1 Timothy

06
Jun
2022

Did Jesus Die For Everyone?

Did Jesus Die For Everyone

Who can be saved? Did Jesus die for everyone? These are the questions Paul is dealing with at the beginning of 1 Timothy 2. Paul summarized the problems in Ephesus in the first chapter. He now transitions to the correction of these problems. First among them was to correct the notion about which people were eligible for salvation.

At first glance, it seems that vv. 1-7 are about praying. If we aren’t observant, we might think that Paul is simply encouraging people to pray. This is actually not the case. Paul’s concern is that someone was teaching the Ephesians that the gospel is not for everyone. 

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in 1 Timothy, Gospel
23
May
2022

What Does It Mean To Be “Handed Over To Satan?”

Handed Over To Satan
Image by Monique Stokman from Pixabay

On two different occasions when discussing unrepentant Christians, the apostle Paul said that they had been “handed over to Satan.” 

you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Cor. 5:5 ESV)

19 By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Tim. 1:19–20 ESV)

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in 1 Timothy, Church
02
May
2022

What 1 Timothy 1 Tells Us About False Teachers

False Teachers

There is no shortage of false teachers. False teachers abound today just as they did in the earliest days of the church. They have sown chaos and led people astray for centuries and will continue to do so. 

The term “false teacher” often gets thrown around casually today. Some people will accuse a person of being a false teacher if he holds to some trivial matter which disagrees with local congregational consensus. The New Testament doesn’t use the term “false teacher” the way many people do today. How does the Bible define a false teacher? Let’s make a few observations from 1 Timothy 1 and notice some traits of real false teachers.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in 1 Timothy
25
Apr
2022

What 1 Timothy 1 Tells Us About False Teaching

False Teaching

False teaching always has consequences. We can’t be taught wrong and live right. False teaching was taking place in Ephesus resulting in extremely poor conduct in the Ephesian church. Paul wrote his first letter to Timothy to teach the Christians in Ephesus how they should conduct themselves as members of God’s family. 

Paul never details for us exactly what the false teachings in Ephesus were. Nevertheless, we can learn a few things about false teaching in general in the first chapter of 1 Timothy.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in 1 Timothy
18
Apr
2022

Paul Is Hard To Understand

Hard To Understand
Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay

…our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them…  (2 Pet. 3:15–16 CSB17)

As we noted in the overview of 1 Timothy, we have to read between the lines when studying this letter. We are, after all, reading someone else’s mail. When we have access to only one side of a conversation, we have to attempt to fill in the gaps. 

Some of these gaps come in the form of following Paul’s flow of thought from one paragraph to the next. There are a couple of times in the first chapter of 1 Timothy where it appears that Paul abruptly changes subjects. At first glance, it is not always obvious how the paragraphs relate to each other. 

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in 1 Timothy, Hermeneutics