SCRIPTURE
18I am giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, 19having faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in the faith; 20among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have turned over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:18-20, NRSV)
WHAT
Having expressed his gratitude for the mercy which he himself received, setting a foundation for the instructions he is about to give Timothy, Paul now moves on to those instructions.
Recall from our Background Commentary that the setting of this letter is that Paul has gone to Macedonia and to the churches there, and he has left Timothy in charge back in Ephesus. The church in Ephesus, consisting of several house churches, was a very important one because Ephesus was an influential Roman city.
This was no caretaker assignment with Timothy serving as an interim while he waits for Paul to return and take up the mantle of leadership again. We have no record of Paul ever returning to Ephesus. In fact, on his way to Jerusalem, Acts tells us Paul intentionally avoided Ephesus, calling the elders there to meet him in the city of Miletus, which was south of Ephesus, for a goodbye. There are very serious problems in Ephesus, especially with some of the elders of the church – possibly influenced by an early form of what became known as Gnosticism. These elders are leading disciples astray with their teaching. Paul is writing to Timothy to encourage him and to give him specific instructions for dealing with this dangerous situation. Paul is about to turn to those instructions but in this passage, he reminds Timothy of some fundamental facts which will undergird his work.
I am giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you… (1 Timothy 1:18a, NRSV)
We note again the bond of intimacy that connected Timothy to Paul. He calls him “my child.” In v. 2, he had called Timothy, “my loyal child in the faith.” Then Paul refers to prophecies made earlier about Timothy. What prophecies? What’s he referring to?
When you read “prophecies,” don’t think in the typical fashion about someone who predicts the future. In the early Church (as well as in the Old Testament), prophecy was a spiritual gift that God gave to someone who then was able to speak a message on behalf of God. It was not about predicting the future – though God’s will does have implications for how the future will play out – it was about speaking God’s will. Prophets were people known to be within God’s confidence and to know his intentions:
Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7, NRSV)
Old Testament prophets frequently implored Israel to repent, to turn away from the evil ways that had befallen them, and turn back to God. “If you don’t, bad things lie ahead, such as…” And then the prophet would spell out what would happen, things which often came to pass because Israel did NOT repent. But the focus was not on predicting the future but rather communicating God’s will regarding present circumstances.
We see prophets operating in the New Testament. Paul refers to prophecy as a spiritual gift in 1 Corinthians, and in fact, identifies it as a greater spiritual gift than speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14). In Acts, we see Agabus acting in this prophetic role. According to Acts 11:27-28, he was one of a group of prophets who traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. Luke reports that Agabus had received the gift of prophecy and predicted a severe famine, which occurred during the reign of the emperor Claudius. In Acts 21:10-12, “a certain prophet” named Agabus met Paul at Caesarea Maritima. This would have been around 58 A.D. He was no doubt the same Agabus who was mentioned in Acts 11:27–28. The prophet warned Paul of his coming arrest in Jerusalem. Agabus, in his prophetic role speaking for God, did not say “don’t go,” but he did tell Paul what lie ahead so he would go with his eyes open. Sort of an “informed consent”-type prophecy.
Often in both Testaments, prophets would not only speak a prophecy, but would in some way enact it – a living sermon illustration, if you will. When he delivered this message about what lie ahead for Paul, Agabus bound his own hands and feet with Paul's belt to demonstrate what would happen if Paul continued his journey to Jerusalem. Agabus said:
“Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’” (Acts 21:11, NRSV)
As we know, Paul went anyway – and he was arrested, just as Agabus prophesied.
Paul reminds Timothy that he was in the leadership position he was, difficult as it was, because prophets had identified him as the person God had picked to lead in Paul’s absence. Again in Acts, we see prophets acting in exactly the same way to select leaders in a critical situation. In Acts 13 the Church was faced with a great decision about whether or not it should take the gospel out to the Gentiles from Antioch. While the church at Antioch was worshiping and fasting, God’s word came to certain prophets through the Holy Spirit:
“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3 (NRSV)
“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Paul reminds Timothy – by way of encouragement, but also duty – that what had happened to Barnabas and Saul/Paul was also what had happened to Timothy. He had been marked out by the prophets as the one God chose to deal with the situation in the Church. William Barclay remarks, “It may well have been that he shrank from the greatness of the task which faced him – and here Paul encourages him with certain considerations.”
