 |  |
Paul's indictment of them is scathing. They were utterly incompetent, being both
ignorant and unintelligent. The mention of the law leads the Apostle to discuss it and its
purpose, but he does not attempt to deal with it exhaustively. To appreciate this we must
study both Romans and Galatians, especially Rom. 7: In I Timothy Paul gives one of
the main reasons for the law, the restraint of evil doing:
"But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully, as knowing this, that law
is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and
sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
for man-slayers, for fornicators, for abusers of themselves with men, for men-stealers, for
liars, for false swearers, and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine;
according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my
trust" (1: 8-11, R.V.).
The law has little relevance for law-abiding people; they do not need its restraints and
it was not designed for them, but for the lawless and insubordinate, who are not amenable
to discipline. The catalogue of sins here begins with those against God and then against
one's fellow man. The reference to murderers of fathers and mothers should probably be
understood as smiters of parents as the R.V. margin suggests, an extreme violation of the
fifth commandment.
Paul rounds off these offences with anything that is contrary to sound (healthy)
doctrine. There is a tremendous contrast between teaching designed for criminals (the
law) and teaching designed for the believer who wants to go on to perfection (maturity).
Both didaskalia teaching, and hugiainouse, sound or healthy, are peculiarly words of the
Pastoral Epistles. Didaskalia occurs fifteen times in these epistles, eight of them being in
I Timothy (1: 10; 4: 1, 6, 13, 16; 5: 17; 6: 1, 3). Furthermore the following cognate
words should be noted which are also a feature of these important epistles, all revolving
round the thought of teaching: Heterodidaskalia, to teach otherwise (I Tim. 1: 3; 6: 3).
Nomodidaskalos, teacher of the law (1: 7). Didaskalos, teacher (2: 7). Didasko, to teach
(2: 12; 4: 11; 6: 2). Didaktikos, apt to teach (3: 2). The prevalence of these words is
easily accounted for when we remember that they were addressed to leaders and teachers
like Timothy and Titus. But nothing is clearer than the fact that all such teaching, to be
acceptable to the Lord, must conform to His good deposit of truth made known through
Paul. In his second epistle the Apostle reminds Timothy of this when he states "Hold the
pattern of sound words which thou hast heard from me" (II Tim. 1: 13 R.V.).
This exceedingly rich and uplifting deposit of truth Paul now designates as:
"According to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my
trust" (1: 11, R.V.).
The full grandeur of the original Greek has been missed by the A.V. "glorious
gospel". The emphasis is not so much on the word `gospel', but rather the word "glory"
(doxa), which is so intimately bound up with the Mystery and its supreme hope
(Ephesians 1: 6, 12, 14, 17, 18; 3: 16, 21; Phil. 1: 11; 2: 11; 3: 21; 4: 19, 20;
Colossians 1: 1, 27; 3: 4; I Tim. 1: 11, 17; 3: 16; Titus 2: 13; II Tim. 2: 10; 4: 18).
Note that in every case the noun doxa is used, even when the A.V. translates it as
`glorious'. For instance, our blessed hope is `the appearing of the glory of our great God