1 Timothy 1.2a-Paul Identifies Timothy As The Recipient Of Epistle And Describes Him As His Legitimate Spiritual Child On The Basis Of Faith
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday January 16, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 1:2a-Paul Identifies Timothy As The Recipient Of The Epistle And Describes Him As His Legitimate Spiritual Child On The Basis Of Faith
Lesson # 8
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 1:1.
In 1 Timothy 1:2a, Paul identifies Timothy as the recipient of this epistle and describes him as his legitimate spiritual child on the basis of faith in Christ.
1 Timothy 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, 2 to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NASU)
“Timothy” is the dative masculine singular form of the proper name Timotheos (Τιμόθεος) (ti-moe-thay-oce), which means “one who honors God” since it is composed of the noun time, “honor” and the noun theos, “God.”
This word functions as a dative of recipient indicating that Timothy is the person who is the recipient of this epistle and greeting that follows.
As we noted in our introduction, not only is Timothy the recipient of this epistle and the greeting to follow but also the Ephesian church as well as indicated by the second person plural form of the personal pronoun humeis, which means “all of you” that appears in the benediction in 1 Timothy 6:21.
As we also noted, William Mounce observes that 1 Timothy and Titus “while private in form, are public in intention, speaking through Paul’s delegates to the churches.” (Word Biblical Commentary, volume 46, Pastoral Epistles; page xcvi; Thomas Nelson)
This fits with the literary genre of 1 Timothy and Titus, which are mandate letters in the sense that they are intended from the beginning to be read in public, both to support Paul’s delegates, Timothy and Titus in their work and to hold them accountable to a standard of personal behavior that is exemplary.
“My true child in the faith” is composed of the dative neuter singular form of the adjective gnesios (γνήσιος) (knee-see-oce), “true,” which is modifying the dative neuter singular form of the noun teknon (τέκνον) (tek-known), “child” and the preposition en (ἐν), “in” and its object is the dative feminine singular form of the noun pistis (πίστις) (pee-steece), “the faith.”
The noun teknon means “spiritual child” which describes Timothy as Paul’s spiritual child emphasizing the spiritual relationship that Paul had with Timothy.
First of all, it denotes spiritual paternity meaning that Timothy got saved through Paul’s missionary activities.
Paul’s reference to Timothy in 1 Corinthians 4:17 as his son indicates that Timothy’s conversion to Christ also dates from the proclamation of the gospel on Paul’s first missionary journey.
Timothy then became an associate and traveling companion of the apostle Paul.
1 Timothy 1:18 strongly suggests that some prophetic utterances about Timothy had first pointed him out to Paul and had encouraged Paul to enlist him as a fellow-soldier of Christ.
Paul’s description of Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:2 and 1 Corinthians 4:17 indicate that he was indeed Timothy’s spiritual father and mentor.
Furthermore, the adjective gnesios, which is modifying teknon, was a common designation for spiritual progeny.
The word is used of describing Timothy and Titus as being “legitimate” students (teknon) in the Christian faith in 1 Timothy 1:2 and Titus 1:4 respectively.
These two men were “legitimate” because they were converted to Christianity under Paul’s ministry.
Therefore, gnesio not only denotes Paul has authority over Timothy as his spiritual father and mentor but it also expresses intimacy between the two.
So not only does the noun teknon in 1 Timothy 1:2 indicate that Paul was responsible for Timothy’s conversion and denotes spiritual paternity but also the word emphasizes that Paul trained Timothy spiritually.
Paul does not use mathetes but teknon since he wants to emphasize the spiritual father/son relationship that he had with Timothy implying that Timothy was converted during Paul’s first missionary trip to Lystra.
Mathetes would not emphasize this but only teknon.
There are three basic meanings for pistis in the New Testament: (1) the active usage meaning “faith” in the sense of a non-meritorious decision to trust in Christ as Savior at conversion or the non-meritorious decision to trust in the Word of Christ after conversion. (2) a passive usage meaning “that which is believed, the body of faith, doctrine” (Gal. 1:23; 2 Pt. 1:5; 1 Tm. 1:19; 4:1, 6; 6:10; 2 Tm. 2:18; 4:7; Heb. 11). (3) an attribute meaning “faithfulness, reliability” (Gal. 3:22; Titus 2:10; 2 Th. 1:4).
All three could be in view here in 1 Timothy 1:2.
It could be used with the preposition en in the passive referring to the Christian faith indicating that Timothy was Paul’s legitimate spiritual child “in the sphere of” or “with respect to” the Christian faith.
Or, it can be used as an attribute of Timothy meaning that he was “faithful” to the gospel or Paul’s teaching in contrast to the false, apostate teachers in Ephesus.
Lastly, it can be used in an active sense with the preposition en referring to Timothy making the non-meritorious decision to trust in Jesus Christ as Savior indicating that Timothy became Paul’s legitimate spiritual child “because of” his faith in Christ.
The context indicates that this last sense is in view in our passage since the expression γνησίῳ τέκνῳ, “legitimate spiritual child” refers to Timothy’s conversion indicating that Paul was responsible for Timothy’s conversion.
This would indicate that the emphasis seems to be more that Timothy became Paul’s legitimate spiritual child “because of” his faith in Christ as his Savior or “on the basis of” faith in Jesus rather than Timothy as Paul’s legitimate spiritual child with respect to the Christian faith.
So in this first section of 1 Timothy 1:2a, we have Paul identifying Timothy as the recipient of this epistle.
However, he is not the only recipient since the second person plural form of the personal pronoun humeis, which means “all of you” that appears in the benediction in 1 Timothy 6:21 indicates that the Ephesian church were the recipients as well.
Paul describes Timothy as his legitimate spiritual child on the basis of Timothy’s faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.
This description emphasizes the fact that not only is Timothy under Paul’s spiritual authority but also they are on intimate terms with each other and enjoyed a father and son relationship in a spiritual sense.
This implies that Timothy was also taught by Paul.
This description would encourage Timothy and would emphasize with the apostate false teachers that Timothy represents Paul as his delegate and was to be obeyed.