Velocity

One chapter down.  Now…Day 2 of the book of 1 Timothy

The 2nd chapter of 1 Timothy begins with Paul’s instructions that he wants Timothy to convey to the church at Ephesus.  As we go through these instructions, you must keep in mind that there is a specific church that Timothy is going to.  We can take these instructions for good teaching, but we should consider the climate of the church they are written to.

The first set of instructions refers to prayers that Paul wants the people to pray.  He asks specifically that they intercede and give thanks for “kings and all those in authority” in verse 2.  This is an amazing request from Paul when you consider the circumstances of the church in Ephesus.  The only king Paul could be referring to would be the emporer Nero, a notoriously bad ruler who often abused and killed his subjects.  Paul was asking the church to give thanks for a leader they did not want.  I will let you figure out how that can apply to our world today, but we should give thanks and intercede for authority in our life, from parents on up.

As Paul writes to Timothy about these prayers, he reminds Timothy of the One that we serve.  In verse 5, the key phrase from this chapter is given, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”.  It is because of this mediator that Paul states we should lift up our hands in prayer, without anger or argument.  So…Republican and Democrat, black and white, man and woman…our prayers should be thanks and intercession for one another, not dispute.

Of course, then we get into this interesting commentary about women in church.  This is an often misused passage of Scripture and I am very interested to hear what others might have to say about it.  In verses 9 and 10, Paul speaks about women dressing modestly and not wearing jewelry or expensive clothes.  It is easy to make this some kind of legalistic rule…and even easier to dismiss the verses altogether.  But let’s try to see what we can really get from it…

Ladies (and men), what if, instead of judging your beauty based on your appearance in a mirror, you measured your beauty based on your worth as a child of God.  Verse 10 specifically says to be clothed “with good deeds“, which would indicate that beauty is better judged by actions than appearance.

Finally, Paul refers to women acting in full submission to the men of the church.  He even speaks about women being silent and not being permitted to have authority over men.  To fully understand this, it is important to remember the history of the church in Ephesus.  Do you remember why Timothy was being sent to Ephesus in Chapter 1?  False teachings…um…mostly by women.

Please keep in mind that the church was just starting out and, as is often the case, the women of the time were more receptive and eager to join the cause.  In this particular case, the women were out of line and Paul’s instructions were an effort to bring order to a confusing situation.  So, given the context, we can all learn some lessons about being submissive to the authorities placed over us.

Lastly, in verse 15, Paul makes a reference to women being saved through childbearing.  This may seem like a tall order for woman (not so tough on men), but is more likely that Paul is using this opportunity to clarify the importance of women in the Christian world.  He just got done placing women in Ephesus in a submissive role, but then follows with a reminder that it is because of a woman that salvation came into the world.  Through the childbearing of a woman, God became flesh in the form of Jesus.  Pretty amazing.

Chapter 3 tomorrow…the most popular of the chapters in 1 Timothy.

Welcome to Day 1 of reading 1 Timothy.  Remember to leave a comment!

The best way to understand a letter is to know who it is from and where it is going.  In this case, Paul is writing to Timothy, a young man that wants to be a minister, and sending him to the church in Ephesus, to correct some teachings that have been false there.

Apparently, at this particular church, there were some people that were teaching the Bible that were not actually reading the Scriptures.  They were just kind of making stuff up as they went along.  In verse 7, Paul says, “They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about…”  Pretty strong words, huh?

You see, the teachers in Ephesus were teaching that you should worship angels and other hocus-pocus.  This caused people to look at Christians as cult-followers.  Paul tries to explain in verse 8 that the “law is good, if one uses it properly.”  This is why Timothy is being sent, to try to build back trust where it has been lost.  People who teach from their own opinion or something they heard or read about, but not from the Bible, seem to cause problems for the whole Christian community.

In verse 12, Paul shares with Timothy that God saved him, even though he was a horrible sinner.  This is important to remind Timothy that the people he was going to teach were not the enemy, but that God loves them and wants to save them.  Many times, we view people at work or school as enemies because they do not believe the way we do.  Some of us even argue with them about the Bible.  But, God sees them as people that He came to save.

In fact, in verse 15, Paul gives us a saying that we should say to ourselves, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.”  Wow!  Imagine how we would view other people if we constantly reminded ourselves that we are the worst of sinners, saved by Jesus.  Or better yet…Imagine what this verse might mean to the person that thinks that they cannot be forgive.  Now they see that Jesus came to save the worst of sinners.  This is an amazing verse!

The chapter ends with Paul reminding Timothy of God’s call on his life.  Apparently, Timothy was prophesied over, so other people know about God’s call for Timothy.  It is important to take God’s call on our lives seriously, because others are looking at how we will respond to it.  The ones that came before Timothy didn’t take it seriously and were “handed over to Satan”, which means they were removed from the church.

And so ends Chapter 1.  Like so many first chapters, it sets the stage for the others to come.  We know that Paul is sending Timothy to correct teachings in Ephesus.  We know that Paul wants us to remember that God loves sinners.  We know that Timothy is called by God and that his calling should be taken very seriously.

On to Chapter 2…

Please leave your comments or questions about Chapter 1.  Happy reading!