.—E. H.]
[11]1Ti_1:9.—[πατρολῴαις, μητρολῴαις. Lachmann, Tischendorf, Sinaiticus, instead of πατρα., μητρα.—E. H.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Timothy's superintendence of the Church at Ephesus was as…
Timothy's superintendence of the Church at Ephesus was as locum tenens for the apostle, and so was temporary. Thus, the office of superintending overseer, needed for a time at Ephesus or Crete, in the absence of the presiding apostle, subsequently became a permanent institution on the removal, by death, of the apostles who heretofore superintended the churches. The first title of these overseers seems to have been "angels" (Rev 1:20).
As I besought thee to abide still--He meant to have added, "so I still beseech thee," but does not complete the sentence until he does so virtually, not formally, at Ti1 1:18.
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at Ephesus--Paul, in Act 20:25, declared to the Ephesian elders, "I know that ye all shall see my face no more." If, then, as the balance of arguments seems to favor (see Introduction), this Epistle was written subsequently to Paul's first imprisonment, the apparent discrepancy between his prophecy and the event may be reconciled by considering that the terms of the former were not that he should never visit Ephesus again (which this verse implies he did), but that they all should "see his face no more." I cannot think with BIRKS, that this verse is compatible with his theory, that Paul did not actually visit Ephesus, though in its immediate neighborhood (compare Ti1 3:14; Ti1 4:13). The corresponding conjunction to "as" is not given, the sentence not being completed till it is virtually so at Ti1 1:18.
I besought--a mild word, instead of authoritative command, to Timothy, as a fellow helper.
some--The indefinite pronoun is slightly contemptuous as to them (Gal 2:12; Jde 1:4), [ELLICOTT].
teach no other doctrine--than what I have taught (Gal 1:6-9). His prophetic bodings some years before (Act 20:29-30) were now being realized (compare Ti1 6:3).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3–7 THE APOSTOLIC CHARGE, 1Ti_1:1-20.
PART FIRST.
THE APOSTOLIC CHARGE, 1Ti_1:1-20.
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1. Safe-keeping of a pure gospel doctrine, 1Ti_1:3-11.
3. As—More fully, according as; to which our translators have inserted so do, in Italics, in order to make a completed statement. Some, as Fairbairn, insert after Macedonia “so I do now;” but that would simply make Paul charge Timothy still to stay at Ephesus. Our so do is preferable, applying it to the charge of this verse. Paul’s meaning is, Do now as I charged thee when I left Ephesus. His verbal charge he would now make a recorded charge.
Went into Macedonia—This going from Ephesus into Macedonia cannot be identified with that mentioned in Act_20:1; for, as appears from Act_19:22, he had before that going into Macedonia sent Timothy to Corinth. And, as there appears no going to Macedonia and leaving Timothy at Ephesus apparently possible before Paul’s first imprisonment, so this passage requires a second imprisonment. See Introduction.
Some—A reprehensive word, implying that these teachers were a certain few, not to be named here, but too well known to Timothy. Note on 1Ti_1:20.
Teach no other doctrine—In Paul’s Greek a newly coined and very expressive single Greek word, to-be-otherwise-teachers. It expresses the idea that the original gospel of Jesus, as purely and genuinely transmitted through the apostles, must be retained unmixed with any other elements, and without variation.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–7 3. As I besought thee … so do] Rather…
3. As I besought thee … so do] Rather as I exhorted thee … so do I now, i.e. exhort thee. The R.V. varies between ‘beseech’ and ‘exhort’ for parakalein, e.g. reading in Phm_1:9, ‘for love’s sake I rather beseech.’
to abide still] Or to tarry; the force of the preposition in the verb is expressed by ‘still’; the aorist is usual after verbs of hoping, &c.
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when I went into Macedonia] The present participle is emphatic—when I was going. This journey into Macedonia cannot be fitted in anywhere during the period covered by the Acts. See Ellicott here, and Paley, Hor. Paul. ch. xi. Cf. Introduction, p. 43.
that thou mightest charge some] Rather certain persons slightingly, and indicating that he could name them if he would; the word for ‘charge,’ cf. 1Ti_1:5, is in St Paul’s mind in writing, and occurs seven times in this epistle.
no other doctrine] Better, not to be teachers of a different doctrine, as in Gal_1:6, ‘a different gospel,’ i.e. different in kind; the word appears in our ‘heterodoxy,’ difference for the worse from the established view of things.
3–11. Timothy is exhorted to faithful Ministry. He is reminded first of the character of the true Gospel
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–7 (3) That thou mightest charge some.—Some time after the…
(3) That thou mightest charge some.—Some time after the first imprisonment at Rome, and consequently beyond the period included by St. Luke in the Acts, St. Paul must have left Timothy behind at Ephesus while he pursued his journey towards Macedonia, and given him the solemn charge here referred to. The false teachers who are disturbing the Church at Ephesus are not named. There is, perhaps, a ring of contempt in the expression “some,” but it seems more probable that the names were designedly omitted in this letter, which was intended to be a public document. The chief superintendent of the Ephesian community, doubtless, knew too well who were the mistaken men referred to.
That they teach no other doctrine.—“Other”—i.e., other than the truth. When the Apostle and his disciple Timothy re-visited Ephesus, after the long Cæsarean and Roman imprisonment, they found the Church there distracted with questions raised by Jewish teachers. The curious and hair-splitting interpretation of the Mosaic law, the teaching concerning the tithing of mint and anise and cummin, which in the days of Jesus of Nazareth had paralysed all real spiritual life in Jerusalem, had found its way during the Apostle’s long enforced absence into the restless, ever-changing congregations at Ephesus.
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Dangerous controversies, disputings concerning old prophecies, mingled with modern traditions, occupied the attention of many of the Christian teachers. They preferred to talk about theology rather than try to live the life which men like St. Paul had told them that followers of Jesus must live if they would be His servants indeed.
