1 Timothy 1:19 - Homilies By R. Finlayson

"Some have made shipwreck." Words sound differently to different men. Language is a "word-picture," and we must see the facts before we understand the word. Paul chooses a metaphor applied to character, which is so terrible when applied to disasters at sea. Many a beautiful vessel has arrested the gaze of admiring spectators as she spread her sails to the favoring breeze, and breasted the waters like a thing of life. But, on another shore, her shivered timbers and her shattered prow have been washed up as the wreckage of a once gallant ship, her half-defaced name the only testimony to her fate. So Paul had seen men wrecked on the breakers of self-indulgence, vice , and folly. Paul associated loss of character with loss of faith. "Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having lint away have made shipwreck."

I. SHIPWRECK SOMETIMES COMES AT THE VERY COMMENCEMENT OF THE VOYAGE . The ship scarcely leaves the river before she runs aground. There has been too much self-confidence, and the Divine Pilot has not had the ship in hand.

II. SHIPWRECK SOMETIMES COMES AT THE CLOSE OF THE VOYAGE , when the ship is almost home; when from the masthead land was almost in sight. But the watch has not been kept. In the voyage of life we may have the cross on the flag, and the chart in the cabin, and the compass on the deck; but we sleep, as do others, and we are wrecked with the land almost in sight.

III. SHIPWRECK AFFECTS THE VERY HIGHEST ELEMENTS OF OUR BEING . "A good conscience," the sweetest meal to which ever a man sat down! The sublimest music, which no Beethoven or Mendelssohn can approach! The noblest heritage that a Moses could sacrifice Egypt for! A conscience cleansed by Christ's blood, enlightened by the Word of God, and quickened by the Holy Ghost. "A good conscience!" Wealth cannot purchase it, envy cannot steal it, poverty cannot harm it, and naught but sin can denude it of its crown. It is the strength of the confessor's endurance, the luster of the sufferer's countenance, the peace of the martyr's heart. "A good conscience." Wreck that , and all is lost; and the sun of the moral firmament sets in darkness.—W.M.S.

1 Timothy 1:1-11 . — Introduction.

1. Sender . "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and Christ Jesus our Hope." It is usual for Paul to begin his letters by taking the designation of apostle . He thus claimed to write, and to order ecclesiastical affairs, under infallible direction. In thus writing to Timothy, who had no special need of being reminded of his authority, he would seem to give an official character to the letter. While he claimed authority, it was, at the same time , as himself belonging to Christ Jesus. Not satisfied with stating to whom he belonged in the authority he exercised, he further traces his apostleship, not, as in previous Epistles, up to its primal source in the will of God, but more immediately to the commandment of God or actual appointment after his conversion. He received his appointment from God our Savior— a designation of God which in the New Testament is peculiar to the pastoral Epistles. It is introduced here as carrying with it the obligation on the part of Paul and Timothy to be the bearers of the Divine salvation to their fellow-men. He also received his appointment from Christ Jesus , whom he thus, the second time in the short space, introduces. By Christ, as acting for God, all appointments are made. The seven stars, i.e. Christian ministers, are held by him in his right hand; and he has the whole ordering of their locality and time of service. In this second introduction of his name he is designated our Hope , i.e. he from whom the appointed have their reward, and in whom it subsists.

2. To whom addressed . "Unto Timothy, my true child in faith." Not according to the flesh, but in the sphere of faith, was Timothy his child. Thus he is accustomed to regard his converts; he is both father and mother to them. We may, therefore, conclude that Timothy, though of godly parentage and with godly influences working efficaciously in him, owed it to Paul's instrumentality that he was converted to Christianity . It was in Lystra, a city of Lycaonia, on Paul's second visit , that Timothy joined him as his assistant . He was his true child , not only in his being his convert, but in his having the evidence of that in his being after the same stamp— like-minded, as he is called in Philippians 2:20 ; one who seemed instinctively to enter into his views and plans, and therefore, we may say, the ideal of an assistant .

3. Salutation . "Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord." The insertion of mercy in the salutation is a peculiarity of the Epistles to Timothy. There is invoked grace on him as unworthy , mercy on him as exposed to suffering , peace on him as the result of his being graciously and mercifully dealt with. The Source from which the blessing is invoked is God the lather . It is to the fatherly feeling in God—that which is highest in his nature, and with which redemption originated—that our appeal is to be made for saving blessings for ourselves and fur our friends. In the thought of Christ as the second Source of blessing, Paul finds occasion for the third introduction of the name of Christ. He is thought of as our Lord, i.e. the sovereign Dispenser of the saving blessings in his Father's house, of which there are enough and to spare.

