In his opening verse Paul presents his apostleship as proceeding
from God our Saviour-not from Jesus our Saviour, as we might have put
it. He is going to bring before us the living GOD as both
Saviour and Preserver (1 Tim. 2: 3; 1 Tim. 4: 10) and so he commences
on this note, and presents the Lord Jesus to us as our hope. When
declension sets in it is well for us to know a living God as our
Preserver, and to have our hopes centred not in churches, bishops,
deacons, nor in a man of any kind, but in the Lord Himself.
Having saluted Timothy in verse 2, Paul at once reminds him of the
responsibility resting upon him as left at Ephesus during his absence.
Already some were beginning to teach things which differed from the
truth as already laid down. These strange doctrines were of two kinds,
"fables" (or "myths") and "genealogies." By the former term Paul
indicated ideas imported from the heathen world, even though they were
the refined speculations of Grecian schools; by the latter, ideas
imported from the Jewish world in which genealogy had played so large a
part. Timothy however was to abide in what he had learned of God and
exhort others to do likewise, since the end of what was enjoined was
love springing out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned
faith. This was that which God desired to see in His people.
The certain result of turning aside to fables or genealogies is
questionings (verse 4) and vain jangling (verse 6). Christendom has
largely turned aside to the teaching of fabulous assertions in the name
of science on the one hand, and on the other to genealogies connected
with religious succession, apostolic and otherwise, with all the
ritualism based thereupon, consequently the religious arena is filled
with questioners and resounds with the uproar of vain jangling. What
God aims at producing, and does produce where the truth holds
sway, is love, and what is ministered is "God's dispensation which is
in faith." The A. V. reads "edifying" but evidently the correct reading
is "dispensation" or "house-law"-the alteration of one letter in the
Greek word makes the difference. Love furthers all those things that
God has ordered as the rule of His house.
The "commandment" of verse 5 has nothing to do with the law of
Moses. The word is virtually the same as the one translated "charge" in
verse 3. Verse 5 states the object Timothy was to have in view in the
charge which he observed himself and enjoined upon others.
There were those at Ephesus who were enamoured of the law and
desired to be teachers of it, and this leads the Apostle to indicate
the place that the law was designed to fill, of which these would-be
law-teachers were entirely ignorant. The law was not enacted for the
righteous but for sinners. Hence to strenuously enforce it upon those
who were righteous, because justified by God Himself, was not a lawful
use of it. Paul does not pause in this passage to state that which the
law of Moses was designed to effect. It was given to bring in conviction of sin, as is stated in Romans 3: 19; Romans 5: 20; and Galatians 3: 19.
The law itself is "holy and just and good" (Rom. 7: 12) whatever men
may do with it. Verse 8 of our passage states that if lawfully used it
is good in its practical effects. If wrongly used, as by these
law-teachers, it works mischief, though perfectly good in itself.
Let us all be very careful to use the law lawfully. It is a most
potent instrument of conviction for sinners. It deals unsparingly with
the terrible list of sins given in verses 9 and 10, but besides all
these there were other things which the law did not specifically
mention but which were contrary to all sound teaching, and the Apostle
alludes to these at the close of verse 10. Only notice that he does not
say, "contrary to sound doctrine according to the holy standard established by the law" but, "according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God," for the gospel sets before us a standard of conduct more lofty than the law.
The law did not set forth the maximum, the utmost possible that God could expect from man, but rather the minimum of
His demands, if man is to live on the earth; so that to fall below the
standard set, in one item on one occasion, was to incur the death
penalty. Now however the gospel has been introduced and Paul was
entrusted with it. He speaks of it as the "glorious gospel," or more
literally, "gospel of the glory" of the blessed God.
There is for the present moment but one gospel, though spoken of in various passages as the gospel "of God," "of Christ," "of the grace of God," "of the glory of Christ," and
as in this verse. So also the one and the same Holy Spirit is variously
characterized in different passages. This is in order to teach us the
depth and wonder residing in both, the many-sided characters that they
wear. How striking then is the character in which the gospel is
presented to us here, and how suitable to the subjects in hand!
What could exceed the moral filth and degradation of those who had
come short not only of the law, but of "the glory of God" (Rom. 3: 23)?
Their portrait appears in verses 9 and 10. Then in verse 11 comes "the
gospel of the glory of the blessed God" followed in succeeding verses
by the dark picture Paul gives of himself as an unconverted man. Look
before and look after and we see nothing but the shame of cursed and
unhappy man. Into the midst comes the glad tidings of the glory of the
blessed, or happy, God. A contrast indeed!
The Old Testament has told us that, "it is the glory of God to conceal a thing"
(Prov. 25: 2) so that busy and inquisitive men are baffled in their
researches again and again. Our New Testament passage tells us that it
is also the glory of God to reveal Himself in the
magnificence of His mercy to rebellious sinners, and the latter glory
is greater than the former. If any ask, what is glory? We may answer,
it is excellence in display. The Divine excellence may be
displayed in such a way as to be visible to the eye, but on the other
hand it may not; yet the glory of a moral and spiritual sort which
reaches the heart by other channels than the eye is no less wonderful.
When Saul of Tarsus was converted a glory smote him to the earth,
blinding his eyes, but the glory of that exceeding abundant grace of
our Lord "with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" (verse 14)
opened the eyes of his heart without dazzling the eyes of his head, and
that is the glory spoken of here.
