1 Timothy 1:1-11

Hebrews 13:17:
Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.
They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a JOY, not a BURDEN, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Leaders need to take good care of people,
People need to take good care of leaders,
SO that the church (this church) can be healthy and can be a good place.

It’s a deep sense of responsibility that sets in,
people who aren’t obeying the council they are given,
people whose lives are coming undone.
Relationships that are frayed, Families that aren’t receiving spiritual nourishment or encouragement.

Paul who experienced many hardships says in the New Testament that what keeps him up at night is the health of the church.

This is the reality of church life,
Church is NOT all joy,
And it’s NOT all burden either.
BUT if it is a healthy church,
there should be more joy than burden.
Both are always present in some measure in the life of the church.

The church in Ephesus has given Paul much joy,
BUT there are some people who have risen up from within the church and from outside,
who have become a great burden.


Paul can’t be there to deal with them so he has young Timothy on the job,
to straighten things out and sort out the mess.

Points to Ponder

Scripture to Read
I Timothy 1:1-11

Summary of the Texts
God has a mission for His Church, namely the Gospel of Jesus Christ (see 1Corinthians 15:1-11 if you are uncertain about what the Gospel is).

However, Satan often sends false teachers and divisive
people who want to detract from the mission of the Gospel to argue about stupid and foolish things. These people are prone to gather a crowd (and thereby divide a church because they are relationally connected to people in the church), and they speak with confidence and authority even though they are in error.
Such people must not be tolerated for even a minute in the church, but rather must be commanded by the church leaders to cease promoting heresy and causing division.

Questions for Personal Study
• What does 1:4 say false teachers and their pet doctrines cause in the Church?
• What things does Paul list in 1:5 for testing your motives when you speak to other people about difficult issues?
• According to 1:6-7, why are false teachers often so
persuasive?
• According to 1:8-11, how can we use the Old Testament law rightly? For further insight see Romans 3:19-31; Galatians 3:19-25, I John 3:4, and Matthew 5:17-18.

Questions for Group Discussion
• What experiences have you had with false teachers and theologically divisive people who like to argue too much?
• How can you be praying for and helping to promote sound doctrine at DBC?
• What is the difference between Christians who disagree on a secondary theological matter and a false teacher who is in error on a primary theological matter?
• What does Paul mean that “…the law is good if one uses it properly”? How is the Old Testament law often used improperly?