Thursday September 29, 2022

Happy Thursday friend, I pray you are having a great week in the Lord. On Monday, I started a new blog series on the Pastoral Epistles.  If you have not read that, I would encourage you to do so. Let's continue looking at these great letters from Paul.

1st Timothy 1: 2
  2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is one interesting thing I want to draw your attention to in vs. 2. The Pastoral Epistles are the only place where Paul uses the triple blessing of grace, mercy, and peace. In his other letters, he does not include the word mercy. We do not know the reason that Paul added this extra word-so I will not speculate, but I do think it is interesting. 

vs. 3-4
3 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, 4 nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.

A few years prior to Paul writing 1st Timothy, he was ministering to the church in Ephesus. He had great concern for them, and warned them that as soon as he left, they would have trouble: 

Acts 20: 28-31
28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you [q]overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He [r]purchased [s]with His own blood. 29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.

Sure enough, that is exactly what happened. False teaching was rampant in Ephesus. I'm sure this was very frustrating to Timothy. Paul was encouraging Timothy to be on guard and make sure to protect the flock. When Paul refers to "wolves," I believe he is talking about a very specific type of person-a predator. A person who's sole motivation is to cause division and strife in the body of Christ. There are people who are simply ignorant and have not been taught, but are open to correction...and then there are predators. What separates these two are what drives them...i.e. their motivation. I believe that a person can start off with correct motivations, then over time, they change and become predators...consumed with selfish ambition and power. Unfortunately, the body of Christ is often easy prey due to the trusting nature of believers. Paul knows this, and has seen it over and over. God Bless.