Unless these deadening influences were removed, the faith of the Ephesian Church threatened to become utterly impractical. The doctrine these restless men were teaching, and which St. Paul so bitterly condemns, seems to have been no settled form of heresy, but a profitless teaching, arising mainly, if not entirely, from Jewish sources.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Exhorted for besought, A.V; tarry for abide still, A.V;…
Exhorted for besought, A.V; tarry for abide still, A.V; was going for went, A.V; certain men for some, A.V; not to teach a different for that they teach no other , A.V Exhorted (parekalesa). In about sixty places this word has the sense of "beseech," "entreat," "desire," "pray," which is more suitable to this passage than the R.V exhort. It is a strong expression, and seems to imply that Timothy had been anxious to go with St. Paul to Macedonia, to share his labors and wait upon him; but that St. Paul, with that noble disinterestedness which characterized his whole life, had, not without difficulty, persuaded him to abide at Ephesus. Tarry. Here again the R.V is unfortunate. The exact sense of prosmeinai is "to stay on," or, as in the A.V, "to abide still." The word tells us that Timothy was already at Ephesus when he received the request from St. Paul to stay on there instead of going to Macedonia. There is nothing in the phrase that implies that St. Paul was at Ephesus himself when he made the request to Timothy. It may have been made by message or by letter. When I was going. Some commentators have endeavored to explain poreuomenov as applying to Timothy, or as if the order were ina poreuomenov paraggeilhv; but the Greek will not admit of it. Charge (paraggeilhv); a word implying authority, almost invariably rendered "command" or "charge." It is taken up in ver. 18 (tauthn than), "This charge," etc. Teach a different doctrine (eJterodidaskalein). This is one of the many words peculiar to the pastoral Epistles. It only occurs hereskalov, 1Ti_6:3. It is formed from eJterodida a teacher of other than right doctrine, and means "to play the part of a teacher of other than right doctrine," just as in ecclesiastical language ejterodoxov means "one who holds opinions contrary to that which is orthodox," and such as do so are said eJterodoxein. The classical sense is a little different, "one who holds a different opinion be of a different opinion." The introduction of the word into the vocabulary of Scripture is a sign of the somewhat later age to which this Epistle belongs, when heresies were growing and multiplying. Other similar compounds are eJteroglwssov (1Co_14:21) and eJterozugein. (2Co_6:14)
Vers. 3-11, 19, 20.
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The heretic.
We have in these verses some of the characteristics of heresy very graphically portrayed. First, there is the teaching of other or different doctrine from that which they had received. The Fathers always lay stress upon novelty as characteristic of heresy, while it was characteristic of the Church to teach the old truths which had been banded down to them by those who went before them. And they are right. "I delivered unto you that which I also received," is the spirit of sound teaching. To invent new doctrines, and to preach things of one"s own choosing, is the spirit of heresy. Then, again, it is characteristic of heresy to start curious questions, not with a view to real edification in the faith of Jesus Christ, but for the sake of displaying subtlety in disputing, and keeping up controversy and a war of words, and factious partisanship. The unity of the Church, and loving agreement amongst the brethren, is the last thing that heretics think of. Puffed up with self-importance, desirous of being leaders, despising others, treating with contempt all who will not follow them, they turn the Church into a bear-garden, and substitute vain jangling for the words of truth and soberness. Especially is arrogance combined with ignorance a leading feature in the heretic; and in his method of handling Divine truth he makes a display of both. Another feature may be noted, as set forth in ver. 19, viz. the divorce between conscience and faith. The heretic handles the things of God as matter for mere intellectual contests, apart from reverence and godly fear. He disputes about God and about Christ, and thinks it unimportant whether his own heart is pure or impure. He walks in open disobedience to God"s commandments, and yet thinks himself competent to judge of God"s nature and attributes. He darkens his own soul by sin, and yet dares to approach the mystery of godliness. Lastly, it is characteristic of the heretic that he rarely, if ever, repents, and returns to the faith which he denied. Hymenaeus and Alexander, in spite of the godly discipline ministered to them for their correction, are still found subverting the faith of many, and withstanding the apostle of Jesus Christ, in the latest mention of them. They were in this respect like their brethren in heresy, Simon Magus, Cerinthus, Marcion, Valentinus, Montanus, Manes, Arius, Socinus, and many more. The shipwreck of faith is, for the most part, total and irremediable.
Vers. 3, 4.
The object of Timothy"s continued sojourn at Ephesus.
I CONSIDER THE TENDER CARE WHICH THE APOSTLE TAKES OF THE EPHESIAN CHURCH, "As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia, so do I beseech thee now that thou charge some that they teach no other doctrine." As Timothy was with the apostle in his first journey through Macedonia, (Act_16:3, 12 20:3, 4) this must refer to a later journey, occurring after the first imprisonment at Rome.
1. Mark the affectionate style of his address besought thee;" whereas to Titus he said, "I gave thee command". (Tit_1:5) Timothy received no authoritative injunction, but merely a tender request that he would prolong his stay so as to check the waywardness of false teachers who had risen to mar the simplicity of the gospel.
2. Mark the tendency of the purest Churches to be spoiled by false doctrine. The apostle had foretold the rise of a separatist party when he was addressing the elders of Ephesus at Miletus. (Act_20:29, Act_20:30) They may have been few but if they were like "the grievous wolves" of the prediction, they might succeed in "drawing away disciples after them, speaking perverse things.
II THE CHARGE WHICH THE APOSTLE GIVES TO BE ADDRESSED TO THE FALSE TEACHERS.
1. It was a charge that they should teach no doctrine different from the gospel. "That they teach no other doctrine.
(1) This implied that the apostle"s doctrine was the true standard of teaching by which all other teaching was to be judged.
(2) There may have been no doctrinal heresy at Ephesus; but the teaching, being of a morbid, unedifying, speculative character, would tend to reduce the warmth of "the first love" of Ephesian saints, if not to lead to serious departures from the faith.
(3) Ministers must take special care that no false doctrines be broached in the Church of God.
2. It was a charge that the errorists should give no heed to fables and genealogies.
(1) Fables. Evidently rabbinical fables and fabrications in the regions of history and doctrine. The Talmud is full of them.
