What Is Distinct About the Theology of 1 Timothy?
This article is part of the Distinctive Theology series.
Three Words
The distinctive theology of Paul’s letters to his delegates, Timothy and Titus, can be helpfully distilled through three words that belong to the distinctive terminology of the letters. That said, in the modern era this distinctive terminology has often been cited by liberal and critical interpreters as evidence that the letters were not written by the apostle Paul. So the question arises, If the distinctive theology of the letters is reflected in the distinctive vocabulary of the letters, does that mean these naysayers are right after all? Not at all!1 Some of the terminology and theological emphases might differ from Paul’s other letters—indeed, as each of his letters differs from the others—but the theological core is recognizably Pauline.
The three words I have in mind are “savior,” “appearing,” and “godliness.” These three words are distinctive of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, but what can easily be overlooked is that they are put to different use in each letter, and those different uses serve the different purposes and messages of each letter.
Savior
In many ways, the storyline of Scripture is about how God has saved a people for himself. The message of the Old Testament is that God is Savior and there is no other (Isa. 45:21–22), and his deliverance of his chosen people, Israel, from slavery in Egypt served as a paradigm of his saving interventions on their behalf (Ex. 20:2–3; Deut. 6:20–23; cf. Isa. 45:14–21). However, the prophets looked forward to a final, future salvation by God’s messianic King/Son that would involve all nations (Isa. 11:1–10). The New Testament is about this promised one who came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) and who received the name “Jesus” because he would save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21).
The Appearing of God Our Savior
Claire Smith
The Appearing of God Our Savior expounds on the predominant themes of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus to provide readers with a practical guide for gospel-centered ministry and a greater understanding of God’s mission in the world.
Given this, we might expect to find the title “Savior” frequently in the New Testament. But it occurs only twenty-four times;2 ten of those in the letters to Timothy and Titus (1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3; 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:10; Titus 1:3, 4; Titus 2:10, 13; Titus 3:4, 6)! The three occurrences of “Savior” in 1 Timothy are applied to God the Father. It is the most frequent title for God in the letter and characterizes his nature and role. The main theme of the letter is God’s desire to save a people for himself (1 Tim. 2:4).
God is the initiator, source, and author of salvation. Those whom he saves call upon him as our Savior (1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3). The letter foregrounds the universal scope of God’s salvation—not that all people will be saved—only those who believe are saved (1 Tim. 1:15–16; cf. 1 Tim. 5:8)—but rather that God’s salvation now embraces all types of people, Jew and Gentile (1 Tim. 2:1–7), male and female (1 Tim. 2:8–15; 3:1–11; 5:16), slave and free (1 Tim. 6:1–2; cf. Gal. 3:28), those in need and the rich (1 Tim. 5:3–8; 6:17), rulers and their subjects (1 Tim. 2).
The logic is that there is only “one God” (1 Tim. 2:5; cf. 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16; also Deut. 6:4), and so for all people there is only one way to be saved. And the uniqueness and supremacy of God (1 Tim. 1:17; 6:15–16) underwrite the salvation he provides. There is no spiritual or human being who can provide a better salvation and nothing and no one who can threaten or prevent the eschatological consummation of his eternal salvation plan.
Appearing
In 1 Timothy, God is Savior and Christ Jesus is the agent of God’s salvation. The wonderful statement “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15) not only tells us why Christ came into the world, but it also gives us a glimpse of his pre-existence, demonstrates the close connection between Christology and soteriology in this letter, and introduces the theme of his appearings in history. As elsewhere in the New Testament, in 1 Timothy Christ Jesus is the God-man—truly God and truly human. However, the stress in this letter falls on his humanity. He is the “mystery of godliness” who “appeared in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16 NIV) and lived a genuine human life in this world (1 Tim. 1:15; 6:3, 13), and, as “the man Christ Jesus” and only “mediator between God and men” (i.e., humanity), he inaugurated and enacted God’s salvation plan, by giving “himself as a ransom for all” kinds of people (1 Tim. 2:5–6). In doing so, Christ offered an atoning sacrifice that was both representative and substitutionary (1 Tim. 2:6). And having paid the price for our freedom, he was vindicated by the Spirit through his bodily resurrection and now reigns in glory (1 Tim. 3:16). The Christ event3 is the ultimate disclosure in human history of God’s eternal will to save and the means by which he has done so.
