Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Timothy 1:18
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
18 20. Faithful Ministry. Timothy is further reminded of the fall of some false Teachers
18. This charge ] From note on 1Ti 1:5 we shall see no difficulty in the reference of the words here. St Paul has put ‘the charge’ of which he is full in two different ways in 3 11 and 12 17; he puts it now in another in 18 20. The pronoun ‘this’ should refer according to its proper usage to something already set forth rather than to something new; and so we may paraphrase, ‘This is my charge to teach the old simple truths, with a heart and life that retain still the old penitent gratitude and devotion; I trust to you this life and work, as a precious jewel; so precious that to guard and keep it you must be never off duty, always Christ’s faithful soldier and servant.’
son Timothy ] As in 1Ti 1:2, my child Timothy.
the prophecies which went before on thee ] “The allusion is to prophecies uttered, as is supposed, at or before his ordination, given then for the purpose of encouraging the Church to make, and Timothy to accept the appointment, in view perhaps of his extreme youth, and possibly also slender frame: prophecies of the arduous nature of the work and of Divine aid in it.” Fairbairn. They were utterances at Lystra by Silas (cf. Act 15:32) and others of the ‘prophets’ of the N.T., spoken under the influence of the Holy Spirit, as in St Paul’s own case at Antioch, Act 13:2; ‘forth-tellings’ of the Divine Will, to which St Paul refers partly as warranting him in his appointment of so young a man to so important a charge, partly as encouraging Timothy himself to brave effort. Cf. 1Ti 4:14; and Introduction, pp. 16, 58. The marginal rendering of R.V. ‘which led the way to thee,’ i.e. “the premonitions of the Holy Spirit which pointed to thee” modifies, as Bp Ellicott, unnecessarily the simple meaning both of noun and verb.
a good warfare ] Rather render the whole clause that in them thou mayest war the good warfare; in them as his heavenly armour to ward off scorn from without and doubt from within.
Compare the well-known hymn, translating St Paul’s previous call to arms in his letter to the same parts, Ephesians 6.
Stand then in His great might
With all His strength endued,
And take to arm you for the fight
The panoply of God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This charge – This command or injunction. It does not refer to any charge, or cure, which he had as bishop or minister, as the word is sometimes used now, but to the commands or injunctions which he was delivering to him. The command particularly referred to is that in 1Ti 1:8.
According to the prophecies which went before on thee – The general meaning of this is plain. It is, that Paul was committing to him an important trust, and one that required great wisdom and fidelity; and that in doing it he was acting in conformity with the hopes which had been cherished respecting Timothy, and with certain expressed anticipations about his influence in the church. From early life the hope had been entertained that he would be a man to whom important trusts might be committed; and it had been predicted that he would be distinguished as a friend of religion. These hopes seem to have been cherished in consequence of the careful training in religion which he had had 2Ti 2:1; 2Ti 3:15, and probably from the early indications of seriousness, prudence, and piety, which he manifested. It was natural to entertain such hopes, and it seems, from this place, that such hopes had even assumed the form of predictions.
It is not absolutely necessary to suppose that these predictions referred to by the word prophecies were inspired, for the word may be used in a popular sense, as it is often now. We speak now familiarly of predicting or foretelling the future usefulness of a serious, prudent, studious, and pious youth. We argue from what he is, to what he will be, and we do not deem it unsafe or improper to hazard the prediction that, if he lives, he will be a man to whom important interests may be entrusted. As there were, however. prophets in the Christian church (Act 11:27 note; 1 Cor. 14 notes), and as it is possible that in some cases they were inspired to foretell future events, it cannot be regarded as improper to suppose that some of them had foretold the future usefulness of this religiously educated youth. Whatever may be meant by the expression, this general observation may be made, that when a young man enters on the active duties of life, and when great interests are entrusted to him, it is not improper to remind him of the hopes which had been cherished of him; of the anticipations which had been formed of his future usefulness; and of the expressions which have been used by the pious and the discerning respecting his future character. This is a kind of reminiscence which will rather increase his sense of responsibility than flatter his vanity; and it may be made a means of exciting him to diligence and fidelity. A virtuous young man will not willingly disappoint the long-cherished hopes of his friends. He will be likely to be made more diligent by the remembrance of all their fond anticipations of his future success.
That thou by them – By those prophecies. That is, that being stimulated and excited by those predictions and hopes, you might be led to fidelity and usefulness.
Mightest war a good warfare – The Christian life is often compared to a warfare or struggle for victory (compare Eph 6:10-17; 1Co 9:7; 2Co 4:4), and the services of the Christian ministry especially are likened to those of a soldier; 2Ti 2:3-4; 2Ti 4:7. The meaning here is, that he should contend with earnestness as a Christian and a minister in that holy service in which he was engaged, and endeavor to secure the victory. He wars a good warfare who is engaged in a righteous cause; who is faithful to his commander and to his post; who is unslumbering in observing the motions of the enemy, and fearless in courage in meeting them; who never forsakes his standard, and who continues thus faithful until the period of his enlistment has expired, or until death. Such a soldier the Christian minister should be.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Ti 1:18
This charge I commit unto thee.
Timothys charge and warning
The charge to which Paul alludes does not refer to what he said in the third and fifth verses, but points on to what follows–to that good warfare which Timothy was summoned to undertake against evil.
I. The chance, of which Timothy was reminded–
1. Had been indicated by inspired prophets in the Church. Very significantly Paul says these prophecies went before on thee; that is, they were not only uttered upon, or over him, but they went forth before him in his future course, revealing it and inspiring him to follow it–just as the consciousness of having a courier in front would direct and encourage the traveller. Hence Paul adds that by them, or in them, Timothy might wage a good warfare; he was to feel like one clothed and armed in those prophetic hopes, in those believing prayers. And do not we know something of this? No man has ever done great work in the world unless he has a deep moral conviction that he is predestined to do it; and this was never exemplified better than in General Gordon, who, in more than one campaign, felt that he was invincible and resistless till his work was done. And in our lowlier spheres we should be the more watchful, earnest, and hopeful, because others have had great hopes about us, and because we have been set apart to be Gods servants by many an act of dedication. It is a great thing to have prophecies going before us, and the prayers of dear ones encircling us so that in them we may war a good warfare.
2. For this charge involved conflict.
3. And for success in this warfare faith and a good conscience are essential. Faith, without a good conscience, is like a garrison summoned to defend one gate of the fortress, while a traitor is opening the other gate to relentless foes. This leads the apostle to give Timothy–
II. The warning which is contained in the last two verses.
1. He speaks of some who had put away a good conscience, stifling its voice and thrusting it from them, with this result, that they had made shipwreck of faith. And this experience has often repeated itself in the history of the Church. Balaam put away a good conscience when he paltered with his convictions to his souls undoing. Saul, the king, did so when he disobeyed the distinct command of God, until he was no longer able to hear the Divine voice and resorted to the witch of Endor. Judas Iscariot did so when he resisted the promptings of the Holy Spirit and betrayed his Lord and Master; and in each case the sacrifice of conscience brought about the shipwreck of faith. May God keep us undefiled, that we may never make shipwreck of faith!
2. Examples of this are pointed out to Timothy: Hymenaeus and Alexander. The latter was a very common name, so that we cannot confidently identify this man with Alexander, the coppersmith, who, Paul declares, in the Second Epistle, did him much evil; but Hymeneus was so uncommon a name that we may be sure it was he of whom the apostle says, in the Second Epistle, that he and Philetus were in grievous error, denying the doctrine of the resurrection, and declaring that it was past already. A blunted conscience evidently accompanied a darkened mind.
3. Paul did what he could to save and warn them, saying of them, Whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. A difficult passage, chiefly because we know so little of apostolic modes of Church discipline. It certainly did not mean that they were given over to perdition, for the object of the punishment was their salvation, that they might learn not to blaspheme, that is, not to misrepresent and calumniate the truth of God. Here, as well as elsewhere, Satan is spoken of not as an independent hostile power, but as one who is allowed to work evil for a given purpose, which is often beyond the range of men to discover. Thus Job was left in the power of the adversary for a season; and similarly, the Lord Jesus said to Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Paul himself speaks of the thorn in the flesh as being the messenger of Satan to buffet him. And when in the light of these passages we read this solemn declaration and couple it with 1Co 5:5, where Paul says of the incestuous offender, With the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, we come to the conclusion that the apostles were gifted with, and sometimes used, the solemn power of inflicting disease on the body, in order to awaken in the offender, or in others, convictions of sin and longings for salvation. In the terrible cases of Ananias and Elymas, we see evidences of a power to punish given to those who could heal diseases and cast out devils, a power which no doubt was demanded by the exigencies of the Church, and certainly died with the apostles, who could not transmit it. But underlying its exercise was a principle of Divine discipline, which is applicable in every age; for there is no loss we sustain, no affliction we suffer, but may work for our spiritual welfare, warning us against evil, and stimulating us to holier endeavour and more earnest prayer. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
War a good warfare.—
A good warfare
I. War, therefore, is inevitable. You must fight or fly; be the victor or the vanquished. Nay, if you mean to make sure your own salvation, and please Him who hath called you to be a soldier, there is not even that alternative. You are surrounded with foes you cannot shun. Flight would be ruin. The conflict cannot be avoided. Every step will be contested. Yet be not discouraged. The more strenuous the struggle, the more glorious the achievement. Your aid is omnipotent, your resources are infinite, and you war a good warfare. Few, indeed, of the warfares waged by the powers of this world are worthy of the means employed and the men sacrificed to win them. But the Christian soldier wars a good warfare.; emphatically, pre-eminently and peculiarly good; good in all its agencies, its aspects, and its issues.
II. Have we not a good cause? Did the Israelites glory in a good cause, contending for the Land of Promise? the Crusaders, marching to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre? your forefathers, asserting with the sword their independence of Great Britain? But the Christian cause is the purest and noblest that ever kindled the enthusiasm of a people or won the admiration of the world. It is identified with all that is important in truth, beautiful in virtue, sublime in charity, or glorious in hope. It is the cause that marshals the cherubim, and stirs the deep vengeance of hell; that brought Jehovah from the throne of the universe to the manger. We fight, not to desolate provinces and degrade princes, but to convert earth into a paradise and enthrone humanity with its Redeemer. No wrongs have we to avenge, no malice to gratify, nor cruel thirst for blood.
III. And have we an unworthy captain? What Hebrew warrior did not glory in his Joshua or his David? What mediaeval crusader did not proudly follow his Richard, his Philip, or his Bertrand? What Frenchman did not rejoice in the name of Napoleon, what Englishman in the name of Wellington, what American in the name of Washington? Who of all the myriads that took part in your late civil conflict, was not ready to cheer for Grant or Lee, for Sherman or Jackson? But who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. It is the Captain of the Lords host, the champion of our redemption. He comes to avenge us of our enemies, and lead our captivity captive. What are the qualities most desirable in a military leader? In the highest perfection, they are all found in Christ. Is it wisdom? He is the embodied wisdom of God. Experience? Ever since the original revolt in heaven He has been battling with the hosts of hell. Valour? Single-handed and alone He went forth to meet the Prince of darkness with all his dire array. Success? He foiled the cunning foe in the wilderness of Judaea, and triumphed over his embattled myriads upon the cross. Kindness? Once He died to save His enemies, and now He wears the name of every follower punctured with a spear upon His heart. Ability to reward? The thrones of heaven are His, and a kingdom such as earth never knew He promises hereafter to every conqueror. Such a Captain, who would not joyfully follow?
IV. And what say you of our armoir? Our panoply is ample and impenetrable, and our weapons are effective because they are Divine.
V. And what think you of our supplies? Who goeth a warfare at his own charges? My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. What a measure is that, and what a medium of communication! He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think. They who trust in the Lord shall not want any good thing. Our Divine commissariat is furnished with all that we can possibly require in any emergency of the campaign.
VI. And how like you our defences? God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake at the swelling thereof.
VII. And have you not seen the array of our allies? The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even many thousands of angels; the Lord is in the midst of them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? See them leading righteous Lot and his family forth from Sodom, before the fire-tempest descends upon the doomed city. See them deploying from the host of God to meet Jacob, returning from Padan Aram, about to encounter the formidable bands of his offended brother. See them, with their flashing cavalry and flaming artillery, covering all the mountain round about Elisha, and delivering a whole army into the hands of a single man. If heaven could spare so splendid an escort for the patriarch, so glorious a body-guard for the prophet, what millions on millions incalculable must be engaged on behalf of the whole Church militant in the wilderness! And if one angel could slay all the first-born of Egypt in a night, or destroy seventy thousand men of Israel at a stroke, or stiffen in death a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers with a blast of his breath, what have we to fear, around whom encamp myriads of celestial warriors? What power of hell shall scatter the cohorts of heaven?
VII. And who ever had better comrades? They are called, and chosen, and faithful. Like Saul and Jonathan, they are stronger than lions and swifter than eagles. Like the intrepid son of Jesse, they can run through a troop and leap over a wall. One can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight. The saints of all ages form but one army of the living God, and the militant rear hold fellowship with the victorious van.
IX. And who ever fought with greater success? What power has prevailed against the Lords redeemed? Their interest is His; and to defeat them were to defeat Omnipotence.
X. And who ever won so rich a reward? Where centres the ambition of earthly heroism? In the victors palm, the monarchs crown, the empty plaudits of the multitude, a fancied life in others breath, a name on the scroll of history, a niche in the temple of fame, a monumental column in the Capitol, a memory embalmed in the nations heart, a tuneful immortality in the songs of ages. But your reward is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (J. Cross, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. This charge] See the note on 1Ti 1:5. It was a charge that the Judaizing teachers should not teach differently from that doctrine which the apostle had delivered to him. See 1Ti 1:3.
According to the prophecies] This may refer to some predictions by inspired men, relative to what Timothy should be: and he wishes him to act in all things conformably to those predictions. It was predicted that he should have this high and noble calling; but his behaviour in that calling was a matter of contingency, as it respected the use he might make of the grace of his calling. The apostle therefore exhorts him to war a good warfare, c. He was now called to that estate to which the prophecies referred and now he is to act worthily or unworthily of that calling, according as he fought or did not fight the good warfare, and according as he held or did not hold faith and a good conscience.
Some think that the , the foregoing prophecies, refer to revelations which the apostle himself had received concerning Timothy; while others think that the word is to be understood of advices, directions, and exhortations, which the apostle had previously delivered to him; we know that signifies to speak to men to edification, to exhortation, and to comfort. See 1Co 14:3. This is a very sober and good sense of the passage.
War a good warfare] The trials and afflictions of the followers of God are often represented as a warfare or campaign. See Isa 40:2; 1Co 9:7; 2Co 10:4; and see the reasons of this metaphorical form of speech, in Clarke’s notes on “Eph 6:13“.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy: the term son, here applied to Timothy, whom he elsewhere calls his brother, is not a term of natural relation, but of spiritual relation, and of affectionate friendship and endearment. By the charge mentioned he probably means that before mentioned, 1Ti 1:3,4, to charge the false teachers to teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables, & c.
According to the prophecies which went before on thee: these prophecies were either the judgments of good men before concerning him, or (which possibly is more probable) some Divine revelations Paul, or some believers, had received concerning this young man.
That thou by them mightest war a good warfare; that thou, having heard of them, or remembering them, (though thou meetest with opposition as a minister and as a Christian, yet) mightest not be discouraged, but preach and hold the faith, against all opposers. So the apostle expoundeth himself.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. He resumes the subject begunat 1Ti 1:3. The conclusion(apodosis) to the foregoing, “as I besought thee . . .charge” (1Ti 1:3),is here given, if not formally, at least substantially.
This chargenamely,”that thou in them (so the Greek) mightest war,”that is, fulfil thy high calling, not only as a Christian, but as aminister officially, one function of which is, to “chargesome that they teach no other doctrine” (1Ti1:3).
I commitas a sacreddeposit (1Ti 6:20; 2Ti 2:2)to be laid before thy hearers.
according toinpursuance of; in consonance with.
the prophecies which wentbefore on theethe intimations given by prophets respectingthee at thy ordination, 1Ti 4:14(as, probably, by Silas, a companion of Paul, and “a prophet,”Ac 15:32). Such propheticalintimation, as well as the good report given of Timothy by thebrethren (Ac 16:2), may haveinduced Paul to take him as his companion. Compare similar propheciesas to others: Ac 13:1-3,in connection with laying on of hands; Act 11:28;Act 21:10; Act 21:11;compare 1Co 12:10; 1Co 14:1;Eph 4:11. In Ac20:28, it is expressly said that “the Holy Ghost hadmade them (the Ephesian presbyters) overseers.” CLEMENTOF ROME [Epistleto the Corinthians], states it was the custom of the apostles “tomake trial by the Spirit,” that is, by the “power ofdiscerning,” in order to determine who were to be overseers anddeacons in the several churches planted. So CLEMENTOF ALEXANDRIA saysas to the churches near Ephesus, that the overseers were marked outfor ordination by a revelation of the Holy Ghost to St. John.
by themGreek,“in them”; arrayed as it were in them; armed with them.
warfarenot the mere”fight” (1Ti 6:12;2Ti 4:7), but the wholecampaign; the military service. Translate as Greek, not”a,” but “the good warfare.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,…. After a digression the apostle had made concerning himself, his conversion, and call to the ministry, he returns to his former subject, and original design, and renews the charge he gave to Timothy; and which was not only an order to charge others to teach no other doctrine than that of the Gospel; but includes the charge of preaching it himself, and intends the glorious Gospel of the blessed God committed to his trust, and the whole form of sound words he had heard of him, and which he had charged him to keep pure and incorrupt: and this was done,
according to the prophecies which went before on thee; by which are meant, not the prophecies of the Old Testament, though of these Timothy had a considerable share of knowledge from a child, and was hereby greatly qualified to have such a charge committed to him; but then these were not prophecies concerning him, but the Messiah, his person, office, kingdom, and grace: nor are any particular revelations made unto the Apostle Paul concerning Timothy intended, of which there is no account; the revelations and visions he had, related not to men, and their characters, but to doctrines; rather the testimonies of the brethren at Lystra and Iconium, and the good reports they made of him to the apostle, which promised and foreboded future usefulness, are designed; though it seems best of all to understand these prophecies of such as were delivered out by the prophets in the church, for such there were in those times; who, when Timothy was a child, or a youth, foretold that he would have great gifts bestowed upon him, and would be a very useful, diligent, laborious, and successful preacher of the Gospel; and therefore the apostle mentions these to stimulate him the more to the discharge of his work, that he might answer the prophecies concerning him: for he adds,
that thou by them mightest war a good warfare: that is, that in consideration of the charge committed to him, and the prophecies that went before of him, might be the more industrious to fulfil his ministry, is signified by a warfare, in allusion to the service of the Levites, which is so called, Nu 8:24 with zeal and courage, faithfulness and integrity: for not that warfare is intended, which is common to all believers; who being enlisted as volunteers under Christ, the Captain of their salvation, and having on the whole armour of God, fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil; and are more than conquerors through him that has loved them: but that warfare, which is peculiar to the ministers of the word; whose business it is more especially to fight the good fight of faith, and as good soldiers of Christ, to endure hardness for the sake of him, and his Gospel; and who, besides the other enemies, have to do with false teachers; and their warfare lies in publishing and defending the Gospel of Christ, and in contending for it, and in the weakening of Satan’s kingdom, and enlarging the kingdom of Christ; and for which the weapons of their warfare are peculiarly made, and are eminently succeeded; and when they are used to such good purposes, by the ministers of the Gospel, they war a good warfare.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Paul’s Charge to Timothy. | A. D. 64. |
18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; 19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: 20 Of whom is Hymenus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Here is the charge he gives to Timothy to proceed in his work with resolution, v. 18. Observe here, The gospel is a charge committed to the ministers of it; it is committed to their trust, to see that it be duly applied according to the intent and meaning of it, and the design of its great Author. It seems, there had been prophecies before concerning Timothy, that he should be taken into the ministry, and should prove eminent in the work of the ministry; this encouraged Paul to commit this charge to him. Observe, 1. The ministry is a warfare, it is a good warfare against sin and Satan: and under the banner of the Lord Jesus, who is the Captain of our salvation (Heb. ii. 10), and in his cause, and against his enemies, ministers are in a particular manner engaged. 2. Ministers must war this good warfare, must execute their office diligently and courageously, notwithstanding oppositions and discouragements. 3. The prophecies which went before concerning Timothy are here mentioned as a motive to stir him up to a vigorous and conscientious discharge of his duty; so the good hopes that others have entertained concerning us should excite us to our duty: That thou by them mightest war a good warfare. 4. We must hold both faith and a good conscience: Holding faith and a good conscience, v. 19. Those that put away a good conscience will soon make shipwreck of faith. Let us live up to the directions of a renewed enlightened conscience, and keep conscience void of offence (Acts xxiv. 16), a conscience not debauched by any vice or sin, and this will be a means of preserving us sound in the faith; we must look to the one as well a the other, for the mystery of the faith must be held in a pure conscience, ch. iii. 9. As for those who had made shipwreck of the faith, he specifies two, Hymeneus and Alexander, who had made a profession of the Christian religion, but had quitted that profession; and Paul had delivered them to Satan, had declared them to belong to the kingdom of Satan, and, as some think, had, by an extraordinary power, delivered them to be terrified or tormented by Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme not to contradict or revile the doctrine of Christ and the good ways of the Lord. Observe, The primary design of the highest censure in the primitive church was to prevent further sin and to reclaim the sinner. In this case it was for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. v. 5. Observe, (1.) Those who love the service and work of Satan are justly delivered over to the power of Satan: Whom I have delivered over to Satan. (2.) God can, if he please, work by contraries: Hymeneus and Alexander are delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme, when one would rather think they would learn of Satan to blaspheme the more. (3.) Those who have put away a good conscience, and made shipwreck of faith, will not stick at any thing, blasphemy not excepted. (4.) Therefore let us hold faith and a good conscience, if we would keep clear of blasphemy; for, if we once let go our hold of these, we do not know where we shall stop.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
I commit (). Present middle indicative of old and common verb, to place beside () as food on table, in the middle to entrust (Lu 12:48) and used by Jesus as he was dying (Lu 23:46). Here it is a banking figure and repeated in 2Ti 2:2.