(2) Endless genealogies. The genealogies of the Pentateuch were actually made the foundation of allegorical interpretations by Jews like Philo, who largely influenced their countrymen. There may have been a disposition likewise, on the part of Jews, to establish their genealogical connection with Abraham, as if the bond of a physical relationship could add strength to that firmer bond which allies all to Abraham, whether they are Jews or Gentiles, who believe in Christ. (Gal_3:29)
3. Consider the ground upon which the apostle condemns this injurious teaching. "Inasmuch as they minister questions, rather than the dispensation of God which is in faith.
(1) The teaching was unprofitably disputatious. It ministered questions not easily answered, and which, if answered, had no practical bearing upon Christian life.
(2) It did not tend to promote the scheme of salvation as set forth by the apostles dispensation of God which is in faith.
(a) God"s dispensation is simply his method of salvation, as unfolded in the gospel, (Eph_1:10) with which the Apostle Paul was specially entrusted. (1Co_4:1)
(b) This dispensation has its principle in kith; unlike the fables and genealogies, which might exercise the mind or the imagination, but not the heart. Faith is the sphere of action upon which the dispensation turns.
(3) The apostle"s anxiety to check this false teaching at Ephesus had evidently two grounds.
(a) This rabbinical teaching, if allowed to enter into the training of Gentile congregations, would cause Christianity to shrink into the narrow limits of a mere Jewish sect. Judaism might thus become the grave of Christianity.
(b) It would despiritualize the Christian Church, and rob it of its "first love," and prepare the way to bitter apostasy. T.C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3–5 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus.
1Ti_1:3-4
As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus.
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Timothys charge
Our translators have supplied two words at the close of the fourth verse, in order to complete the sentence which the apostle left unfinished; but it would have been better had they inserted them earlier, for the meaning is more clear if we read, As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, so I beseech thee now to remain there. It is an example of the way in which Pauls living thoughts leaped ahead of the words which might have clothed them.
I. The period to which he refers in the phrase, when I went into Macedonia, cannot be certainly fixed. There was, indeed, one occasion mentioned in Act_20:1, when, in consequence of the peril in which he was placed through the uproar raised by Demetrius, he did leave Ephesus for Macedonia; but in the chapter preceding that narrative we read that he had already sent Timothy and Erastus thither; and we know that he joined them there, because in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, written thence, he mentions Timothy as being then with him.
II. The mode of address to Timothy demands a word or two. I besought thee--not I commanded thee. No doubt this is expressive of the gentleness and affection with which Timothy was regarded, but it is also an indication of the kind of authority which was exercised by the apostles over their fellow-workers. There was nothing dictatorial about it, nothing of the military discipline which is so popular and effective in an aggressive section of the Church in our day. Influence then was that of character; authority was the outcome of inspiration; and even the chosen twelve were better pleased to rule by love than fear. It must be admitted this may give rise to abuses and perils.
III. The purport of Pauls entreaty was that Timothy should check the progress of false doctrine in the Ephesian Church. There was a ferment going on in the minds of men at that time, such as usually accompanies or follows a great religious movement. False notions of God, and of His law, arising from an imperfectly understood Judaism, combined with a speculative heathen philosophy, were threatening to destroy the simplicity of the gospel A sort of cabalistic system was being constituted in the Church, by an incongruous mixture of Jewish fancies with heathen speculations, and this threatened disaster--just as the ivy, climbing slowly but surely, thrusts in a root here and a tendril there, till the once strong wall has every stone loosened, and in the storm it falls.
IV. The reason given for opposing such teaching is, that it ministered questions rather than godly edifying. The Revised Version adopts another reading, and rightly so. The meaning is, that these questionings did not subserve Gods dispensation mills specific plan for admission to His kingdom, His method of salvation unfolded in the Gospel; for that dispensation consists in faith. And as a matter of experience we know that questions which merely excite the fancy, or even the intellect, tend to make the objects of faith distasteful. For example, a course of sensational novel reading, which peoples the mind with unrealities, does extrude earnest thoughts on spiritual realities. And this which is true of the rites of the Church is equally true of its organizations, and we have constantly to be on our guard lest the occupation of the mind with the details of Church work should divert us from the cultivation of personal Christian life. But the apostle here condemns chiefly the unhealthy practice of giving prominence to unimportant questions, whether it be in the sphere of philosophy or of religion. When a settler has to grow his own corn to provide himself with daily bread, he will let speculation on the strata beneath the surface wait till he has found time to sow and to reap. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
The doctrine condemned in the Pastoral Epistles a Jewish form of Gnosticism: the Gnostics problem
It is of more importance to inquire what was the nature of the different doctrine which Timothy was to endeavour to counteract. And on this point we are not left in serious doubt. There are various expressions used respecting it in these two letters to Timothy which seem to point to two factors in the heterodoxy about which St. Paul is anxious.
1. The heresy is Jewish in character. Its promoters desire to be teachers of the Law (1Ti_1:7). Some of them are they of the circumcision (Tit_1:10). It consists in Jewish fables (Tit_1:14). The questions which it raises are fightings about the Law (Tit_3:9).