I. CHARGE DEVOLVED ON TIMOTHY . "As I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine, neither to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, the which minister questionings, rather than a dispensation of God which is in faith; so do I now ." The time of the journey into Macedonia would seem to be after the first imprisonment at Rome, beyond the period included in the Acts of the Apostles. This brings the date of the Epistle well on to the close of the apostle's life. If this is correct, then Paul's confident anticipation of never again being in Ephesus was not verified. For it is here mentioned as his point of departure for Macedonia. He would have taken Timothy with him; but there were manifestations in the Church at Ephesus which necessitated him to leave him behind. There were certain persons not otherwise characterized, who taught a different doctrine, i.e. different from the gospel as preached by Paul. It could not be called a different gospel as in the Galatian Churches; it was rather something taught by itself which tended to frustrate the ends of the gospel. It was a giving heed to fables and endless genealogies . We come upon incipient Gnosticism here, of which we have already seen traces in the Epistle to the Colossians. This is best known as Eastern mysticism in contact with Christianity. But there seems reason to believe that there was a prior contact of Eastern mysticism with Judaism in the form of Essenism . This has many elements in common with Gnosticism; the peculiarity is that it is Jewish materials that are thrown into the mystic form. A great feature in Gnosticism is the interposing of intermediate agencies , to account for the creation of the world, supposed to be evil, so that God could not come into immediate contact with it in its creation. What were afterward known as eons or emanations, in the Epistle to the Colossians are called angels. Here the interminable genealogies found in rabbinical speculations are associated with the intermediate agencies. God created a being at a certain remove from himself, with a name which they were in a position to give. This being created another at a further remove from God, who also was named. The object was to come down to the name of one who was bad enough to create the world; but it was difficult to know where to stop. Upon these genealogies ingenuity was exercised; but, as there was nothing of the element of certainty in them, they only ministered questionings or disputings as to the names. What Timothy was to direct his efforts to was to set forth the dispensation of God which is in faith , i.e. the Divine order of things, as seen partly in creation and specially in redemption, in which faith can lay hold on certainty. "By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God , so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear." By filth also we understand that Infinite Love has in Christ Jesus provided a full atonement for our sins.

II. THE END OF THE CHARGE . "But the end of the charge is love." The link of connection is the charge to be given by Timothy to the false teachers. The thought which follows is, these teachers missing the aim of what is charged on them. We have here, then, not the end aimed at in others, as the end of the physician is health (which is Ellicott's idea), but plainly the end aimed at in what is charged on the teacher . The words are suitable to one who is receiving a charge . "What is the end of what I charge on you?" says the giver of the charge; "it is that you have your being filled with love." This is the qualification of the healer of the body: he must be thoroughly interested in the recovery of his patients. So it may be said to be the main qualification of the healer of the soul: he must be thoroughly interested in the spiritual health of those who are committed to his care.

1. The love of the teacher must be associated with pure elements . "Out of a pure heart." He must have, mingled with his affection, and giving character to it, an antipathy to sin in every form, to unreality, to superficiality; am a passion for holiness in every form, for reality, for depth.

2. The love of the teacher must be associated with conscientiousness . "And a good conscience." He must have, in the first place, a conscience that faithfully witnesses to his duty, to the methods he should follow in his work, to the forms of service his love for the people should take. And he must have, in the second place—which is also included in the scriptural idea of a good conscience— the approval of his own mind, the consciousness that he is using all diligence in carrying out his ideas of duty, in following his methods, in his endeavors to be serviceable .

3. The love of the teacher must be fed from the highest Source . "And faith unfeigned." His faith brings him into contact with an invisible Savior, by whom he is elevated in his whole spirit as a teacher, at the fountain of whose love his love is fed, and not only in intensity but in all that it needs of purity and direction. Only his faith must be unfeigned; for if it is not in his life, if it is only as a mask, then he can only come into contact with his own imaginings, by which certainly he cannot be elevated, from which source his love cannot properly be fed.

