Our family bought a GPS for the car and I love it.  We can travel through the States, type in “Water Park” and boom, it brings us to a water park.  Awesome!  You want a Tim Horton’s, type it in and boom, you’re there.   Looking for that bike store that someone told you about, the GPS brings you right there – “turn left in 100m”.  It has saved us from going in circles many a times.

Now imagine you want your GPS to tell you that where the local grocery store is and it says “Don’t got there, you might get your car scratched by a cart”.  You tell your GPS that you want to go out for a nice dinner.  It replies “No, you may get food poisoning”.

That just wouldn’t work.  The whole point of GPS is to tell you where you can go, not where you can’t.  And that is the main emphasis that Paul is making when it comes to being under the “LAW” or under the “GOSPEL” in his letter to Timothy.

Paul’s understanding of the law is that it tells you what not to do, where not to go and how not to do things.  Paul’s understanding of the message of Jesus is the polar opposite.  The gospel says:  this is where you can go, what you can do and this is how you can do it!  Of course, there is more to it than this but for Paul’s letter to Timothy, this would be the context to help us understand what is going on.

The main point of our present passage is this:  The Jewish law is like a map which only marks danger.  Let’s read it, try to understand the circumstances that this was written under and then conclude.

1 Timothy 1:3-11 (New International Version)

 ³As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer ⁴nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. ⁵The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. ⁶Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. ⁷They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

 ⁸We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. ⁹We also know that law^[a] is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine ¹¹that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

Timothy was placed in Ephesus to get a church that was falling apart put it back in order. Ephesus was considered the wealthiest and most hip place in the time of Paul.  It had a great harbour, it contained one of the 7 Wonders of the World and it boasted continuously of its great athletic compounds and games.  Actually, they were the hub for great theatres, government buildings (which were also worship centers), commercial markets, baths and gymnasiums, stadiums, medical schools (they trained the best of the best there) and festivals.

And of course, the Temple of Diana (Artemis).  What you need to understand is that no matter where you went it had pagan worship connected to it.  The theatre, the market, the gym, the doctors – everything.

So, there were these people in the Ephesians church who said “The GPS says don’t go there you could blah blah blah….”  In other words, stay where it is safe, where you won’t be influenced and so on.  Why? Because the law says so.

Paul’s view is that “That’s good for the people who never have come into contact with Jesus.  If you want to know what not to do, the Jewish law is perfect.  But it won’t tell you what you should do”.  As NT Wright puts it:  It may be good for people who are always wandering off to the danger areas, who seem bent on going too near the moral cliffs, or trying to cross bridges that will crumble underneath them.   

What are those danger areas?  This is where this little letter gets really cool.  Paul lists some types of danger areas – but he is also playing with words here.  Paul lists commandment’s numbers 5-9 out of the Ten Commandments but brings them to an extreme.  In other words, this list is list of the most perverted places you can go with breaking the Ten Commandments.  Let’s look:

Commandment # 5 – Honour your parents.  Paul’s extreme slant “those who kill their parents.

Commandment #6 – Do not murder.  Paul’s extreme slant “murderers” (refer to my message on the top ten)

Commandment #7 – Do not commit adultery.  Paul’s extreme slant “adulterers and perverts”

Commandment #8 – Do not steal.  Paul’s extreme slant “slave traders”

Commandment #9 – Don’t give false testimony.  Paul’s extreme slant “liars and perjurers”

Paul says, these types of people obviously never had a Jesus moment – so the law is for them.  If you are this “perverted”, you need more than the law, you need Jesus.

The bad leadership in the Ephesus church was probably telling the church “Don’t go to market, or you will stumble, you will break the law” or “Don’t go to town hall or you be disobeying the Torah” or “Don’t go to the gym, or God will be displeased with your lack of commitment to the Ten Commandments”.  Pauls reply to this is “They do not know what they are talking about.  God wants you to be salt and light in those places.  Not the law, but the gospel.  Bring God’s glory to those places”.

Church, we are not called to be an introverted Jesus club.  We are called to go into the world with the glory of God with us.   Well, this is what Paul says to Timothy that all things need to “conform to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.” 

Let’s go there church, let’s go there.