2. Its Gnostic character is also indicated. We are told both in the text and in the Epistle to Titus (Tit_1:14; Tit_3:9) that it deals in fables and genealogies. It is, empty talking (verse 6), disputes of words (1Ti_6:4), and profane babblings (1Ti_6:20). It teaches an unscriptural and unnatural asceticism (1Ti_4:3; 1Ti_4:8). It is Gnosis falsely so called (1Ti_6:20). A heresy containing these two elements, Judaism and Gnosticism, meets us both before and after the period covered by the Pastoral Epistles: before in the Epistle to the Colossians; afterwards in the Epistles of Ignatius. The evidence gathered from these three sources is entirely in harmony with what we learn elsewhere--that the earliest forms of Christian Gnosticism were Jewish in character. It will be observed that this is indirect confirmation of the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles. The Gnosticism condemned in them is Jewish; and any form of Gnosticism that was in existence in St. Pauls time would almost certainly be Jewish. Professor Godet has pointed out how entirely the relation of Judaism to Christianity which is implied in these Epistles, fits in with their being the last group of epistles written by St. Paul. At first, Judaism was entirely outside the Church, opposing and blaspheming. Then it entered the Church and tried to make the Church Jewish, by foisting the Mosaic Law upon it. Lastly, it becomes s, fantastic heresy inside the Church, and sinks into profane frivolity. Pretended revelations are given as to the names and genealogies of angels; absurd ascetic rules are laid down as counsels of perfection, while daring immorality defaces the actual life. This is the phase which is confronted in the Pastoral Epistles: and St. Paul meets it with a simple appeal to faith and morality. It is quite possible that the fables, or myths, and genealogies ought to be transferred from the Gnostic to the Jewish side of the account. And thus Chrysostom interprets the passage. By fables he does not mean the Law; far from it; but inventions and forgeries, and counterfeit doctrines. For, it seems, the Jews wasted their whole discourse on these unprofitable points. They numbered up their fathers and grandfathers, that they might have the reputation of historical knowledge and research. The fables then, may be understood to be those numerous legends which the Jews added to the Old Testament, specimens of which abound in the Talmud. But similar myths abound in Gnostic systems, and therefore fables may represent both elements of the heterodox teaching. So also with the endless genealogies. These cannot well refer to the genealogies in Genesis, for they are not endless, each of them being arranged in tens. But it is quite possible that Jewish speculations about the genealogies of angels may be meant. Such things, being purely imaginary, would be endless. Or the Gnostic doctrine of emanations, in its earlier and cruder forms, may be intended. By genealogies in this sense early thinkers, especially in the East, tried to bridge the chasm between the infinite and the finite, between God and creation. In various systems it is assumed that matter is inherently evil. The material universe has been from the beginning not very good but very bad. How then can it be believed that the Supreme Being, infinite in goodness, would create such a thing? This is incredible: the world must be the creature of some inferior and perhaps evil being. But when this was conceded, the distance between this inferior power and the supreme God still remained to be bridged. This, it was supposed, might be done by an indefinite number of generations, each lower in dignity than the preceding one, until at last a being capable of creating the universe was found. From the Supreme God emanated an inferior deity, and from this lower power a third still more inferior; and so on until the Creator of the world was reached. These ideas are found in the Jewish philosopher Philo; and it is to these that St. Paul probably alludes in the endless genealogies which minister questionings rather than a dispensation of God. (A. Plummer, D. D.)
Speculations condemned
St. Paul condemns such speculations on four grounds.
1. They are fables, myths, mere imaginings of the human intellect in its attempt to account for the origin of the world and the origin of evil.
2. They are endless and interminable. From the nature of things there is no limit to mere guesswork of this kind. Every new speculator may invent a fresh genealogy of emanations in his theory of creation and may make it any length that he pleases. If hypotheses need never be verified--need not even be capable of verification--one may go on constructing them ad infinitum.
3. As a natural consequence of this (αἵτινες) they minister questionings and nothing better. It is all barren speculation and fruitless controversy. Where any one may assert without proof, any one else may contradict with out proof; and nothing comes of this see-saw of affirmation and negation.
4. Lastly, these vain imaginings are a different doctrine. They are not only empty but untrue, and are a hindrance to the truth, they occupy the ground which ought to be filled with the dispensation of God which is in faith. Human minds are limited in their capacity, and, even if these empty hypotheses were innocent, minds that were filled With them would have little room left for the truth. But they are not innocent: and those who are attracted by them become disaffected towards the truth. The history of the next hundred and fifty years amply justifies the anxiety and severity of St. Paul. The germs of Gnostic error, which were in the air when Christianty was first preached, fructified with amazing rapidity. It would be hard to find a parallel in the history of philosophy to the speed with which Gnostic views spread in and around Christendom between a.d. 70 and 220. Throughout the Christian world, and especially in intellectual centres such as Ephesus, Alexandria, and Rome, there was perhaps not a single educated congregation which did not contain persons who were infected with some form of Gnosticism. Jeromes famous hyperbole respecting Arianism might be transferred to this earlier form of error, perhaps the most perilous that the Church has ever known: The whole world groaned and was amazed to find itself Gnostic. However severely we may con demn these speculations, we cannot but sympathize with the perplexities which produced them. The origin of the universe, and still more the origin of evil, to this day remain unsolved problems. No one in this life is ever likely to reach a complete solution of either. (A. Plummer, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv3–7 3, 4. As I besought thee to abide still…
3, 4. As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus. Paul, it is presumed, seeing on the occasion of his last visit the need of a trusty evangelist at Ephesus to counteract the errors which were arising, had left Timothy behind. He was not left there as a bishop, as has been sometimes claimed, for we find that a part of his business was to appoint bishops; but as the representative of the apostle, an evangelist. The office of Titus in Crete was similar. That they teach no other doctrine. Than the gospel which they had been taught. Some of the errors which he was to correct are stated in the next verse 4.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv3, 5 1Ti_1:3. Charge some that they teach no other doctrine.—R.V.…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Ti_1:3. Charge some that they teach no other doctrine.—R.V. “charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine.” It is doctrine that differs in quality that was not to be taught. In his impassioned address to the Galatians St. Paul would anathematise “even an angel from heaven” who should dare to proclaim another gospel, “ ‘different,’ from its commixture with an unedifying, vain, and morbid theosophy.”
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1Ti_1:4. Fables and endless genealogies.—Rabbinical fables and fabrications, whether in history or doctrine—these, according to Ellicott, are the fables, and the genealogies are to be taken in the proper sense with which, however, these wilder speculations were very probably combined. Most modern commentators refer the terms to the spiritual myths and emanations of Gnosticism. The which minister questions.—The wordy wars in which the Christian community would be involved by these genealogies would be as long as they themselves, and as vacuous. Godly edifying.—R.V. “a dispensation of God.” The A.V. is an impossible rendering of the word from which our “economy” comes. The translators followed another reading, and the Vulgate “ædificationem.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Ti_1:3-4
A Difficult Pastoral Charge.
