1 Timothy Verse by Verse

Session 3 | 1 Timothy 1:4-8

1 Timothy 1:3-13 | Paul’s Charge, and His Insight into Ministry

• Verse 3 – see session 1

• Verse 4 -8 – see session 2

• Verse 9 –

  • Again, as in verse 7, Paul uses the present tense, assuming an ongoing purpose of the law. Further, Paul makes the assumption that there is such a thing as a righteous man, in opposition to modern Calvinistic theology (which has permeated much of dispensational thought).

  • He begins a list of a sampling of the “worst offenders” of the law.

    • He begins with the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane - presumably a “catch all” statement.

    • After this he begins a more specific list, including Murderers and manslayers - specifically mentioning the murder of parents, then more generally of the murder of any man.

      • Note that the modern crime of manslaughter, a lesser crime than murder is not in the original language.

• Verse 10 –

  • Continuing his list, Paul mentions whoremongers along with them that defile themselves with mankind.

    • The word woremongers is simply πόρνος [pornos], a sexually immoral person. The phrase them that defile themselves with mankind is a single word in Greek, lacking any of the “social graces” in the original that show in the translation.
    • The word is ἀρσενοκοίτης [arsenokoites], from which the words arse (used mostly outside of North America) and coitus.

  • The word menstealers is ἀνδραποδιστής [andrapodistes], from andros (man) and podistes (from the root pous, which is “foot” (like a podiatrist), thus, “to put your foot on man.” It is used in ancient Greek for a slave trader or a kidnaper.

  • The word liars is self-explanatory.

  • Perjured persons is a single word, ἐπίορκος [epiorkos], an adjective.

    • In modern English we would consider a perjured person to be the victim of perjury, however, the older usage is that such a person is the one guilty of perjury.
    • The first definition in the Oxford English Dictionary is, “Of a person: that has committed or is guilty of perjury; that has deliberately broken an oath, promise, etc.”

  • Showing that the things mentioned are representative and not all-inclusive, Paul summarizes by speaking of any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. The word sound is ὑγιαίνω [hygiano], from which we get hygiene, and thus a reference to the purity of the doctrine.

• Verse 11 –

  • Here we have a potential hazard of interpretation.

    • In verse 8 we stated that for “those living free from the law, there is no lawful use” of the law. From this we determined that Paul was speaking to those within the transition period who were being offered the Kingdom, and not speaking directly to those under the Gospel of grace.
    • However, now, within the same sentence that begins in verse 8, Paul says that all of this is According to the glorious gospel...which was committed to my trust. This appears to be the Pauline Gospel (compare Eph. 3:2).

  • To make sense of this, a little analysis is required.

    • In the English sentence, the word glorious is an adjective, modifying gospel (just like blessed in relation to God).

    • However, in the Greek glorious is a noun, not an adjective.

      • It is a genitive noun, which has a wide degree of interpretative leeway, one of which can be adjectival. It can also be translated (as in the Young’s Literal Translation), “the good news of the glory of the blessed God.”
      • With such a translation, the glorious gospel is not the Pauline gospel, but rather the Gospel of God’s glory.
      • In Romans 1:1, Paul is separated unto the gospel of God, as here he says it is committed to my trust. And in Romans 1:2 this gospel was promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, and thus was certainly not the dispensation of the grace of God...given to me (Eph. 3:2) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men (Eph. 3:5) but was hid in God (Eph. 3:9).

  • To strengthen the argument that Paul speaks of the gospel of God’s glory, which is only accomplished in the millennium and beyond (the dispensation of the fulness of times - Eph. 1:10), note the flow of the contextual argument, which is a testimony of God’s work in Paul’s life, from persecutor of the Kingdom assembly to being the pattern for this dispensation. Saul did not immediately become the pattern and the recipient of the dispensation of the grace of God at his Damascus road experience.

• Verse 12 –

  • Paul was grateful that the Lord enabled (gave power) for the ministry, having been counted as the Lord as faithful.
  • Though Paul’s ministry is fundamentally different than ours, we each want to be found faithful in our service to the Lord.

• Verse 13 –

  • Prior to being put into ministry, Paul (then Saul) was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. Was it during this time that the Lord considered him faithful (v. 12)? If so, we are reminded that God looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). With all the heinous behavior of Saul, he obtained mercy from the Lord based on ignorance and unbelief.
  • One danger of Biblical interpretation is taking an historical account (like this) and building a doctrine. To do so here would build the doctrine that all things done in ignorance and unbelief would be met with mercy.