THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. CHAP. I. PAUL, an apostle of Jesus Christ "by the com- & Acts is 15. b a ix. Gai. i. 1, 11. mandment of God our Saviour, and Lord b ch. ii. 3. & iv. 10. Tit. c Col. i. 27. 1. "Of Jesus Christ." So A., K., L., most Cursives, Vulg. (Amiat.), Syr., Arm, Æth.; but &, D., F., G., P., d, f, g, Cop., read, "Christ Jesus." 1. "Lord Jesus Christ." "Jesus Christ," N, K., L., most Cursives, Copt., Arm., Æth.; but A., D., F., G., P., some Cursives, d, f, g, Vulg. (Amiat.), read, “Christ Jesus;" also A., D., F., G., P., d, f, g, Vulg., Goth., Syr., omit "Lord." 1. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Saviour," &c. Though this is a friendly letter, almost we might say a private one, primarily intended for the instruction not of a Church but of an individual, yet it begins with the assertion of St. Paul's apostleship—not that Timothy could have any doubt whatsoever about it, as the Galatian Churches had, but that he might consider the commands in it, not as coming from a dear friend, a father in Christ, his teacher in the Lord, but as from Christ Himself, Whose Apostle Paul was, and to the Apostles Christ said, "As my Father sent me, so send I you." "By the commandment of God our Saviour." When was this commandment given? It might have been in the Divine counsels, as the Lord says of the chosen, "Thine they were and thou gavest them me." It might have been at his conversion (Gal. i. 15), or at his ordination, when the Holy Ghost said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them' (Acts xiii. 2). "God our Saviour." This is God the Father. He is the Saviour, because all the work of His Son for sinners was ordered d Acts xvi. 1. 1 Cor. iv. 17. Ph 1. ii. 19. 1 Thess. ii. 2. e Tit. i. 4. f Gal. i. 3. 2 Tim. i, 2. 1 Pet. i. 2. e 2 Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith : 'Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. by Him. In the Pastoral Epistles alone this title is given to the Father; elsewhere (as in Luke ii. 11; John iv. 42; Acts v. 31, &c.), it is usually applied to Jesus Christ. This is one of the most irrefragable proofs of the Godhead of Jesus, that a name which Jehovah claims as His only (Isaiah xliii. 11) should be applied to His Incarnate Son. 66 "And Jesus Christ, which is our hope." Properly "Jesus Christ our hope." This is a title claimed by the One God. Thus Jer. xiv. 8, "O the hope of Israel;" 1. 7, "Even the Lord the hope of their fathers;" and yet Christ is "in us the hope of glory" (Col. i. 27). He is our Hope, not only because by His work and merits all that is in the way of our salvation is removed, but because through His Resurrection we look for the Resurrection, when our vile bodies shall be raised in the likeness of His glorious Body. 66 and 2. "Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, peace." "My own son in the faith." St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, a very mixed Church, with the words, as my beloved sons I warn you," and to the Galatians, another Church which was giving him much trouble, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again till Christ be formed in you” (Gal. iv. 19). He held, then, that all whom he had converted to Christ were his spiritual children, but Timothy was peculiarly his, always loving, always obedient, always attentive. As such he distinguishes him as "his own," i.e. very, true, proper son, unique amongst many sons: "in the faith," not because they had a common element of faith in their souls, but because the Apostle, through God's grace, engendered in Timothy the same faith which he himself had in Christ Incarnate, Crucified, Risen, and Ascended, so that as both were in the one Body and in the one Spirit, they were also in the one Lord and in the one faith, partaking of the One Baptism. 66 Grace, mercy, and peace." In all other Epistles the opening salutation is "grace and peace," omitting mercy. In the opening of the Pastoral Epistles mercy is added between grace and peace. Why this most significant addition? Is it because of all Christian people Christ's ministers most need mercy, inasmuch as they ་ CHAF. I.] NO OTHER DOCTRINE. g 185 3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when 1 went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, h g. Acts xx. 1, represent Christ, and, humanly speaking, their deficiencies, the deficiencies of the best, in representing such an One as Christ, must be very great? We know not. Only this place in its invocation of mercy reads a very strong lesson to many professors of religion in these latter days (Plymouth Brethren, Plymouth Sisters). We have those amongst us who openly and dogmatically assert that they have no need of mercy-they are, as they say, “saved,” they may have once needed it, but now, as they say, they need it no longer; it would be an insult to God's goodness in having saved them to ask mercy at His hands. But it is extremely unlikely that, notwithstanding all this self-confidence, they are in a higher position before God than this own son " of the great Apostle, and yet the Apostle invokes mercy from God and Christ upon Timothy. It seems wonderful that we should have to expose so impudent an assumption. 66 3. "As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia." Does St. Paul here allude to some journey to Macedonia from Ephesus previous to his first imprisonment, or does he refer to some journey after his return from his first imprisonment? No doubt the latter. Only three journeys of St. Paul to Macedonia are recorded in the Acts, in none of which does he leave Timothy in Ephesus. In his first journey (Acts xvii. 14, xviii. 5) he took Timothy with him. Before his second journey he had sent Timothy into that country (A.cts xix. 22), and he rejoined Timothy in Macedonia (2 Cor. i. 1). In his third journey he took Timothy with him, and with him he sailed beyond Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 4). Besides, it was very unlikely that St. Paul, in the full vigour of life and work, as he then was, should commit a newly planted Church in so important a place as Ephesus to a subordinate. Such action on his part was far more likely when he had become "Paul the aged," and the Ephesian Church only required to be reminded of his instructions, which Timothy was above all men able to do (1 Cor. iv. 17). "That thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine." 'ch. iv. 7. & vi. 4, 20. 2 fim. ii. 14, 16, 23. Tit. i. 14. & iii. 9. 1 cho vi 4. k 4 1Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. 4. "Godly edifying." So D., d, f, g, Vulg. ; but &, A., F., G., K., L., P., read, "economy of God" or "administration of God." 66 4. "Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions," &c. Charge," i.e., "command." Here is the Apostolical authority. For who else could command the teacher in a large city and district to teach nothing else but what he had taught them? By thus charging them, he showed that he considered that there was no authority in the presbyters gathered together in a synod, much less in each separate congregation, to set at naught what he laid down. These fables were most "Fables and endless genealogies." probably Jewish fables, of which all Rabbinical writings are full. There is more doubt respecting the "endless genealogies." Some suppose that they are Gnostical speculations of successions of æons; but this is very unlikely, for the æons, though many, could scarcely be described as endless. A parallel passage in the Epistle to Titus would lead us to believe that these teachings were Jewish, "not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth." A passage also in Ignatius' Epistle to the Magnesians would lead us to the same conclusion: "Be not deceived with strange doctrines nor with old fables, which are unprofitable. For if we still live according to the Jewish law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace." (Epistle to Magnesians, ch. viii.) Philo, whose writings were well known to the Jews long before this, took the genealogies of the Old Testament in a mystical sense, and the Apostle in all probability refers to some such absurd opinions. This place has been used by those who wish to get rid of the authenticity of this Epistle, to prove that it was not written till the middle of the next century, as the "endless genealogies" refers to a form of Gnosticism more developed than any in St. Paul's time; but if the reader will look to my remarks on the heresy of the Colossian Church in the introduction to that Epistle, he will see that the root of all Gnostical speculation respecting successions of æons is to be found in a book far older than the New Testament-in the |