I. A sphere of active and distracting heresies.—“Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith” (1Ti_1:4). The Gnostic problem was now beginning to manifest itself, and to mingle with the development of the gospel. The heresy spread with marvellous rapidity between A.D. 70 and 220; and Eusebius tells us that “as soon as the apostles and those who had listened to them with their own ears had passed away, the conspiracy of godless error took its rise through the deceit of false teachers, who endeavoured with brazen face to preach their knowledge falsely so called in opposition to the preaching of the truth.” The Gnostic theory was that matter is eternal and that evil resides inherently in matter, so that there were two coeternal existences—God and matter. This theory afterwards developed the creed that there are two coeternal and coequal powers—good and evil; and the doctrine of emanations from the supreme God of a series of inferior deities, the last being regarded as the creator of the world. Here was scope for the “fables and endless genealogies” which the apostle condemns and against which he warns Timothy. The existence of these confusing errors, which were rife in Ephesus, rendered the position of the young pastor both delicate and difficult. Not less difficult and anxious is the relation of the minister to modern speculations and doubts. The activity of the propagators of false ethics, of scepticism, theosophy, agnosticism, materialism, and a crude unformed socialism in the present day, creates concern in the breast of the earnest preacher of the gospel.
II. Requiring caution and fidelity in enforcing the true doctrine.—“As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus … that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine … so do” (1Ti_1:3-4). The apostle’s specific for the errors of that day was not to advertise and spread them by injudicious controversy, but to teach with the more care and faithfulness “no other doctrine” than the gospel of Christ. Error must be slain by a clearer and more emphatic statement of the truth, of which it is a distortion and caricature. The same method is applicable to the times in which we live. The modern preacher must know and therefore study the theories of unbelief, however wild and extravagant they may seem, and much as he may recoil from the disagreeable and dangerous task. He must fight his own way through the wicked antagonisms of the truth to faith and certainty; but he must not introduce into his pulpit ministrations the details of the errors he seeks to refute. He need not expose the progressive steps by which he reaches his conclusions, but should use those conclusions in the most condensed and concrete form. Error is most effectually quenched by a faithful preaching of the truth as it is in Jesus, and insisting upon a holy and consistent life. Unbelief is more an obliquity of the heart than the head; and if the heart is to be reached and changed, we must “teach no other doctrine” than that which Timothy was exhorted to expound and enforce.
III. Retained with evident reluctance.—“As I besought thee” (1Ti_1:3). Timothy shrank from the formidable task proposed to him. He saw its vital importance and its difficulties too, and perhaps his natural timidity tempted him to exaggerate these. He was subject to moods of discouragement (compare 2Ti_1:7-8; 2Ti_2:1-13; 2Ti_4:5). It was only after earnest and affectionate persuasion on the part of Paul that he at length consented to undertake the difficult work. It was impossible for him to resist the pleading of his father in the gospel; and, fearful and hesitating, his instinctive obedience led him to comply. When he parted from Paul—probably at Miletus, where he first received this charge—Timothy was in tears (Act_20:36-38). Duty is not always easy: the more difficult it is, the greater the honour and the more distinguished the reward. St. Ambrose relates a legend that, when persecution arose in Rome, the Christians, anxious to preserve the life of Peter, advised him to flee. He was in the act of leaving the city when he met our Lord. “Lord, whither goest Thou?” asked the apostle. “I go to Rome,” was the answer, “there once more to be crucified.” Peter understood the rebuke, returned at once, and was crucified. Duty must be done whatever the result. We may safely leave that with God.
Lessons.—
1. The minister should be awake to the tendency of modern error.
2. Faithful preaching of the truth is the best antidote to error.
3. The work of the ministry is beset with difficulties.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ti_1:4. “Godly edifying which is in faith.” Moral-building.
I. The soul is edified only as it advances in godliness.
II. The materials for moral-building are supplied by the gospel.
III. Moral-building is hindered by the discussion of frivolous questions.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv3–5 3. “As I call thee to abide in Ephesus,…
3. “As I call thee to abide in Ephesus, going into Macedonia.” I am satisfied Paul never wrote this letter when over in Asia while Timothy was with him, as he left him there; but after crossing the Aegan Sea, and landing in Europe, he dictated it to Luke while stopping and preaching in some of those Macedonian Churches; i.e., Philippi, Thessalonica, or Berea. “In order that you may command certain ones not to teach heterodoxy.”
Orthodoxy is the simple, unsophisticated Word of God. Everything else is heterodox. These words have been awfully abused by unspiritual preachers, and frequently given even a reverse interpretation. The preachers who confine themselves to the pure and unadulterated Word are this day like angels’ visits.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v6 1 Timothy
1 Timothy
THE END OF THE COMMANDMENT
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1Ti 1:6.
The Apostle has just said that he left Timothy in Ephesus, in order to check some tendencies there which were giving anxiety. Certain teachers had appeared, the effect of whose activity was to create parties, to foster useless speculations, and to turn the minds of the Ephesian Christians away from the practical and moral side of Christianity. In opposition to these, the Apostle here lays down the broad principle that God has spoken, not in order to make acute theologians, or to provide materials for controversy, but in order to help us to love. The whole of these latest letters of the Apostle breathe the mellow wisdom of old age, which has learned to rate brilliant intellectualism, agility, incontroversial fence and the like, far lower than homely goodness. And so, says Paul, ‘the end of the commandment is love.’
Now he here states, not only the purpose of the divine revelation, but gives us a summary, but yet sufficient, outline of the method by which God works towards that purpose. The commandment is the beginning, love is the end or aim. And between these two there are inserted three things, a ‘pure heart,’ a ‘good conscience,’ ‘faith unfeigned.’ Now of these three the two former are closely connected, and the third is the cause, or condition, of both of them. It is, therefore, properly named last as being first in order, and therefore last reached in analysis. When you track a stream from its mouth to its source, the fountain-head is the last thing that you come to. And here we have, as in these great lakes in Central Africa--out of which finally the Nile issues--the stages of the flow. There are the twin lakes, a ‘good conscience’ and a ‘pure heart.’ These come from ‘unfeigned faith,’ which lies higher up in the hills of God; and they run down into the love which is the ‘end of the commandment.’ The faith lays hold on the commandment, and so the process is complete. Or, if you begin at the top, instead of at the bottom, God gives the word; faith grasps the word, and thereby nourishes a ‘pure heart’ and a ‘good conscience,’ and thereby produces a universal love. So, then, we have three steps to look at here.
