Scripture Notes: Theological Treasure (1 Timothy)

St. Paul packs a trove of theological treasure into the first verse of his first letter to Timothy. We often tend to jump right over these words of greeting, thinking perhaps that they are just an introduction. Indeed they are: an introduction ripe for reflection.

Paul begins by calling himself an apostle of Christ Jesus. An apostle is someone who is sent, someone commissioned for a particular task. Paul has not sent himself; God has sent him (and he knows it very well due to his experience on the road to Damascus; see Acts 9). Paul makes this clear when he tells Timothy (and us) that his apostleship is by the command (or authority) of “God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Tim 1:1). Paul is no longer his own; his mission is not his own; he works under the command and authority of Another.

God our Savior. A savior is one who rescues, delivers, preserves, protects. In this modern world, many people do not recognize their need for a savior. They think they are perfectly fine, even doing well. But none of us are. We need to be rescued, delivered, preserved, protected, saved. From what? From sin and death and the devil and, all too often, our own fallen selves. God saves us from all of these.

How? Through Christ Jesus our hope. Jesus died for us, to deliver us from sin and death, to restore us to true life and communion with God. This we believe. In this we hope. And hope in a Christian sense is not some vague idea that someday everything will be okay. Rather, it is a confidence that Jesus makes things right for us, right now and forever. We have to cooperate with Him, respond to His love with our own love, repent and confess our sins, and do our best to embrace His will. All of this arises out of our hope, our faith, our love, and especially out of His grace, for everything good that we have comes from Him.