Analysis Of The Chapter
This chapter 1 Timothy 1 comprises the following subjects:
(1) The salutation to Timothy, in the usual manner in which Paul introduces his epistles; 1 Timothy 1:1-2.
(2) The purpose for which he had left him at Ephesus; 1 Timothy 1:3-4. It was that he might correct the false instructions of some of the teachers there, and especially, as it would seem, in regard to the true use of the law. They gave undue importance to somethings in the laws of Moses; they did not understand the true nature and design of his laws; and they mingled in their instructions much that was mere fable.
(3) The true use and design of the law; 1 Timothy 1:5-11. It was to produce love not vain jangling. It was not made to fetter the conscience by vain and troublesome austerities and ceremonies; it was to restrain and bind the wicked. The use of the law, according to these teachers, and according to the prevailing Jewish notions, was to prescribe a great number of formalities, and to secure outward conformity in a great variety of cumbrous rites and ceremonies. Paul instructs Timothy to teach them that love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience, was the elementary principle of religion, and that the “law” was primarily designed to restrain and control the wicked, and that the gospel brought to light and enforced this important truth.
(4) The mention of the gospel in this connection, leads Paul to express his thanks to God that he had been entrusted with this message of salvation; 1 Timothy 1:12-17. Once he had the same views as others. But he had obtained mercy, and he was permitted to publish that glorious gospel which had shed such light on the law of God, and which had revealed a plan of salvation that was worthy of universal acceleration.
(5) This solemn duty of preaching the gospel he commits now to Timothy, 1 Timothy 1:18-20. He says that he had been called to the work in accordance with the prophecies which had been uttered of him in anticipation of his future usefulness in the church, and in the expectation that he would not, like some others, make shipwreck of his faith.