1 Timothy 1King James Version
Paul to Timothy his son in the faith. The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Paul opens by urging Timothy to hold the line against false teachers in Ephesus who traffic in endless genealogies and misuse the Law. He grounds his authority in his own story: a former blasphemer and persecutor who received mercy. The chapter closes with a charge to Timothy to fight well, holding faith and a clean conscience, naming two men who already shipwrecked theirs.
Sound doctrine is not optional decoration on the church. It is the foundation of love from a pure heart, and guarding it is serious pastoral work.
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." (1:15) Paul anchors the entire letter in his own story as exhibit A of grace, making his pastoral authority inseparable from his personal experience of forgiveness.
Ephesus in the mid-first century was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, home to the temple of Artemis, a major trade hub, and a cosmopolitan religious marketplace where ideas competed openly. Timothy was left there to manage a congregation Paul had planted and then left, likely in his mid-thirties, navigating influential figures in the church who were spreading speculative teaching rather than the gospel.
Paul writes as an apostle by divine commission, not ecclesiastical rank, and his tone is that of a father to a son. Timothy is his genuine child in the faith, young, positioned in a difficult city, and in need of backbone. Hymenaeus and Alexander are cited as cautionary examples, men who made shipwreck of faith and were handed over to Satan, presumably for church discipline.
This is the first of three pastoral epistles, letters written not to congregations but to individual leaders tasked with shepherding congregations. Written around 62-64 AD, it reflects a church already dealing with organized false teaching, not just informal disagreement. Paul's insistence that doctrine flows from love, not law-wrangling, sets the governing principle for everything that follows.
Paul's confession in verses 12-16 is remarkably personal for a formal letter. He calls himself the chief of sinners not as false humility but as testimony. There is something freeing about a leader who leads with his own need for grace rather than hiding it.
1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;
2Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
4Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.
5Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
6From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;
7Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
8But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
9Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
11According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
12And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
13Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
15This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
16Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
17Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
18This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
19Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
20Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.