III. THE END MISSED . "From which things some having swerved have turned aside unto vain talking; desiring to be teachers of the Law, though they understand neither what they say, nor whereof they confidently affirm." The end was missed by the false teachers. They did not hit the purity of motive, conscientiousness, unfeignedness of faith, that should have given character to their affection. Being thus incapable of profitable discourse, they "turned aside unto vain talking." They gave themselves out to be "teachers of the Law," i.e. the Mosaic Law, especially the Law of the ten commandments, afterward referred to in detail. But they were doubly disqualified. They were confused in what they said. They were, therefore, different from the teachers of the Law who were opposed in the Churches of Galatia. For these were not chargeable with incoherencies; they knew well enough what they said in seeking to subvert Christian liberty. We are rather to think of mystical interpretation of the Law. They were further disqualified in not understanding their subject, viz. the Law; the confidence of their affirmations being in proportion to the extent of their ignorance.

IV. USE OF THE LAW . "But we know that the Law is good, if a man use it lawfully, as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for man-slayers, for fornicators, for abusers of themselves with men, for men-stealers, for liars, for false swearers, and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine." The apostle begins by laying down a proposition about the Law which no one would be disposed to controvert. It was a boon from Heaven if used according to its intention. In the next proposition he indicates the intention of the law as coming under the intention of all law. His position is, that law is not made for a righteous man. "Let us think of the relation in which a good man stands to the laws of his country. In one sense, indeed, he is under them; but in another and higher sense he is above them, and moves along his course with conscious freedom, as if he scarcely knew of their existence. For what is the object of such laws but to prevent, under severe penalties, the commission of crime? Crime, however, is already the object of his abhorrence; he needs no penalties to keep him from it. He would never harm the person or property of a neighbor, though there were not a single enactment in the statute-book on the subject. His own love of good and hatred of evil keep him in the path of rectitude, not the fines, imprisonments, or tortures which the law hangs around the path of the criminal. The law was not made for him ." As truly can it be said that the Law of the ten commandments is not made for the Christian, who is the righteous man. For he is justified by the faith of Christ, i.e. he is regarded as having fulfilled the whole Law in Christ. What more, then, has the Law to do with him? And further, so far as he answers to the conception of a Christian, he is sanctified by the faith of Christ. He is in Christ as the Source of his holiness. He has got beyond the discipline of the Law, inasmuch as he has got it already in his heart. Thus does the apostle take the ground from under the would-be teachers of the Law, whose position would be that the Law mystically interpreted was necessary to putting the crown of perfection on the Christian. The Law is made for unrighteous persons , of whom many classes are mentioned. These are grouped with reference to the two tables of the Law. Under the head of breakers of the first table, i.e. the unrighteous toward God, are given six classes in pairs. There are the lawless and unruly . With aggravation, they refuse to be under law, making their own pleasure their law. There are the ungodly and sinners . They have thrown off all awe of God. There are the unholy and profane . Instead of being consecrated to God, they trample on holy things. If the division of commandments had been followed, the classes would have been deniers of God, idolaters, the profane, sabbath-breakers. Generally, it is disregard of what is Divine that is brought out under this head. Under the second head, of breakers of the second table, i.e. the unrighteous toward man, are given eight classes. Six of them in pairs. Here the division of commandments is followed. There are murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers . "Smiters" is preferred by some. These are the breakers of the fifth commandment with the greatest aggravation. Next by itself stands the class of man-slayers . These are the breakers of the sixth commandment. There are fornicators and abusers of themselves with men . These workers of abomination are the breakers of the seventh commandment. Next by itself stands the class of men-stealers . The apostle puts the man-stealer as the most flagrant of all breakers of the eighth commandment. No theft of a man's goods can be compared with that most atrocious act which steals the man himself , and robs him of that free will which is the first gift of his Creator. And of this crime all are guilty who, whether directly or indirectly, are engaged in, or uphold, from whatever pretence, the making or keeping of slaves. There are liars and false swearers . These are the breakers of the ninth commandment. He does not go on to the breakers of the tenth commandment, hut concludes with the greatest inclusiveness, "And if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine" ( i . e . not morbid, as the teaching of the mystical interpreters). The apostle's position is that the Law is made for all these unrighteous persons. But for things being in an abnormal state there would not have been the writing down of so plain duties in the Ten Commandments, especially in the form, "Thou shalt not." The Law is made for sinners, in being intended to hold up before them a proper representation of righteousness, by which, if they are convicted, they should also feel shut up to the righteousness which is by filth. Has the Law, then, no use for the Christian? Only in so far as he is not Christianized. It is of use in keeping him under grace as the source of his security and happiness. And it is of use in so far as it holds up a representation of righteousness that reaches beyond his attainment. The truth is well brought out in one of the symbolical books of the Lutherans. "Although the Law was not made for the righteous (as the apostle testifies, 1 Timothy 1:9 ), yet this is not to be understood as if the righteous might live without law; for the Divine Law is written upon their hearts. The true and genuine meaning, therefore, of Paul's words is, that the Law cannot bring those who have been reconciled to God through Christ under its curse, and that its restraint cannot be irksome to the renewed, since they delight in the Law of God after the inner man. But believers are not completely and perfectly renewed in this life; and though their sins are covered by the absolutely perfect obedience of Christ, so as not to be imputed to believers to their condemnation, and though the mortification of the old Adam and the renovation in the spirit of their mind has been begun by the Holy Spirit, yet the old Adam still remains in nature's powers and affections."

