Commentary on 1 Timothy

Contents

In a few places the lemma printed in a passage belongs to a neighbouring verse (the digital text misnumbers verses); the passage keeps its staged number.

Reading pages: 0.1–2.13 · 3.1–4.13 · 5.1–6.20

1. 0.1Timothy, son of a Jewish mother and Greek father, was circumcised by Paul for the Jews’ sake and, now a bishop, is taught by letter how to order the church.
2. 1.1Paul, made an apostle by Father and Son, assures Timothy of his ordination and calls him his true son by spiritual begetting.
3. 1.3Paul asks Timothy, as one bishop to another, to stop Jewish teachers from distracting the church with genealogies and fleshly observances instead of the short way of faith.
4. 1.5Love from a pure heart is the goal of every command; those who would keep the law’s works after Christ teach what they do not understand.
5. 1.8The law is good when used rightly: its temporary works ceased with Christ, the justified live by the law of nature, and the written law was given because that natural law had been despised.
6. 1.12Paul thanks Christ, who strengthened his unbelieving mind and forgave his persecutions because they came from error, not from malice against known truth.
7. 1.15Christ came to save sinners, taking flesh without defilement and dying to destroy death, and his mercy to Paul, the chief of sinners, is an example for all who will believe.
8. 1.17The doxology belongs to God the Father, the source of all immortality and goodness, who is invisible and acts through the Son, who has been seen.
9. 1.18Timothy, ordained a bishop according to prophecy, must keep faith and a good conscience; Hymenaeus and Alexander, who blasphemed, were sentenced by Paul and handed to Satan to be punished in body so as to be corrected.
10. 2.1The church prays for rulers so that believers may live godly lives in peace; God wills all to be saved, but only those who freely come to him in faith.
11. 2.5Christ, one with the Father in nature yet distinct in person, became man to be the one mediator who reconciled God and humanity in himself.
12. 2.6Christ, dying unjustly, descended to the underworld, condemned death and freed its captives, and his resurrection is the testimony Paul was sent to preach to the gentiles.
13. 2.8Men should pray with a peaceable heart in any fitting place, not only in church.
14. 2.9Women should pray in humble dress, not displaying wealth, and should learn in silence, subject to men and not teaching or exercising authority.
15. 2.13Because the man was created first and the woman was deceived, she is to be humble; she will be saved through the birth of children reborn in faith, since the resurrection waits until all the predestined believe.
16. 3.1A bishop must be blameless and the husband of one wife: a second marriage is lawful, but a candidate for bishop should forgo even lawful things.
17. 3.2Paul lists the bishop’s virtues; one who has dedicated himself to God by not marrying is even more worthy.
18. 3.3One who cannot rule his own house cannot care for God’s church.
19. 3.6A new convert should not be ordained, since sudden honor breeds pride and the devil’s fall.
20. 3.7A bishop needs a good reputation with outsiders, since faithfulness in worldly dealings shows fitness for divine things, and a bishop whose life contradicts his preaching falls into the devil’s snare.
21. 3.8Deacons, the ministers of the priests, must be upright; Paul passes from bishops to deacons because bishop and presbyter share one ordination, the bishop being first among the presbyters.
22. 3.11The women Paul addresses must be blameless like the clergy; the Montanists wrongly use the verse to ordain deaconesses, against Paul’s command of women’s silence.
23. 3.12Deacons must have had only one wife, since God blesses only one marriage, and clergy who serve daily must abstain from their wives; the church, ruled today by Damasus, is God’s house, and the mystery of Christ is unfolded from incarnation to ascension.
24. 4.1The Spirit foretold heretics, such as the Marcionites, Patricians, and Manichees, who deny Christ’s birth, forbid marriage, and reject foods, though everything God made is good when received with thanksgiving.
25. 4.6Timothy, raised on the Hebrew Scriptures, will be a good minister if he hands on Christian teaching uncorrupted.
26. 4.7Fasting and bodily discipline profit little without godliness and mercy, which carry promise for this life and the next; the spiritual discipline the body for the resurrection.
