Message

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TIMOTHY, MY SON, FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT

1 Timothy 1:1-20

Key Verse: 18-19a

“Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience.”

Thank God for granting us an opportunity to study 1 Timothy. We know that 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus are pastoral epistles. These are essential teachings for gospel servants/workers. From chapter one of 1 Timothy, Paul clearly shows the essence of the gospel that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The gospel is trustworthy and reliable. The core of the gospel is Christ Jesus, freely given. Yet, to keep this grace requires a noble fight, a spiritual fight, and to share and spread the gospel is also a spiritual battle against gospel enemies, more specifically to the devil, Satan, the gospel destroyer. May God help us to be firmly equipped as the gospel servants who can fight the good fight.

Paul introduces himself in verse 1, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope.” From verse 1, we see the weight of God’s call for Paul and so the weight of this epistle. Paul is an apostle by the commandment of God and Christ Jesus. He is also writing this epistle by the commandment of God and Christ Jesus. What he is really saying here is that not only his commission is based upon God’s purpose, but his letter is also. It is as if he said, “I have a direct command from God and Christ to write this letter, Timothy. Now carry this out.” It puts a great burden on Timothy and on the church who no doubt would have heard that letter read to them. God is our Saviour who wants all men to saved (2:4) and Christ Jesus is our hope, the only hope and the hope of all, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).

Then in verse 2, “To Timothy my true son in the faith.” Timothy means one who honors God. Here, “true” is in Greek gnēsios. It is the opposite to nothos. Nothos means “bastard” or “illegitimate”. Gnēsios means “legitimate”. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:10, “for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me…” Demas was a nothos; he was a bastard child, an illegitimate child. But Timothy is a legitimate child. He is a true child, a genuine child. Many received the gospel through Paul. But there were those who wandered away and shipwrecked their faith and even became his opponents, teaching false doctrines. The true son is well depicted when Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:17, “…I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus.” In other words, “I’m sending you Timothy who is exactly like me. He’ll bring you into remembrance of my ways. He does things the way I do.” Timothy was with Paul for up to 20 years from the time of his conversion as a man in his late teens to the time of about 35 years of age when he’s receiving this letter. Paul also said in 2 Timothy 3:10, 11, “You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, suffering…”

And Paul greets in verse 2, “Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” In most epistles, the greeting contains grace and peace, which are sufficient and which we need constantly in all our Christian life. Yet, Paul includes “mercy”, especially in 1 and 2 Timothy. As a spiritual father, Paul had to include mercy in his greeting for his son Timothy. He throws mercy in there because Timothy is going to need all of them in dealing with his problems and his situation. Grace refers to God’s undeserved favor, love, and forgiveness given to sinners to free them from the consequence of sin. Mercy doesn’t free us from the consequence of sin, it frees us from the misery that comes along with sin. Grace wipes out the sin; mercy wipes out the misery. And then there’s the word peace, and peace is the result of grace and mercy. It means not only harmony with God but tranquility of the soul.

Now Paul says in verses 3 and 4, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.” Here false doctrine is in Greek heterodidaskaleó. Hetero means of a different kind - we talk about heterodoxy being something that is in distinction from orthodoxy. At his point we can have just an idea of the theme that surrounds not only 1 Timothy but 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. We are to note that the two key words in all three of these epistles are the words didaskalia and eusebeia. Didaskalia is the word most frequently translated doctrine. It is used 21 times in the New Testament, 15 of those times in these three small epistles. That gives us a key to understanding what the theme of the epistles is. It is all about doctrine, the need for sound doctrine. The other word, eusebeia, is the word translated most often, “godliness”. That word appears 15 times in the New Testament and is used ten of those 15 times in these three epistles. Both of those words are used eight times in 1 Timothy alone. It indicates that Paul wrote this brief epistle in a thematic way that his concern in writing to Timothy is for true doctrine and godly living in the church. These are essential for us even today. He says in 1 Timothy 4:16 “Watch your life and doctrine closely.”