I. First of all, what God speaks to us for.
‘The end of the commandment is love.’
Now, I take it that the word ‘commandment’ here means, not this or that specific precept, but the whole body of Christian revelation, considered as containing laws for life. And to begin with, and only to mention, it is something to get that point of view, that all which God says, be it promise, be it self-manifestation, be it threatening, or be it anything else, has a preceptive bearing, and is meant to influence life and conduct. I shall have a word or two more to say about that presently, but note, just as we go on, how remarkable it is, and how full of lessons, if we will ponder it, that one name for the Gospel on the lips of the man who had most to say about the contrast between Gospel and Law is ‘commandment.’ Try to feel the stringency of that aspect of evangelical truth and of Christian revelation.
Then I need not remind you how here the indefinite expression ‘love’ must be taken, as I think is generally the case in the New Testament, when the object on which the love rests is not defined, as including both of the twin commandments, of which the second, our Master says, is like unto the first, love to God and love to man. In the Christian idea these two are one. They are shoots from the one root. The only difference is that the one climbs and the other grows along the levels of earth. There is no gulf set in the New Testament teaching, and there ought to be none in the practice and life of a Christian man, between the love of God and the love of man. They are two aspects of one thing.
Then, if so, mark how, according to the Apostle’s teaching here, in this one thought of a dual-sided love, one turned upwards, one turned earthwards, there lies the whole perfection of a human soul. You want nothing more if you are ‘rooted and grounded in love.’ That will secure all goodness, all morality, all religion, everything that is beautiful, and everything that is noble. And all this is meant to be the result of God’s speech to us.
So, then, two very plain practical principles may be deduced and enforced from this first thought. First, the purpose of all revelation and the test of all religion is--character and conduct.
It is all very well to know about God, to have our minds filled with true thoughts about Him, His nature, and dealings with us. Orthodoxy is good, but orthodoxy is a means to an end. There should be nothing in a man’s creed which does not act upon his life. Or, if I may put it into technical words, all a man’s credenda should be his agenda ; and whatsoever he believes should come straight into his life to influence it, and to shape character. Here, then, is the warning against a mere notional orthodoxy, and against regarding Christian truth as being intended mainly to illuminate the understanding, or to be a subject of speculation and discussion. There are people in all generations, and there are plenty of them to-day, who seem to think that the great verities of the Gospel are mainly meant to provide material for controversy--
‘As if religion were intended For nothing else but to be mended’;
and that they have done all that can be expected when they have tried to apprehend the true bearing of this revelation, and to contend against misinterpretations. This is the curse of religious controversy, that it blinds men to the practical importance of the truths for which they are fighting. It is as if one were to take some fertile wheat-land, and sand it all over, and roll it down, and make it smooth for a gymnasium, where nothing would grow. So the temper which finds in Christian truth simply a ‘ministration of questions,’ as my text says, mars its purpose, and robs itself of all the power and nourishment that it might find there.
No less to be guarded against is the other misconception which the clear grasp of our text would dismiss at once, that the great purpose for which God speaks to us men, in the revelation of Jesus Christ, is that we may, as we say, be ‘forgiven,’ and escape any of the temporal or eternal consequences of our wrongdoing. That is a purpose, no doubt, and men will never rise to the apprehension of the loftiest purposes, nor penetrate to a sympathetic perception of the inmost sweetness of the Gospel, unless they begin with its redemptive aspect, even in the narrowest sense of that word. But there are a miserable number of so-called and of real Christians in this world, and in our churches to-day, who have little conception that God has spoken to them for anything else than to deliver them from the fear of death, and from the incidence on them of future condemnation. He has spoken for this purpose, but the ultimate end of all is that we may be helped to love Him, and so to be like Him. The aim of the commandment is love, and if you ever are tempted to rest in intellectual apprehensions, or to pervert the truth of God into a mere arena on which you can display your skill of fence and your intellectual agility, or if ever you are tempted to think that all is done when the sweet message of forgiveness is sealed upon a man’s heart, remember the solemn and plain words of my text--the final purpose of all is that we may love God and man.
But then, on the other side, note that no less distinctly is the sole foundation of this love laid in God’s speech. My text, in its elevation of sentiment and character and conduct above doctrine, falls in with the prevailing tendencies of this day; but it provides the safeguards which these tendencies neglect. Notice that this favourite saying of the most advanced school of broad thinkers, who are always talking about the decay of dogma, and the unimportance of doctrine as compared with love, is here uttered by a man who was no sentimentalist, but to whom the Christian system was a most distinct and definite thing, bristling all over with the obnoxious doctrines which are by some of us so summarily dismissed as of no importance. My very text protests against the modern attempt to wrench away the sentiments and emotions produced in men, by the reception of Christian truth, from the truth which it recognises as the only basis on which they can be produced. It declares that the ‘commandment’ must come first, before love can follow; and the rest of the letter, although, as I say, it decisively places the end of revelation as being the moral and religious perfecting of men into assimilation with the divine love, no less decisively demands that for such a perfecting there shall be laid the foundation of the truth as it is revealed in Jesus Christ.
And that is what we want to-day in order to make breadth wholesome, and if only we will carry with us the two thoughts, the commandment and love, we shall not go far wrong. But what would you think of a man that said, ‘I do not want any foundations. I want a house to live in’? And pray how are you going to get your house without the foundations? Or would he be a wise man who said, ‘Oh, never mind about putting grapes into the vine vat, and producing fermentation; give me the wine!’ Yes! But you must have the fermentation first. The process is not the result, of course, but there is no result without the process. And according to New Testament teaching, which, I am bold to say, is verified by experience, there is no deep, all-swaying, sovereign, heart-uniting love to God which is not drawn from the acceptance of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ.
II. And so I come, secondly, to note the purifying which is needed prior to such love.
Our text, as I said, divides the process into stages; or, if I may go back to a former illustration, into levels. And on the level immediately above the love, down into which the waters of the twin lakes glide, are a pure heart and a good conscience. These are the requisites for all real and operative love. Now they are closely connected, as it seems to me, more closely so than with either the stage which precedes or that which follows. They are, in fact, two twin thoughts, very closely identified, though not quite identical.