The sin of Saul of Tarsus abounded, since full of ignorant unbelief
he aimed in his injurious antagonism directly at Christ Himself, by
blasphemy and the persecution of His people. Hence he was, and he felt
himself to be, the chief of sinners. The abundance of his sin was met
however by the super-abundant grace of God. Did ever the glory of
divine grace more brightly shine than when the rebel Saul encountered
the risen Saviour? We think not. Yet we all owe our salvation to the
same glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God. We all have reason
to sing,
Oh! the glory of the grace
Shining in the Saviour's face,
Telling sinners from above,
God is light, and God is love.
By the time this Epistle was written not a few crisp statements of
truth had passed into sayings. "Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners," was one of these. It is endorsed as faithful and worthy
of all acceptation- hall-marked as it were-by the Apostle's own
experience as the chief of sinners. No sinner is beyond the grace and
power of a Saviour, who could deliver such an insolent, persecuting
blasphemer as he.
How all this shows up the folly of such as were desiring to be
law-teachers, and landing their votaries in vain jangling. How weak and
beggarly is all that beside this!
Now the astonishing mercy extended to Paul was not shown him for his
sake alone but that there might be set forth the extent of divine
longsuffering. His was a pattern case showing the full extent of the
Lord's dealings in mercy, lifting him from the depths of verse 13 to
the heights of verse 12.
Think for one moment of his conversion as recorded in Acts. Jesus
had just been made Lord and Christ in resurrection. The early apostolic
witness was rejected in the martyrdom of Stephen. Saul played a
directing part in that outrage and proceeded forthwith on a career of
violent persecution. From His lofty seat in heaven, clothed with
irresistible might, the Lord looked down upon this outrageous little
worm of the dust and instead of crushing him in judgment converted him
in mercy. Thereby He gave a most striking delineation of His gracious
ways and of the extent to which His long-suffering would go.
Henceforth Paul becomes a pattern man. Not only a pattern of mercy but a pattern to believers.
He exemplifies and shows forth the truth in its practical workings in
the hearts and lives of the people of God. It is because of this that
again and again in his epistles he calls upon his converts to be
followers of himself.
The recalling and recital of these wonders of mercy greatly moved
the heart of the Apostle and led him momentarily to break the thread of
his subject and to pen the doxology of verse 17. We find the same kind
of thing elsewhere, as for instance, Romans 11: 33-36, where the
Apostle utters his doxology moved by the consideration of the wisdom of
God; or Ephesians 3: 20, 21, where he is moved by the love of Christ.
In our passage he is moved thereto by the mercy of God.
The more majestic the Person who shows the mercy the greater the
depth of the mercy displayed. Hence the Apostle views God in the height
of His majesty and not in the intimacy of relationship. True, God is
our Father as revealed to us in Christ. We do stand in this
tender relationship as His children: still He is, "the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God" and this enhances the wonder of
the mercy which He showed to the Apostle and to us. In response to such
mercy Paul ascribes to Him honour and glory to the ages of ages.
Surely we too feel impelled to join in the doxology and add to it our hearty "Amen!"
In verse 18 the Apostle returns to the main theme of the epistle. In
verse 3 he had referred to Timothy's position at Ephesus: he had been
left there to charge some against turning aside from the truth. In
verse five he had shown what is the end or object of all the charges
which God commits to His people. Now he comes to the charge which is
the burden of the present epistle from the beginning of 1 Tim. 2 to the
end of 1 Tim. 6.
Before starting his charge to Timothy he reminds him of three things
that might well emphasize in his mind the weight and importance of what
he was going to say. First, that he had been marked out beforehand by
prophetic utterance for the important service that he had to fulfil.
Timothy was indeed a very distinguished servant of God, and we might at
once feel inclined to excuse ourselves on the ground that we are not at
all what he was. That is true. But while this fact may possibly
preclude us from doing much in the way of enforcing God's charge upon
other Christians it in no way exempts us from the obligation to read,
understand and obey the charge ourselves.
Second, that only by holding faith and a good conscience could the
faith of God be preserved in its integrity, and with the preservation
of that faith the charge was concerned. Have we all digested this fact?
We all recognize the doctrine of "justification by faith" but do we
equally recognize the doctrine of "faith-preservation by faith"? Our
little barque is launched upon the ocean of truth by faith, but do we
now successfully navigate that ocean by intellect, by reason, by
scientific deductions? Not so, but rather by faith and the maintenance
of a good conscience. The Scriptures are the chart by which we navigate
but the discerning and understanding eye which alone reads the chart
aright is not intellect nor reason but FAITH, though when faith has
done its work the chart discloses to us things which satisfy and
overpower the highest intellects. Conscience is our compass, but a
conscience that has been dulled and tampered with is as useless as a
compass which has been demagnetized.
How do we maintain a good conscience? By honestly obeying that which
we see to be the will of God as revealed in His Word. Disobedience will
immediately give us a bad conscience. If we let go faith which enables
to discern the truth, and a good conscience which keeps us in practical
conformity to it, we soon make shipwreck of the faith.
In the third place Timothy was reminded of two men whose history was
like a warning beacon. They had let go faith and a good conscience and
had gone to such lengths in error that Paul brands them as blasphemers
and in his capacity as an apostle had delivered them to Satan. This was
something beyond excommunication, which is an act of the church, as may
be seen in 1 Corinthians 5: 3-5. This delivering unto Satan was an
apostolic act, and carried with it terrible consequences, as may be
seen in the case of Job in the Old Testament.