At that time the church in Ephesus was a big church with the surrounding sister churches in Asia Minor. Paul established the church staying there for three years in his third mission journey. In his farewell speech to the elders in Ephesus, Paul warned in Acts 20:29-30, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” Now in 1 Timothy, we see that there were certain leaders who taught false doctrines, distorting the truth. They were also those who devoted themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These myths and genealogies, somehow, were connected to Old Testament law, which leads us to believe that there was a Jewish orientation in this false teaching. Chapter 4 tells us that these seducing/deceiving spirits and doctrines of devils were filled with hypocrisy and lies. The false teaching seemed to claim that true spirituality was found through legends, and genealogies, and secretive interpretations of the law.

Paul continues in verse 4, “…These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith.” Here God’s work is another other translation, “the plan of God. What they are teaching stirs up questions, useless speculation, rather than the plan of God, which is by faith. In other words, it strikes a blow at the gospel of saving faith. Therefore, we conclude that it is a system of works righteousness. It is a legalism. It is some kind of Judaizing teaching, mingled with pagan Gentile philosophy, that, in effect, negated the salvation by grace through faith, which was the apostolic message and the gospel of Christ. The false teaching really attacks the gospel. There are only two religions in the whole world; only two. There is the religion of divine accomplishment; That is, that God in Christ accomplished salvation, apart from any effort of man. And then there is the religion of human achievement. Any kind of human work or achievement, whatsoever, cannot reach God’s standard and rather fall short of God’s standard and glory, so cannot save men. All religion of human origin fail in saving people, totally fail. It must have been so hard for him to deal with such elderly leaders. However, Paul gave Timothy a clear direction to command these leaders to stop doing such teaching and such devotion.

Subsequently Paul says in verse 5, “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a clear conscience and a sincere faith.” We know that God is love (1 Jn 4:8; 4:16). The first and greatest commandment in the Law is loving God and the second is loving our neighbour (Mt 22:27-38). 1 Corinthians 13:6 says, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” So love includes rebuking and correcting. Proverbs 10:17 says, “…whoever ignores correction leads others astray.” Love cannot coexist with false doctrines. That’s why Paul urged Timothy to command certain men not to teach false doctrines. We can say that the goal of all Christian activity is love. And Paul says that love comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. He heart is the core of one’s being. If one’s heart is corrupt, he or she cannot truly love. The heart needs to be purified by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7), and also by obeying the truth (1 Peter 1:22). There are two kinds of conscience. A good conscience is stricken after doing wrong before God (1 Sam 24:5; 2 Sam 24:10). So a good conscience is responsive to the word of God and repentant, when God’s words point out to one’s sin, not compromising with the situation or rationalizing the sin. But there is a conscience that is not stricken even after doing obvious wrong. That conscience becomes seared as with a hot iron when it is repeated (1 Tim 4:2). A sincere faith is unfeigned faith. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.” How important these three things are in our Christian life: a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere/unfeigned faith!

And Paul says in verse 6, “Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk.” When these three things are ignored, there can be no true and meaningful fellowship. It is as John said in 1 John 7, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” They turn out to be legalistic. Verse 7 says, “They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.” Teachers of the law are necessary when they know the spirit of the law, that is love, and when they know the function of the law and the limitation of the law. The law helps people to know what is right and what is wrong before God. The law helps sinner to realize their sins. But the law itself cannot save sinners.

Paul says continually in 8-10, “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine.” Here the first three pairs, “lawbreakers and rebels or the lawless and the disobedient/rebellious, the ungodly and the sinful, the unholy and irreligious/profane/worldly/ trampling on everything that is sacred” refer to the first part of the Ten Commandments, which has to do with our relationship to God, loving God. The rest of the pairs are the second part of the Commandments, which have to do with our relationship to other men in society, loving our neighbour: those who kill their fathers or mothers, “honour your father and mother” (5^th), murders, “do not murder” (6h), adulterers/the sexually immoral and perverts/homosexuals, “do not commit adultery” (7^th), slave traders/kidnappers/stealing children, “do not steal” (8^th), liars and perjurers, “do not give false testimony” (9^th). Paul says lastly, “whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine/healthy, life-promoting teaching.” All are caught in sin. No one can keep the law perfectly. In short, law is made for sinners to realize their sins and come to the gospel of salvation. The law silences every mouth, for no one is declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law/by the work of the law (Rom 3:19-20). Paul also says in Romans 2:12, “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law.” For God’s law is written on their hearts, as they have consciences. God judges men’s secrets. All desperately need the gospel. Consequently, Paul writes further about the sound doctrine, “that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God.”