V. ACCORDANCE WITH THE GOSPEL . "According to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust." The gospel may be presented either in relation to man, or in relation to God. In relation to man, the gospel is manifold. It is a gospel of peace; it quiets the guilty conscience. It is a gospel of purity; it purifies the heart. It is a gospel of comfort; it imparts to us a strong consolation under all the ills of this life. It is a gospel of hope; it opens up to us beyond this bounded life the boundless prospect of the life everlasting. In relation to God, too, the gospel is manifold. It is the gospel of a righteous God; it is a satisfaction of Divine justice. It is the gospel of a gracious God; it is an overflow of Divine mercy and compassion. It is the gospel of a wise God; it is the application of Divine intelligence to a very difficult problem. It is the gospel of an almighty God; it is an agency charged with Divine power. It is here the gospel, not of a righteous God, not of a gracious God, not of a wise God, not of an almighty God, but of a blessed God. And in this connection it is put forward as embodying the glory of the blessed God. "The gospel of the glory of the blessed God." Such are the words of Paul, the great gospel preacher, to his pupil Timothy. Consider, in the first place, how it belongs to the blessed God to communicate his blessedness; and, in the second place, how the gospel is a communication of the glory of the blessedness of God. First, then, how it belongs to the blessed God to communicate his blessedness . The "blessed God" is an uncommon conception in Scripture. We indeed find—"Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" "The Creator, who is blessed forever.... God blessed for ever." But "blessed" there is adorable, worthy to be praised; literally, "worthy to be well spoken of." It is the word which conveys an acknowledgment of God's claim to undivided worship. Whereas "blessed" here is equivalent to "happy" as applied to us. God is said to be blessed, as we are said to be happy. And seeing "blessed' is used in a totally different sense in Scripture, the "happy God" would best convey the sense here. And we see no reason why we should not say that God is happy, when in the original the word which is applied to God is the same which is applied to man. There is only one other place in Scripture where God is said to be thus blessed; and, noticeably, it is in this same Epistle: "The blessed and only Potentate;" literally, "the happy and only Potentate." It is as if the inspired writer consciously supplied a want. it had never been said that God was happy. So twice he introduces this conception into this late Epistle. And it is to be regretted that in the Revised Version "happy" has not been substituted for "blessed" in the two places. The blessedness of God is not different in kind from ours. If there is any deep calm in our minds, that is the same with the calm of God. If any true thrill of joy passes through our hearts, that is the same which passes through the heart of God. But blessedness is God's in a way that it is not ours. We are only blessed in him who gave us being, and for whom we have being. And ours is a blessedness that can be added to. We are finite, and there will always be, in the fact of our finitude, a desire to be more blessed. But God is self-blessed . We think of this by means of the conception of God existing far away in a past eternity, when there was yet no other intelligence, not even the faintest reflection of his glory in any created object, and as happy then as now when he has peopled a universe. Such a thought is not bearable by us, and God has not asked us to dwell upon it; and we would say that, while we may be forced thus to think of Godhead as self-poised, or resting in self, we may at the same time be allowed to dwell upon the far more pleasing thought of the Three Persons of the Godhead as resting in one another. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are happy in one another's society and fellowship. It will be felt that that thought, which is denied to the Unitarian, greatly relieves the thought of a God isolated , in his blessedness, away before and out of time. Still the fact remains, that as the one God is infinitely blessed, so also he is blessed in himself. As there is in his boundless being no void of blessedness to fill up, no jarring note to correct, so there can be no desire to make himself more blessed. But it perfectly consists with that that he should desire to make others blessed. This is in keeping with what we find among men. It is true of the miserable man that he is selfish. It is there that he is wrong, at the very commencement. In the very act of enclosing himself, or in the habit of keeping himself enclosed within his own shell, he shuts himself out from blessedness. He does not go out to God. At every approach and overture of God, he draws back further within himself. His sin is that he will keep within himself, and will not go out in confession and desire and faith toward God. And so God does not bless him. He does not go out in love to God's creatures, and so these do not bless him. And thus, shutting himself out from blessedness, his tendency is to grudge blessedness to others. He has a secret joy in misfortune, tie could see a funeral pall drawn over all that is fair in nature, He would have the smile to vanish from our countenance. He would have sweet voices hushed. He would have all things brought down to his own dull level. And, worst outcome of all—yet we would say a necessary outcome—he grudges even God his blessedness. His feeling is that, being miserable himself, he could see God less happy than he is. The happy man, on the other hand, is unselfish. It is by being open that he comes to be happy. He goes out to God in meek abnegation of self, and so God blesses him. He goes out to God's creatures in delight and gratitude and mercy, and so he receives contributions to his happiness on every side.