Christ’s saving mission continues to advance through the preaching of the gospel among all the nations as people believe on him in all the world (1 Tim. 3:16). All that awaits is his “appearing” a second time at the end of history, when God’s eternal salvation plan will be consummated (1 Tim. 6:14), and then those who have believed upon “Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Tim. 1:1) will receive eternal life (1 Tim. 1:16; 6:12). The present age (1 Tim. 6:17) is the epoch between the two appearings of Christ, when salvation may be attained through faith in Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 1:4; 4:10). The Holy Spirit has warned that apostasy and false teaching with demonic origins will be features of this epoch (1 Tim. 4:1–2; cf. 1 Tim. 1:3, 19–20; 1 Tim. 6:3–5, 20–21).
God is the initiator, source, and author of salvation.
Godliness
In this present age, those who have been saved are members of “the household of God” (1 Tim. 3:15), which is the dominant metaphor for the Christian community in 1 Timothy. As those who both belong to and answer to God as head of the household, the Christian community is to be “the microcosm or paradigm of a world obedient to God’s ordering4; and its mission is to extend this reality beyond its walls.”5
For this, believers need orthodoxy of belief and orthopraxy of life: that is, knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4) that comes from the gospel (1 Tim. 1:11) and healthy or “sound doctrine” (1 Tim. 1:10; 6:3) and “godliness,” which holds promise for this life and the next (1 Tim. 4:8; 2:2; 5:4; 6:6, 11). Timothy is to be an exemplar of both. He is to devote himself to learning and teaching God’s word, and he is to train himself for godliness. He is to do this to fulfill his ministry before God, and so that all the believers in Ephesus can learn from him (1 Tim. 1:18–9; 1 Tim. 4:6–7, 12–16; 1 Tim. 6:11–14, 20). In this, he will present a sharp contrast to the false teachers, with their false asceticism, lies, myths, and speculations and their loveless, vice-filled lives (1 Tim. 1:3–7, 19–20; 1 Tim. 4:1–3, 7; 1 Tim. 6:3–5, 20–21). They do not belong in the church of the living God, which is “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15; cf. 1 Tim. 1:20). Alternatively, those in church leadership are to have exemplary private and public lives and overseers must be able to teach the truth (1 Tim. 3:1–13).
First Timothy also reveals there is a correspondence between family relations and the household of God. Members of God’s household are bound to one another in familial duty, love, and service (1 Tim. 1:2, 18; 1 Tim. 4:6; 1 Tim. 6:2), and yet these new bonds do not negate God’s order and obligations within the family (1 Tim. 5:3–16). Eligibility for church leadership requires faithfulness and competence in family relations (1 Tim. 3:2, 4, 12). And God’s design for ordered complementarity between the sexes, which informs the pattern of marriage (Gen. 2:15–24; Eph. 5:21–33), similarly applies in God’s household, where the responsibility for teaching and governing leadership is assigned to suitably gifted and duly appointed men, and not to women (1 Tim. 2:11–3:7).
The vision of the church as the household of God is theologically and missiologically driven. At its heart is the salvation plan of God, who wants all kinds of people to be saved, and so God’s household is to be formed by, ordered for, and primarily directed toward the gospel. Until Christ’s final appearing, believers are to conform to God’s ordering in our own lives and households; and as God’s household, to hold to fast to and make known the truth and mystery of godliness, who is Christ.
Notes:
- Recent studies show that the assumptions and methods of these interpreters are problematic and that the distinctive vocabulary does not present the obstacle to Pauline authorship they have claimed.
- See also Luke 1:47; 2:11; John 4:42; Acts 5:31; 12:23; Eph. 5:23; Phil. 3:20; 2 Pet. 1:1, 11; 1 Pet. 2:20; 2 Pet. 3:2, 18; 1 John 4:14; Jude 25.
- This term commonly refers to the person and work of Christ in salvation—his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and (where applicable) glorious return.
- See 1 Timothy 1:4 (ESV footnote “good order”).
- Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, NICNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006), 69.
Claire S. Smith is the author of The Appearing of God Our Savior: A Theology of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus.
Popular Articles in This Series
View All
What Is Distinct about the Theology of Ephesians?
Why has this small letter had such a big impact on the church? The answer, at least in part, is due to the depth and diversity of topics emphasized in the letter.
What Is Distinct about the Theology of Mark?
Certainly Mark is the Gospel that has most in common with the other Gospels. But even Mark has some distinctives that are worth noting and that help us to read Mark as Mark.
What Is Distinct about the Theology of Luke?
The four Gospels present Jesus as true Israel and the divine Son of God who lived a faithful life, died for sins of his people, and rose from the dead, but each evangelist retells this story a bit differently.
What Is Distinct about the Theology of 2 Peter?
Second Peter has a robust doctrine of Scripture. Peter begins his letter with one of the strongest assertions of the sufficiency of God’s Word found in all of Scripture.