According to the prophecies which went before on thee ( ). Intransitive use of , to go before. When Timothy first comes before us (Ac 16:2) “he was testified to” () by the brethren. He began his ministry rich in hopes, prayers, predictions.
That by them thou mayest war the good warfare ( ). Cognate accusative (, old word from , in N.T. only here and 2Co 4:4) with (second person singular middle present subjunctive of , old verb chiefly in Paul in N.T., 1Cor 9:7; 2Cor 10:3). As if in defensive armour.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
This charge [ ] . See on ver. T It refers to what follows, that thou might’st war, etc.
I commit [] . The verb in the active voice means to place beside. In the middle, to deposit or intrust. Only once in Paul, 1Co 10:27. Comp. 1Pe 4:19.
According to the prophecies which went before on thee [ ] . Const, according to with I commit : which went before is to be taken absolutely, and not with on thee : const. prophecies with on these. On thee means concerning thee. The sense of the whole passage is : “I commit this charge unto thee in accordance with prophetic intimations which I formerly received concerning thee.” Prophecy is ranked among the foremost of the special spiritual endowments enumerated by Paul. See Rom 12:6; 1Co 12:10; 1Co 13:2, 8; xiv. 6, 22. In 1 Corinthians 12. 28; Eph 4:11, prophets come next after apostles in the list of those whom God has appointed in the church. In Eph 2:20, believers, Jew and Gentile, are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. According to 1Ti 4:14, prophecy has previously designated Timothy as the recipient of a special spiritual gift; and the prophecies in our passage are the single expressions or detailed contents of the prophecy mentioned there. Proagein to go before is not used by Paul. In the Pastorals and Heb. it appears only as an intransitive verb, and so in the only instance in Luk 18:39. In Acts always transitive, to bring forth. See Act 12:6; Act 16:30; Act 17:5; Act 25:26. That by them [ ] . %Ina that denoting the purport of the charge. By them [] , lit. in them; in their sphere, or, possibly, in the power of these.
Thou mightiest war a good warfare [ – ] . More correctly, the good warfare. Strateia war – fare once by Paul, 2Co 10:4. Not flight [] , but covering all the particulars of a soldier ‘s service.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,” (taute ten parangelian paratithemai soi, teknon timothee) “This, the charge, I commit, put, place, or set to thee (thy care) child Timothy.” The charge, restated from 1Ti 1:3, was that Timothy warn “certain persons” presuming to the law-teachers to avoid preaching any other doctrine. He was also to guide the church in the same way.
2) “According to the prophecies which went before on thee,” (kata tas proagousas epi se propheteias) “According to the preceding prophecies respecting thee.” The former prophecies, preaching, and teaching Timothy had learned from Paul he was enjoined to use in his Christian warfare. 1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 3:14.
3) “That thou by them mightest war a good warfare; (hina strateue en autais ten kalen-strateian) “in order that thou mightest war by them the good warfare.” The Holy Bible, sound doctrine, the Scriptures, rightly divided, constitute man’s warfare weaponry against the devil and his prophesying emissaries; Jesus used it; Paul used it; So are we to use it. Mat 4:4; Mat 4:7; Mat 4:10; Act 18:4; Act 18:28; Eph 6:11-18; 2Ti 2:2-5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
18 I recommend to thee this commandment All that he had introduced about his own person may be viewed as a digression from his subject. Having to arm Timothy with authority, it became necessary for himself to be clothed with the highest authority; and, therefore, he took an early opportunity of refuting an opinion which might have stood in his way. And now, after having proved that his apostleship ought not to be less esteemed by good men, because at one time he fought against the kingdom of Christ, this obstacle being removed, he returns to the course of his exhortation. The commandment, therefore, is the same as he mentioned at the beginning.
Son Timothy By calling him his son, he not only expresses his own warm regard towards him, but also recommends him to others under that name.
According to the prophecies which went before concerning thee. In order to encourage him still more, he reminds him what kind of testimony he had obtained from the Spirit of God; for it was no small excitement, that his ministry was approved by God, and that he had been called by divine revelation before he was called by the votes of men. “It is disgraceful not to come up to the expectations which men have been led to form; and how much more disgraceful will it be to make void, as far as lies in thy power, the judgment of God?”
But we must first ascertain what are the prophecies of which he speaks. Some think that Paul was instructed by revelation to confer the office on Timothy. That I acknowledge to be true, but I add that others made revelations; for it was not without reason that Paul made use of the plural number. Accordingly, we conclude from these words that several prophecies were uttered concerning Timothy, in order to recommend him to the Church. (29) Being still a young man, he might have been despised on account of his age; and Paul might also have been exposed to calumnies, on account of having ordained youths, before the proper time, to the elder’s office. Besides, God had appointed him to great and difficult undertakings; for he was not one of the ordinary rank of ministers, but approached very closely to that of the apostles, and frequently occupied the place of Paul during his absence. It was, therefore, necessary that he should receive an extraordinary testimony, in order to make it manifest that it was not conferred on him at random by men, but that he was chosen by God himself. To be adorned with the applauses of the prophets was not an ordinary occurrence, or one which was common to him along with many persons; but because there were some circumstances to Timothy, it was the will of God that he should not be received by men until he had been previously approved by his own voice; it was the will of God that he should not enter into the exercise of his office until he had been called by the revelations of the prophets. The same thing happened to Paul and Barnabas, (Act 13:2,) when they were ordained to be teachers of the Gentiles; for it was a new and uncommon occurrence, and they could not otherwise have escaped the charge of rashness.
It will now be objected by some, “If God had formerly declared, by his prophets, what kind of minister Timothy should be, what purpose did it serve to admonish him, to show that he was actually such a person? Could he falsify prophecies which had been uttered by divine revelation?” I reply, it could not happen differently from what God had promised; but at the same time it was the duty of Timothy, not to give himself up to sloth and inactivity, but to render a cheerful compliance with the providence of God. It is therefore not without good reason, that Paul, wishing to stimulate him still more, mentions the “prophecies,” by which God might be said to have pledged himself on behalf of Timothy; for he was thus reminded of the purpose for which he was called.
That thou by them mayest war a good warfare. By this he means that Timothy, relying on such approbation of God, ought to fight more courageously. What is there that either ought to give, or can give us greater cheerfulness than to know that God has appointed us to do what we are doing? These are our arms, these are our weapons of defense, by the aid of which we shall never fail.
By the word warfare, he states indirectly, that we must maintain a contest; and this applies universally to all believers, but especially to Christian teachers, who may be said to be standard-bearers and leaders. It is as if he had said, “O Timothy, if thou canst not fulfill thy office without a contest, remember that thou art armed by divine prophecies for cherishing assured hope of victory, and arouse thyself by calling them to remembrance. That warfare which we maintain, having God for our leader, is a good warfare; that is, it is glorious and successful.”
(29) “ Pour le recommender a l’Eglise, et luy donner authorite.” — “In order to recommend him to the Church, and to give him authority.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Ti. 1:18. Prophecies which went before on thee.The prophecies went forward, as it were the heralds and avant-couriers of the actions which they foretold (Ellicott). See 1Ti. 4:14; 2Ti. 1:16. Thou by them mightest war a good warfare.A frequent metaphor of St. Pauls. He would have his young friend to be as loyal
unto his Captain Christ,
Under whose colours he had fought so long,
as he had been himself.
1Ti. 1:19. Holding faith, and a good conscience.The shield of faith is to cover a pure heart.
He is but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
Which some having put away.The apostle means that they have found the protests of conscience so irritating that they have, so to say, taken it up with violence and flung it far out of doors.
1Ti. 1:20. I have delivered unto Satan.A form of Christian excommunication declaring the person to be reduced to the state of a heathen, accompanied with the authoritative infliction of bodily disease or death (Ellicott, after Waterland). That they may learn.R.V. may be taught, i.e. by punishment.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Ti. 1:18-20
Moral Fitness for Special Work
I. Recognised by previous indications of character.This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee (1Ti. 1:18). There were features and tendencies of character in the youthful Timothy, evident from the time of his conversion, that indicated his suitability for the ministerial office. Paul and those who knew Timothy best detected these; and the apostle saw that God had called him to the sacred work. The prophecies which went before were no doubt certain sacred utterances that Paul and others were inspired to make on the ordination of Timothy, and which indicated a Divine commission and Divine approbation publicly expressed respecting his choice of the ministry. These prophecies were a means of blessing to the young minister, and would often animate and sustain him in the difficulties and discouragements of his mission. The gradual cessation or discredit of the function of the Christian prophet is thoroughly intelligible. Possibly the spiritual gift which rendered it possible was withdrawn from the Church. In any case the extravagances of enthusiasts who deluded themselves into the belief that they possessed the gift, or of impostors who deliberately assumed it, would bring the office into suspicion and disrepute. Such things were possible even in apostolic times, for St. Paul and St. John give cautions about it, and directions for dealing with the abuse and the false assumption of prophecy. There will always be those who crave for something more definite and personal than the Scriptures, who long for and perhaps create for themselves and believe in some living authority to whom they can perpetually appeal. If a man will not hear Christ and His apostles, neither will he be persuaded though a prophet was granted to him. If we believe not their writings, how shall we believe his words? (Plummer).
II. Shown by the fortitude and fidelity maintained in the midst of conflict.That thou by them shouldest war a good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience (1Ti. 1:18-19). The Christian life is a conflict, and ministers are standard-bearers and leaders, and must not only believe and preach the truth but defend it. Armed with faith and a good conscience, the gospel champion must maintain the fight with bravery and fidelity to the end of the campaign. Whoever falls or withdraws, he must press forward, though he should stand alone. The true spirit of the pioneers of the gospel should be like that of Edward III., amid the fiery sands of Syria, where his small force of soldiers fainted, died, deserted, and seemed to melt away. But his prowess made light of it, and he said, I will go on, if I go on with no other follower than my groom.
III. Conspicuous by the failure and fate of the unworthy.Which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: of whom is Hymenus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme (1Ti. 1:19-20). If ones religion better not his morals, says Archbishop Whately, his moral deficiencies will corrupt his religion. The rain which falls pure from heaven will not continue pure if it be received in an unclean vessel. Hymenus and Alexander had lost both their faith and their good conscience, and had so far retrograded as to blaspheme the name of God and Christ by doings and teachings unworthy of their Christian profession. The personality of Satan was not a question of hesitation and doubt with the apostle. Satan was to him, as he is in the emphatic teaching of the Bible, a real, active, and living embodiment of evil; and for their punishment and reformation he hands over the two delinquents to the great power of darkness. In the apostolic sentence upon the two blasphemers we have to notice four points.
1. It is almost certainly not identical with excommunication by the congregation, although it very probably was accompanied by this other penalty.
2. It is of a very extraordinary character, being a handing over into the power of the evil one.
3. Its object is the reformation of the offenders, while at the same time
4. It serves as a warning to others, lest they by similar offences should suffer so awful a punishment. To all alike it brought home the serious nature of such sins. Even at the cost of cutting off the right hand, or plucking out the right eye, the Christian community must be kept pure in doctrine as in life. Satan inflicts suffering from love of inflicting it, and leads into sin from love of sin; but God knows how to bring good out of evil by making the evil one frustrate his own wiles. It is for us to take care that in our case the chastisements which inevitably follow upon sin do not drive us further and further into it, but teach us to sin no more (Plummer, passim). When we lose our faith in God and truth, we lose our better selves and rush upon defeat and disgrace. What power had the last Brutus at the moment when he abandoned his faith? From the time of his melancholy vision, produced by a diminution of that faith, it might have been predicted that his own destiny and that of the republic were finished. He felt it himself: it was with a presentiment of defeat that he fought at Philippi; and such a presentiment always realises itself.
IV. Commands the confidence of the good.This charge I commit unto thee (1Ti. 1:18). Paul had many proofs of the eagerness and fidelity of Timothy in prosecuting the work of the ministry; and it is with ingenuous confidence that he commits to him the charge of the truth, as a sacred deposit, to keep and to defend, and to keep and defend it by diligently spreading it. The remembrance of the hopes of a former teacher is a great stimulus, an earnest call to be and do what others have expected of us (Heubner).
Lessons.
1. The good in us is found by others.
2. Difficulties test and develop our virtues.
3. The defection of others should stimulate our zeal and fidelity.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ti. 1:18. A Good Warfare.
I. The Christian warfare.
1. Is a struggle of Christ against Satan, holiness against sin.
2. The Christian is a soldier in Christs army.
3. The warfare implies numerous foes.
II. The excellency of this warfare.
1. It is good because its object is to destroy that which is evil and promote that which is good.
2. It is under a good Commander.
3. It will issue in complete triumph.
III. Claims of this warfare upon the Christian.
1. He must be sensible of his own incompetence.
2. Must understand the character of his enemies.
3. Have confidence in the skill and power of his General.
4. Must do battle with His foes whenever they oppose him(Helps).
1Ti. 1:19. Faith and a Good Conscience.
I. Some try to hold faith without the good conscience.That soon becomes a hollow and hypocritical thing.
II. Some try the good conscience without faith.That becomes a superficial, unspiritual, and barren thing.
III. The union of the two.Faith is the spring and quickener of conscienceconscience gives truthfulness and reality to faith.Dr. J. Ker.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
3.
THE PREACHER AND SOUND DOCTRINE 1Ti. 1:18-20
Text 1:1820
18 This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which led the way to thee, that by them thou mayest war the good warfare; 19 holding faith and a good conscience; which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith: 20 of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme.
Thought Questions 1:1820
35.
State in one sentence the charge that Paul gave to Timothy.
36.
What were the prophecies mentioned in 1Ti. 1:18? Cf. 1Ti. 4:14; 2Ti. 1:6.
37.
Whatever these prophecies were, Timothy was going to use them to help him in the battle of the faith. Explain.
38.
Show the great importance of sustaining the proper relationship of faith with conscience.
39.
Show how the figure of a shipwreck is appropriate.
40.
Two men are to be taught a lesson; how and why?
Paraphrase 1:1820
18 This charge to the Judaizers, not to teach differently, I commit to thee, son Timothy, to deliver to them; and I do it amiably to the revelations which were before made to me concerning thee, and which I now mention, that through the recollection of these revelations and the honour which was done thee by them, thou mayest strenuously carry on the good warfare against the enemies of truth in Ephesus.
19 In carrying on this warfare, hold fast the true faith, and at the same time a good conscience, using no improper methods in spreading the gospel; which faith and good conscience some teachers having put away from worldly motives, with respect to the faith have made shipwreck; they have corrupted the gospel, and destroyed their own souls.
20 Of whom are the two Judaizing teachers Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom, for their obstinately persisting willfully to corrupt the gospel, I have delivered to Satan to be by him tormented with bodily pains that they might be taught by a chastisement miraculously inflicted on them not to revile either Christ, or his doctrine concerning the salvation of the Gentiles, Let the faithful in Ephesus avoid these wicked teachers.
Comment 1:1820
1Ti. 1:18. Please notice the reference here to the charge mentioned earlier in 1Ti. 1:3. What Paul has said between 1Ti. 1:3 and 1Ti. 1:18 would prepare Timothy to deliver the charge and accomplish the purpose for which it was given. Paul is here saying that his willingness to entrust Timothy with the high responsibility of such a charge can be found in the prophecies that led the way to Timothy. There are many and varied comments about the meaning of the phrase before us. We have preferred a comparison of 1Ti. 4:14 with this text to offer an explanation. We might also compare 2Ti. 1:6 in this connection, The gift of prophecy was exercised when the hands of the elders were laid upon Timothy. It could have been that Paul exercised such a gift when he laid his hands upon Timothy. In either case we would say that someone looking ahead by the power of this prophetic gift saw the wonderful possibilities in this young man.
Naturally the prophetic promises were mentioned to Timothy in such a way as to impress themselves upon his heart, By recalling them he could use such encouragement to help him in warring the good warfare. Perhaps Timothy was to remember such inspired words concerning himself and take heart that, if those who were guided by the Holy Spirit believed in his ability, who was he to hesitate?
1Ti. 1:19. It is not to be imagined that Timothy did not have faith or a good conscience. It is rather to introduce the reason for the defection of some, that Paul exhorts Timothy to hold faith and a good conscience. What God hath joined together let not man put asunderWhen faith and conscience are separated there is always shipwreck ahead. Are we to understand that these men wrecked the ship of The Faith or wrecked their own personal ship of faith? We must conclude it is a subjective matter. To discuss whether these men were lost or not in this experience surely seems to be beside the point. Such men were in deadly danger; they were in the grasp, and under the power of Satan; to remain in such a condition would result in only one end.
1Ti. 1:20. Several were involved in the problem outlined by Paul, but only two are mentioned by name. It would seem that only when nothing more could be done are certain ones designated. It is futile to try to identify the Alexander mentioned here with the several over Alexanders mentioned in the New Testament. The Hymenaeus here mentioned can be identified with the one in 2Ti. 2:17-18; 2Ti. 4:14. How could Satan become a teacher against blasphemy? This is not easy to answer. Perhaps the answer is in the character of those being disciplined.
Fact Questions 1:1820
26.
Explain the use of the term charge as found in 1Ti. 1:18.
27.
Show the possible connection between 1Ti. 4:14 and 1Ti. 1:18.
28.
Why are faith and conscience inseparable?
29.
What was wrecked in the shipwreck?
30.
Why name the two men of 1Ti. 1:20?
31.
How would Satan be able to teach them not to blaspheme?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(18) This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy.The nature of the charge which he committed to Timothy must be gathered from the solemn words and thoughts of the foregoing passage1Ti. 1:15-16. The sum of it was that men should put their whole trust in Him who came into the world to save sinners, and who alone was able to lead them into everlasting life. There is something very solemn in St. Pauls pressing home this charge to Timothy, and invoking the memory of the prophecies which went before on him. The charge was the last precious heritage, the priceless treasure which the old master, feeling that for him the end was not far distant, would leave to his favourite disciplehis own dear son in the faith. Anxious above measure for the loved group of Asian churches, of which Ephesus was the centre, foreseeing that the present perils and dangers from within and without would rapidly close round the congregations, and placing his greatest earthly hope on the steadfastness and knowledge of his own dear disciple whom he had left there as a shepherd to the sheep, he charges his son Timothy, by the memory of those strange prophetic utterances which, years before, had been made over him (Act. 17:1-2) in Lystra or Derbe, and which, perhaps, had first induced him to choose the young son of Eunice as his friend and companion, to hold fast the blessed doctrine which taught men to put their whole trust in Jesus Christ.
According to the prophecies which went before on thee.These prophetic utterances seem to have been not unfrequent in the days of the Apostles, and were among the precious gifts which enriched and encouraged the Church of the first days. We read of them at Jerusalem (Act. 11:27-28), at Antioch (Act. 13:1-2), at Corinth (1 Corinthians 14), at Csarea (Act. 21:8-10).
In the case of Timothy they appear to have been farseeing glances into the life and the work and the teaching of the future Christian leader; here the last namedthe doctrine and teachingis especially referred to. The prophecies in question were uttered, no doubt, over him at his ordination, and, possibly, some of them at his baptism.
