Lutheran Church of the Holy Redeemer

Wednesday Morning Bible Study

First Timothy

Introduction

In coming to any understanding of this or any other Biblical material, context is a key element. For the purposes of this letter there are three areas of context that will be important to keep in focus.

1. St. Paul: What do we know about Paul

a. He was a Jew. Paul was trained as a Pharisee. As such, Torah was of central importance. There was belief in the absolute adherence to the Torah, the written tradition contained in the commandments. There was second Torah, also believed to have been given to Moses on Mt. Sinai which came down the mountain with him. This was an oral Torah that was explanatory of the written Torah. There is evidence of this oral tradition contained in the content of the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. You can see it as you look at Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments. Immediately following the giving of the commandments, there is a break in the story of the exodus to discuss many laws that revolve around the Ten Commandments. Each of the laws relates to the ten as a further explanation of the ten. These reflect part of that tradition. In addition, there are other extra-biblical books such as the Mishnah that reflect years of rabbinical arguments about the Torah and the keeping of the law. The question that rotates around these traditions is always, how does one keep the law? How does one remain holy as the Lord our God is Holy? The plethora of laws attempts to give a catalogue of ways to observe and keep the laws and therefore remain holy.

b. Paul was schooled at the feet of Rabbi Gameliel, one of the foremost rabbis of the day. He would have studied at the feet of this rabbit from young on. His life was steeped in the teachings of Torah and his life revolved around the full and complete obedience to it.

c. Paul received a conversion by Christ Jesus on the road to Damascus. This was a pivotal moment in the life of the apostle. Paul went from not only being a follower of the law, but a zealous purifier of the faith. Paul (then Saul) was recorded as being in attendance and the instigator of the execution of Stephen the martyr. He was proud of the moment, and in fact thought that he was doing God a favor by eliminating these heretics. Following his encounter on the road, Paul became the apostle designated to the gentiles. There is a divine justice in this. Paul the Pharisee was practiced separation from the gentiles as a way of life was now sent to bring them the good news of the Christ that he sought to exterminate from society.

d. Paul was a Roman citizen. Born in a Roman province, Paul was a citizen of Rome, a fact that would play heavily in the later part of his life when he was finally arrested by Rome for his teachings. Paul’s claim to citizenship meant that he was not thrown into a Roman prison, but was placed under house arrest. It also meant that at the time of his execution, he would not face the cross. Roman citizens were not allowed to be crucified.

2. Timothy

a. We know that Timothy was a Christians, brought up by his mother and his grandmother Eunice. His father was not.

b. Timothy accompanied Paul on several of his missionary journeys and was a coworker with Paul in the founding of the Christian church.

c. Timothy was a leader of the church which he helped to found.

d. These letters are instruction to Timothy in the work of ordering and leading the church in the work of Christ.

3. The Word of God

a. Our Lutheran perspective on the Word of God comes from the work and teaching of Martin Luther. Luther considered the Bible as the Word of God as the manger in which we find the infant Jesus cradled. The Book becomes the Word of God as it reveals the Living Word (John 1) who became flesh and dwelt among us – Jesus Christ.

b. As such, the Bible as the Word of God comes in two varieties:

i. The Law – that expression of God’s holy and immutable will. God holds the right to set rules and commandments. These are the expressions of “thou shalt. . . and thou shalt not. . .” In Luther’s thinking, the law also acts like a mirror into which we look. However, what we see reflected back to us is always the way we have failed to keep the law. We see reflected the impossibility of our keeping the law and meeting God’s demands, therefore the law is not ever able to save us. It will always condemn us by showing our sin. We confess this reality every week, “We confess that we are in bondage to sin, and cannot free ourselves. . . We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.”

ii. The Gospel – this doesn’t express God’s demand, but expresses what God has done for us in the gap of our sin and our failure. The gospel leads us to the cross of Christ where we find God’s satisfaction for our failures.

c. These two components are always running into each other and clashing. It becomes the task of understanding the scriptures to sort out what is law and what is gospel.