NOTES for Ti1 1:1-11

The Epistle to Timothy is a letter written to a disciple and friend by a teacher awaiting death. Paul instructs Timothy and tries to protect him and the communities entrusted to him from temptations and troubles. The first part of the Epistle immediately introduces us to the Apostle's concerns. He tries to convey in words what is both simplest and most difficult in Christianity. The essential thing is living faith as trust in God and constant communion with Christ: living faith, not a legal code; life, not a set of rules; Jesus, not debates about who is related to whom, who has seniority, who is a sinner, and who is righteous. Before speaking about practical life and how Christian communities can and should be organized, Paul immediately reminds us that the chief and most important things are love from a pure heart and sincere faith.

In his letter to Timothy, Paul reminds him of the situation that had developed in the Ephesian church. There, as is clear, a tendency toward turning Christianity into a kind of new religion, based on the Torah understood externally and therefore clearly inclined toward legalism, was plainly visible and even growing.

Everything listed by the apostle that interested the newly appeared Ephesian "teachers" and their students at that time quite obviously concerned either the finer points of the text of the sacred books or the details of religious legislation, matters that in the Synagogue were handled only by zealots of the most refined casuistry. It is possible that in this way the freedom received in the Ephesian church was expressed in the lives of those who previously had been forced to be content with secondary and tertiary roles. Indeed, the church community of Ephesus, like that of many other cities, consisted mainly either of Jews or of those Gentiles who already had experience of synagogue life because they had earlier been interested in Judaism (in the Synagogue such Gentiles who believed in the God of Israel were called "God-fearers"). Some of these people may have known Jewish tradition quite well and even explained the Torah themselves to their fellow Gentiles, but in the Synagogue they were not considered rabbis or teachers, since for the Jews they still remained "Gentiles." And now, in the new church community, where Jews no longer had the former exclusive right to teach, these people found themselves precisely as teachers.

The problem, however, was that they were now continuing to teach newly converted Christians the same thing they had previously taught their fellow Gentiles in the Synagogue: the Jewish religion as they themselves understood it. The Church, strictly speaking, did not need this: Christianity is not a religion, and there is no special need to train Christians in any religious tradition whatever. Meanwhile, the Ephesian "teachers" were not only engaged in such teaching but, apparently, considered it fundamentally important and absolutely necessary for every Christian. It is this misunderstanding that Paul asks his disciple to notice.

The basis of today's reading is the definition of faithfulness and faith. The apostle tells us about two events in his life - his conversion and his calling. The first happened because God is merciful and forgave Paul for what he did in ignorance. The granting of ministry became possible because, after his conversion, the apostle was faithful to the One who called him.

Thus, the granting of ministry is a visible sign that God has confidence in us. It is easier to believe in our own worthlessness than to realize that even the meager reserves of our faithfulness can be enough for God to entrust us with something very important and fragile. Or, from the other side, when we see a person who in our view is unworthy, yet has nevertheless received such a gift, let us remember that faithfulness - and nothing else - became the reason for that trust.

God entrusts His work to us. And this becomes possible only on the condition that we remain faithful to Him.