That thou by them mightest war a good warfare.Better rendered, that thou in them, &c. St. Paul committed the sacred charge to Timothy concerning the faith in full confidence that, in accordance with those well-remembered glorious predictions which had been made foretelling his future zeal and success in the promulgation of the gospel, that in theseaccoutred in these as his spiritual protection and armourTimothy would wage his warfare against sin and evil.
St. Pauls words in this verse may be thus paraphrased: I give this charge to you, son Timothy, in accordance with those well-remembered predictions respecting your future steadfastness in doctrine and in life. I remind you now of them, Do not disappoint these grand hopesthese prophecies of your futurebut bear them ever in your mind. Equip yourself in them as your spiritual armour, and so armed, fight your Masters fight against sin and evileine gute Ritterschaft, according to Luther.
The war imagery here used St. Paul employs again and again: the good warfare. (Comp. 1Ti. 6:12.) To the old, tried Apostle a Christians life is a warfare in the truest sense of the word: to every believer it is a weary, painful campaign. In the case of the professed teachers a sleepless vigilance was especially demanded.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Solemn formula committing this charge to Timothy, 18-20.
18. Prophecies before thee Of directive and predictive prophecies we find instances in Act 13:1-2; Act 21:10; Act 21:12. By comparison with the parallel passage (1Ti 4:14) we learn that prophecies attended his ordination concurrently with a divine charism imparted within him. These prophecies are here said to be, literal Greek, going before upon thee. On thee, affirms that the prophecies rested down upon him as their subject. Went before implies that they preceded and predicted his future, and were now pointing his path of duty, and inciting him to an energetic prosecution.
That Depending on going before.
War For the errors, heresies, and sins of the day indicated that his life was to be a warfare. With the Greek article, the good warfare.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘This charge I commit to you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which led the way to you, that by them you may war the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience; which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith,’
It is clear from what is said here that at some time in the past Timothy’s calling had been brought into effect and confirmed by the testimony of ‘prophets’ (see 1Ti 4:14), including at some stage Paul himself (2Ti 1:6). It had thus been divinely confirmed, and along with this confirmation Timothy had been given the necessary gifts which would render him effective (1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6). This was one reason why Paul had been led to him and had such confidence in him. Now he was being called on to be inspired by the prophecies and make use of the gifts in this vital work that lay before him. There is no point in having gifts, Paul is saying, if you do not use them. Indeed he might have added that not to use them is dereliction of duty.
So now he was calling on him to war a good warfare in respect of the ‘charge’ now being given to him. The idea of a ‘charge, from a military viewpoint was of an urgent obligation. The one who was ‘charged’ was under a strict responsibility to carry out his orders. With respect to Timothy this necessitated him holding ‘faith and a good conscience’, which he would be able to do through wearing the armour of God, which included right belief and right use of the word of God (1Th 5:8; Eph 6:10-18; 2Co 6:7; 2Co 10:3-6; Rom 13:12; 1Pe 4:1). ‘Faith’, which indicates both right belief and right response, and a constant looking to Jesus Christ (Gal 2:20; Heb 12:1-3), would keep him in touch with God and with His truth, and ensure that he persevered on the way, and ‘a good conscience’ (‘good’ (kalos) meaning not only a working conscience and a moral conscience, but also one that is ‘lovely’, that is seemly and loving and moulded by the truth) would act like a road map and signpost, and a light along the way, and if followed and not thrust away, would keep him walking in the truth both in his teaching and in his life. For ‘faith and a good conscience’ see 1Ti 1:5; 1Ti 3:9; Heb 10:22. It was necessary for him, as for us all, to trust and obey, and obedience included being obedient to the truth.
But some, alas, instead of ‘holding’ to a good conscience, had thrust it from them (the verb is forceful), and the result was that they had been shipwrecked as far as true faith was concerned. They had ‘swerved’ away from ‘love out of a pure heart, a good conscience and faith unfeigned’ (1Ti 1:5-6). And it had resulted in ‘shipwreck’. For it is in the conscience that backsliding always begins. It is when we begin to relax our spiritually guided moral life, and begin to follow worldly desire that spiritual difficulties soon appear, leading on, if we continue in that way, to total shipwreck. The shipwreck here probably resulted from the desires of the mind. They had so fantasised their beliefs (1Ti 1:4), and had been so gripped by the fantasies, that they had lost their way (1Ti 1:5), and then, following that, all that they had believed in. And sadly some of them probably did not even yet realise it. Others are similarly shipwrecked by the course of this world, the desires of the flesh, and that evil spirit who works in the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3). In each case had they listened to their good conscience and looked off to Jesus in faith it would never have happened.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Charge To Prepare For Spiritual Warfare ( 1Ti 1:18-20 ).
Paul commences this new section by assuring Timothy that he is committing to him the charge which he has just been describing, in accordance with the prophecies that had first led to his appointment. He is reminding him that it was not just he, Paul, who had chosen him, but that his (Timothy’s) appointment had been as a result of such prophecies. The church led by the Spirit had set him aside for God’s service. And it was because of this that he felt able to put on him such a great responsibility.
For, as he was well aware, he was introducing Timothy into a war, a war against falsehood and false teaching, and a war for the truth and for the souls of men (compare 2Co 10:2-6; Eph 6:10-18). And he wanted him to ‘war a good warfare’. And this would include getting the church down to prayer and the regulating of the lives of both men and women (1Ti 2:1-15), and especially those who were to take office in the church (1Ti 3:1-13). It was essential, therefore, that he held both faith and a good conscience, and not be like some who had thrust faith and conscience from them, ending up as shipwrecks in respect to the faith. And one of his guides in this was to be Paul’s instruction.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
In View Of What Christ Has Done Paul Lays Out The Battle Plan For The Future And Organises God’s Forces In Order To Ensure That His Church Will Be The Mainstay Of All That He Has Accomplished ( 1Ti 1:18 to 1Ti 3:16 ).
Calling on Timothy to prepare for spiritual warfare (1Ti 1:18-20), he exhorts prayer for all men, and especially for all in high places, in order that the work of God might go forward peaceably among all men, for that was why He had sent His Mediator as a man among men and as a ransom for all (1Ti 2:1-7). All are to play their part in accordance with what God has revealed. Christian men (including women) are all to participate in this prayer, lifting up holy hands in Christian oneness, while Christian women are also to play their part by godly sobriety, and being careful to maintain their rightful place, lest the error of the Garden of Eden be repeated. Avoidance of this, and fulfilling of their major role in child-bearing, will then turn out for their blessing and salvation (1Ti 2:8-15). Meanwhile the principles of leadership are laid out as Paul gives advice to Timothy about the appointment of male ‘bishops/overseers’ and ‘deacons’, and also of ‘women’ (1Ti 3:1-13), and he concludes the section by pointing out that his instructions are being sent to him so that he might know how men and women are to behave within the household of God, that is the church of the living God (1Ti 3:14-15). Finally he ends by again directing his own and their minds to heavenly things (compare 1Ti 1:17), but this time in terms of the coming of the Incarnate One and what He has accomplished (1Ti 3:16), a truth of which the church is to be the mainstay in the world (1Ti 3:15).
We can summarise this section something like this:
Warring the good warfare and the collapse of some of the fabric (1Ti 1:18-20).
Rallying the troops both male and female to make use of their spiritual weapons (chapter 2).
Choosing the officers, both male and female (1Ti 3:1-13).
The responsibility of the Church as the pillar and mainstay of the truth and the description of the One Whose incredible accomplishment guarantees the success of the warfare and provides its incentive (1Ti 3:14-16).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Paul Gives Timothy an Example of Spiritual Warfare In 1Ti 1:18-20 Paul gives young Timothy the charge to be strong and fight the spiritual warfare that was necessary to set the church of Ephesus in order. He then gives Timothy an example of how to context for the faith by mentioning two men well known to both of them, Hymenaeus and Alexander, who were false teachers. Paul warred spiritual warfare with them by turning them over to Satan for the destruction of their flesh. Within the context of this epistle, in which Paul combats Jewish teachings that miss the mark of godly edifying, these two men could have been Jews who opposed the work in Ephesus rather than Christians who fell away from their faith in Christ. It is also possible that Paul is referring to two former Christians who had strayed from the faith and fallen into error, but many believe Paul was referring to Alexander the Jew who is mentioned in Act 19:33-34, who stood up to publicly oppose Paul’s work in Ephesus.
1Ti 1:18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
1Ti 1:18
1Ti 1:18 “son Timothy” Comments – In 1Ti 1:18 Paul uses the word “son,” or “child,” in addressing Timothy in order to express his love for him, while charging him with his commission. To speak such commandments within the context of love makes it easier for Timothy to embrace.
1Ti 1:18 “according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare” – Comments – The Lord spoke to Timothy thru these prophecies concerning the ministry that he was to perform prior to the charge that Paul now gives him. This charge serves to confirm these prophecies and of his own divine calling. (Keep in mind that Timothy did not have a dramatic conversion experience as did Paul, so it is easier to doubt one’s calling during the long journey of divine service.) Timothy can now by faith believe and press on in this calling, knowing that God Himself has called Timothy and will strengthen him. Anyone one who performs a great task for the Lord must have a calling; this is because it is this anchor of a man’s faith that will take him through the storms.
Once those prophecies were given, and Timothy stepped out in faith, he had to fight the doubt and unbelief that Satan brings to take us off course. Kenneth Hagin refers to 1Ti 1:18 by emphasizing the warfare that he had to endure when he first stepped out into the field ministry. It seemed that he had to do more spiritual warfare in the first five months of field ministry than in the last fifteen years in the pastorate. However, because he knew the will of the Lord, he was able to stand these assaults of oppression and opposition from the enemy. [92]
[92] Kenneth Hagin, Following God’s Plan For Your Life (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1993, 1994), 95-6.
1Ti 1:18 Comments In 1Ti 1:18 the Greek literally reads, “This charge I lay along side you.” That is, these words will follow along side of Timothy on this new phase of his ministerial journey. Paul reminds him of the prophecies that went ahead of him, so that Paul’s charge hedges him in on either side. One aspect of Timothy’s warfare was his daily decision to follow the course of ministry presented to him. He had to decide whether or not to face adversity or to back down quietly and give in to Satan. He had the witness of prophecies in front of him to guide him, the witness of Paul’s charge along side of him to prevent him straying to the left or right, and he had the witness of Paul’s testimony as his rear guard, an event of the past that tells him he can make it through the same journey.
Creflo Dollar said that as a young minister he thanked God for the times in his ministry when the Lord sent a man of God to speak a word into his life. [93] Those words became a powerful source of strength to keep him steady during troubled times. These prophecies that were spoken over Timothy served to do the same for him during difficult times. In fact, we know that he will later be imprisoned and released. Scholars believe that this took place when Nero began his first persecution of the Church, which resulted in the deaths of Peter and Paul.
[93] Creflo Dollar, Changing Your World (College Park, Georgia: Creflo Dollar Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
1Ti 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:19
1Ti 1:19 “which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck” Word Study on “having put away” Strong says the Greek word “having put away” “apotheomai” ( ) (G683) means, “to push off,” and figuratively, “to reject,” and it comes from two Greek words ( ) (575), meaning “from,” and the middle voice of , or , which means, “to shove.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 6 times in the New Testament being translated in the KJV as, “cast away 2, thrust away 1, put from 1, thrust from 1, put away 1.”
Comments In other words, some have erred from the faith. Having given Timothy his personal testimony of fulfilling God’s purpose and plan in the ministry, and having given him a divine charge, and reminded him of earlier prophecies that confirmed this charge, Paul now reminds Timothy of several individuals who have rejected these same witnesses and have become lost as far as God’s purpose and plan for their lives in concerned.
Note Paul’s reference in 2Ti 2:17-18 to two individuals who not only became shipwrecked, but caused others to do the same.
2Ti 2:17-18, “And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.”
Paul the apostle had sailed on a number of ships during his missionary journeys. During these trips, he observed how the ship and its crew functioned. There were many “rules of the sea” that the captain of a ship had to follow. He was required to follow certain shipping routes at sea. His men were required to follow procedures in sailing. It was important how the cargo was stored and how the sails were folded and how the ropes were tied. The maintenance of the ship was important in determining its ability to sail. The captain even needed to understand weather patterns. Anyone of these oversights could jeopardize the safety of a journey. A ship or boat sailing in a channel had to follow buoys and other markings. If the boat goes outsides of the markers, it will hit the sand and become shipwreck.
In a similar way, a person can ignore the rules the God has established on this journey in life. He can go off of the course that God has ordained for him and do his own thing. In figurative terms, he can sail his own ship, but eventually this ship will wreck.
1Ti 1:19 Comments – The word “having put away” in 1Ti 1:19 refers to the method by which someone has walked away from something he previously possesses. It stands in opposition to the word “holding” faith and a good conscience. It is only by rejecting and shoving aside the faith that dwells within one’s heart and the voice of the conscience, which is the voice of one’s heart, telling him to do right and instead choosing to follow the desires of the flesh. After a while, someone finds himself in a position that he never intended to be in. Just as a ship cannot help itself off of the rocks, neither can he overcome his problems that are now insurmountable.
1Ti 1:20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
1Ti 1:20
Paul will again refer to Hymenaeus and Alexander in 2Ti 2:17-18; 2Ti 4:14-15. Hymenaeus appears to have been a heretical teacher in Ephesus and a chief opponent of Paul. He is first associated with Alexander the coppersmith (1Ti 1:20) and then Philetus (2Ti 2:17).
2Ti 2:17-18, “And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.”
2Ti 4:14-15, “Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.”
Regarding Alexander the coppersmith, we do have a person by this name mentioned in Act 19:33, who was a Jew and apparently a leader of the Jewish community in Ephesus. He is mentioned in Acts because he was chosen by the Jews in Ephesus to speak to the crowd and appease their anger, but to no avail. Such a description of a well-spoken Jewish leader in Ephesus fits the description of a possible opponent of Paul’s evangelist work in this city.
Act 19:33-34, “And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
A Warning against Apostasy.
v. 18. This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare,
v. 19. holding faith and a good conscience; which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck;
v. 20. of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. In the preceding sections the apostle had discussed the Christian doctrine as a whole as well as in its application to the individual Christian. He now turns directly to Timothy, warning him against unfaithfulness and apostasy: This charge I lay before thee, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies of old upon thee. Not only in his childhood and youth had Timothy learned the Holy Scriptures, that is, the prophecies of old, but also after his conversion he had studied the Word of the Lord very carefully, also in its fulfillment in Christ Jesus. He had, in short, received the necessary instruction, not only for membership in the congregation, but also for the work of a minister of the Lord. Of this the apostle reminds his young assistant, whom he addresses with the very cordial term “son Timothy,” incidentally bidding him wage a good warfare in them. In the Word of the Lord he should live, in that he should be clad, with that he should fight the Lord’s battles, Eph 6:13-17. He that is clothed in the armor of the Lord can cheerfully and confidently go forth to battle for the Lord, being assured of victory from the very outset.
In such spiritual warfare a condition is, as a matter of course: Having faith and a good conscience, which some, having rejected, suffered shipwreck with regard to their faith. Every Christian, and especially every Christian pastor, must have faith, faith in his Redeemer, faith in the doctrines of Christianity as divine truth. He that himself entertains doubts with regard to these two points will hardly be able to teach with conviction. At the same time a good conscience is necessary, not one growing out of self-righteousness, but one that controls the entire conduct of man in accordance with the will of God. Unless these two conditions are met, unless faith and a good conscience are cargo and ballast in the ship of every Christian, he is apt to become a play of the billows and experience shipwreck. The apostle in his warning purposely uses a word which signifies a deliberate, malicious rejection of the Word of God, of faith and a good conscience, resulting in eternal disaster for the soul. The apostle mentions the names of two men whose terrible example should act as a deterrent to all lukewarm Christians: Among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may be taught not to blaspheme. The case of these two men was known to Timothy, both of them having become manifest as men that had denied the faith and a good conscience. Paul, therefore, had been obliged to deal harshly with these two men by having the resolution of excommunication passed upon them, by declaring them to be citizens in the kingdom of Satan. But he did not want to be understood as though he had thereby definitely shut out these men from the hope of salvation. True, indeed, if they would not repent and return to the truth, they would be lost forever. At the same time, exclusion from the Christian congregation was intended as an educational measure. Having lost the blessed privileges of church-membership, the two men might be brought to see the heinousness of their offense in making light of the great blessings of God. Thus in this case also we see that “the primary cause of the highest censures in the primitive Church was to prevent further sin, and to reclaim the sinner” (Henry).
Summary
After the opening salutation the apostle Characterizes the Judaizing teachers, over against whom the true object of the Law should always be emphasized; he shows the greatness of the mercy experienced by him, for which he praises the Lord in a special doxology; he adds a wanting again & apostasy.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
1Ti 1:18. According to the prophesies, &c. “That according to the predictions made concerning you, you may exert yourself with success in this conflict” See Ch. 1Ti 4:14.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Ti 1:18 . Paul again addresses himself to Timothy direct.
] cannot be referred back to in 1Ti 1:3 (Otto), because there he was speaking of a which Timothy was to receive, here he is speaking of a to which Timothy was to give heed. Nor can it be referred to (Plitt), since that denotes only a special commission, to which there is here no allusion. Some have therefore joined immediately with the following , and taken as introducing the object (so Chrysostom and Theophylact, Matthies, de Wette, Wiesinger, van Oosterzee; also in this commentary; comp. Winer, pp. 314 f. [E. T. p. 422]). This construction, however, is opposed by the order of the words; after the verb and the parenthesis . . ., we no longer expect an expansion of the thought contained in . . [73] The only course remaining is to agree with Hofmann in referring . . . back to in 1Ti 1:5 ; not, however, agreeing with him in interpreting the word here, “the Christian teaching,” but taking it in the same sense in both places.
] comp. 2Ti 2:2 . The verb is here explained by most expositors, against usage, as equivalent to “lay to heart” (Luther: “order,” in the sense of “recommend to”). Otto, and following him Hofmann, took it in the sense of “give something into one’s charge ” which meaning is possible , but not imperative. In itself the word means “bring something before one,” and is defined more precisely by its context, i.e. the purpose of bringing before is not contained in the word itself. may therefore quite well mean: propose a command to one , viz. that he may act in accordance with it. [74]
. ] see 1Ti 1:1 .
] Before giving the command itself, Paul inserts these words to add force to his exhortation; for they are not (as some expositors, Oecumenius, Heumann, Flatt, wish) to be placed after in sense, but to be joined with .
, “ in conformity with ” not “justified and occasioned by.”
stands here quite absolutely, with the same meaning as in Heb 7:18 : , “the law that preceded;” [75] the . . are accordingly “ the promises that preceded .” Matthies is wrong in explaining in connection with , as equivalent to “leading towards thee,” i.e. “pointing or aiming towards thee.” This meaning never has; as a transitive verb it certainly means: “lead forward to any one;” but this is manifestly a different idea from that which Matthies ascribes to it. Otto explains it: “the prophecies that guide to thee,” making appeal to Xenophon, Memorab . iv. 1, in which passage Khner paraphrases by viam monstrare . In this case we should have to understand it: those among the prophecies that showed others the way leading to Timothy, a statement clearly without meaning. It is, however, altogether arbitrary when Otto defines the prophecies more precisely as those that led to Timothy’s ordination, or occasioned it.
] is not to be connected with , but with , as Luther rightly translates it: “according to the former prophecies regarding thee;” or de Wette: “in accordance with the preceding prophecies on thee” (so, too, Wiesinger, van Oosterzee, Plitt, Hofmann). On the other hand, the translation: “vaticinia olim de te praenuntiata” (Heydenreich), is inaccurate. . are: the prophecies (expressed) over thee (the peculiar meaning of as descending to something should not be overlooked); while . describes these as preceding Timothy’s apostleship. [76]
] Chrysostom: , , , . . . This is wrong, simply because Timothy’s office was not a priestly one. It is quite arbitrary to translate by: “doctrines, exhortations,” or “hopes,” or “good testimonies” (Heinrichs: “by means of the good hope and expectation which every one cherished regarding thee”). here, as always, are utterances proceeding from the Holy Spirit, whatever be their contents or their occasion; here it is most natural to think of prophecies made when the (chap. 1Ti 4:14 ) was imparted to Timothy and made regarding his worthy discharge of the office (Wiesinger). [77]
] Purpose of the . (elsewhere only in 2Co 10:4 ) is frequently translated inaccurately by “fight;” Luther is more correct: “that thou mayest exercise in it a good knighthood .” denotes the entire warfare; the only thing wrong in Luther’s translation is the indefinite article. Though the Christian calling is not seldom described as a warfare, yet here the word is used specially of Timothy’s office, in which he had to contend against the (1Ti 1:3 ff.). [78] De Wette inaccurately explains it: “that thou conduct thyself worthily and bravely in the discharge of thy evangelic duty;” as if the words were: . . The chief accent rests on , not on ; the assigned to Timothy is in itself , quite apart from his behaviour in it.
