Last week we started a study of 1 Timothy. Paul’s writing to his much younger protégé who’s pastoring the church in Ephesus that Paul started some years earlier. It’s pretty clear that the first part of the letter is a reminder to the church, through Timothy, not to allow the Gospel to be diluted or affected by the prevailing attitudes of the secular world. The Greek culture was rife with people participating in endless deliberation that never led to any conclusions. Paul said the outcome of his and Timothy’s teaching was to be love from a pure heart, a clear conscience and solid faith (1:4).

Last week we started a study of 1 Timothy. Paul’s writing to his much younger protégé who’s pastoring the church in Ephesus that Paul started some years earlier. It’s pretty clear that the first part of the letter is a reminder to the church, through Timothy, not to allow the Gospel to be diluted or affected by the prevailing attitudes of the secular world. The Greek culture was rife with people participating in endless deliberation that never led to any conclusions. Paul said the outcome of his and Timothy’s teaching was to be love from a pure heart, a clear conscience and solid faith (1:4).


Paul clearly faces a problem in Ephesus that’s with us today and is still difficult – how to be inclusive without implying that all behavior is equally acceptable. We face that today, a prevailing idea is that we cannot judge anybody’s activities, to do so it be judgmental. It’s kind of a runaway equivalence – you’ve got your ideas, your activities, your beliefs, everything is equally good. Paul counters that, saying that people who are unrelenting profane, rebellious, lawless and ungodly (1:9) defy the nature and will of God and stand subject to God’s judgment. Similarly, those who consistently violate other people or use others for their own purpose or gain are also subject to judgment. Here he refers to those who continue to perpetrate vile acts: those who kill their parents and murderers; the next word might mean adulterers or prostitute-hirers. The next word is, again, “arsenokoitai,” one of the toughest words in the New Testament. I want to apologize to the translaters of the New International Version whom I railed against last week. They translate the word “perverts;” it’s the New American Standard Bible that translates it “homosexuals.” In 1 Corinthians 6:9, though, the NIV translates the same word “homosexual offenders,” still misleading. Paul goes on to condemn “men-stealers” which might refer to kidnappers (including kidnapping of adults which was not uncommon in that world) or slave-traders along with pathological liars and perjurers: those who lie about other people’s actions or character. Paul condemns these, ones whose acts defy God or hurt or destroy other people.

It seems obvious that we would condemn such people as well. It’s a pretty vile list and would go more or less unquestioned except for “arsenokoitai.” But if we just look at the list, it becomes clear that Paul is talking about real and unrepentant offenders. It’s probable that he is talking about “homosexual offenders,” guys like the NAMBLA crowd of perverts – adults who get off by forcing or seducing under-age boys into sexual acts. Arsenokoitai is not talking about healthy adults entering into a consensual relationship, sexual and personal. Paul didn’t know about healthy gay relationships, it wasn’t part of his world. At this point, Paul enters into a doctrine about salvation, about redeeming sinners. The idea of salvation has almost become the object of ridicule but all it means is being made right with God. Sinners are not evil or hopeless, the word means “missing the mark,” not right with God; Paul said he’d been the worst of sinners and his redemption shows that anybody can be “saved.” So Paul’s message is one of extreme reconciliation and hope – still upholding the affirmation that defiant, deceptive and destructive people are responsible for their actions and are not acceptable to God. I don’t think this includes us.