Homily 5 — First Timothy 1, verses 18 to 20

“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in keeping with the prophecies that went before concerning you, that by them you may wage good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some have put away and have made shipwreck concerning the faith.” [a]

The office of a teacher and that of a priest carry great dignity, and to bring forward someone worthy of them takes God’s own choosing. So it was in the old days, and so it is now, when we make the choice free of human passion, looking to nothing of this passing world, swayed neither by friendship nor by hostility. For even if we do not share in so great a measure of the Spirit as they did, a good intention is enough to draw God’s choosing to us. When the apostles chose Matthias, they had not yet received the Holy Spirit; but they committed the matter to prayer, and so they chose him into the number of the apostles. They did not look to human friendships. And so it ought to be with us now.

But we have gone to the very limit of carelessness; even what is plainly evident we let slip past. And when we overlook what is in plain view, how will God reveal to us what is unseen? As it is said, “If you have not been faithful in what is little, who will entrust to you what is great and true?” (Luke 16, verse 11).

But back then, when nothing merely human was done, the appointment of priests too was by prophecy. What does “by prophecy” mean? By the Holy Spirit. For prophecy is not only the telling of things to come, but of things present as well. It was by prophecy that Saul was discovered “hidden among the baggage” (First Samuel 10, verse 22). For God reveals things to the righteous. So too it was said by prophecy, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul” (Acts 13, verse 2).

In this way Timothy too was chosen, and of him Paul speaks of prophecies in the plural: perhaps the one on account of which he “took him and circumcised him,” and the one given when he ordained him, as he says himself in his letter to him, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you” (First Timothy 4, verse 14). So, to lift him up and to prepare him to be clear-headed and watchful, he reminds him by whom he was chosen and ordained, as though he had said: “God has chosen you. He gave you your commission; you were not made by a human vote. So do not misuse what God appointed, or bring it into disgrace.”

Again, since he is speaking of a charge, which suggests something burdensome, he adds, “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my son.” He charges him as his son, his own son. He does not speak with a master’s arbitrary authority so much as like a father: “my son Timothy,” he says. The “entrusting,” however, implies that the thing must be carefully kept, and that it is not our own. For we did not obtain it for ourselves; God bestowed it on us. And not it alone, but also “faith and a good conscience.” What he has given us, then, let us keep. For if he had not come, faith would not have been found, nor that pure way of life we learn by being taught. It is as though he had said: “It is not I who charge you, but he who chose you.” And this is what “the prophecies that went before concerning you” means. Listen to them; obey them.

And tell us, what is your charge? “That by them you may wage good warfare.” They chose you; so do the very thing they chose you for: “wage good warfare.” He said “good warfare” because there is also a bad warfare, of which he says, “Just as you presented your members as instruments to impurity and to lawlessness” (Romans 6, verse 19). Those men serve under a usurper, but you serve under a King. [f]

And why does he call it warfare? To show how mighty a contest all of us have to keep up, but a teacher above all. We need strong weapons, and a clear head, and wakefulness, and constant vigilance. We must prepare ourselves for blood and battles, stand in battle order, and let nothing go slack. “That by them you may wage warfare,” he says. For just as in an army not everyone serves in the same capacity, but each at his own post, so too in the church one has the office of a teacher, another that of a disciple, another that of a layman. But you are in this one. And since this is not enough, he adds:

Verse 19: “Holding faith and a good conscience.”

For whoever would be a teacher must first teach himself. Just as a man who has not first been a good soldier will never become a general, so it is with the teacher. That is why he says elsewhere, “so that after preaching to others I myself should not be disqualified” (First Corinthians 9, verse 27). “Holding faith,” he says, “and a good conscience,” so that you may preside over others. [h]

When we hear this, let us not look down on the exhortations of those set over us, even if we are teachers. For if Timothy, with whom all of us put together are not worthy to be compared, receives commands and is instructed, and that while he himself holds the office of teacher, how much more should we!

“Which some have put away and have made shipwreck concerning the faith.” And this follows naturally. For when the life is corrupt, it breeds a teaching to match it; and from this cause many are seen to fall into a pit of evil and to turn aside into paganism. So that they will not be tormented by fear of what is to come, they try to persuade their own souls that what we preach is false. And some who search everything out by reasoning turn aside from the faith. For reasoning produces shipwreck, while faith is like a safe ship.

Those, then, who turn aside from the faith must suffer shipwreck; and he shows this by an example. [j]

Verse 20: “Among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander.”

And by them he means to instruct us. You see how even from those early times there have been teachers who led people astray, men who pried into things with curiosity, who held back from the faith and searched things out by their own reasonings. Just as the shipwrecked man is naked and stripped of everything, so the one who falls away from the faith has nothing to fall back on. He does not know where to stand or where to steady himself, nor does he have the advantage of a good life, so as to gain anything from that side. For when the head is disordered, what good is the rest of the body? And if faith without a good life is of no use, much more is the reverse true. If God thinks nothing of what is his own for our sakes, much more ought we to think nothing of what is ours for his sake. For so it is: when someone falls away from the faith, he has no steadiness. He swims this way and that, until at last he is lost in the deep.