Now, just as the miserable man would have a miserable world around him, so the happy man would have a happy world around him. He would distribute happiness most lavishly. He would admit all to a share of it. He would have all to be happy as he is happy. "I would to God," said Paul to Agrippa, "that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds ." The happy man is magnanimous; he wishes ill to no one; he invokes blessing even upon his enemies. Out of his own heart of blessedness there seems to rise the desire to make others blessed. And so, although God can have no desire to make himself more blessed, yet, being full of blessedness himself, he desires to make others blessed. Creation may be taken as an expression of that desire on the part of God. Creation is just God flowing out in blessedness. It is God saying, "Let me not keep my blessedness to myself; let others be blessed with me." What purpose in creation can we conceive into which that does not enter? It is true that we are created to give praise to God; but that is more from our side. Front God's side, it is perhaps better to say that he created us, not so much that he might receive our praise, as that we might receive his blessedness. God, we may suppose, would not have created for the mere purpose of creating, however pleasurable that is to him. Neither would he have created merely to have a sphere for the exercise of his power. What to him were empty worlds in which to store up his power, through which at will to roll the thunder of his power? N-either would he have created for the mere pleasure of working according to a plan, or of having the marvels of his wisdom set forth before him. What to hint were the clothing matter with plants and trees, touching each minutest part with his plastic hand, and varying every form? The blessed God created, not to have pleasure himself, but to give pleasure. It was that, we think, that moved him to create. And therefore he made living creatures—creatures capable of receiving pleasure. And he cared for having nothing in the world which was not to bless them. From the tiniest insect that dances out its lifetime in a summer sun, through all the orders of living beings up to man himself, invested with lordship, he has only one design—to make existence pleasurable to iris creatures. True, there is evil in the world, reaching down from man to the other creatures which necessarily share with him his earthly lot. But there is reason for the evil; and the evil, it is to be observed, is not in the creation. It has been induced on an all-good creation. In no case does God as a final end make a being to inflict pain on it. And even as it is, with the evil introduced into our world, who will say that God intends our destruction? It would have been a very different world if there had been the shadowing forth of any such intention. It is of things as they are that Paul says, taking a broad retrospective view of God's dealings in providence, "He left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." He would not continue to make provision for our support, did he mean our destruction. And not only does he make provision for our support, but he gives us all things richly to enjoy. He gives us food, and the other necessaries of life in abundance. And not only so, but he gives us many things for the mere pleasure of them. He arranges objects in nature with a regard to beauty. He richly colors them; he floods them with a kindly light, He gives us flowers; he gives us the song of birds, He gives us rainbows and sunsets, and clouds of many a form. And he curtains the earth, that he may show us the glory of the starry heavens. And all these things he gives us chiefly as luxuries. We say, then, that even in nature God testifies to his desire, to his intention to make us happy. Even in nature, which has been spoken of as "red in tooth and claw with fawn," God gives us the promise of the coming gospel. Consider, in the second place, how the gospel is a communication of the glory of the blessedness of God . We remark

