1 Timothy 1:3–7:
“As I urged you when I was leaving for Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to spread false teachings, not to occupy themselves with myths and interminable genealogies. Such things promote useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan that operates by faith. But the aim of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Some have strayed from this and turned away to empty discussion. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand what they are saying or the things they insist on so confidently.”
The last few days I’ve been focused on this passage.
Paul is not talking generally now. There are specific people. He said “certain people.” It is very clear what these people are doing: false teachings. It is very clear. It is not on the margins. They have gone over fully into myths and interminable genealogies. They are promoting speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan. They have strayed away from “love from a pure heart” as what we are aiming for, and from a good conscience and a sincere faith. They have gone into empty discussion. They have thought to themselves, “Let me engage with the Old Testament and see what it can tell me,” and they are generating all kinds of things from it.
He says they do not understand what they are confidently asserting. They do not really understand it.
But I want to focus now on verse 4. There is a contrast here. He says they are promoting useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan. They are focused on something else and not on God’s redemptive plan.
And so that you do not begin to think that God’s redemptive plan is about a lot of money in your bank account, he says it “operates by faith.”
And so that you do not begin to mess up what faith is, the writer of Hebrews says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The emphasis of faith is not money in your pocket. The emphasis of faith is not some material possession. The emphasis of faith is what you have not seen. It is setting your heart on things in heaven rather than things on earth (Colossians 3:1–2).
It is not about things you are now competing for with unbelievers—“How many cars do I have? What brands do I own?”—and then leaving behind the idea that “if our hope in Christ is for this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). Meaning we are actually at a disadvantage when it comes to this world as Christians.
Because we have Christians who suffer the loss of their property because they are Christians, and the Bible says they accepted that joyfully (Hebrews 10:34). So that kind of message that focuses me on this world, on material things—that is the kind of message I need to reject.
Those messages do not promote faith. They are preached in the name of “faith,” but they are actually the opposite of faith, because they focus me on earthly things. They are making me “mind earthly things.”
In another passage Paul spoke about people “whose minds are set on earthly things” (Philippians 3:19), after calling them “enemies of the cross of Christ.” He also spoke of people with “corrupted minds” (1 Timothy 6:5).
So if the message from the pulpit—year one, year two, year three, year four, year forty‑four—is focusing me on material things day in, day out, I am in trouble. He says, “rather than God’s redemptive plan.” When God’s redemptive plan is twisted into “How many jets do you have?” there is a problem. When God’s redemptive plan is twisted into “How many houses do you have in how many countries? How much travelling can you do?” there is a problem.
That is why Paul is saying, “God’s redemptive plan that operates by faith” means we do not see it fully yet, but our heart, our anchor, our focus is on what is not seen, not on what is seen (2 Corinthians 4:18).
God bless you.