“Whom I have delivered to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.” So it is blasphemy to search into divine things by our own reasonings. For what do human reasonings have in common with them? But how does Satan teach them not to blaspheme? Can he teach others when he has not yet taught himself, but is a blasphemer still? It does not say “that he may teach them,” but “that they may be taught.” It is not he who does it, though that is the result. So too he says elsewhere, in the case of the sexually immoral man, “to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh” — not that he may save the body, but “that the spirit may be saved” (First Corinthians 5, verse 5). That is why it is said without naming who does it. [k]

How, then, is this brought about? Executioners, though themselves loaded with countless crimes, are made the correctors of others; and so it is here with the evil spirit. But why did you not punish them yourself, as you did Bar-Jesus, and as Peter did Ananias, instead of delivering them to Satan? It was not so that they might be punished, but so that they might be instructed. That he had the power himself is clear from other passages: “What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod?” (First Corinthians 4, verse 21). And again: “so that I may not have to deal sharply, using the authority the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down” (Second Corinthians 13, verse 10).

Why, then, did he call on Satan to punish them? So that the disgrace might be greater, as the severity and the punishment were more striking. Or rather, the apostles themselves punished those who did not yet believe, but those who turned aside they delivered to Satan. Why, then, did Peter punish Ananias? Because while he was putting the Holy Spirit to the test, he was still an unbeliever. So that unbelievers might learn that they could not escape, the apostles themselves inflicted punishment on them. But those who had learned this and afterward turned aside, they delivered to Satan. So they showed that such men had been held up, not by their own strength, but by the apostles’ care for them. And all who were lifted up into arrogance were delivered to him. For just as kings put their enemies to death with their own hands, but hand over their own subjects to executioners for punishment, so it is in this case.

These things were done to show the authority entrusted to the apostles. And it was no slight power, to be able to make the devil himself subject to their commands in this way. For this shows that he served and obeyed them even against his will, and that was no small proof of the power of grace. And listen to how he delivered them: “When you are assembled, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan” (First Corinthians 5, verses 4 and 5). The man was at once expelled from the common assembly. He was cut off from the fold; he was left deserted and destitute; he was handed over to the wolf. For just as the cloud marked out the camp of the Hebrews, so the Spirit marked out the church. So if anyone was outside, he was consumed; and it was by the judgment of the apostles that he was cast outside the enclosure.

So too the Lord delivered Judas to Satan, for immediately “after the morsel, Satan entered into him” (John 13, verse 27). Or this may be said: those they wished to set right, they did not punish themselves, but kept their own punishments for those who were past correcting. Or again, they were the more feared for handing people over to others. Job too was delivered to Satan, but not for his sins; it was to give fuller proof of his worth.

Many such cases still happen. Since the priests cannot know who are sinners and who share unworthily in the holy mysteries, God often delivers them to Satan in this way. For when diseases and attacks and griefs and disasters and the like occur, it is for this reason that they are sent. Paul shows this: “That is why many among you are weak and sick, and many have fallen asleep” (First Corinthians 11, verse 30). [o]

But someone says: “How can that be, when we come forward only once a year?” But this is exactly the evil: you judge whether you are worthy to come forward, not by the purity of your mind, but by the length of time in between. You think it a proper caution not to receive often. You do not consider that partaking unworthily sears you, even if only once, while receiving worthily, even often, brings you health. It is not presumptuous to receive often; what is presumptuous is to receive unworthily, even if only once in a whole lifetime.

But we are so wretchedly foolish that, although we commit countless offenses in the course of a year, we are not anxious to be set free from them. We are content that we do not often make so bold as to insult the body of Christ shamelessly, forgetting that those who crucified Christ crucified him only once. Is the offense any smaller, then, because it was committed only once? Judas betrayed his Teacher only once. What then? Did that exempt him from punishment?

Why, indeed, should time be the thing we consider in this matter? Let the time of our coming be when our conscience is pure. The mystery at Easter has no more power than the one being celebrated now. It is one and the same. There is the same grace of the Spirit; it is always Passover. You who have been initiated know this. On the day of Preparation, on the Sabbath, on the Lord’s day, and on the martyrs’ days, it is the same sacrifice that is offered. “For as often,” he says, “as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death” (First Corinthians 11, verse 26). No time is fixed for offering this sacrifice. Why, then, is that season called the Paschal feast? Because Christ suffered for us then.

So do not let the time make any difference in your coming forward. At all times there is the same power, the same dignity, the same grace, one and the same body; no one celebration of it is more or less holy than another. You know this yourselves, for on those occasions you see nothing new except these worldly hangings and a more splendid crowd. The only thing those days have more is that from them began the day of our salvation, when Christ was sacrificed. But as far as these mysteries are concerned, those days have no further distinction.

When you come to take bodily food, you wash your hands and your mouth. But when you draw near to this spiritual food, you do not cleanse your soul; you come full of uncleanness. But you say: “Aren’t the forty days of fasting enough to cleanse the huge heap of our sins?” But what use is it, tell me? Suppose you wanted to store up some precious ointment, and you cleaned a place to receive it, and then, a little after putting it there, you threw dung on it. Would the fine fragrance not vanish? That is what happens with us too. We make ourselves as worthy to come forward as we are able; then we defile ourselves again! What good is it, then? And this we say even of those who manage in those forty days to wash themselves clean.

So let us not neglect our salvation, I beg you, so that our labor may not be in vain. For the one who turns away from his sins and then goes and commits the same ones again is “like a dog that returns to its vomit” (Proverbs 26, verse 11). But if we act as we ought and take heed to our ways, we will be counted worthy of those high rewards. May God grant that we all obtain them, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, and honor, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.