] According to Matthies, Winer (p. 362 [E. T. p. 484]), Wiesinger, Otto, and others, Paul conceives the , as an armour round Timothy: “as though equipped with them;” it might, however, be more natural to translate: “ within them,” i.e. in their limits, not exceeding them. The interpretation: in accordance with them (van Oosterzee, Hofmann: “the prophecies are to be regarded as a rule of conduct”), is against the usage of the N. T.
[73] Hofmann wrongly maintains that this construction is impossible in point of language and in point of fact: “in point of language, because does not mean lay to heart , but propose , and a command is not proposed (why not?); in point of fact, because what he calls cannot furnish any standard for the apostle’s injunction to Timothy to discharge his office well” (why not?).
[74] In Mat 13:24 ; Mat 13:31 , it is joined with ; it is used of setting forth a doctrine in Act 17:3 ; it is chiefly used of setting forth food, as in the N. T. Mar 8:7 ; Luk 9:16 ; Luk 10:8 ; Luk 11:6 ; it has the sense of “committing to the care of” in Luk 12:48 .
[75] Comp. Lnemann and Delitzsch on the passage. Otto is wrong in asserting that is never used of priority of time. While it occurs more frequently in the sense of “precede some one,” it has in other passages of the N. T. ( e.g. Mat 26:32 ; Mar 6:45 ) the meaning practically of “go before some one in any direction whatever,” the notion of space manifestly passing into that of time. In the passage in Hebrews, Otto thinks that ought to mean: “driving forward from one election of high priest to another” (!).
[76] In taking the words thus: , there is not, as Otto maintains, a change of order not occurring in Greek; comp. 2Co 8:2 : . It is also wrong to say that the prepositional clause must flow from the substantive, and that , therefore, should stand here for . In the passage quoted, manifestly does not flow from the idea of the substantive .
[77] According to Hofmann, they were prophecies “which had promised to Paul that Timothy would be a true servant of the gospel, and had confirmed him in his choice when he assumed Timothy as his colleague in the apostleship.”
[78] Manifestly Paul here returns to vv. 3 ff., and so far gives reason for saying that here “we have not in form but in substance” the apodosis which was wanting before (Wiesinger).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
IV
Paul exhorts Timothy to fight the good fight, and strengthens this exhortation by referring him to the falling away and condemnation of some, two of whom he mentions by name
1Ti 1:18-20
18This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by [in] them mightest war16 a good warfare; 19Holding faith and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: 20Of whom is Hymeneus17 and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn [be taught] not to blaspheme.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Ti 1:18. This charge I commit unto thee, , committo tibi; yet not ut auditoribus proponas (Bengel); for it is obviously a precept for the official life and work of Timothy himself. Here the Apostle, after his more personal disclosure (1Ti 1:5-17), returns to his original exhortation (1Ti 1:3-4), and again directly addresses Timothy, whom he has for awhile lost sight of. The question, what properly means, is differently answered by commentators. It seems best to seek the answer in the clause immediately following, ., …, and thus to explain as a particle referring to the object. Thus Matthies, De Wette, Wiesinger, Huther, and others. It is not so much a command, in the strict sense of the word, as a tender, fatherly counsel, that Timothy shall show himself a true soldier of Jesus Christ, and so fulfil the high expectations that were justly cherished concerning him. We notice here that Paul already employs military figures (Otto). is used of a military command; Xenophon, Hell. 11. Paul, in a Christian sense, assigns to Timothy the command against the heretics.According to the prophecies which went before on thee. Heubner: According to the good hopes which thou didst awaken in thy youthhopes that wise, devout men expressed of thee, and likewise prophetically foretold, as Staupitz in the case of Luther. Instead of this superficial view, we have every reason to refer these words to the in the Christian Church at the time of the Apostle, and to compare it with 1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6. Prophesyings are here, as always in the New Testament, spoken of as the fruit of a supernatural influence of the Holy Ghost; and we can easily conceive that such utterances were not wanting at the solemn ordination of Timothy to the ministry of the Gospel. These prophesyings went before in him ( ), preceding his entrance upon his Christian course; and Timothy would turn this hope to shame, if he shewed himself untrue to his calling. , in conformity to them. The view, that those prophesyings were the weapons which Timothy must put on for the conflict, seems too artificial, and not strictly Pauline; it is simpler to regard them as the rule which must determine his conduct, or, if we will, as the limits within which he must act.War a good warfare. De Wette is too general: That thou, in the conduct of thy office, demean thyself worthily and bravely. Far more happily Luther: That thou therein do a knightly work. here does not mean the conflict of the Christian life in general, but the conflict as a leader in the church, which Timothy was to wage specially against the heretics of his day. It is a warfare, in a strict sense of the word, under the banner of the King of kings. For a correct understanding of the figurative expression, comp. 2Co 10:4; Eph 6:10-18; 1Th 5:8; 2Ti 2:3; 2Ti 2:5.Chrysostom: ; , .
1Ti 1:19. Holding faith and a good conscience. In the conflict which we wage outwardly against the enemy, our chief concern is with the inner state and disposition of the heart. is here to be taken in the sense of , as the participial connective denotes the manner in which Timothy must follow the exhortation (1Ti 1:18). That faith is here set forth as a weapon, as Eph 6:16 (according to Matthies), is improbable, on account of the inner connection of and . The Apostle simply means that Timothy shall guard boththat is, shall hold fast, and not renounce them. There is thus the same connection of faith and conscience here as in 1Ti 1:5. Unbelief is with the Apostle not theoretical, but practicalbound with the inward state of our moral life, as is shown by what immediately follows.Which some having put away, &c. The sense is: through the defilement of a good conscience, some have lost not only this, but also the faith which they before possessed. ; whichi. e., a good consciencesome have rejected, as a troublesome creditor whom they will be rid of at any cost.Have suffered shipwreck. is a word used in Greek, Roman, and Hebrew writers, and common with us to denote severe, irrecoverable losses. It is only found in the New Testament, in its proper sense, in 2Co 11:25, and here in a figurative sense. Should it be thought that the image of a shipwreck had in the preceding passed before the mind of Paul, then a good conscience must be regarded not as the rudder (Mack), but as the anchor (Wiesinger), with whose loss the whole vessel is ruined. The proposition, , c. accus., denotes especially what they had lost in the wreck. Metaphora a naufragio, sumpta aptissime quadrat, nam innuit, ut salva fides ad portum usque pervenit, navigationis nostr cursum bona conscientia regendum esse, alias naufragii esse periculum, hoc est, ne fides mala conscientia tanquam gurgite in mari procelloso immergatur; Calvin.
1Ti 1:20. Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander. Hymeneus; perhaps the same mentioned in 2Ti 2:17. Alexander; probably not the same mentioned in 2Ti 4:14 as , since, in this case, the excommunication would have the appearance of personal revenge; perhaps we should refer it to the Ephesian named in Act 19:33, who, without doubt, was well enough known to Timothy.Whom I have delivered unto Satan. The formal sentence of excommunication, by which any were separated from the church and given over to the powers of darkness which ruled in heathendom (Col 1:13 and 1Co 5:5). Here, as in the passages just cited, the Apostle seems to point mentally . , as may be inferred from the following ., …, which, however, should not be regarded as the effect of the ban of the church per se, but rather of a just, divine recompense. That the Apostle here speaks only of what he had done in his own mind (Planck, Matthies), is mere conjecture. The expression admits of no other explanation than that of a fact already completed, which he either for the first time disclosed to Timothy, or for good reasons mentioned again.That they may learn, , with the added thought of the chastisement which, in the view of the Apostle, ought to restrain them from a repetition of the blasphemy which, without doubt, they had already uttered against God and Christ. Facto fidei naufragio, blasphemi periculum adest; Bengel. [The phrase here used may probably have been drawn from the formula of excommunication used in the apostolic church. Alford thinks the delivering to Satan an apostolic act for the purpose of correction, which might or might not be accompanied by extrusion from the church, Vide in loco. But the solemn strength of the phrase seems hardly to admit the idea of a lesser penalty. The kingdoms of Christ and of Satan are conceived of as two opposites. Augustine well calls this discipline of excommunication, Medicinalis vindicta, terribilis lenitas, charitatis severitas. Ad Liter. Petilian. 3, 4.W.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. As the life of the individual Christian is a constant warfare, so may the life of an upright minister of the gospel be specially regarded from this point of view; and above all, in the days when error lifts its head boldly and arrogantly, as in the time of Timothy. There is, however, a false lust for strife, as a false love of grace, against which the young minister of the word cannot be too earnestly warned. Striking suggestions as to the way in which he must wage the , and guide his official life, may be found in the old, well-known work of J. Valentin Andre, entitled, The Good Life of a Righteous Servant of the Gospel, which is referred to by Herder, in his Letters on the Study of Theology, and is still worthy of study. His contrast of the good and bad teacher ought not to be forgotten: Prceptor bonus ducit, dum malus trahit; lucet ille, hic offuscat; docet ille, hic confundit; regit ille, hic impellit; excitat ille, hic deprimit; oblectat ille, hic angit; format ille, hic destruit. Paucis dicam: nisi prceptor ipse liber, imo bibliotheca, et museum inambulans sit, nisi laboris breviarum et manubrium, nisi linguarum artiumque repertorium et formula, nisi insuper patri et ecclesi ornamentum audiat, non sapit ad ingenium nostrum. Nam libros repetere et exigere, ad laborem agere et stimulare, prcepta, regulas dictaque obtrudere, cujus vis est; summam rei monstrare, facilitatem aperire, applicationem adhibere, usum docere, exemplo prire, denique ad Christum omnia referre, hoc opus, hic sudor Christianus est, quem null orbis opes rependerint. See Hagenbachs Lectures on the History of the Reformation, in loco.
2. The Pauline conception of the inner relation of faith and conscience is of the highest significance. As unbelief nearly always leads either to grosser or more refined immorality, so not rarely it begins from an immoral ground, at least when faith existed before. This conception is thoroughly Pauline; comp. Rom 1:21; and, again, our Lords own view of it, Joh 7:17. It is a deep mental truth; for it is far too common to represent faith or infidelity as a matter of abstract opinion. Gospel truth is no mere work of the understanding or the memory; the light of the gospel is life, and its work is power. It can only then be grasped, when knowledge and affection and volition are joined, so that the thought has root in the affections, and activity in the will; as, reversely, an action severed from Christian knowledge and affection can never be Christian. It would be interesting to study the history of heresies from this point of view, and to seek the deepest moral ground of the greatest errors. On the other hand, it is obvious that a conscientious, moral life, is essential to the stability of the life of faith. Compare the essay of Ed. Guder on The Scriptural Doctrine of Conscience; Theol. Stud, und Kritik., 1857; Otto, p. 98.
3. What Paul says of Hymeneus and Alexander, shows us how highly he valued church discipline, and how much the looseness and indifference of many churches in this respect directly contradicts his spirit and example. Yet it should be noticed, that he only resorted to this in extreme cases, and then solely with the view to effect reformation by such punishment, and to save the soul from eternal harm. The inquisition of the Roman Church is thus as fully condemned here, as the indifference of many members of the evangelical church.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The Christian life, as well as that of every true minister of the gospel, a warfare.Wo to the herald of the gospel who does not fulfil all that is justly expected of him.Faith lost, all lost.The inner connection of faith and conscience, of the religious and moral life.The shipwreck of faith: (1) How easily one can suffer shipwreck; (2) how disastrous the end.The sight of anothers apostasy ought to lead us to greater diligence, to greater truth and watchfulness.Ecclesiastical discipline: (1) Its principle; (2) its right; (3) its purpose; (4) its mode; (5) its limits.Even the punishment of sin may be transformed into blessing.
Starke: Langes Op.: Our spiritual strife does not cease, but lasts as long as we live, for our spiritual enemies never die.What the eye is to the head, and the heart to the body, the conscience is to faith and to a complete Christianity.It is very tender, and must therefore be well guarded.It is not an unavoidable necessity that any should fall away from the grace of God, but rather it is possible and necessary to abide therein to the end (1Co 15:13).Osiander: The departure of Hymeneus and Alexander from the pure doctrine, shows that some will always fall away, although the servants of the church fulfil their office truly (2Co 11:28). The Romish excommunication is different from the apostolic, as darkness from light; for it does not come from God, but is rather a work of Satan; not against the enemy, but to destroy the friends and witnesses of the truth (Joh 16:2-3).Heubner: The remembrance of the hopes of a former teacher is a great stimulus, an earnest call to be and to do what others have expected of us.It is a grave truth: sinful life leads to unbelief; religion becomes doubtful; it is for our interest to doubt. Strive, then, earnestly to abide in communion with ChristChastisements are healing messengers of God for the recovery of men.
Footnotes:
[16]1Ti 1:18.[. Recepta, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Sinaiticus, .E. H.]
[17]1Ti 1:20.[Sinaiticus, . But in 2Ti 2:17 it has the commonly received spelling.E. H.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
(18) This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; (19) Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: (20) Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Paul having, in the recollection of his wonderful conversion, in some measure departed from the subject he was before speaking of, concerning the law, and the Gospel, (1Ti 1:8-11 .) now returns to it, and gives charge to his beloved Timothy, how he should preach Christ, and Christ only, agreeably to the prophecies, which Timothy, who had been taught in them, well understood, as referring to Christ. And he points to the strong assurances of faith, and a good conscience, both God the Spirit’s gift; which some who have made a profession, but who never felt the power, had relinquished. Reader! what a beautiful distinction this forms, (and I take occasion by the way to remark it,) between the blessed work of God the Spirit in regeneration, from whence come faith and a good conscience; and the mere profession of Christ, taken up for the moment, from hearsay, not heart-felt knowledge, and put down again from the same cause!
This Hymeneus is the same as spoken of 2Ti 2:17-18 . And Alexander is most likely to be the Copper-smith. 2Ti 4:14 . Paul’s delivery of them to Satan, seems to have been for correction. We have a similar passage, 1Co 5:5 . to the notes on which I refer.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
III
PAUL’S CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE
1Ti 1:18-2:7
At the close of the last chapter we were considering Paul’s use of his Christian experience, and eight instances of its use were cited. In that connection a promise was made to begin this chapter with a bit of history illustrating the last two instances of its use, namely, 1Ti 1:12-13 and 2Ti 1:12 . The history is this:
The Southern Baptist Convention held its first Texas session at Jefferson. On Sunday two remarkable sermons were preached. Rev. W. W. Landrum, a licensed preacher, was pastor-elect of the First Church, Shreveport, Louisiana. The church called for his ordination to take place Sunday at 11:00 A.M. at Jefferson during the Convention session there, in order that Dr. Broadus and Dr. S. Landrum, the father of the candidate, might serve on the presbytery. The Convention, of course, did not ordain him, but some thought it would have a misleading effect to have the ordination away from the home church and at an important Convention hour. Dr. Broadus preached the ordination sermon from the common version of 1Ti 1:12-13 , the very passage we are now considering. It was a great and very impressive sermon.
From memory I give you his outline:
1. Christ puts men into the ministry: “Putting me into this ministry.”
2. Christ confers ability on his ministers: “Enabling me.”
3. This should be a matter of thankfulness to the minister: “I thank Christ Jesus my Lord.”
4. Especially when the preacher was formerly Christ’s enemy: “Putting me into this ministry who was before a blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious.”
Sunday night the Convention sermon was preached by Dr. Taylor, newly-elected pastor of the Colosseum Place Church, New Orleans, Louisiana. His text was another relating of Paul’s experience: 2Ti 1:12 : “For which cause I suffer all these things; yet I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed; and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
I have italicized the words stressed in the sermon. Again from memory I give the outline:
1. Paul called to be a great sufferer: “I suffer all these things,” citing in illustration Act 9:16 ; 1Co 4:9 ; 2Co 4:10-11 ; 2Co 6:4-5 ; 2Co 11:23-29 . This point was exceedingly pathetic.
2. The cause of his willingness to suffer: “For this cause I suffer”; he found in the preceding verse: “Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
3. Called to suffering but not to shame: “Yet I am not ashamed.”
4. Reasons for not being ashamed:
(1) “I know him whom I have believed.” Here the preacher, evincing great classical research, contrasted the vague guesses of the wisest heathen in their philosophies, with the certitude of Christian knowledge.
(2) “Whom I have believed.” Here, with great power, the preacher showed that the object of faith was a person and not a proposition, contrasting the difference between a burdened sinner resting his weary head on a sympathetic heart, and resting it on the cold marble of an abstract proposition.
(3) “I know whom I have believed,” Here he made plain that faith is not blind credulity, but based on assured knowledge and therefore reasonable.
(4) “And I am persuaded that he is able to guard.” Here the assurance of faith.
(5) “To guard that which I have committed unto him.” Here faith, having believed a well-known person, commits a treasure to his keeping, being assured of his ability to guard it. The thought is clear and impressive that faith is not only believing, but a committal the making of deposit even one’s own assaulted body and soul the life of the man himself to be hid with Christ in God.
(6) “Against that day.” The great judgment day not only guarded in all of life’s trials, sorrows, and sufferings, and in death’s dread hour, but even in the last great assize, where before the great white throne final assignment is made to one’s eternal state, home, and companionship.
The two sermons were much discussed as to their relative greatness. The general verdict was that Dr. Broadus’ was the greater to the hearer, and Dr. Taylor’s was the greater to the reader, the one being much more impressive in delivery than the other.
I have given this bit of history not only to illustrate the force of the closing point in my last discussion on the uses made of Paul’s Christian experience, but because the sermons were masterpieces of homiletics.
In resuming the exposition of our great paragraph, attention is called to two distinct reasons assigned for Paul’s conversion.
The Two Poles of Salvation. The first reason assigned latter clause of verse 1Ti 1:13 : “Howbeit I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.” A blasphemer, a persecutor, an injurious man may obtain mercy if these things are done in spiritual ignorance and unbelief. This answers the question: “Who are salvable?” to wit: all sinners on earth who have not committed the unpardonable sin eternal sin pardonable because not wilfully against the light, knowledge, and conviction of the Holy Spirit. Let the reader consult the teacher’s exposition of Heb 10:26-31 , and compare Mat 12:32 ; Mar 3:28-30 ; 1Jn 5:16-18 . Paul was conscientious in all hw blasphemies and persecution. He verily thought he was doing God’s service. Conscience is that inward monitor, divinely implanted, which pronounces verdict on good and evil. It is a mistake to say that it is the creature of education. Education itself being only development and training of what is already potentially present, can have no creative power. Conscience, unenlightened, may become the servant of education and environment. Its light may be darkened; it may become callous and even seared as with a hot iron, but it never vacates its witness box or judicial seat in either Christian, Jew, or heathen (Rom 2:14-15 ; Rom 9:1 ; Act 26:9 ).
The second reason assigned is in 1Ti 1:16 : “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering, for an example of them that should thereafter believe on him unto eternal life.” This is the other pole of salvation. The chief of sinners, the outside man of the salvable, was saved to show the utmost extent of longsuffering mercy as an example of encouragement to despairing men less guilty than the chief, to believe on Christ unto eternal life.
Now, the use that we make of that last reason is this: We may take that case of Paul as the outside man, the chief of sinners, and holding it up as a model, as an example, go to any sinner this side of hell even if his feet be on the quivering, crumbling brink of the abyss and preach salvation to him, and if he despairs and says, “I am too great a sinner,” then we may say, “Behold, God saves the outside man, nearer to hell than you are.”
In order to get the full benefit of that thought we must conceive of all sinners that are salvable put in a row, single file, and graded according to the heinousness of their guilt here the least guilty, there the next most guilty, and the next and the next, and away yonder at the end of the line is that outside man, Paul, right next to hell. Now Christ comes and reaches out a long arm of grace over that extended line and snatches the outside man from the very jaws of hell, and holds him up and says, “Is not this brand plucked from the burning?”
I have used that example just the way God intended it to be used in preaching in jails and penitentiaries and city slums, and in coming in contact with the toughest and roughest and most criminal sinners in the world.