The gospel is called the glorious gospel because it is the gospel through which God's glory is revealed. The wonderful gospel starts with the law that damns men to hell and ends up with the glory of the Christian in forgiveness. Everything in there is a revelation of God's attributes. We see his attributes of wrath and judgment and righteousness and holiness, condemnation, hatred against sin and all that, and we see his wisdom and his love and his mercy and his grace and his power. All that God is comes together to be revealed in the gospel. That’s why it is the glorious gospel, the gospel of his glory, the gospel revealing his glory or the essence of who he is. And who is he? He is the blessed God. It doesn’t mean that he’s the God we bless; it means that he’s the God who is the source of blessing. He is blessed in his own person. He inherently is blessed. He has essential blessedness, essential happiness, essential perfection, which he then can manifest to us. Paul says, “This is the glorious gospel of the blessed God which he entrusted to me. When Paul thought about the superficial teachers of the law, the legalists, he could not but say of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which God entrusted to him.

When Paul thought of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, thanks and praise burst out of his heart because of the personal grace of Christ Jesus upon him: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” What a testimony! We can think of seven important things in this wonderful testimony of Paul.

Verse 15 says, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Five times in the pastoral epistles and nowhere else, the little phrase “this is a faithful saying” appears (1 Tim 1:15, 3:1; 4:9). There’s little doubt what it indicates. It indicates a familiar, recognized statement or saying that had already developed in the early church. It isn’t something Paul is saying for the first time but something he is quoting that he knew everyone knew as a trustworthy saying.

It seems as though in the time of the writing of 1 Timothy, which was after Paul’s first imprisonment, there had already developed a fairly well-articulated theology. There were some creeds and some hymns and some faithful sayings, some trustworthy sayings that were really a summary of some great truth. Two of those five have added to them the second statement, “deserves full acceptance.” Worthy of all acceptance is just as an emphasis. They are summaries of very key important doctrines which should be believed, should be affirmed, should be accepted, worthy to be believed, worthy to be approved. And the summary statement here is a no-doubt familiar statement to the people to whom Timothy ministers as well as Timothy, which acts as a condensed articulation of the gospel. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Every word is chosen carefully. The church had summarized the gospel in this one brief statement, a statement worthy of belief, a statement trustworthy beyond question.

In this testimony, Paul clearly presents the gospel, succinctly summarized and well-articulated by the church: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Christ Jesus was not just born. He was in the another kingdom, glorious, honourable, holy, powerful, eternal, but came into this world, corrupt and murderous, full of problems with all kinds of sinners. Countless people met him. There were many who rejected him. There were also many who had life-transforming experiences with him, hearing his words and being touched by his love, and his power to heal and drive out evil spirit, and having a living hope of the kingdom of God . There have been numerous life-changing experiences, forever changing, through encountering him generation after generation through his written words and the work of the Holy Spirit. It is so even now. It is truly the most beautiful story in history. Without his coming all would remain hopeless and miserable forever. Without his mercy shown each one would be condemned to eternal hell, the fiery lake of burning sulfur (Rev 21:8), as obvious sinners, as the enemies of God, objects of his wrath. It can be the confession of every of those who have received the grace of our Lord, “of whom I am worst, most hopeless, most miserable.”

