First Timothy 1:1-20

The Apostle Paul wrote this letter (epistle) in accordance with the information that God and the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to him.

I Timothy 1:1 and 2:

^1:1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to a command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope – ^.2to Timothy a genuine child in belief; grace, mercy, peace from God (the) Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul begins this letter by first identifying himself to Timothy by name: Paul. Then he identifies himself by 'job-title' or 'work-function' relative-to his working or service relationship with Christ Jesus: apostle. An "apostle" is a person sent-forth or sent-away by someone on a mission or specific assignment to someone else, and in the context we see that Paul was sent-forth by Christ Jesus. Paul was Christ Jesus' apostle in accordance with a command (that-which is commanded with authority, an authoritative arrangement, what is put in order upon or over a person and therefore must be obeyed) of…

• God our Savior (the only true God is the source of salvation for all holy-people) and
• Christ Jesus our hope (Christ Jesus is the one who carried out what was needed to make salvation available to mankind thus giving all holy-people our hope, the expectation of the full completion of God’s promise definitely coming to pass at a future time).

Paul had not decided all by himself that he would make himself an apostle of Christ Jesus, nor did some committee or organization get-together and vote Paul into being an apostle of Christ Jesus. There was not some "unknown force" which was driving him to do the things he was doing, nor was he deluded into thinking that he was somebody else, nor did he decide that he was "good enough" to be an apostle to his neighbors or to the whole world, nor had he "forced" God or Christ Jesus into making him an apostle! He became an apostle of Christ Jesus according to a command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope. Paul includes the word "our" twice reminding and emphasizing to Timothy that God is the Savior and Christ Jesus is the hope of Paul, Timothy, and all holy-people.

Paul addressed this letter to Timothy a genuine child in belief (literally: a legitimate, genetic child born to/from me, which includes the figurative sense of being an affectionate term of endearment – a genuine child within the sphere of action of the belief/faith that God gives us to believe);…

• grace (what is freely bestowed without any merit on the recipient's part; it includes reference to the attitude and quality of the one giving something favorable to another. Grace is not bestowed because somebody deserves a wage that is owed for something they said or did, nor because they begged so hard, nor because they forced the giver to give! Grace is bestowed because the giver wants to give by his own freedom of will to the recipient - it is completely unmerited favor from the giver to the recipient.),
• mercy – active-relief because of withholding merited judgment (not bestowing punishment on one who deserves to be punished),
• peace – tranquil-harmony without strife (We may think of peace as the opposite of war, the opposite of conflict, the opposite of being at odds with the other party. Who are the other parties as far as holy-people are concerned? God and the Lord Jesus Christ. All of God's children are at peace with God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ because it is given to us from God and the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore all Christians should behave peaceably with one-another too.)….

Grace, mercy, peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Timothy and Paul were children of God. God was their Father - spiritually. Paul also gives Christ Jesus his title of "Lord." The word "Lord" refers to a master or an owner, one who has the authority or authoritative-power, the one from whom the directions and instructions are given and who is to be obeyed, the one who has the dominion over and exercises his lordship in relation to that-which his title of "Lord" or "Master" is being associated.

We should notice the emphasis that Paul gives in these opening two verses:

• God is our Savior
• God is the Father
• Christ Jesus is the one from whom Paul is apostled
• Christ Jesus is our hope
• Christ Jesus is our Lord.

[Reference: Luke 1:47; Acts 16:1-3; Romans 5:1-6, and 16:21; I Corinthians 4:17, 15:51-57, and 16:10; II Corinthians 1:1 and 19; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:1, and 2:19-22; Colossians 1:1 and 23-27; I Thessalonians 1:1, 3:2 and 6, and 4:13-17; II Thessalonians 1:1; I Timothy 2:3; II Timothy 1:2, 5, 8b, and 9a; Titus 1:3 and 4, and 2:10, and 3:4; Philemon 1:1; Hebrews 13:23; Jude 1:25.]

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