October 3, 2022

1 Timothy 1:1-10 (HCSB)
Greeting
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope: 2 To Timothy, my true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
False Doctrine and Misuse of the Law 
3 As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach different doctrine 4 or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. 5 Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. 6 Some have deviated from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on. 8 But we know that the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately. 9 We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral and homosexuals, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching

Casey Morton I have always heard that locks, laws and rules are not made for the honest people who do the right thing. I think that is kind of what Paul is talking about. He mentions in verse 9 that the law is not meant for a righteous person. The law is not intended to bring us to righteousness, but to point out our sin. While we (me) might pat ourselves on the back due to the fact that we don’t struggle with some of the “BIG” sins he mentions in verse 9-10, he closes out by saying “and anything else that is contrary to sound teaching”. Just like in these verses, while we may not struggle with homosexuality, murder, sexual immortality etc., we ALL have something that we struggle with. I pray we are all honest with God about our struggles, (He already knows anyway) and He gives us strength to deal with our hurts, habits and hang ups!!