1 Timothy 1:1-11
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
2To Timothy my true son in the faith:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Warning Against False Teachers of the Law
3As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer 4nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work—which is by faith. 5The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. 7They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.8We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.
What stood out to you? What did you like?
Have you ever been around a Christian who got caught up in the "controversies rather than God's work"? What were they and how did that affect your walk?
If the law is "good" and for the "ungodly and sinful" what does it do for us?
How can we apply these verses to our lives today?
The thing that stood out to me was that there are some people who rather than focusing on what is important in the Bible like Jesus' redeeming love, sacrifice, and his grace that has saved us from hell, they focus on the mysteries of the Bible. For example, in the Christian world there is a lot of argument on when exactly the rapture will occur because the Bible doesn't lay out an exact time line no one will ever really know when it will happen until it does. But because these people spend all of their time defending something that can't really be proven they end up wasting the time they could have been using to share the gospel, help the homeless, or really anything that God has called us as Christians to do.
ReplyDeleteI also think that verse 7 is hilarious and sad all at the same time. Its funny because the teacher has no idea what he is talking about. It is sad because that teacher who has no idea what he is talking about is teaching people false information and people are taking his word for it.
Actually I have been caught up in the controversies rather than God's work. It was about what i talked about earlier. I was consumed with Revelations and trying to figure out what everything means that I got completely side tracked from where God wanted me to be and from what God wanted me to be doing.
well aren't we all ungodly and sinful? So i think that the law keeps us in check and allows us to see how much we need God.
we can apply these verses today by using what these verses talked about to stay focused on what God wants us to do and not on the things that are pointless and out of our control. also, i think that these verses can also remind us of how important the law really is.