In today's passage Paul is going to remind Timothy of his calling in the Lord. At some point during Paul's friendship with Timothy, it appears that the Lord revealed something to the leaders of the church regarding Timothy's future. Paul will also mention two wicked men who have denied the faith.
"Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith." (1 Timothy 1:18-19) We don't know what prophecies Paul is referring to, but I don't believe he's talking about Old Testament prophecies being fulfilled by Timothy. I think that the Lord probably revealed something to the apostles or elders of the church regarding Timothy. In our day most churches don't seem to place much emphasis on this type of prophetic messages, but the Holy Spirit is still revealing things to the people of the Lord. There have been occasions when He's told me ahead of time about something He's going to do for one of my loved ones, for my church, or for me.
The Lord has commissioned Timothy to do great things, and history tells us that he became the bishop of the large Christian church at Ephesus. Paul reminds Timothy of his commission in order to encourage him so he "may fight the battle well". We all need encouragement from time to time to keep on fighting the battle well.
Paul says that some have not held onto their faith and have not lived in a way that allows them to have a good conscience. He says they've rejected the faith and have "suffered shipwreck". He is going to mention two of these fellows by name, and I think he may be using them as examples in order to say to Timothy, "Don't let this happen to you!".
"Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme." (1 Timothy 1:20) In 2 Timothy 2 we will find Paul mentioning Hymenaeus again, saying that he is teaching that the resurrection has already taken place, "destroying the faith of some". We can't know exactly what Hymenaeus was teaching. Some scholars think he was teaching a spiritual resurrection and not a bodily resurrection. Some think he was telling people that the only ones who were going to be resurrected had already been called up to be with Christ. It's hard to say what his particular doctrine was, but it was a dangerous doctrine. It was a doctrine that caused some to have no interest in coming to the faith, and it caused others to lose the faith they already had.
Alexander is probably the same Alexander whom Paul will mention in 2 Timothy 4:14-15, "Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message." (2 Timothy 4:14-15) Is Paul referring to Alexander as a "metalworker" in order to distinguish him from other Alexanders he knows? Or is there something important about the fact that he's a metalworker? I can't help but wonder if Alexander used his skills as a metalworker to fashion idols. If so, that easily explains why he opposed the gospel message. He would have been losing a lot of business if many of his customers converted to Christianity.
Paul says he has delivered these two men to Satan so they will learn not to blaspheme. No one knows what this involved, but he made a similar statement in 1 Corinthians 5:5 about the man in the church who was carrying on an affair with his step-mother. Some scholars believe he's talking about excommunicating church members who are living openly in sin with an unrepentant attitude. By putting such people outside the church, they were removing the protection of the church from them, and perhaps in that sense "handing them over to Satan". But we see from Paul's words in 1st Timothy and in 1st Corinthians that the intention was not to leave the person out in the darkness forever, but to compel the person to repent. Paul wants Hymenaeus and Alexander to repent and learn not to blaspheme. Paul wants the man of Corinth to repent and stop living in sexual immorality. The man of Corinth did repent, and when he did, Paul instructed the Corinthian church to welcome him back as their brother in Christ.
In today's passage we see a man---Timothy---who fulfilled his calling in the Lord. We don't know whether Hymenaeus and Alexander ever repented and answered the call of the Lord or not. I hope so, but if they didn't we don't want to be like them. Paul is saying to us, "Don't let this happen to you! Hold onto your faith. Fight the good fight. Don't stray from sound doctrine. If you hold onto what you know to be true on the authority of God's word, you will be able to stand strong and fulfill your calling in the Lord."
No comments:
Post a Comment