1 Timothy 1: Paul Calls the Law Good, Then Says How to Use It

The most important verse in 1 Timothy 1 is verse 8, and it's easy to pass over because verses 9 and 10 come right behind it with a list of murderers and liars, and verse 15 is a few lines further down with Paul calling himself the chief of sinners. Those are the verses people remember. Verse 8 is one short line saying the law is good if a man uses it lawfully, and the rest of the chapter is Paul working out what that means.

Paul leaves Timothy in Ephesus with a charge

Paul went on into Macedonia and left Timothy behind in Ephesus so he could "charge some that they teach no other doctrine" (verse 3). The charge runs through verse 4 and ends on the two words "so do." I wrote about a sentence of Paul's that runs longer still in 2 Thessalonians 1, if you like that sort of thing.

What Paul names as the trouble is "fables and endless genealogies," and the Church's student manual for this part of the Bible says he isn't against keeping family records. He's against people who trace their ancestry to prove they're chosen, or better than somebody else. Verse 7 fits that, since these people are "desiring to be teachers of the law" and understand "neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." I've taught Gospel Doctrine, and the wish to be the one in the room who knows is a real pull. Paul never says these men teach a different law, only that they want the title and haven't understood what they're handling, which is a different complaint and an easier one to miss in a congregation.

The goal of all of it, he says, is "charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned" (verse 5). The genealogies get measured against that, and charity is a standard about how people treat each other, so a man can have every generation memorized and still fail it completely.

In 1 Thessalonians 3 Paul sends him to check on a young church and Timothy comes back with good news, so he'd run errands for Paul before. This errand is harder, because the chapter only says "some" at Ephesus are teaching wrongly and Timothy has to find out who.

Verse 9 is not a loophole

Verse 9 is the one that causes the trouble.

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

1 Timothy 1:9

Coming right after "the law is good, if a man use it lawfully" (verse 8), that can sound as if righteous people are excused from the law. Paul doesn't say that, and he certainly doesn't say the law is bad. The Bible Dictionary calls the law of Moses "a good law, although adapted to a lower spiritual capacity than is required for obedience to the gospel in its fulness."

I work in payments, and a validation rule in that code gets written for the input that breaks things, the malformed amount or the card number with a digit missing. The clean transaction never meets the rule, and nobody calls the rule a bad idea because of that. Paul's list is the input the law was written for, and the righteous man isn't on it.

The list starts in pairs, lawless and disobedient, ungodly and sinners, unholy and profane. Then it turns specific, from the murderers of fathers and mothers through manslayers and whoremongers to menstealers, liars and perjured persons. It follows the order of the Ten Commandments fairly closely, honor your father and mother, then killing, then adultery, then stealing, then false witness. That observation is mine and none of the Church's sources make it, so take it as a pattern I see and not a point of doctrine.

The list ends with a catch-all, "any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine" (verse 10), and goes straight into verse 11 and the gospel "which was committed to my trust." He moves from the law to the gospel without saying one replaced the other.

Paul names himself the chief of sinners

Paul tells Timothy his own story in the plainest terms he can find, and he doesn't dress it up. He was "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious" (verse 13). He thanks Christ for putting him into the ministry and says Christ "counted me faithful," which reads like a man still a little surprised.

People reach for verse 13 as an excuse, since he obtained mercy "because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." The Student Manual says the Lord doesn't hold anyone accountable for sins done in ignorance, and then points out that mercy is what lets us repent, and repenting brings more mercy.

Verse 15 puts it in the present tense, "of whom I am chief." Paul was converted a good many years before this letter, with a lot of churches behind him, and he still doesn't write "I was."

Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

1 Timothy 1:16

The reason Paul gives for his own conversion is other people.

He's the first example, "for a pattern," and most readings of this chapter stop at how bad Paul was when verse 16 is about the ones who come after him and hear about it.

Verse 14, a little earlier, says "the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." Nobody quotes that one either. After verse 16 he breaks off in verse 17 into a doxology to "the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." He seems to have gotten carried away at the thought of it, which is a rare thing in a letter this orderly.

Shipwreck in verses 18 to 20

Paul closes by repeating the charge, "according to the prophecies which went before on thee" (verse 18). Timothy's assignment had already been spoken over him, and now he has to "war a good warfare," holding faith and a good conscience (verse 19).

The alternative comes next, and it's a picture from the water. Some have "put away" that conscience and made shipwreck "concerning faith." Two are named, Hymenaeus and Alexander, "whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme" (verse 20). The Student Manual reads "delivered unto Satan" as excommunication, a Church discipline matter and not a curse, and the stated purpose is that they would learn. That puts Hymenaeus and Alexander in a different category from the murderers on the list in verse 9, since the point of what happened to them is that they might come back, and the verse says so itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who were Hymenaeus and Alexander?

Paul gives their names and nothing else about them. He says they made shipwreck of their faith and that he handed them over so they'd learn not to blaspheme. I wouldn't guess past that, and I wouldn't assume the Hymenaeus here is any man named in another letter.

What did the false teachers actually teach?

The chapter never says. All Paul gives is "fables and endless genealogies" and "vain jangling" (verses 4 and 6), plus the charge that they didn't understand what they were saying. Anyone who tells you exactly what the Ephesus heresy was is working from outside this chapter.

Why does Paul call Timothy his son?

Verse 2 says "my own son in the faith" and verse 18 says "son Timothy." Nothing in the chapter makes it a matter of blood, and nothing gives Timothy's age either. It's the language of a man who taught him the gospel and still feels responsible for him.

I still don't like verse 20, because it names two men and the last word the chapter says about them is Paul's action and its purpose. We never hear if they learned. I understand why a church leader sometimes has to act, and the verse does say what the action was for, but I'd have wanted one more line saying what Timothy should do when they came back.

— D.