The next question is: Wherein is Paul the chief of sinners? Quite a number of men have disputed my contention that Paul was really the greatest sinner, leaving out of course the unpardonable sin. He was a blasphemer) but that did not make him the chief of sinners, for others have been more blasphemous. He was a persecutor, but that did not make him the chief of sinners, for other men have been greater persecutors : Nero, Louis XIV of France, and especially that spiritual monster, Philip II of Spain. Any one of these men persecuted beyond anything that Paul ever did. He was an injurious man, but other men have been more injurious than he. What, then, constituted him the chief of sinners, the outside man? My answer is: He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees in his self-righteousness the extremest Pharisee that ever lived and self-righteousness stands more opposed to the righteousness of Christ than does either persecution or blasphemy. To illustrate: The Pharisee who came into the Temple to pray, and with uplifted eyes, faces God and says, “God, I thank thee that I am not like other men especially this poor publican. I fast twice every week; I pay tithes of all I possess.” No praying in that. It is the feigned prayer of the selfrighteous man, denying that he is a sinner. He denies any need of regeneration and sanctification by the Holy Spirit. He denies any need of the cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ: “I need no Saviour; I stand on my own record, and answer for myself at the bar of God.” The self-righteous man would come to the very portals of heaven over which is written: “No unclean thing shall enter here,” march right in and stand unabashed in the presence of the Cherubim who sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,” and brazenly say to God’s face: “I am as holy as thou art. I am as white as snow. I was never in bondage. I have no need to be forgiven.” That made Paul the chief of sinners; nobody ever came up to him on self-righteousness. Now, if this chief of sinners, this outside man, be saved, that gives us the other pole of salvation.
Proceeding with the discussion, we note what 1Ti 1:17 says: “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” How is God more immortal, more eternal than the soul of man? If the soul of man is deathless, then how is he more immortal? There was a beginning to that soul, but there was no beginning to the being of God. How is God invisible? The Scriptures declare that no man bath seen God at any time, or can see him. The only way in which he has ever been seen has been in his image, Jesus Christ. Jesus has revealed him; so when we look at Jesus we see the Father, and in the teachings of Jesus we hear the Father. But there will come a time, when we are completely saved, when the affairs of the world are wound up, then we shall see God; “God himself shall tabernacle with men, and they shall see his face.” That was the glorious thought in Job’s declaration: “Oh, that my words were now written, that they were graven with iron and lead in a rock forever, for I know that my Redeemer liveth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold.” In quoting this passage, I stand upon the King James Version: “In my body” not “apart from my body.” We do not see God in our disembodied soul, but when our soul and body are redeemed, then God himself becomes visible. The context and all the scriptures in other connections oppose the Revised Version on this passage. See Rev 22:4 .
1Ti 1:18 gives a consequential charge to Timothy. It reads: “This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which led the way unto thee, that by them thou mayest war a good warfare.” What is the meaning of the prophecy that led the way to Timothy? In Act 13 in the church of Antioch there were certain prophets, and it was revealed unto these prophets that Saul and Barnabas should be set apart, or ordained, to the foreign mission work. Later Barnabas drops out, and Paul needs another and better Barnabas and some prophet, either Paul himself or Silas, receives & revelation that that boy, Timothy, who was led to Christ in Lystra or in Derbe, should be ordained to go with Paul to the foreign mission work.
The second part of the charge is, “holding faith and a good conscience.” Do not turn faith loose; don’t say, “I once believed in Jesus Christ, now I do not.” Hold on to a good conscience. Conscience is never good until it is purified with the application of the blood of Jesus Christ in regeneration. The lamp of the Lord shines with a clear light upon every action, right or wrong, as long as it remains good. But when we begin to trifle with the conscience when we do things we are conscientiously opposed to, our conscience will become callous. Therefore, let us hold to our faith, and hold to a good conscience.
In the next verse: “Which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.” Now here we have a shipwreck not of faith but concerning the faith. These men turned loose the faith, blinding their consciences. Now the question comes up: On what specific point did these two men turn loose the faith? 2Ti 2:16 ff answers: “But shun profane babblings, for they will proceed further in ungodliness, and their word will eat as doeth a gangrene (or cancer), of whom is Hymenaeua and Philetus (here we get one of them with another added); men who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some.” Men in Ephesus denied that there was any such thing as the resurrection of the body that it was scientifically impossible and taught that the resurrection was the conversion of the soul. They have followers today. Some who claim to be teachers of preachers virtually deny the resurrection of the body. A preacher of the annual sermon before the Southern Baptist Convention, taught that Christ assumed his resurrection body simply for identification, and that after he was identified it was eliminated, and it did not concern us to know what became of it.
Now, what does Paul say about the denial of the resurrection? He calls it profane babbling that will progress to greater ungodliness: “And their word will eat as doth a gangrene.” We know how a cancer eats while we are sleeping, commencing perhaps in the corner of the eye, and after a while it will eat the eye out, then the side of the face, then it will eat the nose off, and then the lips, and keep on eating. That was the shipwreck concerning the faith made by Hymenaeus, Alexander, and Philetus.
The next question is: What chance did Paul give these men to be saved? The text says that he turned them over to Satan that they should be taught not to blaspheme. In other words, the true Christian in the fold is hedged against Satan he cannot get to him he cannot put the weight of his little finger on him without asking permission; he asked permission to worry Job and Peter. Whenever a sheep on the inside gets too unruly and he is put on the outside and hears the wolves howl a while, he will bleat around to come back in. But if one turns an unruly hog out of the pen, he will strike for the woods and never come back. Peter, in the exercise of his apostolic power, could strike Ananias dead. Paul, in the same power, struck Elymas blind, but where the object of this power is to save, offenders were temporarily turned over to the buffeting of Satan as in the case of the offending Corinthian. This man had taken his father’s wife, but the discipline led him to repentance and he was glad to get back in.
1Ti 2 gives direction concerning public prayer worship. The first injunction is that prayers, supplications, and intercessions be made for all men not only for our Baptist brethren, but our Methodist brethren; not only for the Christians, but for those on the outside. Pray for all rulers, all people in authority presidents, governors, senators, city councils, and police ah, but some of them do need it! Now, he gives the reasons it is important to see what the reasons are: (1) Pray for these rulers that we may live a quiet and orderly life. If they are bad, we won’t have an easy time. If the administrators of law be themselves lawless in their speech, every bad man construes it into permission to do what he pleases. When the wicked are in power the righteous suffer. (2) It is good and acceptable in the sight of God that we should do it. God wants us to pray for all people. (3) And the third reason is the great reason: That God would have all men to be saved. Let us not squirm at that, but for a little while let us forget about election and predestination, and just look this scripture squarely in the face: God desires the salvation of all men. In this connection I commend that sermon in my first book of sermons on “God and the Sinner.” Note in order its several proof texts. God asks, Eze 18:23 : “Have I any pleasure at all in the death of the wicked that they should die and not live?” Eze 33:11 , God takes an oath: “As I live saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he will turn from his evil way and live. Then why will you die? saith the Lord.” Then we come to the passage here: “God would have all men to be saved.” “And God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In Luk 15 the accusation made against him was: “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them”; and he answered: “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.” And the text here says that he gave his life a ransom for all. That all is as big here as elsewhere. He would have all men to be saved; pray for all men because he would have all men to be saved, and because Christ gave his life as a ransom for all. Then this scripture: “Jesus Christ tasted death for every man.” If there is still doubt, look at the Lord’s Commission: “Go ye, and make disciples of all nations”; ” Go ye, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Finally, consider the teaching of Peter: “We must account that the long suffering of God in delaying the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is that all men should have space to repent and come to the knowledge of truth.” That’s the construction he puts upon the apparent tardiness of the final advent of our Lord. However, when we study election and predestination, we should study and preach them just as they are taught. Let us not say, “I don’t know just how to harmonize them with these other teachings.”
God did not appoint us harmonizers of his word.
As Dr. Broadus used to say, let the word of God mean just what it wants to mean, every time. Preach both of them. These lines are apparently parallel, but they may come together. If on a map parallels of longitude come together at the poles, why not trust God to bring together in himself and in eternity his apparent parallels of doctrine? Up yonder beyond the clouds they will come together. That is my own method of preaching.
Now, we come to a very important part of this prayer, verse 1Ti 2:5 : “For there is one God, one mediator between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus.” Oh, if we could but learn thoroughly the relation of this passage to the doctrine of prayer: The Old Testament gives us the type of it: The victim is sacrificed; the high priest takes the blood and starts into the holy of holies to sprinkle it upon the mercy seat. Then he takes a coal of fire from the altar of that sacrifice and kindles the frankincense, which represents the prayers of the people. The high priest alone takes the prayers of the people there into the holy of holies: “Father, behold the atoning blood. On account of that blood, hear these petitions of the people and answer them.”
The thought is that in offering up prayers to God, there is only one mediator. Let us not kneel down and say, “Oh, virgin Mary, intercede for me with Jesus, that he may hear my prayers.” Or, ”Oh, Peter, John, Paul, James, ye saints, help me in getting my prayers up to heaven.” There is just one mediator between God and man, and one of the most blasphemous doctrines of the papacy is prayer to saints. Saints may pray for sinners, but saints are not allowed to mediate prayers nor themselves be prayed unto. We are not mediators with Jesus. There is just one case in the Bible where a prayer was made to a saint, and that prayer was not answered. The rich man lifted up his eyes and seeing Abraham afar off, said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me.”
QUESTIONS
1. What bit of history illustrates the uses of Paul’s Christian experience and furnishes two models in homiletics?
2. What are two reasons are assigned in the text for Paul’s conversion and show how they constitute the poles of salvation?
3. What use in preaching may be made the second reason?
4. Wherein was Paul the chief of sinners?
5. How alone is God now visible?
6. When and to whom will he be directly visible?
7. Explain the prophecy that led the way unto Timothy?
8. Wherein did Hymenaeus and Alexander make shipwreck concerning the faith & what the difference between “shipwreck of faith” &”concerning faith”?
9. Show in two respects how this heresy worked evil.
10. What was the power given to apostles and what cases of its use: (1) To destruction. (2) In order to save. (3) And what illustration of the test of “turning over to Satan.” (4) What notable examples of “turning over to Satan” where it worked for good to its subject?
11. What is the topic of 1Ti 2 ?
12. For whom should we pray and what the general reasons given?
13. Cite other passages in line with 1Ti 2:4 .
14. Can you satisfactorily harmonize these passages with the doctrines of election and predestination?
15. What will you do with doctrines you can’t harmonize?
16. What is the bearing of “One Mediator” on the doctrine of prayer?
17. What is the Old Testament typical illustration?
18. What are errors of the papacy at this point?
19. What one case in the Bible of praying to a saint?
20. What is the result and what is the inference?
18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
Ver. 18. Son Timothy ] This is Timothy’s task, whom the apostle fitly calleth son, according to the custom both of those and these times. Patres eos dicimus qui nos catechesi instituerunt, saith Clement: We call them fathers that instruct and catechise us. Hence Num 3:1 , those there mentioned were Aaron’s sons by nature, and they are called Moses’s sons, because he taught and instructed them.
18 ff.] He now returns to the matter which he dropped in 1Ti 1:3 , not indeed formally, so as to supply the apodosis there neglected, but virtually: the not being the one there hinted at, for that was one not given to Timotheus, but to be given by him. Nor is it that in 1Ti 1:5 , for that is introduced as regarding a matter quite different from the present viz. the aberrations of the false teachers, who do not here appear till the exhortation to Timotheus is over. What this command is, is plain from the following. This command I commit (as a deposit, to be faithfully guarded and kept: see ref. 2 Tim. and ch. 1Ti 6:20 ; Herod. vi. 86, beginning) to thee, son Timotheus (see on 1Ti 1:2 ), according to (in pursuance of: these words belong to , not as c., Flatt, al., to below) the former prophecies concerning thee (the directions, or, prophecies properly so called, of the Holy Spirit, which were spoken concerning Timotheus at his first conversion, or at his admission (cf. ch. 1Ti 4:14 ) into the ministry, by the in the church. We have instances of such prophetic intimations in Act 13:1-2 , (Act 11:28 ,) Act 21:10-11 . By such intimations, spoken perhaps by Silas, who was with him, and who was a ( Act 15:32 ), may St. Paul have been first induced to take Timotheus to him as a companion, Act 16:3 . All other meanings, which it has been attempted to give to , are unwarranted, and beside the purpose here: as e.g. ‘ the good hopes conceived of thee ,’ Heinrichs. The belongs to , the preposition of motion being easily accounted for by the reference to a subject implied in the word), that thou mayest (purpose, and at the same time purport, of the : cf. note, 1Co 14:13 ; and Ellicott on Eph 1:16 ) war ( , of the whole business of the employed soldier; not merely of fighting, properly so called) in them (not as De W. ‘ by virtue of them ,’ but as Mack, Matth., and Wies., ‘ in ,’ as clad with them, as if they were his defence and confirmation. This is not zu knstlich , as Huther, seeing that the whole expression is figurative) the good warfare (not, as Conyb., ‘fight the good fight,’ by which same words he renders the very different expression in 2Ti 4:7 , . It is the whole campaign , not the fight alone, which is here spoken of), holding fast (more than ‘ having ;’ but we must hardly, as Matth., carry on the metaphor and think of the shield of faith Eph 6:16 , such continuation being rendered unlikely by the unmetaphorical character of ) faith (subjective: cf. below) and good conscience (cf. 1Ti 1:5 ), which (latter, viz. good conscience not, both) some having thrust from them (there is something in the word implying the violence of the act required, and the importunity of conscience, reluctant to be so extruded. So Bengel: ‘recedit invita: semper dicit, noli me Idere’) made shipwreck (the similitude is so common a one, that it is hardly necessary to extend the figure of a shipwreck beyond the word itself, nor to find in allusions to a rudder, anchor, &c. See examples in Wetst.) concerning (see reff., and cf. Act 19:25 , , also Luk 10:40 . The same is elsewhere expressed by , so Diog. Lart. v. 2. 14, , Plut. Symp. i. 4, . See other examples in Kypke: Winer, edn. 6, 49. i.: and Ellicott’s note here) the faith (objective): of whom (genitive partitive: among whom) is Hymenus (there is a Hymenus mentioned 2Ti 2:17 , in conjunction with Philetus, as an heretical teacher. There is no reason to distinguish him from this one: nor any difficulty occasioned (De W.) by the fact of his being here , and there mentioned as overthrowing the faith of many. He would probably go on with his evil teaching in spite of the Apostle’s sentence, which could carry weight with those only who were sound in the faith) and Alexander (in all probability identical with , 2Ti 4:14 . There is nothing against it in what is there said of him (against De Wette). He appears there to have been an adversary of the Apostle, who had withstood and injured him at his late visit to Ephesus: but there is no reason why he should not have been still under this sentence at that time): whom I delivered over to Satan (there does not seem to be, as almost always taken for granted, any necessary assertion of excommunication properly so called. The delivering to Satan, as in 1Co 5:5 , seems to have been an apostolic act, for the purpose of active punishment, in order to correction. It might or might not be accompanied by extrusion from the church: it appears to have been thus accompanied in 1Co 5:5 : but the two must not be supposed identical. The upholders of such identity allege the fact of Satan’s empire being conceived as including all outside the church ( Act 26:18 al.): but such expressions are too vague to be adduced as applying to a direct assertion like this. Satan, the adversary, is evidently regarded as the buffeter and tormentor, cf. 2Co 12:7 ever ready, unless his hand were held, to distress and afflict God’s people, and ready therefore, when thus let loose by one having power over him, to execute punishment with all his malignity.
Observe that the verb is not perfect but aorist. He did this when he was last at Ephesus. On the ecclesiastical questions here involved, Ellic. has, as usual, some very useful references) that they may be disciplined (the subj. after the aorist indicates that the effect of what was done still abides; the sentence was not yet taken off, nor the at an end.
, as in reff., to instruct by punishment, to discipline ) not to blaspheme (God, or Christ, whose holy name was brought to shame by these men associating it with unholy and unclean doctrines).
1Ti 1:18-20 . The charge that I am giving you now is in harmony with what you heard from the prophets at your ordination. It only emphasises the fundamental moral relations of man to things unseen and seen. The rejection of these principles of natural religion naturally issues in a perversion of revealed religion, such as caused the excommunication of Hymenaeus and Alexander.
1Ti 1:18 . is partly resumptive of 1Ti 1:3 ; it is the positive aspect of what is there negatively expressed; but as it concerns Timothy directly, it has a reference forward to , . . ., and to the general contents of the epistle. Bengel refers it to , 1Ti 1:5 . Peile to , . . .
: The use of this word, as in Luk 12:48 , 2Ti 2:2 , suggests that the is more than an injunction of temporary urgency, that it is connected with, if not the same as, the ( depositum ) of 1Ti 6:20 , etc.
: There is a peculiar affectionate earnestness in this use of the personal name, here and in the conclusion of the letter (1Ti 6:20 ). Cf. Luk 10:41 , Martha, Martha ; Luk 22:34 , Peter ; Joh 14:9 , Philip ; Joh 20:16 , Mary . For see note on 1Ti 1:2 .
, . . .: By the prophecies, etc., are meant the utterances of the prophets, such as Silas (and not excluding St. Paul himself) who were with St. Paul when the ordination of Timothy became possible; utterances which pointed out the young man as a person suitable for the ministry, led the way to him (R.V. m.). So Chrys. There is no need to suppose that any long interval of time elapsed between the first prophetical utterances and the laying on of hands. In any case, similar prophecies accompanied the act of ordination. This explanation agrees best with the order of the words, and is in harmony with earlier and later references to the extraordinary function of prophets in relation to the ministry in the apostolic church. Thus in Act 13:1-2 , the imposition of hands on Paul and Barnabas whether for a special mission or to a distinct order it matters not was at the dictation of prophets. And Clem. Alex. ( Quis Dives , 42) speaks of the Apostle John, . In the same sense may be understood Clem. Rom. ad Cor . i. 42: , , .
It is evident from 1Ti 4:14 that the prophecy accompanying the laying-on of hands was considered at least contributory to the bestowal of the charisma; it is natural to suppose that it was of the nature of a charge to the candidate. St. Paul here says that his present charge to Timothy is in accordance with, in the spirit of, and also in reinforcement of ( ) the charge he had originally received on an occasion of peculiar solemnity. This is a stimulating appeal like that of 2Ti 3:14 , “knowing of whom thou hast learned them”.
Ellicott disconnects from ; but “forerunning, precursory,” is pointless as an epithet of predictions, though quite appropriate as applied to in Heb 7:18 : and the notion of “prophecies uttered over Timothy at his ordination foretelling his future zeal and success” is unnatural.
: The ministry is spoken of as a warfare, militia , “the service of a in all its details and particulars” (Ell.). See reff., and an interesting parallel in 4Ma 9:23 , . .
: in them , as in defensive armour. (Winer Moulton, Grammar , p. 484). Cf. Eph 6:14 ; Eph 6:16 , for a similar use of .
is characteristic of the Pastorals, in which it occurs twenty-four times as against sixteen times in the other Pauline Epistles. It has a special Christian reference in such phrases as the present, and as qualifying , 2Ti 2:3 ; , 1Ti 6:12 , 2Ti 4:7 ; , 1Ti 4:6 ; , 1Ti 6:12-13 : , 2Ti 1:14 ; , 1Ti 4:6 . Moreover, the use of the word in these epistles is also different from that found in the earlier epistles: ( a ) it is used as a qualifying adjective twelve times in the Pastorals (excluding , ) viz. , in addition to the reff. already given, 1Ti 3:7 ; 1Ti 3:13 ; 1Ti 6:19 . This use is not found in the other Pauline Epistles. ( b ) As a predicate it occurs twice, viz. , 1Ti 1:8 ; 1Ti 4:4 , as against once elsewhere in Paul, Rom 7:16 . On the other hand, is not found in the Pastorals, though five times elsewhere (Rom 7:18 ; Rom 7:21 ; 2Co 13:7 ; Gal 6:9 ; 1Th 5:21 ); nor (Rom 12:17 ; 2Co 8:21 ); nor (Rom 14:21 ; 1Co 5:6 ; 1Co 7:1 ; 1Co 7:8 ; 1Co 7:26 ; 1Co 9:15 ; Gal 4:18 ); but occurs chap. 1Ti 2:3 (Tit 3:8 ) as well as in 1Co 7:26 . See also note on chap. 1Ti 3:1 .
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Ti 1:18-20
18This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, 19keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. 20Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.
1Ti 1:18 “command” Paul uses two military terms in this chapter: (1) “command” (1Ti 1:3; 1Ti 1:5; 1Ti 1:18) and (2) “fight the good fight” (1Ti 1:18; cf. 2Co 10:3-6; Eph 6:10-17). This paragraph (i.e., 1Ti 1:18-20) returns to the false teachers’ theological issue of 1Ti 1:3-7.
NASB, TEV”entrust”
NKJV”commit”
NRSV, NJB”giving”
This is a present middle indicative of paratithmi. Paul entrusted the work of the gospel to Timothy (cf. 1Ti 6:20; 2Ti 1:14, just as Jesus had entrusted it to him, cf. 2Ti 1:12) to pass on to other faithful men (cf. 2Ti 2:2).