1 Timothy 1:12-17 . — Personal digression.

I. THANKFULNESS FOR BEING APPOINTED BY CHRIST TO HIS SERVICE . "I thank him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that he counted me faithful, appointing me to his service." At the close of the eleventh verse Paul brings in his relation to the gospel of the glory of the happy God. It was a trust committed to him, i.e. it was made his great business to convey the message of happiness to his fellow-men. And as He was made responsible, so also He was empowered. He was not sent a warfare on his own charges. He was supplied with all that was necessary for the discharge of the duties connected with the trust. And so he cannot refrain from turning aside for a little, to pour forth his soul in gratitude to him who empowered him as he also gave him the trust, even Christ Jesus our Lord, the great Head of the Church, from whom proceed all ministerial appointments and all ministerial qualifications. What called forth his gratitude was, that Christ reposed confidence in him in appointing him to his service. He saw that he was one who could be used and trusted for the furtherance of the gospel; and so he gave him the appointment and the qualifications. To be assured of this as Paul was is great joy. How thankful ministers should be, if they have some evidence, in their own earnestness and in the fruits of their ministry, that they have not mistaken their calling!

II. THE CONSIDERATION OF HIS PREVIOUS LIFE . "Though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: howbeit I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." The gratitude of the apostle was enhanced by the consideration of his persecuting career. He was before a blasphemer, his evil speaking being directed against the Name of Jesus of Nazareth. He was also a persecutor even in this respect, that he compelled others to blaspheme. And he rose to the full conception of a persecutor in the tyrannical way in which he went about the work of' persecution. At this stage of his life he was far removed from being the minister of Christ. But though he showed no mercy, he obtained mercy. There was this to be said for him, that what he did against Christ he did ignorantly . He acted under an erroneous impression. It was not that he knew Christ to be the Son of God, and hated him for his Divine credentials, especially because he manifested the Divine goodness. But he was carried away by zeal for the Jewish religion, which, he thought, was greatly endangered by the triumphs of Christianity. He was thus not in the most direct , most deliberate way, against Christ. And, so far as he was not throwing away the most sacred convictions, he was within the pale of mercy. He was within the scope of the Savior's intercession from the throne, if we are to regard it as conformed to his intercession from the cross, which was in these words: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do"—words which are echoed by Peter in his address to the Jews, "And now, brethren, I wet that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers." It was in a state of unbelief that he was ignorant. This implied that he had not followed his lights as others had followed theirs, not greater than his. He had been directed away from Christianity by confidence in his own righteousness. And be had given way to the disposition, so natural to the depraved heart, to make a tyrannical use of power. He was, therefore, most culpable, standing in need of repentance and forgiveness, as Peter went on to impress on the Jews in the address just referred to: "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."

III. GRACE ABOUNDING EXCEEDINGLY . "And the grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." In Romans 5:1-21 . Paul says of sin that it abounded; here the same word is used of grace, with an addition to it which gives it the force of a superlative. He labors to express the stretch of grace which our Lord had to make toward him when he, a guilty persecutor, was saved. His salvation was accompanied by the two graces , faith and love . From being a disbeliever in Christianity he became a humble believer in it, even preaching the faith of which formerly he made havoc. From having the spirit of the persecutor he came to have the spirit of the Christian, forgiving those who persecuted him, and seeking to subdue men, not by force, but by the power of Christian truth and example. It is said of this love that it is in Christ Jesus—subsisting in him, and determined in its outgoings by him. We can understand that his own experience of salvation had to do with his eminence as a minister of Christ. It filled him with deep personal gratitude to his Savior. It urged him to labor, so as to take revenge on himself for the evil he had done. It fitted him for sympathizing with others in such condition as that in which he had been. And it enabled him the better to understand the sweet gentle spirit of the religion of Christ, that he could contrast it with his own unlovely persecuting zeal.

IV. THE GOSPEL THROUGH WHICH GRACE OPERATED .

1. Reliableness of the gospel . "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation." When our Epistle was written, this was one of the sayings that passed as proverbs in Christian circles. This profatory formula is peculiar to the pastoral Epistles. The first clause, which occurs five times, points to the certitude of the gospel. The would-be teachers of the Law—apparently Essenes—dealt in fables for which there was no ground of certainty, and in genealogies or namings of intermediate agencies, which only ministered disputings as to the names. The apostle regards the gospel as the embodiment of certainty. Venturing our immortal souls upon the truth of this saying, it will not prove a myth, but a glorious reality. The second clause, which occurs twice, points to the saying as worthy of a universal welcome. Let all men lay hold upon it as an essentially good saying—good for the whole nature; it is only the reception it deserves.

