1 Timothy 1:18-16
In View Of What Christ Has Done Paul Lays Out The Battle Plan For The Future And Organises God's Forces In Order To Ensure That His Church Will Be The Mainstay Of All That He Has Accomplished (1 Timothy 1:18 to 1 Timothy 3:16).
Calling on Timothy to prepare for spiritual warfare (1 Timothy 1:18), he exhorts prayer for all men, and especially for all in high places, in order that the work of God might go forward peaceably among all men, for that was why He had sent His Mediator as a man among men and as a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:1). All are to play their part in accordance with what God has revealed. Christian men (including women) are all to participate in this prayer, lifting up holy hands in Christian oneness, while Christian women are also to play their part by godly sobriety, and being careful to maintain their rightful place, lest the error of the Garden of Eden be repeated. Avoidance of this, and fulfilling of their major role in child-bearing, will then turn out for their blessing and salvation (1 Timothy 2:8). Meanwhile the principles of leadership are laid out as Paul gives advice to Timothy about the appointment of male ‘bishops/overseers' and ‘deacons', and also of ‘women' (1 Timothy 3:1), and he concludes the section by pointing out that his instructions are being sent to him so that he might know how men and women are to behave within the household of God, that is the church of the living God (1 Timothy 3:14). Finally he ends by again directing his own and their minds to heavenly things (compare 1 Timothy 1:17), but this time in terms of the coming of the Incarnate One and what He has accomplished (1 Timothy 3:16), a truth of which the church is to be the mainstay in the world (1 Timothy 3:15).
We can summarise this section something like this:
· Warring the good warfare and the collapse of some of the fabric (1 Timothy 1:18).
· Rallying the troops both male and female to make use of their spiritual weapons (chapter 2).
· Choosing the officers, both male and female (1 Timothy 3:1).
· The responsibility of the Church as the pillar and mainstay of the truth and the description of the One Whose incredible accomplishment guarantees the success of the warfare and provides its incentive (1 Timothy 3:14).