18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Paul reminds Timothy of his responsibility, and that a lot of people are counting on him to make the right decisions and be a beacon of good in the darkness. It was a difficult position to be in, and easy to falter, so Paul chose to use martial terms to describe the young man’s path. These are not literal– “war a good warfare” doesn’t mean pick up a sword and run about with it, rather he is encouraging Timothy to stand strong for what is right and good no matter what other people do or say.

He points out two people– Hymenaeus and Alexander, who apparently gave way to temptation and derision. Paul tells Timothy that they did not keep the faith and ignored their conscience. As a result, he was forced to sternly rebuke them in an extremely serious fashion. This is a “don’t let this happen to you” moment as Paul warns against the evils of losing faith. He gives the parallel of a shipwreck– a few wrong decisions in navigation can send the ship smashing onto rocks and its crew drowning. We too, if we stop listening to our conscience and do whatever we feel like at the time, can lose direction and smash into rocks as well. In the third Star Wars prequel– Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, a young man starts making a few wrong choices that turn him from being a mostly good person into the evil Darth Vader. It doesn’t take much, so pay attention to your conscience and keep the faith!

12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Paul takes some time to comment about how he used to be like the people described in the previous verses– arrogant and prosecuting over wrongly interpreted details of the law. He comments that he was granted mercy, so he is explaining to Timothy that there is hope for the group he needs to correct. Instead of simply walking up to them and giving a lecture, Paul gives the young man a practical example to use in instructing the wayward group. It is one thing to speak in an abstract way, but to this day priests will often bring in stories and examples to illustrate the teaching of a homily. Paul gives his own conversion to demonstrate how a proud person who thought himself rather clever when it came to the law was saved by “the grace of our Lord” and was given the faith and love he needed to break through his pride and turn to good works.

He humbly acknowledges that he too made a lot of poor decisions, but that his life showed the patience that God has with each of us. He pauses to glorify God in a genuine outpouring of praise. After thinking of his own redemption, this is a beautiful example of the proper response each of us should have when thinking of all the Lord has done, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” There have been many songs and chants made with these words, and I am sure you have heard at least one of them. It is always lovely to see them in context of the Scripture to which they belong.

3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.
5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
6 From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;
7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

This particular section warns about the perils of becoming too minute in the examination of Scripture without putting it into practice. It talks about people worrying more about “endless genealogies” and “vain jangling” which one translation speaks of as “fruitless discussion”. Here is a group of people that chatter constantly about obscure bits of scripture and the law and don’t really know what they are talking about. They are not trusting God, and instead prefer to appear clever and more knowledgeable than other people.

Paul points out that if someone is acting from a pure heart in love and really trusts God, they won’t need to obsess over the details of the law, and good works will come instinctively. In verses 9 and 10 he lists some blatantly bad crimes and says that those are the people that need the law to instruct them. The “good” people described in the earlier verses who want to sit about discussing meaningless trivia are the very ones who don’t need to. If we really accept the “glorious gospel” and have faith and love, endless talk of fussy details shouldn’t be on our mind. Instead we should want to do good works and edify each other.