A pure heart is one that has been defecated and cleansed from the impurities which naturally attach to human affections. A ‘good conscience’ is one which is void of offence towards God and man, and registers the emotions of a pure heart. It is like a sheet of sensitive paper that, with a broken line, indicates how many hours of sunshine in the day there have been. We need not discuss the question as to which of these two great gifts and blessings which sweeten a whole life come first. In the initial stages of the Christian life I suppose the good conscience precedes the pure heart. For forgiveness which calms the conscience and purges it of the perilous stuff which has been injected into it by our corruptions--forgiveness comes before cleansing, and the conscience is calm before the heart is purified. But in the later stages of the Christian life the order seems to be reversed, and there cannot be in a man a conscience that is good unless there is a heart that is pure.
But however that may be--and it does not affect the general question before us--mark how distinctly Paul lays down here the principle that you will get no real love of God or man out of men whose hearts are foul, and whose consciences are either torpid or stinging them. I need not dwell upon that, for it is plain to anybody that will think for a moment that all sin separates between a man and God; and that from a heart all seething and bubbling, like the crater of a volcano, with foul liquids, and giving forth foul odours, there can come no love worth calling so to God, nor any benevolence worth calling so to man. Wherever there is sin, unrecognised, unconfessed, unpardoned, there there is a black barrier built up between a man’s heart and the yearning heart of God on the other side. And until that barrier is swept away, until the whole nature receives a new set, until it is delivered from the love of evil, and from its self-centred absorption, and until conscience has taken into grateful hands, if I might so say, the greatest of all gifts, the assurance of the divine forgiveness, I, for one, do not believe that deep, vital, and life-transforming love to God is possible. I know that it is very unfashionable, I know it is exceedingly narrow teaching, but it seems to me that it is Scriptural teaching; and it seems to me that if we will strip it of the exaggerations with which it has often been surrounded, and recognise that there may be a kind of instinctive and occasional recognition of a divine love, there may be a yearning after a clear light, and fuller knowledge of it, and yet all the while no real love to God, rooted in and lording over and moulding the life, we shall not find much in the history of the world, or in the experience of ourselves or of others, to contradict the affirmation that you need the cleansing of forgiveness, and the recognition of God’s love in Jesus Christ, before you can get love worth calling so in return to Him in men’s hearts.
Brethren, there is much to-day to shame Christian men in the singular fact which is becoming more obvious daily, of a divorce between human benevolence and godliness. It is a scandal that there should be so many men in the world who make no pretensions to any sympathy with your Christianity, and who set you an example of benevolence, self-sacrifice, enthusiasm for humanity, as it is called. I believe that the one basis upon which there can be solidly built benevolence to men is devotion to God, because of God’s great love to us in Jesus Christ. But I want to stir, if I might not say sting, you and myself into a recognition of our obligations to mankind, more stringent and compelling than we have ever felt it, by this phenomenon of modern life, that a divorce has been proclaimed between philanthropy and religion. The end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience.
III. Lastly, notice the condition of such purifying.
To recur to my former illustration, we have to go up country to a still higher level. What feeds the two reservoirs that feed the love? What makes the heart pure and the conscience good? Paul answers, ‘faith unfeigned’; not mere intellectual apprehension, not mere superficial or professed, but deep, genuine, and complete faith which has in it the element of reliance as well as the element of credence. Belief is not all that goes to make faith. Trust is not all that goes to make faith. Belief and trust are indissolubly wedded in the conception of it. Such a faith, which knows what it lays hold of--for it lays hold upon definite truth, and lays hold on what it knows, for it trusts in Him whom the truth reveals--such a faith makes the heart pure and the conscience good.
And how does it do so? By nothing in itself. There is no power in my faith to make me one bit better than I am. There is no power in it to still one accusation of conscience. It is only the condition on which the one power that purges and that calms enters into my heart and works there. The power of faith is the power of that which faith admits to operate in my life. If we open our hearts the fire will come in, and it will thaw the ice, and melt out the foulness from my heart. It is important for practice that we should clearly understand that the great things which the Bible says of faith it says of it only because it is the channel, the medium, the condition, by and on which the real power, which is Jesus Christ Himself, acts upon us. It is not the window, but the sunshine, that floods this building with light. It is not the opened hand, but the gift laid in it, that enriches the pauper. It is not the poor leaden pipe, but the water that flows through it, that fills the cistern, and cleanses it, whilst it fills. It is not your faith, but the Christ whom your faith brings into your heart and conscience, that purges the one, and makes the other void of offence towards God and man.
So, brethren, let us learn the secret of all nobility, of all power, of all righteousness of character and conduct. Put your foot on the lowest round of the ladder, and then aspire and climb, and you will reach the summit. Take the first step, and be true to it after you have taken it, and the last will surely come. He that can say, ‘We have known and believed the love that God hath to us,’ will also be able to say, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ ‘And this commandment have we of God, that he who loves God loves his brother also.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v3 The Judaizing Teachers.
The Judaizing Teachers.
v. 3. As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
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v. 4. neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith; so do.
v. 5. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned,
v. 6. from which some, having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling;
v. 7. desiring to be teachers of the Law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
Without further introductory remarks the apostle here takes up one of the most urgent matters that demanded his attention. So great is his anxiety to have Timothy take up at once the matter broached by him that he does not finish his sentence: Even as I besought thee to abide at Ephesus, while I journeyed into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some men to teach no strange doctrines nor to apply themselves to myths and endless genealogies, such as cause questionings rather than stewardship toward God (so do). At a meeting with Timothy, which had probably taken place at Miletus when Paul was on his way from Crete to Macedonia, or when he was making the journey directly to Philippi, after the first imprisonment, the apostle had given this charge to Timothy. It seems that the latter had found his position in Ephesus too difficult and had made some attempt to convince the apostle that he was not the man for the position. But Paul had not agreed with him, bidding him rather persevere, hold out, continue in his work. He did not come to the assistance of his young fellow-laborer, but continued his journey into Macedonia. Note: Difficulties in the work of the Church often tend to discourage younger pastors, and in such a case a word of encouragement from an older and more experienced pastor may serve to keep an important post supplied.
