¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope,

Paul is sent (apostellō – ἀποστέλλω) by Christ in accordance with the authority of God, who has the power to give such an order that we should be saved, and with Jesus, who achieves the hope of us being saved.

² To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

As such, Paul writes to Timothy. Trueness, used in conjunction with children, can mean legitimate children, as in the children born within marriage.[1] It would then imply the marriage between the saints and Christ, enabled by the Holy Spirit’s match-making, i.e., through giving faith. Such marriage has not only produced second-generation Christians but also second-generation Christian teachers, in particular Timothy. The same grace promised and given to the first generation is also valid for them.

³ As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.

Timothy is being instructed to fight against the teachers who ‘teach false doctrines’ and ‘devote themselves to myths and genealogies’. There is a good chance that these false teachers belonged to the first-generation Christians, similar to Paul in age and experience. Compared to them, Timothy may appear too young and less genuine. Against such shallow judgement, however, Paul is calling Timothy the true, legitimate son of the gospel (v. 2).

In comparison, the false teachers who do not work with the way of the genuine gospel stick to something else to fill the gap, i.e., false doctrines, myths, and genealogies. But however fancy and mind-capturing they may be, nothing can replace the work of the Holy Spirit. This is why knowing and understanding Him, along with the Father and the Son, is crucial to receiving faith and staying in it.

⁴  Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work – which is by faith. 

Such things, i.e., meaning ‘myths, genealogies’, do not refer to things in other religions but to the way things used to be taught. Since his encounter with Christ, Paul has discovered that they are meaningless unless they point to Christ. It would be equivalent to what Paul said elsewhere that he now considered a ‘loss’ and ‘garbage’. Such a turnaround of view was ‘because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Phil 3:8).

In contrast, we know now that ‘God’s work advances (or is managed)[1] by faith’, i.e., through the Holy Spirit’s match-making and reproducing. His pasting of ‘faith’ onto us, with which we get to know the Father and the Son, and through which we also in turn give birth to legitimate offspring that belong with and to the body of believers

Dear Lord, thank you for giving birth to us through your legitimate and perfect housekeeping. We belong to you because of your surpassing knowledge. We know and confess that now that we belong to such a family, we have to have everything your way. Things cannot be the old way in part and your way in part however they may be proportioned. Let us prove and display that we are your true, legitimate children by actively and purposefully thinking and acting in line with you, just as you managed your household through your perfect but longsuffering love. Let us promote that supreme love. Let us have that conversion to legitimacy. Praise be to our Lord. In our Christ Jesus’ name. Amen.

Image: The Conversion of Saint Paul, Luca Giordano, 1690, Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy. Public Domain

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[1] γνήσιος (gnēsios) ‘genuine’ (G1103) true, loyal, sincere, genuinetrue, loyal, sincere, genuine
lawful, legitimate, as children; genuine, in faith, etc.; 1Tim. 1:2; Tit. 1:4; true, sincere, 2Cor. 8:8; Phil. 4:3

[2] οἰκονομία (oikonomia) ‘management’ (G3622) management, administration, job of administration; what is put into effect, plan stewardship.