This term is used of
1. Jesus entrusting Himself to God in Luk 23:46
2. believers entrusting themselves to God in Act 14:23
3. Paul entrusting believers to God in Act 20:32
4. believers entrusting the new generation in 2Ti 2:2
“in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you” Timothy received both spiritual giftedness and prophetic confirmation by the church in Lystra at the time of the laying on of hands (cf. 1Ti 4:14). This phrase can mean (1) “made about you” (cf. NRSV) or (2) “led me to you” (cf. RSV).
SPECIAL TOPIC: NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECY
“fight the good fight” Often the Christian life is depicted as an athletic event or warfare, as here. The prophecies concerning Timothy enabled him to continually and courageously fight the good fight like Paul (present middle subjunctive, cf. 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 2:3-4; 2Ti 4:7; 2Co 10:3-6; Eph 6:10-17).
1Ti 1:19 “keeping faith and a good conscience” The good fight involves having and continuing to have (perfect active participle)
1. faith
2. good conscience
Both of these are mentioned in 1Ti 1:5. They are mentioned again because the loss of them is the very reason some members of the church have shipwrecked their faith. Faith could refer to either (1) Christian doctrine or (2) Christian living. Both are crucial.
We learn from 2Ti 2:17 that Hymenaeus was involved in doctrinal deviation (asserting the resurrection had already taken place) and godlessness (cf. 2Ti 2:16). The other named person, Alexander, can not be the silversmith mentioned in 2Ti 4:14 and Acts 19 because he was an enemy of the gospel.
Their rejection of truth and godliness was not due to deception, but willful rejection (aorist middle [deponent] participle of apthe, cf. Act 7:39; Act 13:46; Rom 11:1). See notes on conscience at 1Ti 1:5.
“which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regards to their faith” This is a difficult and controversial subject. See SPECIAL TOPIC: APOSTASY (APHISTMI) at 1Ti 4:1. There are so many examples of apostasy in
1 Timothy (cf. 1Ti 1:19; 1Ti 4:1-2; 1Ti 5:14-15; 1Ti 6:9-10; 1Ti 6:21; also 2Ti 2:16-18; 2Ti 3:1-8; 2Ti 3:13; 2Pe 2:1; 2Pe 2:20-21; Jud 1:4). See SPECIAL TOPIC: APOSTASY (APHISTMI) at 1Ti 4:1.
1Ti 1:20 “I have handed over to Satan” This is a very difficult phrase. Biblical precedents are
1. God using Satan to tempt Job (Job 2:6)
2. the Spirit thrusting Jesus into Satanic testing (Mar 1:12)
3. Paul turning a believer over to Satan in order to purify him so that he may ultimately be restored (1Co 5:5)
Notice the stated purpose in 1Ti 1:20 is to teach them not to blaspheme. It may refer to excommunication from the believing fellowship. God’s temporal discipline is always redemptive. God uses Satan to test human beings (cf. Genesis 3; Job 1-2; Zechariah 3). In a sense, Satan is a tool of God. It is Satan’s rebellion against God, his desire for independence, that makes him evil, not his tempting duties. See SPECIAL TOPIC: SATAN at 1Ti 3:6.
The use of this phrase implies there is hope for these false teachers and their followers. However, the similar metaphor used for the false teachers in 1Ti 4:2 implies there is no hope for them.
charge. Same as “commandment”, 1Ti 1:5.
commit. Greek. paratithemi. See Act 17:3.
which went before = going before. Compare 1Ti 4:14.
on. App-104. by, App-104.
war. Greek. strateuomai. See 1Co 9:7.
a = the.
warfare. Greek. strateia. Only here and 2Co 10:4. This clause exhibits the Figs, Paronomasia and Polyptoton, App-6. Greek. strateue strateian,
18 ff.] He now returns to the matter which he dropped in 1Ti 1:3, not indeed formally, so as to supply the apodosis there neglected, but virtually: the not being the one there hinted at, for that was one not given to Timotheus, but to be given by him. Nor is it that in 1Ti 1:5, for that is introduced as regarding a matter quite different from the present-viz. the aberrations of the false teachers, who do not here appear till the exhortation to Timotheus is over. What this command is, is plain from the following. This command I commit (as a deposit, to be faithfully guarded and kept: see ref. 2 Tim. and ch. 1Ti 6:20; Herod. vi. 86, beginning) to thee, son Timotheus (see on 1Ti 1:2), according to (in pursuance of: these words belong to , not as c., Flatt, al., to below) the former prophecies concerning thee (the directions, or, prophecies properly so called, of the Holy Spirit, which were spoken concerning Timotheus at his first conversion, or at his admission (cf. ch. 1Ti 4:14) into the ministry, by the in the church. We have instances of such prophetic intimations in Act 13:1-2,-(Act 11:28,)-Act 21:10-11. By such intimations, spoken perhaps by Silas, who was with him, and who was a (Act 15:32), may St. Paul have been first induced to take Timotheus to him as a companion, Act 16:3. All other meanings, which it has been attempted to give to , are unwarranted, and beside the purpose here: as e.g. the good hopes conceived of thee, Heinrichs. The belongs to , the preposition of motion being easily accounted for by the reference to a subject implied in the word), that thou mayest (purpose, and at the same time purport, of the : cf. note, 1Co 14:13; and Ellicott on Eph 1:16) war (, of the whole business of the employed soldier; not merely of fighting, properly so called) in them (not as De W. by virtue of them, but as Mack, Matth., and Wies., in, as clad with them, as if they were his defence and confirmation. This is not zu knstlich, as Huther, seeing that the whole expression is figurative) the good warfare (not, as Conyb., fight the good fight,-by which same words he renders the very different expression in 2Ti 4:7, . It is the whole campaign, not the fight alone, which is here spoken of), holding fast (more than having; but we must hardly, as Matth., carry on the metaphor and think of the shield of faith Eph 6:16, such continuation being rendered unlikely by the unmetaphorical character of ) faith (subjective: cf. below) and good conscience (cf. 1Ti 1:5),-which (latter, viz. good conscience-not, both) some having thrust from them (there is something in the word implying the violence of the act required, and the importunity of conscience, reluctant to be so extruded. So Bengel: recedit invita: semper dicit, noli me Idere) made shipwreck (the similitude is so common a one, that it is hardly necessary to extend the figure of a shipwreck beyond the word itself, nor to find in allusions to a rudder, anchor, &c. See examples in Wetst.) concerning (see reff., and cf. Act 19:25, , also Luk 10:40. The same is elsewhere expressed by ,-so Diog. Lart. v. 2. 14, ,-Plut. Symp. i. 4, . See other examples in Kypke: Winer, edn. 6, 49. i.: and Ellicotts note here) the faith (objective): of whom (genitive partitive: among whom) is Hymenus (there is a Hymenus mentioned 2Ti 2:17, in conjunction with Philetus, as an heretical teacher. There is no reason to distinguish him from this one: nor any difficulty occasioned (De W.) by the fact of his being here , and there mentioned as overthrowing the faith of many. He would probably go on with his evil teaching in spite of the Apostles sentence, which could carry weight with those only who were sound in the faith) and Alexander (in all probability identical with , 2Ti 4:14. There is nothing against it in what is there said of him (against De Wette). He appears there to have been an adversary of the Apostle, who had withstood and injured him at his late visit to Ephesus: but there is no reason why he should not have been still under this sentence at that time): whom I delivered over to Satan (there does not seem to be, as almost always taken for granted, any necessary assertion of excommunication properly so called. The delivering to Satan, as in 1Co 5:5, seems to have been an apostolic act, for the purpose of active punishment, in order to correction. It might or might not be accompanied by extrusion from the church: it appears to have been thus accompanied in 1Co 5:5 :-but the two must not be supposed identical. The upholders of such identity allege the fact of Satans empire being conceived as including all outside the church (Act 26:18 al.): but such expressions are too vague to be adduced as applying to a direct assertion like this. Satan, the adversary, is evidently regarded as the buffeter and tormentor, cf. 2Co 12:7-ever ready, unless his hand were held, to distress and afflict Gods people,-and ready therefore, when thus let loose by one having power over him, to execute punishment with all his malignity.
Observe that the verb is not perfect but aorist. He did this when he was last at Ephesus. On the ecclesiastical questions here involved, Ellic. has, as usual, some very useful references) that they may be disciplined (the subj. after the aorist indicates that the effect of what was done still abides; the sentence was not yet taken off, nor the at an end.
, as in reff., to instruct by punishment, to discipline) not to blaspheme (God, or Christ, whose holy name was brought to shame by these men associating it with unholy and unclean doctrines).
1Ti 1:18. , I commit to thee) to lay before thy hearers, 1Ti 1:3. [Its sum is indicated in 1Ti 1:5.-V. g.]-, that went before) When hands were laid on Timothy, the spirit of prophecy showed that many things of great importance were about to be entrusted to Timothy, ch. 1Ti 4:14.-) Divine predictions (Act 11:27), given forth regarding thee by many witnesses, ch. 1Ti 6:12.-, mightest war) A comparison taken from military concerns. In the following verse the comparison is from naval concerns.-) , viz. the predictions.- ) that good warfare.
1Ti 1:18
This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy,-The charge is to withstand and correct the errors of the false teachers. (Verse 3.) The sum of the charge was that men should put their whole trust in Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners, and who alone was able to lead them into everlasting life. The charge was the last heritage, the priceless treasure which Paul, feeling that for him the end was not far distant, would leave to Timothy. Anxious above measure for the churches in Asia, of which Ephesus was the center, foreseeing that the perils and dangers from within and without would rapidly close round the congregations, and placing his greatest earthly hope on the steadfastness and knowledge of Timothy, he charged him, by the memory of the prophetic utterances which years before had been made concerning him (Act 17:1-2), to hold fast the doctrine which taught men to put their trust in Jesus Christ.
according to the prophecies which led the way to thee,-This was done in accordance with the prophecies which had gone before concerning him. Timothy had a spiritual gift imparted to him by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. (4:14.) Paul was doubtless of this presbytery. (2Ti 1:6.)
that by them thou mayest war the good warfare;-According to these prophecies, and through the spiritual gifts bestowed when the prophecies were made, Timothy was to be enabled to war the good warfare for Christ. Paul seems to have been presenting his own sins, his trials, his joy in trials to Timothy, as a means of stirring him up to a true spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to God.
Chapter 4 Maintaining a Good Conscience
1Ti 1:18-20
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme, (vv. 18-20)
We come now to consider the very solemn charge which the apostle Paul gave to his son in the faith. We have already seen that Timothy had been left to help the church at Ephesus. There were special responsibilities resting upon him there, and it was important that he should be careful as to his own walk and testimony in order that he might be an example to others. So Paul says, This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare.
The Christian life is a conflict, particularly the life of a Christian minister. God desires all His servants to be good soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Timothy was therefore called to war a good warfare. It is very evident that at the time he was recommended to the work of the Lord by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium that a prayer meeting was held, and as the elder brethren laid hands upon him and commended him to the work of the gospel, in some special way the Lord gave him a gift which before he did not have. We get some intimation of that from Pauls words, According to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, and from 4:14 of this letter, Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Paul stresses or seeks to impress upon this younger preacher the importance of holding faith and a good conscience. Notice how these two things go together. It is impossible to hold the faith if one is not careful to maintain a good conscience before God. Here I understand faith to mean not merely confidence in God but also the truth of God, the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. Every little while we hear of someone who, in days gone by, was apparently a preacher of the Word giving up the faith that he once proclaimed. Men, who in early days preached the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, His atoning, sacrificial death and physical resurrection, no longer proclaim salvation through His blood or the need of the new birth. They have turned from the truth and accepted what some call the new liberal theological attitude. They have become reprobate concerning the faith.
And people wonder why it is that such men have apostatized from the truth of God which at one time they professed to love. If we were able to look into the lives of these men, we would find that somewhere along the line they failed to respond to the call of God and they put away a good conscience. Thus they lost the ability to properly appraise doctrinal principles, and eventually they found it a relief to give up the truth they once proclaimed. Men do not fall suddenly into grave error. Such failure is the result of permitting the conscience to become denied so that it no longer registers as it once did.
We may spend a little time profitably in looking at a number of Scripture verses in connection with conscience. What is conscience? The word thus translated is really a compound and literally means co-perception. It is that within us which enables us to distinguish between right and wrong. You remember the little girl who was asked, Do you know what conscience is? She replied, Oh, yes, it is something in me that always tells me when my little brother is doing wrong. That is the way a lot of people look at conscience-something indefinable within them by which they judge other people. Conscience is that which should tell us when we are right and wrong. It is knowing with oneself. Conscience was acquired by the fall in Eden. There was no need of a monitor to warn unfallen Adam about evil, or to tell him the difference between right and wrong, between sin and righteousness, for he knew only that which was good until he partook of the forbidden fruit. Then he knew good and evil.
Conscience needs to be instructed. When the apostle Paul was making his defense in Jerusalem, he said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day (Act 23:1). When he said that, he was reviewing his whole life before he was converted as well as afterward. Even before he knew Christ he sought to keep a good conscience. In other words, when he persecuted the Christians, he did it with a good conscience; when he tried to destroy the infant church, he acted conscientiously. But his conscience was not properly instructed. He thought it was the right thing to do because he believed that Christianity was an evil system. He believed that Christians were enemies of God and that he was acting in accordance with Scripture which commanded that false prophets be destroyed. He told Agrippa in Act 26:9-10, I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. So it is not enough for one to say he lives according to his conscience.
On the other hand, we should not go against conscience, for when we do that the conscience becomes defiled. Conscience needs to be instructed by the Word of God. In Rom 2:14-15 we find that thought carried out. We have seen that conscience is that which bears witness to what is believed to be right and wrong: For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another. Their conscience also bearing witness-that is true of even the most wicked people, for their own consciences warn them when they are about to do something which they know to be wrong, and conscience accuses or excuses them, according to the measure of light they have.
In Tit 1:15-16 we read of a defiled conscience: Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. These verses tell us of the condition of unconverted people who have turned away from that which they knew to be right morally. They knew how they ought to live, but they did the opposite. Consequently, the conscience became defiled, and a defiled conscience is no longer a safe guide.
In Heb 10:22 we read, Let us [the apostle is speaking to Christians] draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. An evil conscience is the result of persistence in sin. If men continue to defile themselves, the time will come when the conscience becomes thoroughly evil, and sin is no longer dreaded. When we come to Christ our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience. If men do not come to Him but insist on sinning against the light, refusing to heed the invitation which God has extended to all men to turn to Him in repentance and be saved, then eventually the conscience ceases to be active. It becomes seared. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their consciences seared with a hot iron (1Ti 4:1-2).
This is most solemn. Sin hardens. The conscience becomes like flesh that has been seared with a hot iron. It no longer responds. It can no longer be depended upon. In this state men may commit the most wicked and abominable things, and apparently there is not the least exercise of conscience. It is because they have gone so far in disobeying that which they knew to be right that they no longer have any concern whatsoever. They are given up to a seared conscience and a reprobate mind, and with that comes utter hardness of heart. But if men are willing to turn to God, if they realize they have an evil conscience and long for a pure and a cleansed conscience, they may obtain it through the work of the cross.
In Heb 9:9-10 the apostle is speaking of the various ordinances of the Levitical economy, Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. That is, the sacrifices offered on Jewish altars could not give a man a perfect conscience. They could not cleanse his defiled conscience, nor free him of an evil conscience. But the Lord Jesus Christ has offered Himself as an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin.
We read in verses 13-14 of the same chapter of Hebrews, For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanc-tifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Knowing that the sin question has been settled to Gods satisfaction the troubled soul can afford to rest in the knowledge of what Christ has done, and so the conscience no longer accuses but is purified by faith, because the blood of Christ, Gods Son, cleanses from every sin all those who come out from the darkness of nature into the light of Gods presence, in which they walk ever afterward. Now as believers we are responsible to walk before God with a good conscience.
Let us turn back to 1 Timothy, and notice a verse which we have considered already in these addresses: Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned (1:5). Then in this same chapter, the verse which we read at the beginning of our present study: This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. Both the apostles Paul and Peter stress the importance of maintaining a good and pure conscience. In 1Pe 3:16 we read, Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
Let me just add this word while on the subject of conscience. You and I are responsible to be careful not to offend needlessly the conscience of a weaker brother. Some people are very legal. They are exercised about matters with which stronger Christians are not concerned. And so those who perhaps fancy they are stronger are warned to be careful in this matter of conscience. I am my brothers keeper. I am not to allow myself to indulge in anything that will offend or stumble one who is weak. This is very important, as we may bring grievous injury upon the soul of another if we insist on our liberty in that which to him may seem a very grave offense.
Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. There were those who had turned from the great fundamental principles of Christianity and were living in ways displeasing to God. They had put away a good conscience. They knew what Gods Word required of them but went against their own consciences, and little by little they got to the place where they were no longer very much exercised. The conscience is like a rubber band. You pull it, and it snaps back. You pull it again, and it snaps back. But if you keep on pulling it, by-and-by it loses its elasticity and, finally, does not snap back at all. It is very dangerous to trifle with conscience, for if we act contrary to this inward monitor, we find the reaction becomes less and less, until eventually there is no reaction at all. Then we are likely to make shipwreck of the faith.
It is easy to lose the truth of God if we do not live in obedience to the Word. We do not hold the truth simply in the mind. We learn it through the heart and the conscience, and we hold it by keeping a conscience that is void of offense.
Paul here mentions two men who had turned from the truth and were propagating blasphemous error. They had put away a good conscience and so had turned from the truth of God. Paul says that he delivered them unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme. They were excommunicated from Christian fellowship and put back into the world that they might learn not to play fast-and-loose with that which God had revealed. John tells us that we-that is, Christians-are of God, and the whole world lies in the wicked one. We are warned, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world (1Jn 2:15). When we profess Christ we step out from the world and come into Christian fellowship. We are separated to the Lord, and we should maintain that separation constantly. These two men had professed to know and love Christ, but they had departed from the truth. The apostle commanded that they be put outside the fellowship of the church of God. In other words, thrown back into the world which at one time they professed to have forsaken. They were delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. Discipline should always be with a view to restoration. In 1Co 5:5 we read, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
So the important lesson for us all is the necessity of maintaining a good conscience before God. We should not become careless as to our behavior in regard to that which pleases the blessed One who loved us enough to shed His precious blood to redeem us from the bondage of our sins.
charge: 1Ti 1:11, 1Ti 1:12, 1Ti 4:14, 1Ti 6:13, 1Ti 6:14, 1Ti 6:20, 2Ti 2:2, 2Ti 4:1-3
son: 1Ti 1:2, Phi 2:22, 2Ti 1:2, 2Ti 2:1, Tit 1:4, Phm 1:10
according: 1Ti 4:4
mightest: 1Ti 6:12, 2Co 10:3, 2Co 10:4, Eph 6:12-18, 2Ti 2:3-5, 2Ti 4:7
Reciprocal: Exo 6:13 – General Lev 8:35 – keep Lev 21:24 – Aaron Num 3:25 – the charge Num 4:3 – enter Num 4:23 – to perform the service Num 8:24 – wait upon Num 18:5 – And ye 1Ki 2:1 – charged Rom 11:30 – obtained 1Co 9:7 – goeth 1Th 5:27 – I charge
A GOOD SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST
War a good warfare.
1Ti 1:18
Every true man is a soldier. His path is one of conflict. As Napoleon carried the nations of Europe at the point of the sword, so the Christian soldier must conquer the kingdom. In order to do this he must be a good soldier; and we shall notice some few things which are involved in this.
I. He chooses his profession.All true soldiers are volunteers. Pressed men do not as a rule make good soldiers; they seldom wear or fight well, and when men are forced into a religious profession from such low motives as slavish fear, or dread of God, they never bring much honour to Christ, and frequently turn back to the world, its praise and pleasures.
II. He exercises implicit faith in his Captain.This is the life-giving root of his character and service.
III. He exercises himself
(a) In faith.
(b) Meditation.
(c) Prayer.
(d) In the use of his weapons.
IV. He obeys orders.His religion or soldiership commences and continues in obeying, and his obedience is prompt, minute, and implicit; he obeys, asking no questions, and at all risks.
V. He is true to his Captain.
VI. He endures hardness.
VII. He fights to the last.
Illustrations
(1) It is said of a soldier of the French Guard who had been shot, that when the surgeon was cutting down, searching for the bullet, he said, An inch lower and you will find the Emperor. Whether this be fact or not, Christ has the supreme love of every soldier; the language of his heart is, Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside Thee?
(2) During the last war between France and Germany, it is reported that on one of the battlefields whole rows of men were found shot down, lying on their faces with their fingers on the trigger. So it is with all good soldiers of the Cross. They fight with and for Christ, even unto death, and finally all such shall receive the crown of life.