2. Particular form in which the gospel is presented . "That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." This is the gospel in all simplicity, to which the aged apostle cleaves. The Anointed of God for salvation said of himself, "I came out from the Father, and am come into the world." The world is to be understood in the physical sense; it is the earth, however, not in the purity of the conception, but the earth as it has become the congenial abode for sinners. It could not be said of Christ when he was here, that this was his original or congenial abode. He came into the world, he came from a pure world, from the Father, and that meant a world of highest purity. And what drew him to this world, with all its uncongeniality? Jesus, the Name which he has made his own, the Name which is above every name, points to his nature as love. It is of the nature of love to find a congenial outlet in saving. But whom on this earth did Christ come to save? Men who were wronged, upon whom superhuman powers were causelessly inflicting tortures? Did he come to assert their innocence against their strong oppressors? No; men who were in the wrong themselves, who were wrongers of God, and were the causes of their own misery. It was sinners that drew the Savior down to earth. He longed to save them from their misery, from themselves as the guilty causes of their misery, from their sinful habits and associations, and to make them pure as the heaven from which he came. In saving sinners, he had to suffer from sinners, in his purity coming into contact with their impurity, and exposing him to their hate. He had especially to suffer in the room of sinners, in all the loneliness of a pure, perfect life, treading the wine-press of the Divine wrath against sin.

3. Individualization of the gospel . "Of whom I am chief." He was not at the head of sinners in this sense, that at one time he had reached a point beyond which sinning could not go in heinousness. He had not committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. He had not sinned like Judas, in close neighborhood to Christ and in clear impression of his Divinity. He had never been, in sinning, beyond the pale of mercy. Neither was he in the position to compare himself with all who had obtained mercy, and to say infallibly that he was the greatest of them all. But he was at the head of sinners in his sense of his own utter unworthiness apart from Christ. That unworthiness he viewed chiefly, we may say, in the lurid light of his persecuting career. It was so complete a self-revelation, that he could not keep it from coming up before his imagination when he thought of sell. But this self-revelation was not all before his conversion. He knew how self was ever seeking to mingle with all he did. In the whole discovery, then, of what he was apart from Christ, as one for whom the gospel was intended, he could say in all truthfulness of feeling, and with no decrease of truthfulness as he advanced in the Christian life, but rather an increase, that he was at the head of the class of sinners.

V. ENCOURAGEMENT TO SINNERS . "Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his long-suffering, for an ensample of them which should hereafter believe on him unto eternal life." There was a fitness in Paul as chief in obtaining mercy also coming at an early period in the history of the Christian Church, for the sake of future generations. He was a typical illustration in what happened in his case of the fullness of the long-suffering of Christ. For the first thirty years of his life he was going in the wrong direction altogether. As he drew near the end of that period he seemed far enough away from believing, in the active violent part he took against Christ. But Christ did not, as he could have done, make his hostility to recoil upon his own head. But he treated him magnanimously, as one who is conscious of pure intention and forgiving love can do his foe. He treated him without haste, giving him space for experience, for thinking about the Divine dealing, and for seeing his error. And, in the end, Paul was subdued into believing, to the praise of the long-suffering of Christ. Whoever thinks he is far enough away from believing, in resistance to the Divine leadings, in hostility offered to Christ, Paul would have him to be encouraged by his example to believe on Christ, the certain end, of this believing being eternal life, or possession, up to our capacity, of the blessedness of the Divine life.

