In Ephesus some men had got into the fellowship and were promoting their ideas which had not come from God, did not depend on His grace, and were a different, false Gospel (Galatians 1:6-9).  They were very sincere and passionate, but they were not spreading truth.  They came in as brothers, but wanted to be teachers.  They talked with weighty words, but did not have apostolic authority.  They were fascinated with minor matters and distracted the church from the major principles of Christian discipleship.  

Law, of whatever kind, marks out the boundaries.  Step over the line and the law is broken, leading to punishment.  Keep within the line of the law and there is security and freedom from the fear of punishment.  So Paul explained that God’s law in the Old Testament is still good, because it defines the people whose attitudes and actions are against God’s law.  But law can never make people good.  All it does is to let people see that they are sinners.  Indeed, everybody is a sinner (Romans 3:23). Recognising our sinfulness is the start point for connecting with the Gospel.

Paul starts this section of his letter to Timothy with a banner headline, “Christ came into the world to save sinners”.  He calls it a statement upon which people can trust their lives, and eternities.  It is almost too good to be true, but Paul insists that believers fully embrace it.  

Timothy had a difficult job.  Although most people in the church at Ephesus wanted to hold on to the Gospel which Paul taught, other people were being distracted to believe and teach lies (1 Timothy 4:1-2).  Timothy’s task was to keep the Gospel at the centre of the church, exposing wrong teaching and rebuking false teachers (1 Timothy 1:3-7) . So, it was essential for Timothy to hold tightly to the truth of the Gospel himself.  If the teacher should go astray, the whole church would be led away from Jesus (1 Timothy 4:16).