1 Timothy 1:18–20

1:18 “This charge” refers to the charge Paul gave in verses 3 and 5: “Charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. . . . The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Thus Paul has entrusted Timothy with the responsibility to confront false teachers. Paul says that he put Timothy in Ephesus to command these false teachers to cease and desist. Paul does this “in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you.” In the early church, a call to ministry sometimes came by means of prophecy. For example, in Acts 13:1–4 the Holy Spirit speaks through prophecy to set apart Barnabas and Saul for missionary work. Likewise, Timothy has been set apart for pastoral ministry, and Paul is reminding him that confronting false teachers is a part of that calling. Failure to confront false teaching is failure to be a faithful pastor.

The final clause of the verse expresses the purpose for which Paul has entrusted Timothy with this charge: “that by them you may wage the good warfare.” The word translated “wage” (strateuē) means “to engage in a conflict” (BDAG). Not all conflict is bad—Paul says that this is “good warfare.” This conflict is a fight worth having because that which the pastor contends for is so precious: human souls. Contending against false teachers is not a necessary evil but a necessary good. The charge is singular, but the prophecies are plural. This indicates that “by them” refers to the prophecies that were an encouragement for waging the good warfare.

1:19 How does a pastor keep up this fight? Verse 19 answers, “[By] holding faith and a good conscience.” “Holding” indicates that possessing “faith” and a “good conscience” is the means by which the battle must be waged. The only way in which Timothy will stay ready for the fight is by persevering in faith and a good conscience—which means that he must trust in Christ (“faith”) and obey his word (“good conscience”). Paul says there are “some” people who have strayed from a good conscience. As a result, they have “made shipwreck of their faith”—they have apostatized from following Christ.

1:20 Paul names two men in particular who have fallen away: Hymenaeus and Alexander. These two men have succumbed to the danger against which Paul is warning: they have shipwrecked their faith. We do not possess an explicit description of what these two men did to shipwreck their faith, but elsewhere Paul may have given some hints. In 2 Timothy 2:17–18, Paul says that Hymenaeus taught that the resurrection had already occurred and by doing so had upset the faith of some in the congregation. In 2 Timothy 4:14–15, Paul says that Alexander the coppersmith did him “great harm” and “strongly opposed” his message. Even if we do not know the specifics, it is probably safe to conclude that both of these men were false teachers.

According to verse 19, these men fell away from “faith” and a “good conscience.” In other words, they failed both to believe and to do the right thing; their apostasy was rooted in a failure of heart and of character.

And now, because they have fallen away, Paul says that he has “handed [them] over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme” (v. 20). Paul’s instruction mirrors his language describing church discipline in 1 Corinthians 5:5: “You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” In 1 Corinthians Paul says that the church must hand an unrepentant so-called brother over to Satan because of continued sexual immorality. Paul tells the Corinthian congregation to ostracize the offender and not even to eat with him (1 Cor. 5:9, 11). In other words, “handing over to Satan” is Paul’s language for excommunication—Paul has set Hymenaeus and Alexander outside of the church and back into the realm of Satan and his influence. Why? In order to teach them not to “blaspheme”—to instruct them to stop slandering and defaming God with their false teachings. As stated above, the goal of Paul’s discipline is love—that they might repent and be restored. But as long as they refuse to repent, they must be set outside the church.