VI. DOXOLOGY . "Now unto the King eternal, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." The apostle concludes his personal digression with a doxology which is unique in its character, and, we may be sure, appropriate. God is styled, as he is nowhere else in the Scriptures, literally "King of the ages," i.e. Sovereign Controller of the vast periods under which centuries and millenniums are included. Outside of them himself in his absolute eternity, he sways all that takes place in them. He can be long-suffering as he is in Christ; he does not need to be in haste, having the ages in which to work out his purposes. He is also styled "incorruptible," as he is also in Romans 1:23 ; and "invisible," as he is in Colossians 1:15 and Hebrews 2:1-18 :27. There is great difficulty in all religions in rising above gross notions of God. As a pure Spirit there is denied of him the corruptibility and visibility which pertain to our corporeal nature. There is not, therefore, permitted a corporeal representation, or any image of him, as tending to degrade our conception of him. He is further styled "the only God," as in 1 Timothy 6:15 he is styled " the only Potentate." This seems to be chiefly directed against the Essene religion, which invested their intermediate agents with Divine powers of creation. To God, as thus exalted, is ascribed, with a fullness of expression, honor and glory (as in Revelation 5:13 ) to the ages of ages over which the Divine existence extends.—R.F.

1 Timothy 1:18-20 . — Recurrence to Timothy.

1. The charge . "This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that by them thou mayest war the good warfare; holding faith and a good conscience." The reference seems back to 1 Timothy 1:3 , which, though distant, is the only charge which has been defined, viz. the charge laid on Timothy , that he should charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine, neither to give heed to fables and endless genealogies. This involved his coming into contact with these men, and so there is naturally introduced the idea of warfare, He was to embrace his opportunity in Ephesus of warring the good warfare. "Knighthood" is Luther's word, the suggestion being the whole service in war that is required of a good Christian knight, such as he would wish the youthful Timothy to be. It is the good warfare; for it is not mere romance, but a warfare against all forms of sin—a warfare in the Name of the Savior and with his gospel, and a warfare which has the promise of success. To call forth the knightly qualities in Timothy, Paul calls up the prophecies which went before on him. These were founded on the good hopes which he awakened in good men, when first he began to show his qualities; he must not disappoint these good hopes. As prophecies, or uttered under the inspiration of the Spirit prior to or at his introduction into office, they were to be taken as a Divine indication that he was being put to his proper work. They would also, we may believe, point to the hard work which, as a good knight, he would not fear to face. Thus using the prophecies, they would be a Divine assistance to him; they would be as amour in which he was clad. Especially, however, with a view to what is to follow, would the apostle impress on him the importance of holding faith and a good conscience. Prophecies, expressions of good opinion, are only useful in so far as they help us to lay hold by faith upon the great Source of strength, in whom alone we can show all knightly activity and endurance. They are also useful, only if we do not allow them to seduce us to part with a good conscience, our better self—that inward monitor that from moment to moment points to us our duty, and in whose approval we can feel that we have the approval of God.

2. Warning . "Which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith: of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme." For Timothy's warning, Paul points to the heretics. Instead of holding faith and a good conscience, these thrust away from them the latter, as men, with a certain violence, put away something that is disagreeable. Their truest friend they thrust aside, as they would a troublesome creditor. The result was, that they made shipwreck of their faith. Throwing away all that was needed to direct them, all that served as chart, compass, rudder, they made shipwreck of themselves concerning faith in Christ, thus coming short of eternal life. How disastrous, especially for those who seemed to make a fair start in the voyage of life! The teaching of the apostle is suggestive regarding the causes of heresy. "As unbelief nearly always leads to grosser or more refined immorality, so not rarely it begins from an immoral ground, at least when faith existed before ( Romans 1:21 ). This is a deep mental truth; for it is far too common to represent faith or infidelity as a matter of abstract opinion." Earnestness in life leads to correct opinion ( John 7:17 ), whereas moral indifference makes it for Our interest to doubt. Heresies have a secret moral genesis which will one day be made plain. Two notable heretics are mentioned here—Hymenaeus and Alexander. In 2 Timothy 2:17 Hymenaeus is associated with Philetus in this, that their teaching did eat like a cancer. He and Alexander (not the coppersmith of 2 Timothy 4:14 ) are here referred to as having been delivered unto Satan . This seems strong language to us who have nothing to impress us in the shape of such apostolic discipline in our time. It is properly regarded as "a form of Christian excommunication, declaring the person to be reduced to the state of a heathen, accompanied with the authoritative infliction of bodily disease or death." In this case the infliction of punishment was with a view to reformation. There was nothing to hinder their being received back into the Christian Church. Their probation was not at an end; there was reason for further dealing, and what was suitable to their case was the hard. dealing here referred to. Better that men should be excommunicated—with which power the Church is still invested—better that men should have disease sent upon them, than that they should remain in a state of religious indifference or be spreaders of error.—R.F.