Another interesting fact that Professor Barclay points out:
“It may be that Paul was saying to Timothy: ‘Be true to your name.’ Timothy -- its full form is Timotheos -- is composed of two Greek words, timē, which means honor and theos, which means God, and so means honor to God. If we are called by the name Christian, one of Christ’s people, to that name we must be true.”
Paul goes on to say:
…so that by following them you may fight the good fight… ((1 Timothy 1:18b, NRSV)
The word translated “fight” here is strateuomai, which would be more accurately translated as “campaign,” as in a military campaign. A campaign for an army is a long haul affair, not a single battle. For example, the Roman army’s campaign against Jerusalem in 70 A.D. lasted several months, from spring through fall. Their campaign against the Jewish rebels holding out at Masada similarly took several months. Applying this distinction to us, Professor Barclay says:
“It is not to a battle that we are summoned; it is to a campaign. Life is one long campaign, a service from which there is no release – not a short, sharp struggle after which we can lay down our weapons and rest in peace. To change the metaphor, life is not a sprint; it is a marathon race.” (Emphasis mine)
Paul summons Timothy to fortify himself through the certainty of his call to fight a campaign for the gospel, it won’t be a single “one and done” battle. Timothy is in this for the long haul. But Paul calls it a “good” campaign. The Greek word is kalos, and it means not only something which is good and strong, but also something which is attractive and lovely. “The soldier of Christ,” says Professor Barclay, “is not a conscript who serves grimly and grudgingly, but a volunteer who serves with a certain courage and gallantry. Christ’s soldiers are not slaves of duty, but servants of joy.”
When I was first experiencing my call to ordained ministry, but before I began seminary, I was visiting with my wife’s cousin, coincidently named Paul. He was a man of deep faith. I remember we were driving to the grocery store and I was sharing my excitement about the call and our future serving the church. I told Paul about my acceptance to seminary and my plan for telling my employer I would be quitting my engineering management job. I remember Paul’s words clear as day lo these nearly forty years later: “Hang on to that call. There will be days when that’s all you have.” Boy, was he right!! Paul was being a prophet to me.
…having faith and a good conscience. (1 Timothy 1:19a, NRSV)
N. T. Wright says, “Faith reaches out and grasps the God who made you and is remaking you through Jesus and the Spirit.” Cousin Paul was telling me that there would come days during my ministry when my faith was all I had to hold on to. People outside – and inside the church -- would fail me, even attack me. That happened. “Hang on to your faith.” There would be days when I wondered how we would survive financially, since I had taken a 4X cut in pay to enter the ministry. “Hang on to your faith.” There would be – and still are – days when I wondered, “Does this reallymake any difference? If this even real?” Timothy, I’m sure, was in for days when he would wonder the same thing. “Hang on to your faith” is what both men named Paul were urging on God’s behalf to Timothy and me.
Paul also speaks of conscience, which Bishop Wright calls that, “strange, mysterious little voice that tells you what’s right and what’s wrong.” Even the pagan Greeks and Romans knew about conscience. Nearly every culture knows that certain things are innately wrong – murder and stealing, for example. The conscience is moldable, teachable. That is why cultures have differences in their moral codes. But it is still there saying, “That is wrong. You shouldn’t do that.” Unfortunately, the longer we ignore the conscience’s warnings the quieter it grows and the easier it becomes to ignore.
Paul says some people in Ephesus are doing that – they have ignored their consciences and now their consciences have grown quiet. He specifically names Hymenaeus and Alexander:
By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in the faith; among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have turned over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:19b-20, NRSV)
Hymenaeus shows up again in 2 Timothy:
Avoid profane chatter, for it will lead people into more and more impiety, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by claiming that the resurrection has already taken place. They are upsetting the faith of some. (2 Timothy 2:16-18, NRSV)
Alexander also shows up again in 2 Timothy:
Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. You also must beware of him, for he strongly opposed our message. (2 Timothy 4:14-15, NRSV)
We saw in the Background Commentary how it is possible that Alexander was an instigator of Paul’s arrest if the tradition is correct that 2 Timothy was written during Paul’s second imprisonment in Rome. Whatever the case, Hymenaeus, Alexander, and Philetus had made shipwreck of their faith – which ignoring our conscience can do -- and are forever held accountable for it, not least by their names being written in a negative way in the Bible!
