Introduction To 1 Timothy Series

1 TIMOTHY

Introduction to Timothy

I A Dangerous Heresy-- (William Barclay pg. 4)

A. It is clear that in the forefront of the situation against which the Pastoral Epistles were written there was a dangerous heresy which was threatening the welfare of the Christian Church. If we can distinguish the various characteristic features of that heresy, we may be able to go on to identify it.

a. It was characterized by speculative intellectualism. It produced questions (1 Timothy 1:14); those involved in it had a craving for questions (1 Timothy 6:4); it dealt in stupid and senseless questions (2 Timothy 2:23); its stupid questions are to be avoided (Titus 3:9), The word used in each case for questions is ekzètèsis, which means speculative discussion. This heresy was obviously one which was a playground of the intellectuals, or rather the pseudo-intellectuals of the Church. It was characterized by pride, The heretics are proud, although in reality they know nothing (1 Timothy 6:4). There are indications that these intellectuals set themselves on a level above ordinary Christians; in fact, they may well have said that complete salvation was outside the grasp of the ordinary man or woman and open only to them. At times, the Pastoral Epistles stress the word all in a most significant way. The grace of God, which brings salvation, has appeared to all (Titus 2:11). It is God's will that all should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). The intellectuals tried to make the greatest blessings of Christianity the exclusive possession of a chosen few; and, in complete contrast, the true faith stresses the all-embracing love of God.

b. There were within that heresy two opposite tendencies. There was a tendency to self-denial. The heretics tried to lay down special food laws, forgetting that everything God has made is good (1 Timothy 4:4-5). They listed many things as impure, forgetting that to the pure all things are pure (Titus 1:15). It is not impossible that they regarded sex as something unclean and belittled marriage, and even tried to persuade those who were married to renounce it, for in Titus 2:4 the simple duties of married life are stressed as being binding on Christians.

c. But this heresy also resulted in immorality. The heretics even went into private houses and led away weak and foolish women who were swayed by all kinds of desires (2 Timothy 3:6). They claimed to know God, but denied him by their actions (Titus 1:16). They were to impose upon people and to make money out of their false teaching. To them, gain was godliness (1 Timothy 6:5); they taught and deceived for sordid gain (Titus 1:11).

d. On the one hand, this heresy produced an un-Christian self-denial, and on the other it produced an equally unChristian immorality. It was characterized, too, by words and tales and genealogies. It was full of godless chatter and useless controversies (1 Timothy 6:20). It produced endless genealogies (1 Timothy 1:4; Titus 3:9). It produced myths and fables (1 Timothy 1:4; Titus 1:14).

e. It was at least in some way and to some extent tied up with Jewish legalism. Among its devotees were those 'of the circumcision' (Titus 1:10). The aim of the heretics was to be teachers of the law (1 Timothy 1:7). It pressed on people Jewish myths and the commandments of those who reject the truth (Titus 1:14).

f. Finally, these heretics denied the resurrection of the body. They said that any resurrection that a Christian was going to experience had been experienced already (2 Timothy 2:18). This is probably a reference to those who held that the only resurrection Christians experienced was a spiritual one when they died with Christ and rose again with him in the experience of baptism

(Romans 6:4).

B. Beginnings of Gnosticism (William Barclay pg. 7) mixture Philosophy/Mysticism/Judaizers (Leglists-circumcision)/Christianity

a. Is there any heresy which fits all this material? There is, and its name is Gnosticism. The basic idea behind Gnosticism was that all matter is essentially evil and that spirit alone is good. That basic belief had certain consequences. The Gnostics believed that matter is as eternal as God, and that when God created the world he had to use this essentially evil matter. That meant that, to them, God could not be the direct creator of the world. In order to touch this flawed matter, he had to send out a series of emanations (“to flow from” or “to pour forth or out of” or divine powers—they called them aeons (in Neoplatonism, Platonism, and Gnosticism a power existing from eternity; an emanation or phase of the supreme deity.)- each one more and more distant from himself until at last there came an emanation or aeon so distant that it could deal with matter and create the world. Between human beings and God there stretched a series of these emanations, each one containing an individual's name and genealogy. So Gnosticism literally had endless myths and endless genealogies. If men and women were ever to get to God, they must, as it were, climb this ladder of emanations; and, to do that, they needed a very special kind of knowledge including all kinds of passwords to get them past each stage. Only a person of the