Paul said, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man.” He was a blasphemer to toward God, kicking against the living God, opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and a persecutor toward fellow human beings capturing all Christians around him to imprisonment. He was a violent man with murderous spirit. Then he said, “I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” After receiving the grace of the Lord, what was precious about him was that he was not disobedient to the vision from heaven, God’s purpose for him” (Ac 26:19). There are many believers who remain disobedient rejecting God’s purpose which is very clear to them, although they received the same grace of the Lord Christ Jesus. Willful disobedience is a grievous sin before God, which we must watch out for. In the life of obedience, the grace of Christ Jesus is always abundant and sufficient each time along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Paul said in verse 12, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.” Many Christians are happy to receive the grace of salvation but burdened with the grace of service. But Paul was so thankful to Christ Jesus, who appointed him to his service considering him faithful. This was the sovereign grace of God, choosing him for the service in addition to choosing him for the salvation. In Acts 9:15-16, the Lord said to Ananias, who was fearful to meet Paul after his conversion, “Go! This is man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” And Paul also testified the Lord’s calling in Acts 26:17, “‘I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” In the course of carrying service for the Lord, he suffered much. But he testified to the grace of Christ Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15:9-10, “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” The grace of salvation and service was not in vain to him.

Here after saying, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am worst,” Paul continues in verse 16, “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners/the foremost sinner, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” Wow! The grace of Christ Jesus upon Paul was not in vain, but an example of Christ’s unlimited patience/perfect patience for the believers to come throughout generations. If my Christian life is an example even to one person, especially beginning with my children for Christ’s mercy and patient love, how beautiful it will be. This can be each one’s prayer topic.

Because of the grace of the Lord Paul’s doxology comes from chapter 1, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Paul stress that God is the King, eternal, immortal, inviable as the only God. He also said in 6:15, “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light…” In writing 1 Timothy, Paul had in mind the King, the only God and Ruler. Then, obedience to the King’s command is the right attitude.

Paul did not finish chapter 1 with doxology. He says in verses 18-19, “Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience.” Christian life definitely includes a fight. It is a noble fight. The grace of the Lord is great and wonderful. Yet, it is not easy at all to keep this grace of Christ Jesus. It requires spiritual fighting. This is a matter of spiritual survival. This fight is against Satan, the devil, who tries to destroy the work of God in us at any moment. No one should be a loser in this battle. Paul also says in 6:11, “But you man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith…” And 2 Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” In this spiritual we should be clear about what to flee from and what to pursue.

Here, Paul says, “Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophesies once made about, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding to faith and a good conscience.” Here instruction is “command” or charge” in other translations. This was Timothy’s responsibility and accountability to the church, to command certain men not to teach false doctrines. 1 Timothy 4:14 says, “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.” 2 Timothy 1:6 says, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

And 2:13, 14 says, “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you.” And he says in 2 Timothy 4:2, “…Preach the Word” and in 4:5, “…do the work of an evangelist…” So the gift or the deposit is related to proclaim the word of God. In the New Testament, we see that the gift of prophecy, or the prophecies (in Corinthians 12:28) were used by God to speak the will and the Word of God in the early church. So those prophecies must have been those that called Timothy to be a preacher and an evangelist and a teacher of the Word of God.  So he not only had a command from Paul in this verse, he had a commission, an entrusted set of truth, a deposit of truth, but he also had a confirmation as New Testament prophets had articulated that this indeed was a man called to preach. As for us, it is God’s calling through his word to teach and preach the words of God to young people in the campuses of our time. I really thank God for his calling me to serve the ministry of God’s word in Canada along with those who received the calling. We are to know that one most important spiritual battle is to keep God’s words in our hearts and teach and preach the words of God. This fight also goes together with holding to faith and a good conscience. This is a fight of faith with a good conscience. This call may resound in us, “Timothy, my son, fight the good fight.”

And Paul says continually, “Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaues and Alexander, whom I have handed over Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.” How real the spiritual battle is!

In this passage, we learn that we should watch out for false doctrines. Most importantly we should know the sound doctrine that conforms to glorious gospel of the blessed God, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, clearly recognizing the deepest misery without Christ, and fight the good fight for the truth of the gospel holding to faith and a good conscience. Lord, help each one of us, indeed, to fight the good fight.

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