The Main Thing

Dear Timothy

Who exactly was Timothy. As we dig into this last letter we will be studying i want to get an idea of who he is before we dig into a bit more about why he was writing to Timothy in the first place.

1 Timothy 1:1–2 CSB

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope: To Timothy, my true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

There are a couple of things going on in this salutation. Paul is asserting who he is in Christ and why. He says he’s an apostle because God said so. He then takes responsibility for Timothy. This is important. It tells us that we have a lasting or we should have a lasting impact and interest in the people we have a hand in bringing into a relationship with Jesus that is of consequence. Paul is proud of Timothy a true son in the faith and he prays for grace mercy and peace to be given to him from God. Because Timothy is going to need it.

Timothy was a missionary associate and an emissary of Paul , his mother was Jewish, his Father was Greek. He was considered a Jew because of his Mothers heritage, however he was not raised in a pious Jewish tradition, the evidence for which again is his Greek Father and the fact that he was not circumcised by his mother, though he would later be circumcised at Paul's behest. Not because the circumcision made him a better christian but because it would help him be more effective when he had to work with Paul in the Jewish community.

We know a few other things about Timothy that Paul had to remind him of his strength in Christ, as well as how close Paul was to Timothy and the trust Paul had in him.

Which brings us to the letter we are going to be digging into. The letters to Timothy show just how important he is to Paul and how much trust Paul has in him but also that he knows Timothy can do what he was called to do. Which is not a small task, especially if he had to correct some that were older than he.

The problem with “knowledge.”

Paul tells Timothy at the top of the letter that he has to teach some people what really matters and what is false. He goes so far as to use the word urged.

1 Timothy 1:3 CSB

As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine

This word urged in the original language means export plead beg. Paul takes this very seriously. Certain people in Ephesus are teaching false doctrine. Basically what was going on was a group of people were teaching things contrary to the truth of the gospel that Paul taught. It’s uncertain what the false doctrines were but we do get a picture of what they involved in the next verse.

1 Timothy 1:4 CSB

or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith.

Here’s what’s happening. The teachers were pulling from fables and long involved genealogies to add to what Paul had taught to add to or supplement the truth and while the exact origin isn’t known it’s possible they had a Gnostic flavor (Gnosticism was a heresy that was gaining a foothold in the early church which says there is a supreme unknown God, and a letter demiurge that created the world and all that is in it and that Jesus was an emissary of the supreme being not Yahweh* it’s easy to see how this is problematic and a false doctrine) the other and more likely issue was that the fables and genealogies were of a Jewish origin.

What matters most here is the truth was not being taught. The Gospel was being supplemented, added to and in doing so was causing issues for the church in Ephesus.

But what about today? This happens in the church today and unfortunately especially in the evangelical church.

When we double down on living your best life now we forget that scripture tells us this world is not our home.

When we lean into the false idea of replacement theology which states that the church and for many the church in america has somehow replaced Isreal…We forget that they are God’s chosen people.

When we spend all our time and energy trying to pinpoint when Jesus will return by cross referencing biblical prophesy with the news, we forget that no man knows the day or the hour.

When we as a church lean into Christian Nationalism we turn the government into our savior instead of realizing that we are to render to Cesar what is Caesars and to God what is God’s a concept that goes beyond money.

The list of what has happened in the american evangelical church is long and many times we don't even realize that we are falling for false doctrines.

*talk about watching the movie church people and how the pastor lost his way use the clip if possible.

The real Goal

This is what we are supposed to strive for.

1 Timothy 1:5 CSB

Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

Instruction with love....with the right motive and intention from a hear that has been laid before God and leaned by him…teaching the truth from a place that is real a faith that is ours not someone elses.

(expound)

Unfortunately what ends up happening many times is...

Argument for the sake of argument

several years ago on the southeastern university an arugment began.

(talk about people arguing about something that was not really someting that needed to be argued about)

1 Timothy 1:6 CSB

Some have departed from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion.

Some things matter and some things are used as a distraction. If we are busy arguing about Genesis 1 and 2 and the differences in those narratives, or about the Ark, or about Job or about Solomon or any of the judges. If we get caught up in the Prophesies in Daniel and trying to shoehorn them into Revelation, for that matter if we spend an inordinate amount of time in the last 20 chapters of a book that houses 1189 chapters total we are moving away from that whole teaching in love from a pure heart with a good conscience and sincere faith thing.

Is it wrong to discuss those things, no it’s not, do we need to read Revelation of course we should read it and seek for Gods wisdom to understand it but not to the exclusion of the rest of scripture. This is unfortunately what happens to humans we find what we like what we understand what we want to study and we go after it we learn that one thing forgetting that God gave us more than just a few chapters and verses that we like and use many times out of context.

We like to talk about what we know, we like to use what we know to prove how great we are and to prove how much God needs us and how important following the rules we have chosen in order to have relatiobnship with God.

1 Timothy 1:7 CSB

They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on.

(expound)

This is how we do it

1 Timothy 1:8 CSB

But we know that the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately.

The problem with the law is that it has to be used legitimately.

(the law is not a club to beat people with

the law is not the way to make ourselves acceptable to God

the Law is not something that God expects us to be able to keep

(EXPOUND)

the law is good and it has it’s place in allowing humanity to see how desperate their situation is without God and the sacrifice his Son made.

This Week’s Challenge

Pick a book in the Bible that you don’t really read. Spend time this week reading that Book and write down three things that God points out to you from that reading. Post one of those things to the Churches Facebook Page.