Our Guide amid the Denials of the Faith
1Ti 1:1-7, 1Ti 1:18-20
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. Will Christ find Faith on the earth? The question above has to do with the Second Coming of Christ, and the Second Coming of Christ has to do with the conditions which will conclude the age in which we are now living.
The Apostle Peter plainly told us, in the Spirit, of the advent of mockers in the last times. These mockers are men who deny the Faith, and particularly, who say, “Where is the promise of His Coming?”
The Book of Jude speaks of the advent of certain men who creep in unawares. These certain men deny the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. They utter hard speeches against Him.
These men are the complement of that which the Holy Spirit, in the Book of Thessalonians, calls “the falling away”-a falling away that is marked by the apostasy from the Faith.
Along this line, there is an Old Testament Scripture which speaks of “a famine for the Word of God.”
We believe that the day of apostasy is here. The denials of the Faith have come as a great stream overflowing its banks. Men are not ashamed to stand in the pulpit dedicated to the Gospel of God concerning His Son, while they defame everything vital to that Gospel.
2. The present-day apostasy described. The men who deny the Faith are wolves, dressed in sheep’s clothing, professing to know God, they deny Him.
(1) The apostasy began by discounting the miracles. As we see it, the fad and fancy of evolution was no more than a strategic stroke of unbelieving and apostate men, intent upon side-stepping a miracle-working God.
If miracles were to be done away, the first miracle of creation had to be set aside. In order to defame that miracle, there must be some method by which the advent of man upon the earth might be established.
Skeptical minds were ready to promulgate a fable as a fact, a dream as a dogma, rather than to accept the plain and only reasonable statement of man’s advent to being-even the statement of the Divine fiat of creation as set forth in the Word of God.
(2) The apostasy continued by denying the need of the atonement. Salvation by the Blood of the Son of God was unpalatable to aesthetic minds. They wanted to be saved by the works of their own hands. They, like Cain, were willing to pass compliments with God; but they were unwilling, like Abel, to put their faith in a sacrificial offering.
(3) The apostasy deepened in the denial of the Deity of Christ. Jesus Christ, to the apostate, became no more than a man applauded for his virtues. He was only revered as a man who lived ahead of His time.
The fact of Christ’s Virgin Birth; the fact that He came down from the Father and came into the world; the fact that He was God, manifest in flesh, was utterly repugnant to apostates. They were willing to place Christ on a pedestal of fame along with Elias, Jeremias, or one of the Prophets, but they were unwilling to acclaim Him Son of God and God the Son.
I. SWERVING FROM THE FAITH (1Ti 1:3-7)
1. Fads, fables, and fanaticisms. Our text says that we are not to give heed to “fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith.” We believe that a safe rule for saints is to utterly ignore religious discussions which are not based upon the faith once delivered. It is so easy to step aside into the mists and labyrinths of speculation along spiritual lines. We must never become erratic. We must never become preachers of our own dreams. Even in our statements of doctrine, we must seek always to us Scriptural terminologies.
Christ said, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.”
2. Teachers, ignorant of the Faith. Verse seven tells us that some, desiring to be teachers of the Law; understand neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
We need to study to show ourselves approved of God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
The Book of Romans, in chapter one, speaks of some who profess themselves to be wise, but are fools. While we would class none of you with them, yet we want you to beware lest you speak of those things of which you know not. We do not believe that an intellectual grasp of Truth is all that is needed with the Christian. We need to know experimentally, the things of God.
3. Turning aside to vain jangling. Whenever we are unsettled in the faith, and are babes in knowledge of God and His Word, we will fall an easy prey to every false wind of doctrine that may blow.
Those who swerve from the Faith are those, usually, who have never been rooted and grounded in the Faith. Their faith was never an “unfeigned Faith,” grounded in a pure heart, and a good conscience.
When the Faith is left and a professor swerves from the plain message of God, he will be turned aside unto vain jangling. There is a great deal of bickering and strife in religious circles; there are sects and divisions almost innumerable; and all of these because people are not established in the Word of God. When Christians follow men, and creeds, and sects, instead of a plain and positive “thus saith the Lord,” they are bound to swerve from the Faith.
II. MAKING SHIPWRECK OF THE FAITH (1Ti 1:18-20)
1. The marks of a good warfare. Paul writes to Timothy, “That thou * * mightest war a good warfare.” Timothy had known the Scriptures from his childhood. He had heard the Faith from his mother Eunice, and his grandmother Lois. That Faith was an unfeigned Faith. Timothy had been led to Christ through the ministry of Paul. We know this, because Paul wrote unto him, calling him “My own son in the Faith.”
When the Apostle wanted a young man to travel with him he chose the young man Timothy. He chose him because, that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures.
What then are the marks of a good warfare? They are certainly a warfare in the Truth-holding the Faith, with a good conscience.
2. The marks of shipwreck. Verse nineteen reads, “Holding faith, * * which some having put away concerning Faith have made shipwreck.” We have before us a graphic scene. It is the old ship of Faith sailing over life’s sea. Not a ship of “faith in Christ,” but the ship of the “Faith of Christ.” The ship is a wreck. It is engulfed by the wild waves and about to sink. Here is a picture of what we have before us today. The old-time message of the Cross, and the old-time confession of the Faith has, in many instances, suffered shipwreck.
The Apostle Paul, in the close of verse twenty, speaks of the men who put away the Faith, and who make shipwreck, as blasphemers. This is a serious charge, and yet it is true.
3, The results of making shipwreck. The Spirit, through Paul, definitely mentions two men, Hymenaeus and Alexander who put away the faith; and then he says, “I have delivered” them “unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
It is no light matter to depart from the Faith of God and to preach another message than that which God has delivered. Such men are under a curse. As we have said once, we say again, “If any man preach any other gospel * * let him be accursed.”
It is important to know the Truth, and to live it, and to preach it. If we hope to receive from God a “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” we must stand unfailingly for the Faith.
The idea that we may live as we list, preach what we please, and believe what we choose, and, withal, be well pleasing unto God, is sheer folly.
III. DEPARTING FROM THE FAITH (1Ti 4:1)
1. The pillar and ground of the Truth. By referring to chapter three, we find that the Church of the Living God is described as the pillar and ground of the Truth. The pillar is that which supports the roof. The ground is the firm foundation, the undergirding, upon which the whole superstructure rests.
When Peter said to Jesus, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” the Lord immediately replied, “Upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
In Matthew seven, Christ said, “Whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, * * and it fell not.”
2. The perils of the last days. Young people need not become alarmed because so many have departed from the Faith. To be fore-warned, should suffice us to be forearmed. The Spirit described for us the very apostasy which surrounds the church today. They who know their books know that nothing has happened which has upset the Faith once delivered to the saints. They who have departed from the Faith are men who know not God in any vital and spiritual sense. Our text even says that they speak lies in hypocrisy. If they contend that they are conscientious in what they say, God quickly says that their conscience is seared with a hot iron.
It is still true that great men are not always wise; neither do the aged understand judgment. It is still true that the natural mind receiveth not the things of God. Men by scholarship cannot know God.
God has even said of the men who depart from the faith, that they are giving heed to the doctrines of demons. We should think such a charge would cause present-day modernists to stop and consider. They, indeed, are swayed by a power of which they may be unaware. They are carried on by winds of doctrine which sweep them from their moorings; yet, they may not realize their lot.
3. Nourished up in the Faith. We are sure that all who follow us, desire to be good ministers of Jesus Christ. If they do, they will put the brethren in remembrance of the apostasy which is now upon us. They will do more. They will nourish themselves up in the words of faith and of good doctrine. They will also refuse profane and old wives’ fables.
The great need of the churches today is a testimony that rings true to the Faith. God give us many young men who will go forth in love and in courage, proclaiming the whole counsel of God.
IV. DENYING THE FAITH (1Ti 5:8; 1Ti 5:15; 1Ti 5:17)
1. He who denies the Faith of practical Christianity. The faith for which we are to contend includes the great doctrines of Grace. It asserts the Deity of Christ; it acclaims the Virgin Birth; it emphasizes the Substitutionary Suffering of Christ; it unswervingly advocates the bodily Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord: it faithfully teaches the personal Return of the Lord Jesus.
There is another viewpoint, however, in upholding the Faith; that is the practical side of the Faith. It is the Faith, in action; the Faith, in life. Our verse tells us “If any man provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the Faith, and is worse than an infidel.”
We need men who not only preach the Faith, but who live it. The doctrine must he glorified, adorned, by our walk, and work, and way.
2. He who denies the Faith turns aside after Satan. This is the message of verse fifteen. Low standards of living, as well as low standards of doctrine may find their source in Satan himself. He is the one who, in the Garden of Eden, with the self-same breath sought to instil doubt of God’s Word on the one hand, and to inculcate the spirit of disobedience to God, on the other hand. How many there are today whom Satan hath blinded, lest the light of the glorious Gospel should shine in upon them!
3. He who holds the Faith is worthy of double honor. In 1Ti 1:17 the emphasis is placed upon those who toil in the Word of God and in the teaching of Truth.
If we had dropped into any of the services conducted by the Apostle Paul we would have found him standing true to the Faith, and proclaiming it with all longsuffering and doctrine. Paul knew how to reason out of the Scriptures. He knew how to open them up in such a way as to confound the adversaries. He never sounded an uncertain note. He never placed a question mark around any “Thus saith the Lord.” He believed all things that were written in Moses and in the Prophets; and, what he believed, he proclaimed.
Men who hold down the truth, or keep back the whole counsel of God, are worthy of double condemnation. Men who serve for human plaudits, and not for Divine approval are to be pitied.
There is a little verse that says, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” God grant that at this hour a great host of stalwart sons may stand forth and wield the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, with unswerving loyalty.
V. ERRING FROM THE FAITH (1Ti 6:10-12; 1Ti 6:20-21)
We have found five distinct statements concerning the denials of the faith in First Timothy. (1) Swerving from the Faith. (2) Making shipwreck of the Faith. (3) Departing from the Faith. (4) Denying the Faith. (5) Erring from the Faith.
Just now we want to discuss the fifth statement.
1. He who errs from the Faith. Verses nine and ten tell us of the rich who fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. These men love money and covet after it. To such the Holy Spirit writes, “They have erred from the Faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Once again we behold that the Faith once delivered, touches the practical walk of the believer.
There is a verse in the Epistle of James which says, “Have not the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, with respect of persons.”
Faith, that is doctrine, touches the very vital walk and life of the inner man. Faith is not to be forever located in the head; it should lodge in the heart, and become the lord of the life.
2. He who fights the good fight of Faith. The Apostle Paul was not slow to urge the man of God to fight this good fight. Here is a contest, which is worthy of the best that is in any man. How is this fight summed up? Here it is, just as God places it: “Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” This is the good fight of Faith. It is to this we are called. It is in behalf of this that we have confessed a good confession.
3. The final warning. “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.”
(1) There is the positive warning to keep that which is committed. In another chapter we are told that Paul knew Him, to whom he had committed his soul, and he knew that He would keep it. God is true to His tryst. Now, however, Timothy is urged to keep that which is committed to him. What is committed? It is the “Faith” of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(2) There is a negative warning, to avoid babblings and the oppositions of science, falsely so-called. Of these the Spirit writes to Timothy that some, having professed these things, have erred concerning the faith. How important is this last warning word. Science is all right when it deals with facts. Human knowledge is all right when it lies in the realm of truth; but, when it goes out of its realm and puts itself in opposition to truth, it places itself along with profane and vain babblings.
AN ILLUSTRATION
FIRE! FIRE!
“When a fire is kindled in a city we do not say coldly, ‘Yonder is a great fire, I pray God it do no harm.’ In times of public defection we are not to read tame lectures of contemplative divinity, or fight with ghosts and antiquated errors, but to oppose with all earnestness the growing evils of the world, whatever it may cost us.” “If men valued truth as they do their goods and their houses they would not regard error with such cool contentment. The cant of the present day cries, ‘Charity, Charity.’ As if it were not the truest charity to grow indignant with that which ruins souls. It is not uncharitable to warn men against poisonous adulterations of their food, or invasions of their rights; and surely it cannot be more uncharitable to put them upon their guard against that which will poison or rob their souls. Lukewarmness of love to truth is the real evil to be deprecated in these times. We have new doctrines among us, full of practical mischief, and against these there is need to raise an earnest outcry lest they gain so great a head that both Church and state should be set on fire.
“Lord, arouse Thy watchmen, and bid them arouse all Thy saints, for the times are full of danger.”
1Ti 1:18. This charge refers to the one recorded in verses 3 and 5. The term son is explained by the comments on verse 2. Prophecies is from PROPHETEIA. Thayer does not define the word at this passage, but he does for chapter 4:14 where the same Greek word is used “on” Timothy, which means concerning him. His explanation of the word for that passage is as follows: “Snecifically of the prognostigation [prediction] of those achievements which one sets anart to teach the Gospel will accomplish for the kingdom of Christ.” Robinson explains the word at our verse as fol lows: “‘Refers to prophetic declarations respecting the labors and success of Timothy, made by those having the gift of prophecy, on occasion of his being sent forth.” This verse means as if Paul said, “it was predicted at the time of your appointment to the work, that you would be able to ‘war a good warfare,’ now I repeat my charge already made, that you make good the prediction.”
1Ti 1:18. Here, in writing or dictating, there must have been a pause. After the ecstasy of praise is over, the writer returns to the charge or commandment from which he had diverged, and which he now solemnly committed to Timothy as a trust for the use of which he was responsible (2Ti 1:15).
According to the prophecies that went before on thee. The words point to some unrecorded event in the life of Timothy. At Lystra, probably on St. Pauls second visit, from the lips of Silas or other prophets, had come the intimation that he was called to the work of an evangelist (comp. Act 13:2), and this had been followed by the laying on of the hands of the apostle and of the elders of the Church (1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6).
By them mightest war a good warfare. Better the good warfare (as in 2Ti 4:7, the good fight), the campaign of truth against falsehood, of good against evil, and in them, as though he were to think of them, and of the spiritual gifts that followed on them, as weapons and resources.
What charge? To stay at Ephesus, say some, for the benefit of the church there: to charge the false teachers not to give heed to fables, say others; to keep the doctrine committed to him by St. Paul, as a faithful minister and soldier of Jesus Christ, against all opposition: these were the charges given.
Next St. Paul encourages Timothy to go on in the course of his ministry with courage and faithfulness, according as it had been foretold or prophesied he should do.
Here note, That amongst the gifts of prophecy, which were found in the apostle’s time, and the discerning of spirits, this was one, to foretell and choose out persons meet and fit to do God service in the ministry. Timothy was thus chosen by prophecy, that is, by the direction of the Spirit of prophecy, and therefore the apostle bids him, as it had been foretold he should be a faithful minister, to approve himself to be such: According to the prophecies which went before on thee, war a good warfare.
Learn hence, That young ministers ought to take heed, that what hopes, expectations, and good opinions others have of them, and what prayers, promises, and engagements have been made for them, may not be made void, but made good by them, in the future course of their ministry.
Renewing the Charge to a Young Preacher
Next, the inspired apostle renews the charge he gave Timothy in verse 3. Paul wrote to this young man he loved as a son and committed to him, as one gives money to a bank, the preaching of the truth in the face of many opponents. We do not know what the prophesies concerning Timothy were, but they likely resembled those made concerning Barnabas and Paul ( Act 13:1-3 ). The seriousness of the Christian’s task can be seen in the numerous references to a war between Satan’s forces and God’s ( 1Ti 1:18 ; 2Co 10:3-5 ; Eph 6:10-17 ).
Once we have been trained in the faith, we should be able to follow our conscience. Paul says some failed to do as their conscience, which was directed by God’s truth, dictated and thus made a shipwreck of their faith. Spiritual death is the ultimate end of such unless they can be brought to repentance ( 2Ti 2:24-26 ).
Paul gave two examples of Christians whose spiritual lives were in ruins. He said he had delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander to Satan, which reminds us of 1Co 5:1-5 . The purpose of delivering one to Satan is to save them in the day of judgment. In this case, these two had to learn not to speak against God and the truth. Hymenaeus may be the man who said the resurrection was already past ( 1Ti 1:19-20 ; 2Ti 2:17-18 ).
1Ti 1:18-20. This charge To the Judaizers not to teach differently, or this office of the ministry; I commit unto thee That thou mayest deliver it to the church; according to Or, being encouraged by; the prophecies which went before on thee He refers to some special revelations concerning Timothy, that he should be taken into the ministry, and be eminently useful therein; probably these were uttered when he was first received as an evangelist, (see 1Ti 4:14,) and that by many persons, 1Ti 6:12. That being assured by them that thy calling is from God, and that his grace and blessing will accompany thee, thou mightest war a good warfare Mightest execute thy office with courage, resolution, and persevering diligence, notwithstanding all opposition and discouragements whatever. Holding fast a true and lively faith In the gospel and its divine Author; and a good conscience That is, walking uprightly before God and man, according to the directions of an enlightened and renewed mind; which Namely, a good conscience; some , having thrust away, or rejected. It departs unwillingly, says Bengelius, it always says; Do not hurt me; and they who retain this, do not easily make shipwreck of their faith. Indeed, none can make shipwreck of faith who never had faith. The persons here spoken of, therefore, were once true believers; yet they fell, not only foully, but finally. For ships once wrecked cannot be afterward saved. In this metaphorical passage the apostle insinuates that a good conscience is the pilot, who must guide us in our voyage through the stormy sea of this life into the harbour of heaven. Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander Two of the corrupt teachers at Ephesus, whom Timothy was left to oppose; whom I have delivered unto Satan See on 1Co 5:5; that they may learn not to blaspheme That by what they suffer they may be, in some measure, restrained from speaking evil of the truths of God. The apostles delivered obstinate offenders to Satan, not only for their own reformation, but to strike terror on others. If the offender, in consequence of this punishment, was afflicted with some bodily disease, it probably was removed on his repentance, or after a time. And even though it continued, some of the offenders may have been so obstinate in their wicked courses, that they did not amend. This seems to have been the case with the two persons here named; for notwithstanding the apostle, after his departure, punished them by delivering them to Satan, they persevered in spreading their erroneous doctrines, 2Ti 2:17; 2Ti 4:14. At what time the apostle delivered these persons to Satan does not appear; but from his informing Timothy of it as a thing he did not know, it may be conjectured that the apostle did it after he left Ephesus, and was come into Macedonia, probably immediately before he wrote this epistle. And as it was done without the knowledge or concurrence of the church at Ephesus, it was not the censure called excommunication, but an exercise of miraculous power, which was peculiar to him as an apostle. Macknight.
1Ti 1:18-20. The Charge Renewed.Paul now returns to the charge committed to Timothy (1Ti 1:3-5) from which he has been twice diverted. That charge, once given orally, has failed to achieve its end. He now recommits it to him in writing, reminding him of its consonance with the Divine promptings which pointed him out (mg.) for the ministry. Pauls purpose is that Timothy may fulfil his trust, rich in those possessions deliberate rejection of which results in shipwreck in the faith. Of this Hymenus and Alexander are examples, whom Paul excommunicated, in the hope of their recovery.
1Ti 1:18. This charge: the general charge of the letter (to deal with the situation in Asia), explained in detail in 1Ti 2:1 ff. This is clear from therefore in 1Ti 2:1.prophecies: these also accompanied Timothys ordination (1Ti 4:14).which: i.e. good conscience.the faith: 1Ti 1:10*.
1Ti 1:20. Hymenus: for his error cf. 2Ti 2:17 f.Alexander: a common name. There is no proof of identity with any of the Alexanders of Act 19:33, Mar 15:21, 2Ti 4:14.delivered, etc.: probably excommunication, with infliction of bodily disease; cf. 1Co 5:5*, p. 649. A remedial, not a vindictive, act: Deissmann (Light from Ancient East, p. 203) connects it with the ancient custom of execration.
Verse 18
The prophecies which went before on thee. This expression seems to refer to certain divine indications by which the future fidelity and success of Timothy’s ministry were made known to the church.
CHAPTER 9
Many years ago, in the years of yore, a young man and his bride flew to the beautiful land of Hawaii where they were to live for a time while the man worked for a small television repair shop in a little community called Waiane on the west side of Oahu.
There in that garden spot of the world they took up residence in the home of the woman’s brother – wife and four children. One evening talk turned to spiritual things and the young mans interest was stirred. Shortly after the two couples started attending a small Baptist church in a neighboring town. The pastor of the church was just leaving for the summer to return to the mainland on furlough.
To take the pastors place there was a young Junior from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his new wife had come for the summer to minister to the little church.
Through the summer the young man listened with great interest to the young pastor – he not only listened to the message but wondered of the messenger. He wondered if he might one day be a messenger as well.
