1st Timothy, chapter 1: Fables, longsuffering, warfare, hope, charity, and shipwrecks

So, reading through Timothy 1, I hear Paul speak of Jesus as “our hope”.  And he speaks of Timothy’s responsibility in Ephesus: to “charge” members who teach things that are not doctrine, but who instead teach “fables” and complicated genealogies which generally just serve to make people start digging for answers to questions that are based upon stories, or conjecture or tradition and who feel like they are accessing higher understanding. when, actually, they are being seriously sidetracked.

And he then, in verse 5, gives a way to be able to recognize this error.  Does what is being taught create a desire to be more full of charity, simply for the sake of the virtue of charity, without guile, and motivated by faith?  If so, it is good.  If not, it may well fall into the “fables” category.

And then later, in verse 12, Paul talks about the time in his life when he, himself, was involved in the kind of teaching he is warning against.  Like most who do that, he did it because he thought it was a good thing to do.  It felt energizing and right. And he talks of the great grace of God that came to him to change and enlighten and heal and forgive him.

And then this: “that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting”.

Some might think that this could be a message to those of us who are fable teachers that, when we realize what we’ve been doing, we need not fear wrath, but instead be grateful for God’s longsuffering with our erroneous assumptions and find hope in His forgiveness.

I am struck that it is also a message for those of us who recognize those fables or false beliefs taught by members of our faith, that we should also remember God’s longsuffering and knowledge of purveyors of “fables”, and refrain from abandoning charity towards those who teach such, and not lose hope due to our dismay, sorrow or pain over the results of the spread of those fables and the neglect of charity that it entices people to engage in.

So my question to myself is this: Is my truth-speaking, my “good warfare” (verse 18) response to “fable teaching” as full of longsuffering, charity, and grace as the Father’s is?  Is that charity, longsuffering and grace what enables us to connect with God in such a way that we do not lose hope?

Because, for sure, sometimes that fable preaching can feel like it creates a veritable “shipwreck” (verse 19) among us.