Instead of yielding to Timothy’s wishes, the apostle had rather given him some specific commands regarding certain people in Ephesus that were probably the reason for his discouraged attitude. These people were to be told not to teach a doctrine different from that which had been delivered by Christ and the apostles, different from that which Paul had taught. It seems that there were indications of an unhealthy movement within the congregation. Certain men, who may have been, as Luther suggests, very able men and pupils of the apostles themselves, were beginning to emphasize secondary doctrines and various questions which drew the minds away from the central doctrine of redemption and justification. The general tendency of their teaching seems to have been Judaizing, and they insisted on the necessity of the Law for man’s salvation. The apostle’s prophecy, given to the elders of Ephesus, was being fulfilled now. Paul’s apprehension was aroused especially by the fact that these teachers were paying such decided attention to myths, rabbinical legends, and genealogies as they were found in the Old Testament and in tradition. It was a favorite pastime of the Jewish teachers of those days to be engaged in crafty speculations in genealogical tables, upon which they placed a great deal of weight. But discussions concerning these questions were endless, infinite, they could not lead to a definite conclusion. Instead of satisfying minds that were anxious for the knowledge of the truth they caused questionings, violent disputings. The number of Jewish rabbinical authorities being so large and their schools differing widely in their understanding of Scripture and tradition, all discussions about the matters introduced by these Judaistic teachers were bound to result in greater divergencies in the congregation than ever. And these vain disputes took the place of the stewardship of God in faith. God’s activity as steward of His own mysteries which He carries out through His ministers realizes its object in faith by which people are added to the Christian Church. Naturally, the work of God’s spiritual economy is hampered or outright hindered if preachers within the Church replace the old Gospel-truth with subtleties of various kinds, purporting, at the same time, to be the acme of wisdom. Note: This text fits the activity of many so-called ministers in our day, since many of them apparently have a veritable mania to discover doctrines and topics which have only the most remote connection with the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. Thus did Timothy receive his orders to combat the Judaizing teachers and to serve the cause of the Church of Christ.
The apostle, however, is not satisfied with mere criticism and condemnation, desiring rather that people should learn the way of true sanctification: But the purpose of the Law is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. The end and purpose of the entire content of Christian doctrine, of the preaching of the New Testament, particularly in so far as it contains precept and admonition, is love, Joh 13:34; 1Co 13:1-13. The apostle designates the fruit of the tree, which serves as a proof for its life and fruitfulness. He therefore also modifies the term "love" by adding that it must he out of a pure heart, a heart free from all impure motives and objects; out of a good conscience, one that is conscious of its justification through the redemption of Christ and desires to serve the Lord in humble love; out of sincere faith, a faith free from hypocrisy, based with definite confidence upon the Savior, no vain and empty imagination, but spiritual light and spiritual life. All this flows out of the proper preaching of sin and grace.
Having thus indicated briefly wherein the ministry of the Sew Testament properly consists, the apostle directs his attention again to the errorists: From which certain individuals have erred and have turned aside to empty talking, desiring to be masters of Scripture, though they understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. The men to whom the apostle here refers had swerved aside, they had missed the mark; they may originally have had in mind love and a good conscience and faith, but because they followed their own ideas as to the attainment of these virtues instead of being directed only by the Word of God, they had gone in an altogether false direction and landed far from the goal. By placing their historical and genealogical speculations into the center of teaching instead of the simple Gospel-truths, they had lost sight of their object. And the next step naturally was that they lost their way entirely. They ended up with vain jangling, empty talk, discourses without sense. See Tit 1:10. They desired indeed to be masters of Scripture; they thought, in their own mind, that they were penetrating into its truths more deeply than the apostle. But Paul’s verdict in their case is that they had no idea what they were really talking about, that they did not possess the faintest notion as to what their affirmations really amounted to. Their own assertions with regard to the Law and its purposes were not clear to them; their arguments, intended to make an impression upon the unlearned, were not understood by themselves. Note: This is invariably the case when men despise the foolishness of preaching, as found in the Gospel, and substitute human wisdom. All the so-called moral Christianity and the social gospel of our day belongs into this category, and the discourses that are delivered in its name, and the books that are printed for its propagation, reflect only too well the truth of Paul’s judgment.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul encourages Timothy to reject the wrong use of the law and use good teaching from God.
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General Information:
The word "you" in this letter is singular and refers to Timothy. (See: Forms of You)
As I urged you
"As I pleaded with you" or "As I asked you very strongly"
remain in Ephesus
"wait for me there in the city of Ephesus"
a different doctrine
The implied information can be stated explicitly. AT: "a different doctrine from what we teach" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Neither should they pay attention
The understood information can be stated clearly. AT: "And I also want you to command them not to pay attention" (See: Ellipsis)
to stories
These may have been stories about their ancestors.
endless genealogies
With the word "endless" Paul uses exaggeration to emphasize that the genealogies are very long. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
genealogies
the written or verbal record of a person's parents and ancestors
These cause arguments
"These make people angrily disagree." The people debated about stories and genealogies about which no one could know the truth for certain.
rather than helping the plan of God, which is by faith
Possible meanings are 1) "rather than helping us to understand God's plan to save us, which we learn by faith" or 2) "rather than helping us to do God's work, which we do by faith."
translationWords
Macedonia
Ephesus
command
teach
doctrine
faith
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3–7 1:3-11 Paul’s greetings are usually followed by thanksgiving or…
1:3-11 Paul’s greetings are usually followed by thanksgiving or blessing to God; Greco-Roman letters often did the same. First Timothy and Titus probably do not include this because of their character as official letters authorizing a delegate (see 1 Timothy Book Introduction, “Literary Genre”). Instead, Paul first addresses his concern to silence the false teachers.
1:3 stop those . . . contrary to the truth: Just as Paul had previously warned (Acts 20:29-31), false teachers came into the church in Ephesus; this letter was written to help Timothy to deal with them.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.