Paul says Hymenaeus taught that the resurrection had already happened. What’s that all about?
We saw in the Background Commentary how Gnosticism taught that matter was evil and spirit was good. When it came to the human body, which is made of matter, that resulted in two opposite reactions. One was a severe ascetism to tame the body. Strict diet and limits on food intake. No sex. And so on. The other reaction was exactly the opposite, more of a “eat, drink, and be merry” hedonism because the body was destined for destruction anyway. What more harm could a little sex and gluttony do? It could be that Hymenaeus took what he had been taught about the resurrection and new creation and melded it with this teaching of emerging Gnosticism, and came up with a strange and corrupt blend of the two. His logic would go something like this:
“Since Christ Jesus has been resurrected, we who follow him will also be raised from the dead. Even Paul taught us that. What he didn’t tell you is that this has, in fact, already happened. At least it has in all the ways that really matter as we await our spirit’s departure to be with God in heaven. We have been set free entirely from our slavery to the evil of the body. Therefore, what we do with our bodies now, on this corrupt earth, does not matter one whit. Our spirits will soon be set free. So, ‘eat, drink, and be merry!’”
Bishop Wright comments on this:
“This has, in fact, been a familiar feature of some types of would-be Christian piety: when people discover what a dramatic difference God’s power can make in their lives, they sometimes imagine that they have been set free from all ordinary constraints, and have therefore put their consciences into a back room and locked the door. Not surprisingly, this has often led to moral and spiritual disaster, as people then give free rein to all kinds of impulses over which conscience would normally provide a control.”
Paul’s reaction is swift and predictable. Speaking of Hymenaeus and Alexander, Paul says: “I have turned over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme.” What does that mean?
We saw something similar in 1 Corinthians 5. Paul had heard that a member of the church in Corinth was found to be sleeping with his step mother. Apparently, some in Corinth either applauded the boldness of such a move or at the very least, did nothing about it. Paul was appalled. His admonishment for the church was this:
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5, NRSV)
As Bishop Wright observes, his seems to mean that such people are to be put out of the Christian assembly, forbidden to meet with, and eat with, the rest of the church. Why would Paul urge the church to do that? It seems vindictive and not restorative or forgiving. Bishop Wright says:
“Paul saw the fellowship of the church as the place above all where the power of God was active to heal, guide, lead, and direct individual Christians. To forbid people access to it was therefore tantamount to sending them away into outer darkness, to a place where the only spiritual influence they might come under would be that of ‘the accuser’, the satan. The aim, of course, is that after a very short time in such a condition they would realize their mistake and come back with sorrow and penitence, ready to learn wisdom.”
So Paul saw this denial of access to the healing available through Christian assembly, especially at the Lord’s Table, as a prod to restoration.
Apparently the Corinthians did as Paul had urged, and put this man out of their assembly. And it worked. It had the desired effect on the man. So in 2 Corinthians, Paul writes again about this situation:
This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person; so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. (2 Corinthians 2:6-11, NRSV)
Paul’s response is to impose seemingly harsh consequences on failed consciences – but for the purpose of repentance and restoration. Even in the cases of Hymenaeus and Alexander, Paul urged they be put out of the church “so that they may learn.”
APPLY
Fighting the good fight of the faith is not a “one and done” battle; it is a lifelong campaign. It is one in which weariness and fatigue are constant companions. That’s where faith restores and fortifies us.
PRAYER
Lord, I am thankful that given the importance – and difficulty – of the job Timothy was given to do in Ephesus that he had Paul to guide, support, and encourage him. Who would you have me be a Paul to? In Christ. Amen.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Describe what you imagine to be the relationship between Paul and Timothy. Have you ever had such a relationship with someone, either as the Paul or as the Timothy in that relationship?
2. What was the role of the prophet, especially in the early Church? How did that role intersect with Timothy’s life? In what sense is a modern preacher a prophet?
3. Paul urged Timothy to “fight the good fight” in Ephesus. What is the meaning of the Greek word translated “fight”? What is its significance, for Timothy, and for us in the modern church?
4. What did Paul mean regarding Hymenaeus and Alexander in saying he had “turned them over to Satan”? Does that have any application to modern church discipline? Why or why not? Regarding this disciplinary process of Paul’s, what additional understanding does 2 Corinthians 2:6-11 add?
How can you apply these insights in your life?