27. 4.9God gives life to all but salvation especially to the faithful, and young Timothy must be an example of mature conduct to young and old.
28. 4.13A bishop must devote himself to reading, exhortation, and teaching, since grace for this was given at his ordination by prophecy and the laying on of hands, and he will answer for himself and his hearers.
29. 5.1Timothy is to correct each age and sex with fitting gentleness; Ambrosiaster laments that the church’s council of elders has fallen into disuse.
30. 5.3True widows are those who declined a second marriage, since a marriage is blessed once, following Anna’s example.
31. 5.4A widow must first prove herself by caring for her own family before being enrolled as a widow of the church.
32. 5.5The church should support a widow only when her own family neglects her; a true widow, left alone, places all her hope in God.
33. 5.6A widow who refused a second marriage to serve God but lives in pleasure is dead while living, an impostor in her profession.
34. 5.7Widows must live blamelessly, having left worldly hopes to serve God.
35. 5.8A widow who neglected her own family is worse than an unbeliever, for she despised the law she knew.
36. 5.9Only a widow over sixty, once married to one husband and proved by good works, is to be enrolled in the church’s records.
37. 5.11Young widows should not be enrolled, since many who professed widowhood turned back to pleasures and marriage.
38. 5.12A young widow who vows widowhood and then breaks it incurs condemnation, so such vows should not be made rashly.
39. 5.13Idle virgins and widows go from house to house among the rich, gossiping and flattering for gifts, against their profession.
40. 5.14Young widows should remarry and bear children rather than fall into adultery or idleness under a holy profession, which gives Satan his opportunity.
41. 5.16Believers must support their own widows so the church can care for true widows; in Ambrosiaster’s day the church is burdened with widows of rich families and even with women married two or three times.
42. 5.17Presbyters who rule and teach well deserve material support as well as honor, enough not to be in want.
43. 5.18Preachers should be paid neither too little nor too much, and accusations against presbyters, vicars of Christ, are not to be readily admitted.
44. 5.20A presbyter proved guilty is to be rebuked publicly as a warning to clergy and people.
45. 5.21Under solemn charge Timothy must test candidates’ lives before ordaining anyone, lest he share in their sins.
46. 5.23Paul’s advice to take a little wine teaches moderation in asceticism, so that excess does not weaken the body and distract the soul from God.
47. 5.24Some sins are plain now and others come to light after death or at the judgment; the steward of Christ must avoid known sinners, and hypocrites are worse than the openly wicked.
48. 6.1Christian slaves should honor their masters so that their faithful service may win the masters to the faith.
49. 6.2Slaves of Christian masters must serve them all the more, not despise them as brothers.
50. 6.3The Lord’s teaching should be made public so that pagan critics see it is blameless and are shamed by their own secret rites.
51. 6.4Those who reject sound teaching, love controversy, and treat religion as a means of gain are to be avoided.
52. 6.6Contentment with what one has is great gain for the believer, while greed harms oneself and others.
53. 6.7Since we bring nothing into the world and take nothing out, believers should be content with food and clothing, as Job confessed.
54. 6.9The love of money is the root of all evils, and a greedy cleric is especially harmful because many follow his example.
55. 6.11The man of God must flee greed and will be rewarded for it.
56. 6.12Timothy must pursue the virtues opposed to greed and fight the good fight of faith, recalling the confession he made at his baptism.
57. 6.13Paul charges Timothy and his successors to keep the commandment until Christ’s coming; the Father alone dwells in unapproachable light and has never been seen, while the Son, sharing all the Father has, is the one who appears.
58. 6.17The rich must hope in God, not wealth, and share their goods, gaining through this image of life the true and eternal life shown in Christ’s resurrection.
59. 6.20Paul ends by charging Timothy to guard the deposit and shun the falsely named knowledge of those who have abandoned the faith.