1Ti 1:5-7 What instruction (literally command) does Paul refer to in 1Ti 1:5? See 1Ti 1:3, 18. What does Paul say was the goal (lit. end, conclusion) of the command? In what ways would the avoidance of speculative teachings be a practical manifestation of God’s love? See also 1 Cor 8:13. What three root characteristics are necessary for the true love of God to be made manifest within a person? Describe a person with a pure heart and explain its importance. See 2 Tim 2:22, 2 Cor 4:2, Mat 5:8. What is the conscience, and what does Paul mean by a good conscience? See Acts 23:1, 24:16, Ps 139:23-24, and contrast 1Ti 4:2 and Tit 1:15. Why is it so important to have a good conscience? See 1Ti 1:18-19. What does he mean by a sincere faith? Note: “sincere” is literally “without hypocrisy”; see Jn 3:19-21. Is it possible for one, even one who is a religious leader or teacher, to have an insincere faith? See 1Ti 1:6-7. To what does Paul say those who stray from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith turn aside? What does he mean by “fruitless discussion” (meaningless talk, NIV or vain jangling, KJV)? See 1Ti 6:4-5, 20, 2 Tim 2:16, 23, Tit 1:10, 3:9. Do such as these avoid the Bible altogether in their teaching? See 1Ti 1:7. Besides being a “vain jangling”, what two things does Paul say in 1Ti 1:7 will characterize the Bible teaching of those whose faith is insincere? See also 1 Cor 2:1-5, 2 Cor 11:5-6, 2 Pet 2:18-19.[1] What great danger to our own souls do such men pose if our hearts are not pure or our faith insincere—if we don’t have a sincere love for the truth? See 2 Tim 4:3-4, 2 Thess 2:10-12.
1Ti 1:8-11 Many Christians understand the law as opposed to the gospel and a bad thing; is that entirely correct? See also Rom 7:12. What was wrong with the way those whom Timothy was left in Ephesus to hold in check were using the law? See 1Ti 1:9a. What does Paul mean that the law is not made for a righteous man? See Rom 3:20, Gal 2:16. Who is the law made for, and for what purpose? See 1Ti 1:9-10, Gal 3:21-24. Since we now have the gospel, is there no longer a need to teach the law? See again 1Ti 1:8. When only is it that a person is no longer under the tutelage of the law? See Gal 3:25-26. What words in 1Ti 1:9-11 indicate the close and important relationship between the law and the gospel? Is the law only for the outward part of man that others see, or does it apply much deeper to the very heart of man? Explain in what ways a person may appear righteous on the outside, but still be guilty of the sins enumerated by Paul in these verses. See for example Mat 5:21-22, 27-28, Mk 7:9-13, 1 Jn 1:6, 2:4, 4:20. Note that NASB “homosexuals” = KJV “them that defile themselves with mankind”; how is the manifestation of such perversion among men an indication that they have already long been in bed with the rest of the world? See Rom 1:21-27. Note: NASB “kidnappers” = KJV “menstealers” = NIV “slave traders”; in what sense are many religious leaders guilty of making men slaves? See 2 Pet 2:18-19, Rom 6:16, Gal 5:1, 2 Cor 11:19-20, Rev 18:13. What does profane mean in 1Ti 1:9? See its only other NT occurrences in 1Ti 4:7, 6:20, 2 Tim 2:16, and Heb 12:16 where it is translated as “worldly” and “godless”. Should it sober us to know that “worldly” is synonymous with godless and profane?
1. It is foolish to be lavish in words and niggardly in truth. He must be very destitute of wit who would be pleased to hear himself described after the manner of the world’s great poet, who says, “Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice: his reasons are as two grains of wheat hidden in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them they are not worth the search”….It is infamous to ascend your pulpit and pour over your people rivers of language, cataracts of words, in which mere platitudes are held in solution like infinitesimal grains of homeopathic medicine in an Atlantic of utterance. Better far give the people masses of unprepared truth in the rough, like pieces of meat from a butcher’s block, chopped off anyhow, bone and all, and even dropped down in the sawdust, than ostentatiously and delicately hand them out upon a china dish a delicious slice of nothing at all, decorated with the parsley of poetry, and flavored with the sauce of affectation. (Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, pgs 71,74.)↩