The life and work of St. Paul

THE PIE8T EPISTLB TO TIMOTHV. 651
Father, perhaps derived from some recent study of Psalm Ixiii. 7, and
continued throughout^the Pastoral Epistles when once adopted for ; the name
"
our Hope," applied to Christ, and not improbably borrowed from the same
verse and for the word ;
" mercy " so naturally introduced by the worn and
tried old man, between the usual greetings of " grace and peace." l
" As I begged thee to remain still in Ephesus, on my way to Macedonia, that
thou mightest command some not to teach different doctrine, nor to give heed to
myths and interminable genealogies," seeing that these minister questions rather
than the dispensation of God 3 which is in
"
faith 4 The sentence, quite
characteristically, remains unfinished; but St. Paul evidently meant to say, "I
repeat the exhortation which then I gave."
In contrast with these false teachers he tells him that the purpose of the
Gospel is love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned,
failing of which some turned aside to vain jangling. They wanted to pass
themselves off as teachers of the Jewish Law, but their teaching was mere
confusion and ignorance.
The mention of the Law leads him to allude to its legitimate function. 6
To those who were justified by faith it was needless, being merged in the
higher law of a life in unity with Christ but its true function was to warn
;
and restrain those who lived under the sway of mere passion in heathenish
wickedness. 6 For these, though not for the regenerate, the thunders of Sinai
are necessary, "according to the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God,
wherewith I was entrusted." T
He then at once digresses into an expression of heartfelt gratitude to God
for that grace which superabounded over his former ignorant faithlessness, a
faithlessness which had led him to outrage and insult, such as only his
ignorance could palliate.
" 8 Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 9 But on this account I
gained mercy, that in me first and foremost Christ Jesus might manifest His entire
long-suffering as a pattern for those who were hereafter to believe on Him to
i Cf. Gal. vi. 16.
8
Though the Sephiroth of the Kabbala belong to a much later period, and the Zohar
is probably a mediaeval book, yet Judaic speculations of the same kind seem to have been
the prototype of the Valentinian emanations with then- successive intermarriages of asons.
3 i. 4 ; leg. olKovo^lav (, A, B, F, G, &c.). The questions do not further the divine
scheme of God, which works, not in the sphere of misty uncertainties, but in the sphere
of faith.
4
3, 4. For similar anakolutha, see Gal. ii. 4, 5 ; Kom. v. 12, &c.
* 1. 8, 9, i/ouo; . . . vojjii;i.w?.
6 For the true use of the Law, and the limitation to its validity, see Rom. rii. 12 ;
Gal. iii. 19 ; Phil. iii. 9. It is idle to pretend that there is anything un-Pauline in this
sentiment. With the list of crimes which is, however, varied with perfect independence
cf. Rom. i. 29 ; 1 Cor. vi. 9 ; Gal. v. 19.
7 i. 811.
8 This arresting formula would naturally arise with the rise of Christian axioms ;
cf. " These words are faithful and true " (Rev. rxi. 5 ; xxii. 6).
Of. " Ged be merciful to me the Mnnw " (Luke xviM. IS "
; irpirot, nen tempore sed
maUgnitete "
(Aug. in fa. Imi. 1),