The summer passed very quickly and the young seminarian and his wife left Hawaii to return to Dallas to finish his final year of training.
The young man that had wondered about being a messenger was indeed called to prepare for the ministry. Off to Bible college went he and his wife and young daughter.
In his second year of college there was a new president installed at his college. The new president had taught at Dallas Seminary. The young man decided to see if the president had known this seminarian that had so impacted his life.
The president certainly did know the young seminarian but was very quiet and saddened to report to the young man that the seminarian had completely rejected the teaching he had received at the Seminary and had enrolled in the most liberal seminary in the country.
The president did not go into great detail, but related that the seminarian had turned his back on the truth of the Word and was rejecting all sound doctrine. There had been several of the professors at Dallas that had worked with the man to see if they could help him understand, but he rejected all comers.
The young man ran across other Dallas people from time to time over the years and he would ask of the seminarian and all reports were very sad as to the outcome of that life that had started so eagerly to serve God, but that had turned to serve man’s philosophy.
The passage before us is one of great encouragement, while also it is one of great discouragement. It relates to a good minister, while it also relates to bad ministers.
I. DISCIPLINE
1Ti 1:18. This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
I think one of the obvious items of interest here is the great encouragement this statement must have been for Timothy. Paul must have held Timothy in high regard and he must have wanted him to succeed!
Ray Stedman mentions of such a time in his life: “I will never forget an incident in my own ministry when I was a young man. I was still a student at Dallas Seminary, but was spending my summers in Pasadena. I worked one summer as a youth minister in a church there, when Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the President and founder of Dallas Seminary, a great man of God, a great man of faith, came into town. He was gracious enough to spend an afternoon with my wife and me.
“I took Dr. Chafer to the church where I was working and showed him around the very impressive, beautiful building. The congregation at this time did not have a pastor, though they were seeking one, so Dr. Chafer said to me, “Do you think you might end up here in this church?” I said, “I don’t know. Who knows what God will do? I don’t have any particular plans for that.” “I don’t know either,” he said, “but it would be a good place for you because I believe God is going to give you a great ministry.”” (From a message on I Timothy by Ray Stedman)
There were times in my college days that I would have really appreciated some encouragement from someone like that. The struggles were great and there seemed to be absolutely no encouragement for us from outside.
The prophecies that are mentioned are not the Old Testament type prophecy that we might think of. The Old Testament prophet was not only one that could reveal future things which God had revealed to them, but they also held an office similar to the priest, though their responsibilities and ministries were much different – they were both officially spokesmen between God and man.
This Old Testament prophet is not what we have in the New Testament. The New Testament prophet was not an official office but one of the gifts of the Spirit, which was used for giving of revelation to the early church.
If you will recall in the book of Acts there were some prophets mentioned. These were similar to the Old Testament prophet in that there was a portion of revelation related to them, however they weren’t the Official prophet or office of the Old times.
Let us take a look at these for a few moments. Act 21:10-11 “And as we tarried [there] many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. 11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver [him] into the hands of the Gentiles.”
Act 21:8 mentions Philip and his four daughters that were involved in prophecy.
1Co 14:29 ff mentions the proper actions of the prophet in the assembly. This was when there was still revelation being given by the Spirit to the early church.
These terms all imply the revelation via the Holy Spirit for the growing church.
There is also a thought of prophecy today that is the type of prophecy that is based on facts and observation and knowledge of human nature. It isn’t a foretelling, but a reasoned out educated estimate of what the future might hold.
By looking at a man and knowing the man you can predict to a point what he is capable of and then by looking at his surroundings and direction you might also give some idea as to what he might be able to accomplish in life. Any prophecy in our time should, in my opinion, be understood in this light.
I would assume that the prophecies which Paul mentions here were of the New Testament kind. I would also assume that they may have been given at the time when Timothy was set apart to the ministry. This is mentioned in 2Ti 1:6 “Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.” Also 1Ti 4:14 “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.”
There seems to be a special gifting and foretelling in Timothy’s case.
MacArthur contrasts the call of Timothy, through prophecy, to the call of ministers today via the inner working of the Spirit. I think it is of interest.
“Paul’s command to Timothy was not his own, but was confirmed by God through the ministry of some prophets.
“Pastors and elders are no longer called to the ministry in such a dramatic fashion. As we will see in 1Ti 3:1, the call to ministry rises from inside through desire, rather than outside from revelation. That desire is then to be confirmed by the church. The church, by observing a man’s life and service, can confirm whether he gives evidence of being called by God to the ministry.” THE MACARTHUR NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY I TIMOTHY; John MacArthur; Moody Press; Chicago; 1995; P 43
Not only did Paul realize Timothy’s call, but he also understood Timothy’s situation. Paul saw and knew that Timothy was in a war! He was encouraging him in this warfare.
We too are in warfare, though we seldom see it or acknowledge it in the United States today. The Devil is really not pushing believers here for we are already sidetracked, and of no immediate threat to his work.
We are in a war to control our lives.
We are in a war to control the forces of evil.
We are in a war to bring the church back to what it ought to be.
Anytime we confess sin we are gaining control of our lives for the lord.
Anytime we speak of the word and proclaim it we are taking a little control for the Lord.
This war is spiritual: 2Co 10:4, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;”
This war is invisible: Eph 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
The spiritual warfare is very real and is in every facet of our life. I used to teach a spiritual warfare class that was keyed to missionaries. It was a semester long and I had plenty of material to cover the 32, 50-minute classes.
You will find also that this is a very neglected field of Christian authors. When I was setting up the class on warfare, I found that there were no books available on the subject from conservative authors. Recently I have seen a couple on the market, but I don’t know who or what the authors are like.
It also seems that within these prophecies were some comments that would show that God was going to see to it that Timothy would be victorious in his warfare for the Lord.
It would be of interest to know how he faired in the warfare that followed at Ephesus and the rest of his life – we know that it was good!
Warfare is not an uncommon idea in Paul’s writings. He uses the concept in Eph 6:10-17; 1Co 9:7 2Co 10:4. He even speaks of our armor – he seriously sees the work of the minister and of believers to be warfare.
We move now from encouragement and victory to discouragement and defeat in the lives of others.
II DISCIPLINE LACKING
1:18 {15} This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by {l} them mightest war a good warfare;
(15) The conclusion of both the former fatherly admonitions, that is, that Timothy striving bravely against all stops, being called to the ministry according to many prophecies which went before of him, should both maintain the doctrine which he had received, and keep also a good conscience.
(l) By the help of them.
2. A negative warning 1:18-20
Paul next balanced his positive encouragement based on God’s dealings with himself (1Ti 1:12-17) with a negative warning based on God’s dealings with two unfaithful ministers. He did this to challenge Timothy further to remain faithful to God as he discharged his duties. His thought returned to what he had written in 1Ti 1:3-7. Towner saw this whole section (1Ti 1:3-20) as loosely chiastic. [Note: Towner, The Letters . . ., pp. 104-5.]
The command to which Paul referred here is the one contained in 1Ti 1:3-4. He now returned to the subject that he began there. Sometime in the past someone had given prophecies concerning Timothy’s effectiveness as a servant of Christ (1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6; cf. Act 13:2). We have no certain record of who gave them, when, or where, unless it was at Timothy’s ordination (1Ti 4:14), but Paul referred to them here to motivate Timothy to carry on. [Note: Mounce, pp. 70-72, wrote an excursus on prophecies about Timothy.] Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus (1Ti 1:3), but more importantly the Holy Spirit had placed him there.
"Here the believer is cast in the role of a soldier who is ordered out into battle. The weapons of this soldier, however, are not clever argumentation or inescapable logic, things that we might think best suited to debates with false teachers. On the contrary, Timothy is to avoid debates (2Ti 2:23-25). Nor is the soldier’s objective the destruction of his opponent. Appropriate strategy includes instructing, correcting erroneous views and urging repentance (see 2Th 3:14-15). The minister’s weapons for this fight are the gospel and godly concern for the spiritual condition of the opponent. The goal is to protect the faith of those whom the false teachers seek to influence and, if possible, to win back those who have strayed (1Ti 1:5). Only the gospel is sufficient for such work, as Paul has just taken great care to illustrate (1Ti 1:11-16)." [Note: Towner, 1-2 Timothy . . ., p. 58.]
As Timothy fought the good fight, he should continue to trust God and maintain a good conscience (cf. 2Ti 1:3). A conscience, like a computer, programmed with the will of God, can be a great asset to the Christian soldier. However if one violates his or her conscience so programmed, that person ignores a warning signal. The results can be disastrous. The conscience is the umpire of the soul. Someone has described it as the capacity to feel guilt. One’s conscience enables him or her to feel dishonor, shame, and guilt.
"In the conflict which we wage outwardly against the enemy, our chief concern is with the inner state and disposition of the heart." [Note: J. J. Van Oosterzee, "The Two Epistles of Paul to Timothy," in Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, edited by J. P. Lange, 11:25.]
"One man said of his hypocritical pastor, ’He is such a good preacher, he should never get out of the pulpit; but he is such a poor Christian, he should never get into the pulpit!" [Note: Wiersbe, 2:213.]
Chapter 6
THE PROPHECIES ON TIMOTHY-THE PROPHETS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, AN EXCEPTIONAL INSTRUMENT OF EDIFICATION.- 1Ti 1:18-20
IN this section St. Paul returns from the subject of the false teachers against whom Timothy has to contend (1Ti 1:3-11), and the contrast to their teaching exhibited by the Gospel in the Apostles own case (1Ti 1:12-17), to the main purpose of the letter, viz., the instructions to be given to Timothy for the due performance of his difficult duties as overseer of the Church of Ephesus. The section contains two subjects of special interest, each of which requires consideration; -the prophecies respecting Timothy and the punishment of Hymenaeus and Alexander.
I. “This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee.” As the margin of the R.V. points out, this last phrase might also be read “according to the prophecies which led the way to thee,” for the Greek may mean either. The question is, whether St. Paul is referring to certain prophecies which “led the way to” Timothy, i.e., which designated him as specially suited for the ministry, and led to his ordination by St. Paul and the presbyters; or whether he is referring to certain prophecies which were uttered over Timothy ( ) either at the time of his conversion or of his admission to the ministry. Both the A.V. and the R.V. give the preference to the latter rendering, which (without excluding such a view) does not commit us to the opinion that St. Paul was in any sense led to Timothy by these prophecies, a thought which is not clearly intimated in the original. All that we are certain of is, that long before the writing of this letter prophecies of which Timothy was the object were uttered over him, and that they were of such a nature as to be an incentive and support to him in his ministry.
But if we look on to the fourteenth verse of the fourth chapter in this Epistle (1Ti 4:14) and to the sixth of the first chapter in the Second (2Ti 1:6), we shall not have much doubt when these prophecies were uttered. There we read, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery!” and “For which cause I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in, thee through the laying on of my hands.” Must we not believe that these two passages and the passage before us all refer to the same occasion-the same crisis in Timothys life? In all three of them St. Paul appeals to the spiritual gift that was bestowed upon his disciple “by means of prophecy” and “by means of the laying on of hands.” The same preposition and case ( with the genitive) is used in each case. Clearly, then, we are to understand that the prophesying and the laying on of hands accompanied one another. Here only the prophesying is mentioned. In chapter 4 the prophesying, accompanied by the imposition of the presbyters hands, is the means by which the grace is conferred. In the Second Epistle only the laying on of the Apostles hands is mentioned, and it is spoken of as the means by which the grace is conferred. Therefore, although the present passage by itself leaves the question open, yet when we take the other two into consideration along with it, we may safely neglect the possibility of prophecies which led the way to the ordination of Timothy, and understand the Apostle as referring to those sacred utterances which were a marked element in his disciples ordination and formed a prelude and earnest of his ministry. These sacred utterances indicated a Divine commission and Divine approbation publicly expressed respecting the choice of Timothy for this special work. They were also a means of grace; for by means of them a spiritual blessing was bestowed upon the young minister. In alluding to them here, therefore, St. Paul reminds him who it was by whom he was really chosen and ordained. It is as if he said, “We laid our hands upon you; but it was no ordinary election made by human votes. It was God who elected you; God who gave you your commission, and with it the power to fulfill it. Beware, therefore, of disgracing His appointment and of neglecting or abusing His gift.”
The voice of prophecy, therefore, either pointed out Timothy as a chosen vessel for the ministry, or publicly ratified the choice which had already been made by St. Paul and others. But by whom was this voice of prophecy uttered? By a special order of prophets? Or by St. Paul and the presbyters specially inspired to act as such? The answer to this question involves some consideration of the office, or rather function, of a prophet, especially in the New Testament.
The word “prophet” is frequently understood in far too limited a sense. It is commonly restricted to the one function of predicting the future. But, if we may venture to coin words in order to bring out points of differences, there are three main ideas involved in the title “prophet.”
(1) A foreteller; one who speaks for or instead of another, especially one who speaks for or in the name of God; a Divine messenger, ambassador, interpreter, or spokesman.
(2) A forth-teller; one who has a special message to deliver forth to the world; a proclaimer, harbinger, or herald.
(3) A fore-teller; one who tells beforehand what is coming; a predictor of future events.
To be the bearer or interpreter of a Divine message is the fundamental conception of the prophet in classical Greek; and to a large extent this conception prevails in both the Old and the New Testament. To be in immediate intercourse with Jehovah, and to be His spokesman to Israel, was what the Hebrews understood by the gift of prophecy. It was by no means necessary that the Divine communication which the prophet had to make known to the people should relate to the future. It might be a denunciation of past sins, or an exhortation respecting present conduct, quite as naturally as a prediction of what was coming. And in the Acts and Pauline Epistles the idea of a prophet remains much the same. He is one to whom has been granted special insight into Gods counsels, and who communicates these mysteries to others. Both in the Jewish and primitive Christian dispensations, the prophets are the means of communication between God and His Church. Eight persons are mentioned by name in the Acts of the Apostles as exercising this gift of prophecy: Agabus, Barnabas, Symeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, Judas, Silas, and St. Paul himself. On certain occasions the Divine communication made to them by the Spirit included a knowledge of the future; as when Agabus foretold the great famine {Act 11:28} and the imprisonment of St. Paul, {Act 21:11} and. when St. Paul told that the Holy Spirit testified to him in every city, that bonds and afflictions awaited him at Jerusalem. {Act 20:23} But this is the exception rather than the rule. It is in their character of prophets that Judas and Silas exhort and confirm the brethren. And, what is of special interest in reference to the prophecies uttered over Timothy, we find a group of prophets having special influence in the selection and ordination of Apostolic evangelists. “And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away”. {Act 13:2-3}
We see, therefore, that these New Testament prophets were not a regularly constituted order, like apostles, with whom they are joined both in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, {1Co 12:28} and in that to the Ephesians. {Eph 4:11} Yet they have this in common with apostles, that the work of both lies rather in founding Churches than in governing them. They have to convert and edify rather than to rule. They might or might not be apostles or presbyters as well as prophets; but as prophets they were men or women (such as the daughters of Philip) on whom a special gift of the Holy Spirit had been conferred: and this gift enabled them to understand and expound Divine mysteries with inspired authority, and at times also to foretell the future.
So long as we bear these characteristics in mind, it matters little how we answer the question as to who it was that uttered the prophecies over Timothy at the time of his ordination. It may have been St. Paul and the presbyters who laid their hands upon him, and who on this occasion, at any rate, were endowed with the spirit of prophecy. Or it may have been that besides the presbyters there were prophets also present, who, at this solemn ceremony, exercised their gift of inspiration. The former seems more probable. It is clear from 1Ti 4:14, that prophecy and imposition of hands were two concomitant acts by means of which spiritual grace was bestowed upon Timothy; and it is more reasonable to suppose that these two instrumental acts were performed by the same group of persons, than that one group prophesied, while another laid their hands on the young ministers head.
This gift of prophecy, St. Paul tells the Corinthians, {1Co 14:1-40} was one specially to be desired; and evidently it was by no means a rare one in the primitive Church. As we might expect, it was most frequently exercised in the public services of the congregation. “When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let the prophets speak by two or three and let the others discern. But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let the first keep silence. For ye all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be comforted; and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” The chief object of the gift, therefore, was instruction and consolation for the conversion of unbelievers (1Co 14:24-25), and for the building up of the faithful. But we shall probably be right in making a distinction between the prophesying which frequently took place in the first Christian congregations, and those special interventions of the Holy Spirit of which we read occasionally. In these latter cases it is not so much spiritual instruction in an inspired form that is communicated, as a revelation of Gods will with regard to some particular course of action. Such was the case when Paul and Silas were “forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the word in Asia,” and when “they assayed to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not”: or when on his voyage to Rome Paul was assured that he would stand before Caesar, and that God had given him the lives of all those who sailed with him (Act 16:6-7; Act 27:24; comp. Act 18:9; Act 20:23; Act 21:4; Act 21:11; Act 22:17-21.). Some have supposed that the Revelation of St. John was intended to mark the close of New Testament prophecy and to protect the Church against unwarrantable attempts at prophecy until the return of Christ to judge the world. This view would be more probable if the later date for the Apocalypse could be established. But if, as is far more probable, the Revelation was written cir. A.D. 68, it is hardly likely that St. John, during the lifetime of Apostles, would think of taking any such decisive step. In his First Epistle, written probably fifteen or twenty years after the Revelation, he gives a test for distinguishing true from false prophets; {1Jn 4:1-4} and this he would not have done, if he had believed that all true prophecy had ceased.
In the newly discovered “Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles” we find prophets among the ministers of the Church, just as in the Epistles to the Corinthians, Ephesians, and Philippians. The date of this interesting treatise has yet to be ascertained; but it seems to belong to the period between the Epistles of St. Paul and those of Ignatius. We may safely place it between the writings of St. Paul and those of Justin Martyr. In the Epistles to the Corinthians {1Co 12:28} we have “First apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then” those who had special gifts, such as healing or speaking with tongues. In Eph 4:2 we are told that Christ “gave some to be apostles; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” The Epistle to the Philippians is addressed “to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons,” where the plural shows that “bishop” cannot be used in the later diocesan sense; otherwise there would be only one bishop at Philippi. Prophets, therefore, in St. Pauls time are a common and important branch of the ministry. They rank next to apostles, and a single congregation may possess several of them. In Ignatius and later writers the ministers who are so conspicuous in the Acts and in St. Pauls Epistles disappear, and their place is taken by other ministers whose offices, at any rate in their later forms, are scarcely found in the New Testament at all. These are the bishops, presbyters, and deacons; to whom were soon added a number of subordinate officials, such as readers, exorcists, and the like. The ministry, as we find it in the “Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles,” is in a state of transition from the Apostolic to the latter stage. As in the time of St. Paul we have both itinerant and local ministers; the itinerant ministers being chiefly apostles and prophets, whose functions do not seem to be marked off from one another very distinctly; and the local ministry consisting of two orders only, bishops and deacons, as in the address to the Church of Philippi. When we reach the Epistles of Ignatius and other documents of a date later than A.D. 110, we lose distinct traces of these itinerant apostles and prophets. The title “Apostle” is becoming confined to St. Paul and the Twelve, and the title of “Prophet” to the Old Testament prophets.
The gradual cessation or discredit of the function of the Christian prophet is thoroughly intelligible. Possibly the spiritual gift which rendered it possible was withdrawn from the Church. In any case the extravagances of enthusiasts who deluded themselves into the belief that they possessed the gift, or of impostors who deliberately assumed it, would bring the office into suspicion and disrepute. Such things were possible even in Apostolic times, for both St. Paul and St. John give cautions about it, and directions for dealing with the abuse and the false assumption of prophecy. In the next century the eccentric delusions of Montanus and his followers, and their vehement attempts to force their supposed revelations upon the whole Church, completed the discredit of all profession to prophetical power. This discredit has been intensified from time to time whenever such professions have been renewed; as, for example, by the extravagances of the Zwickau Prophets or Abecedarians in Luthers time, or of the Irvingites in our own day.
Since the death of St. John and the close of the Canon, Christians have sought for illumination in the written word of Scripture rather than in the utterances of prophets. It is there that each one of us may find “the prophecies that went before on” us, exhorting us and enabling us to “war the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.” There will always be those who crave for something more definite and personal; who long for, and perhaps create for themselves and believe in, some living authority to whom they can perpetually appeal. Scripture seems to them unsatisfying, and they erect for themselves an infallible pope, or a spiritual director, whose word is to be to them as the inspired utterances of a prophet. But we have to fall back on our own consciences at last: and whether we take Scripture or some other authority as our infallible guide, the responsibility of the choice still rests with ourselves. If a man will not hear Christ and His Apostles, neither will he be persuaded though a prophet was granted to him. If we believe not their writings, how shall we believe his words?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary