Last week we learned that Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus to serve as pastor there to “clean house.” God’s household, the congregation there, had come under the sway of “alien teaching.” Since Paul was writing to Pastor Timothy, Timothy, as the manager or steward of the congregation, was to deal with of that problem.
Paul will now use the Law-Gospel paradigm to point Timothy to the purpose of God’s Law, all to show him the riches of God’s mercy.
The purpose of the Law
Read 1 Timothy 1:8
- Paul starts this section with a “now” or “but.” How does that contrast the teaching of the Law as it is supposed to be done with how the false teachers had done it?
Read 1 Timothy 1:9-11
- If the Law is not laid down for the just (righteous) but for the lawless and disobedient, how does that inform how Timothy is to use the Law?
- The examples that Paul used to describe the lawless and disobedient show us what about them?
“Sound doctrine”: The Greek word for “sound” is hugiano, from which we get our word “hygiene.” It was a medical term denoting that which gave health and wellness. And so hugiano doctrine contained that which gave spiritual health and wellness. However, the doctrine that guided the “lawless and disobedient” was a different doctrine that was “contrary to” hugiano doctrine (1 Timothy 1:10). And so it didn’t bring spiritual health and wellness, but the opposite: spiritual sickness and death.
That unsound doctrine led people to commit such sins because it rationalized that such sinning didn’t matter. That doctrine was not only a false law, but also a false gospel: Your sins are all forgiven, so it doesn’t matter how you live! Their gospel was not “according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” (1 Timothy 1:11), but a different one, one that did not lead to spiritual health and wellness.
- If churches today teach that some of what Paul listed as sins are not really sins, what does that say about that church’s teaching or doctrine?
- Discuss: Why would teaching something that is a sin as not a sin be bad if Jesus forgives us all our sins anyway?
- If Paul was entrusted with the “real Gospel,” what did that imply about what Timothy was to pass on (Remember Paul’s use of enthymemes)?
The riches of God’s mercy Paul now explains the “gospel [that is] the glory of the blessed God” (1 Timothy 1:11). Read 1 Timothy 1:12
- Whom does Paul thank and why?
Strengthen; judge: Paul used two verbs to describe what Jesus was doing in his life. Jesus not only “strengthened” (Greek: endunamoo: empowers, enables) Paul to be in the faith but also was the One who “judged” (Greek: nyeomai: regards) him to be faithful.
The idea behind nyeomai is that someone is in a chief or leading position. The “gospel [that is] the glory of the blessed God” takes someone and moves him from outside of God’s family into a “chief position” with God. For that to happen, the person no longer has his sins counted against him.
Paul will now list what some of those sins were in his life. Read 1 Timothy 1:13
- What sins does Paul mention that he had committed?
- And yet, what did Paul receive from God?
Blasphemy: To blaspheme is to slander or revile someone. When such reviling is directed to God, then it is “blasphemy.” In Matthew 12:32-32 and Mark 3:29, Jesus mentions that if someone blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, he has no forgiveness. (Our translations sometimes use “never,” which adds a time element that Jesus did not include in His use of “not.” Jesus’ “not” is a powerful, strong “not,” but it is not that such a sin once committed is irrevocable.) The Holy Spirit is the Person of the Trinity who brings someone to faith. To slander or revile Him is not to believe. Hebrews 6:4-6 says:
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who became partakers of the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come and who have fallen away, to be restored into repentance.
“Into repentance” denotes that repentance is the Christian’s way of life; it is a state of being.
- If someone falls away from the faith, can he restore himself into that state of repentance?
- Does this mean that the Holy Spirit doesn’t have the power to do that? In other words, for whom is it impossible?
“Acted ignorantly in unbelief”: Paul is not saying that someone who doesn’t have faith in Christ has a “free pass” into heaven. Instead, he is distinguishing the difference between sinning out of ignorance and willfully choosing to sin. Even the Old Testament recognized the difference between sins done in ignorance and those done with evil intent (Leviticus 5:18, 22:14; Numbers 15:22-31). Ignorant sins received forgiveness; willful, unrepentant sins did not.
Willful, unrepentant sinning is a hardening of the heart against God. As long as one remains in that state of hardheartedness, he remains outside God’s forgiveness.
Someone does not fall away from the faith by committing sins in ignorance or out of weakness. When that happens, because the person still has faith, Christ’s forgiveness is already his. But hardheartedness is different: That’s a turning away from God into a state of unbelief, which closes the person off from receiving God’s forgiveness of sins.
If Paul had knowingly and deliberately chosen to commit the sins he mentioned against God, then what he describes next would not have taken place. Read 1 Timothy 1:14
- When someone willfully and deliberately sins against God, he is not “in” whom? Why?
- When someone is “in Christ,” what does he have?
Read 1 Timothy 1:15-17
- What does the proper understanding of the Law lead one to conclude?
- Were the “alien teachers” at Ephesus pointing the people to a proper understanding of their sin so they would have a proper understanding salvation?
Paul’s charge to Timothy
Pastor’s translation of 1 Timothy 1:18: “This is the command that I set before you, Timothy, my child, according to the prophecies that went [were spoken] before you, so that in them [the prophecies that were spoken before you] you may wage the good war…”
What then does Paul mean by “the prophecies”? Paul was referring to Timothy’s ordination: “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy [the speaking of God’s Word] when the elders [presbyters, pastors] laid their hands on you” (1 Timothy 4:14). Since several pastors laid their hands on Timothy and spoke God’s Word [prophecy] to him, Paul refers to that Word in the plural: “prophecies.”
- Discuss: What is now Timothy authorized to do in general? Why?
- Discuss: What is now Timothy authorized to do in specific, at Ephesus? Why?
- Based on what Paul had earlier written to Timothy, what does “waging the good war” entail at Ephesus?
Read 1 Timothy 1:19-20
- According to what (there were two of them), how was Timothy to “wage the good war”? (vs. 19)
- How were they, those two things, to shape how Timothy “waged the good war”? Does the end necessarily justify the means?
- Who do we now learn are the ringleaders of the “alien teaching” taking place at Ephesus?
- When Paul said that he “handed them over to Satan,” what did he mean?
- Why did Paul do that? (vs. 20)
- Remembering Paul’s use of enthymemes, what was Timothy to do with Paul handing Hymenaeus and Alexander “over to Satan”? After all, Paul wasn’t there.
- Paul didn’t tell Timothy to have the congregation vote on whether Hymenaeus and Alexander should be excommunicated, which is how it’s done in the LC-MS. What does this say about the traditions that we have received in this area? (see Excursus below)
- How was Paul’s use of the Law different from the false teachers’ use of the Law, and what did he hope was the end result (what was “learning not to blaspheme”?)?
Excursus: Excommunication
The Pastor’s Role
Excommunication is removing someone from the Church. From Paul’s words of instruction to Pastor Timothy, the judgment to remove someone is something the pastor does. In 1 Timothy, Paul says the purpose of excommunication is so the one excommunicated “may learn not to blaspheme,” that is, not to revile God and be restored into a state of repentance. Repentance for the Christian is a way of life, where he turns away from sin toward Christ. The purpose behind excommunication, at least as implied in 1 Timothy, is to bring someone to repentance when everything else has failed.
The Congregation’s Role
In St. Matthew’s Gospel, however, we learn that the congregation does have a role in the excommunication process. This role is to win a brother back, which Paul also explicitly stated in 1 Corinthians 5:5 and Galatians 6:1. Read Matthew 18:15-18 But trying to understanding Jesus’ words can be confusing:
- He is speaking to His disciples, teaching them before He makes His way to the cross. Jesus is preparing them for the apostolic tasks that they will soon have to do.
- He switches between the singular you and the plural you. That makes it harder to understand who the “you” is to whom Jesus refers.
Jesus starts with a singular “you,” referring to the person against whom a brother has sinned (Matthew 18:15). But if the sinning brother doesn’t repent, Jesus then uses a singular “you” accompanied by others. They are to speak to the unrepentant brother, hoping to bring him to repentance (Matthew 18:15-16). Yet, if the person still remains unrepentant, from there it goes to the congregation (Matthew 18:17).
The congregation functions—not to excommunicate—but to speak collectively, impressing on the unrepentant sinner the seriousness of his sin (Matthew 18:17). After the congregation has spoken, Jesus goes back to using a singular “you.” Matthew 18:17-18: “If he [the sinner] refuses to listen even to the congregation, let him be to you [singular, the one who first approached the person about his sin] as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
Note that Jesus doesn’t tell the congregation to treat the unrepentant sinner like a Gentile and a tax collector. Jesus says that to the person against whom the brother first sinned. At this point, the congregation is only to voice the seriousness of unrepentant sin and to call him back to repent.
The Pastor’s Role
Now, Jesus switches to a plural “you.” He is not referring to the person against whom the unrepentant brother sinned or to the congregation; instead, Jesus is speaking to His disciples. Matthew 18:18: “I assure you: Whatever you [plural, the disciples being prepared for their apostolic tasks] bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Understanding Jesus’ plural “you” in that way matches what Jesus and the Apostle Paul says elsewhere in Scripture.
Binding and Loosing, Forgiving and Retaining
When someone looks through the New Testament, he will find words to forgive directed to everyone in the Church, both pastor and laity. Here are some examples: Matthew 6:14-15, 18:22; Mark 11:25; Luke 6:37, 17:3-4 (here, rebuking of sin, but not retaining, is also to take place); 2 Corinthians 2:7 (forgiving the one whom Paul had excommunicated in 1 Corinthians); Ephesians 4:32; and, Colossians 3:13.
However, when it comes to retaining or binding someone’s sins, Scripture gives that responsibility (and burden!) to the pastor. Here are some examples:
- Matthew 16:19: [Jesus speaking to Peter,] “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
- Matthew 18:18: [Jesus speaking to His soon-to-be Apostles,] “I assure you: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
- John 20:23: [Jesus speaking to His Apostles,] “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
- 1 Corinthians 5:3: [Paul writing to the congregation in Corinth,] “Although I am not physically present with you, I am with you in spirit. I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.” Paul then directed the congregation to carry out his judgment of excommunication.
- 1 Timothy 1:18: [Paul writing to Pastor Timothy,] “I have handed [these individuals] over to Satan…”
Excommunication is the pastor retaining or binding someone’s sins exercised in a public way.
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