§ 4 The Charge Renewed ( 1 Tim. 1:18–20 )
§4 The Charge Renewed (1 Tim. 1:18–20)
The argument that began in verses 3–7 returns full circle in this final paragraph of chapter 1. In fact, one might note how easily verses 18–20 read hard on the heels of verse 7. The resumptive nature of the paragraph is even clearer in the Greek text, where the word here translated instruction (v. 18) is the same translated command in verses 3 and 5 (cf. the RSV, which consistently translates “charge”).
This paragraph, however, does not simply repeat verses 3–7; rather, by way of verses 12–17, Paul now charges Timothy in a very personal way to “stick it out.” He does so by reminding Timothy of his own call to ministry, and by setting that in contrast to two who failed.
1:18–19a / Reverting to the vocative of familiarity (lit., “child Timothy”), Paul renews this “command,” first given in verse 3. Here Paul gives it to him, a Greek word which has to do with entrusting something into someone else’s care (see esp. 6:20; 2 Tim. 1:12, 14; 2:2).
To reinforce the giving of the charge, Paul reminds Timothy of his calling. It is not Paul, finally, who has left Timothy “in charge,” but the Holy Spirit. This instruction is in keeping with the prophecies once made about you; and it is by following them that Timothy is to fight the good fight.
But what are these prophecies? Paul will mention this event in Timothy’s life twice more in these letters. In 4:14 he refers to Timothy’s ministry (apparently) as a “spiritual gift,” and there we also learn that the prophecies were accompanied by the elders’ laying on of hands. In 2 Timothy 1:6, where the concern is with their own personal relationship, Paul narrows the focus to his own laying on of hands. But what precisely happened, and when, is not known. Most likely Paul is referring to an experience in Timothy’s early days whereby he was recognized to have received the gift of the Spirit for ministry, a recognition that was made clear through some prophecies.
In any event, Paul reminds him of those prophecies so that by following them (lit., “that by means of them” or “in the strength of them”), he might better engage in the current fight (“wage the noble war”). Fight here is a military metaphor (cf. 2 Tim. 2:3–4). In contrast to his athletic metaphors of “fighting” (1 Cor. 9:24–27; 1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7–8), where the general contest of the Christian life or his ministry in general is in view, Paul regularly uses the military metaphor in contexts where the struggle is against opponents of his gospel or against spiritual forces (2 Cor. 10:1–6; Philem. 1 [cf. Col. 4:17]; Eph. 6:10–17). Thus Timothy’s fight is against the false teachers and their errors, and he is further to engage in the fight holding fast at all times to his faith and a good conscience (see v. 5).
1:19b–20 / As in verses 5 and 6, the mention of faith and a good conscience prompts Paul to reflect on some men who have rejected these. Literally, he says they have “repudiated” or “rejected,” both faith (trust in God) and conscience. In so doing, with a typical change of metaphor, Paul adds, they have shipwrecked their faith. It is not their faith that is shipwrecked—although that, too, has happened—but the faith. By rejecting faith (their complete trust in God’s grace), they are at the same time in the process of bringing the faith (the gospel itself) to ruin.
A rather unusual thing now happens. Paul gives names. Hymenaeus will be mentioned again, with Philetus, in 2 Timothy 2:17, as well as in the second-century apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. He is otherwise unknown. An Alexander is mentioned two other times in connection with Ephesus: In Acts 19:33–34 a Jew by that name is shouted down by the mob, and in 2 Timothy 4:14–15 Paul warns Timothy of an Alexander the metalworker, about whom it is ambiguous whether he was inside or outside the church. At least two different people seem to be involved. The Alexander mentioned here is sometimes identified with the metalworker in 2 Timothy; others identify the Acts and 2 Timothy references and see the present one as someone else. There is simply no way that one can be sure (but see disc. on 2 Tim. 4:14–15 for a hypothesis). In any case, the two men mentioned here are almost certainly leaders, therefore probably elders, as in 2 Timothy 2:17–18.
What Paul means next has been the subject of some debate. Literally, he says, “I turned them over to Satan.” Much of the debate is related to one’s understanding of the phrase “for the destruction of the flesh” that appears in a similar sentence in 1 Corinthians 5:5. Possibly the clause means that Paul has handed them over to Satan with the expectation of physical punishment (cf. GNB). It seems more likely, however, that the phrase “hand over to Satan” simply means “to put back out into Satan’s sphere,” outside the church and the fellowship of God’s people; whether he also expected some physical harm to occur is a moot point, but less likely.
Paul expects that by such an “excommunication” they will be taught not to blaspheme. The word to teach, which he uses again in 2 Timothy 2:25, probably means in this instance to “correct by discipline.” At least Paul expects his action to have an educative element. What they are to learn is not to blaspheme. What this means is not at all certain; but in verse 13 Paul describes his former self as a “blasphemer,” and in 6:4 “blasphemies” (NIV, “malicious talk”) is listed as one of the results of the false teachers’ “sickly appetite for controversy.” It is probably the latter, the conscious rejection of God’s grace in favor of arguments, that Paul has in mind here. When this excommunication took place is not stated, but see the note on verse 3.
With this paragraph the reason for the letter is brought to its conclusion. Timothy has been left in Ephesus to stop the false teachers. After some digressions that offer contrasts with these teachers and their errors, Paul concludes with this personal charge to Timothy himself, but once again with the false teachers clearly in view.
1:18–19a / The this of this instruction points forward in this sentence to Timothy’s “waging the good warfare” (RSV). Nonetheless, it also refers back to the charge given earlier.
There is a difference of opinion as to whether the word proagousas means once made (NIV; cf. GNB), or “pointed to you” (RSV), or “first pointed you out to me” (NEB). But the NIV is the far most likely, both because the prefix pro is almost always a temporal reference and (more significantly) because the point in the context has to do with Timothy’s recalling his own call to ministry, not how he was first discovered by Paul.
Many would differ with the interpretation offered here that sees 1:18; 4:14; and 2 Tim. 1:6 as all referring to the same reality. The objections arise from an apparent need to reconcile the language of each with greater precision. But the differences are no more than what often happens when one repeats the same event but does so in each case to make a different point. Nothing in the language is in fact irreconcilable. Furthermore, the very differences point to authenticity; a pseudepigrapher could have been expected to be more careful.
O. Bauernfeind (TDNT, vol. 7, p. 711) suggests that the military metaphor in this verse has as its starting point “human life in general, and hence also of the Christian.” But this seems to miss the context rather widely.
1:19b–20 / The nature and purpose of “excommunication” in the three relevant NT texts (2 Thess. 3:14–15; 1 Cor. 5:3–5; 1 Tim. 1:20) is a subject on which not all agree. This is due partly to the nature and meaning of some of the language used. For example, does “for the destruction of the flesh” in 1 Cor. 5:5 refer to his “sinful nature” (NIV), or to literal physical punishment (GNB)? In all three cases there seems to be a clearly redemptive concern. Yet how does Satan fit into that? The stance taken here is that Paul is using language that has become semitechnical and thus does not mean literally giving them over to Satan to “go to work on them,” as it were, but simply removing them from the church, the sphere of the Spirit, where God is actively at work in people’s lives and putting them back out into the sphere where Satan is still at work. What exactly Paul expects to happen seems much less certain than some would suggest.