 Okay, so we looked at verses 1 to verse 4 in chapter 1 of 1st Timothy and we see what, you know, how Paul addresses himself as an Apostle of Jesus Christ and then he's saying that he's an Apostle by commandment. It's a command that he received from God and we also, he talks about God and, you know, he mentions about two persons of the Godhead, God the Father and God the Son. Okay, and then we talk about, you know, how he encourages Timothy not to heed to any false teachings and doctrines and also to tell the people and to be aware of what is being taught and to watch over what is being taught. So even as, you know, we are part of the ministry team of our church or we are ministering, we also, it's important for us to watch over what is being taught to the people and what people are called to focus on. And we need to teach them the truth from God's word and that is what is going to bring godly edification and build up people in the faith. Okay, so we look at verses 5 to verse 7. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from sincere faith. For which some have strayed and have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. Okay, now Paul is saying that what does God want from us? Okay, what is the purpose of the, now the purpose of the commandment. Okay, what is the meaning of this phrase? The purpose of the commandment is he's saying, what does God want from us? And he's saying basically God wants from us is love. And this love must flow out from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. Now if you look, you know, if you read 1st Timothy and even 2nd Timothy, there are a lot of places that he is going to be talking about a good conscience. Okay, so what we need to do to be focused rather than straying away to all kinds of teachings that are around us and what people are saying and what people are doing. If we need to be focused and not deviate from the core, that means not deviate from the main truth into all unnecessary things. Then he says you need to have, you know, a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. Okay, so what is the meaning of a pure heart here? Pure heart means pure in your motives, not having any selfish interests or no personal agendas. You know, sometimes when we are in church ministry, we can do things just to gain attention from people, to gain popularity or to receive some benefits from them, some perks from them, some gifts from them. But Paul is here telling us that we need to serve God or even if you're coming to church to worship, we need to do with a pure heart. That means we need to be pure in our motives, why we're doing what we're doing, why we're coming to church, you know, why we're serving God, why are we ministering to people, should all be pure motives, no selfish agendas, no selfish interests and no personal agendas. The next thing he says is we need to have a good conscience. A good conscience means a clear conscience. Now what is conscience? What is conscience? Inner voice. Yeah, our consciences are inner voice, okay? It's like, you know, when it's like a whistle that blows, every time we do something wrong. You know, if you're driving on the street and you suddenly hear the whistle, you know, the policeman is trying to stop you or if you're playing a game and the referee blows a whistle, you know, you made a foul and everyone has to stop the game and, you know, the referee will say what has happened and what should be done going forward. Okay, so we know that you've done something wrong. So the conscience is like that whistle that just blows, every time we do something wrong, say something wrong, you know, or see something that is not right. Okay, so he says we need to have a clear conscience. That is, you know, clear conscience is when we live right in the sight of God and the sight of man. Okay, living right, doing what is right in the sight of God and in the sight of man. And the third thing he says is you need to have sincere faith. That means a genuine faith, not a faith that is, you know, a pretense or something that you just put on. Or something that you enact in front of people, but have a sincere faith. So as believers, you know, if we want to stay founded and grounded in the truth of God's word in our foundations. In our walk with God, you know, then we, Paul is saying you need to not stray away from false doctrines. He's saying you need to have a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. Okay, any questions or any doubts you have about versus one to a seven, any comments? Can we move ahead? Okay, if there is no comments, no questions, then I move on to versus eight towards 11. Okay. Was eight towards 11. But we know that the law is good. One uses it lawfully, knowing this that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and in subordinate for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for man slayers, for fornicators for sodomites for kidnappers for liars for pro perduous. And if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. Okay. So Paul is here saying that we know that the law is good. No God gave the law, and the law is good because the law was intended to keep us from doing what is wrong. Or the law was like a signpost or a guide that showed us or told us when we miss God standard or miss God's mark or what God has is requiring of us or when we are in the wrong. So the law is good, and it was intended to keep us from doing what is wrong. Now, anything that says that, you know, people doing sins that it's okay for them to do it. And here in this context is basically talking about the sexually immoral and those who practice homosexuality. Okay. Now, if you look at all of those sins that are given to us in verse 10, the ESV, the English standard version basically saying that the sexually immoral are those who practice homosexuality. You know, many of them were saying it's in the church were saying it's okay for them to do it, they were entertaining this. So, you know, while we're aware that we must stay away from all of these sins, you know, and it's not okay for us to sin, Paul is drawing an attention to specific sins that he's mentioning in verse 10 where he's talking about the sexually immoral men. And people and men who practice homosexuality. So any kind of teaching that says that sexually, sexual immorality or homosexuality is okay. Paul is saying it's contrary to sound doctrine and is also contrary to the glorious gospel or it's contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he's saying that we should not entertain this and we should not compromise to these sins. And so we see that, you know, these things have even crept into the church and, you know, pastors are okay with it then, you know, and the church is not opposing these things. And so these things are not okay. And these are sin in God's sight. And, you know, we need to speak against this. We need to stop this if it's happening in our own churches. Okay. The next is in verses 12 to verse 17, Paul says, And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am a chief. However, for this reason, I obtained mercy that in me first Christ Jesus might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Now in these verses, Paul is reflecting on his own life and calling. Okay. In verse 12, he says, you know that God has counted him faithful, putting him into the ministry. Okay. So what God looks for when he chooses us to be his ministers or to minister in his kingdom, he's looking for faithfulness. So God saw the faithfulness in Paul and he put him into the ministry. And we also know that God was faithful in helping and enabling and strengthening and in strengthening Paul to carry on the work that he had wanted him to do. We see in verse 12 that Paul is saying here that God counted him faithful and put him into the ministry. So what God looks for when he chooses us to be in his kingdom or to serve him as he's looking for faithfulness. And in verse 14, Paul is saying that the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant. Why does he say this? Because you know, Paul is also mentioning that he was a blasphemer, a prosecutor, an insolent man, very stubborn, arrogant. You know, and he says he obtained mercy because he did this ignorantly and in unbelief, he obtained mercy from God. And he's talking about God's lavish grace and kindness towards him no matter what he has done. And Paul is testifying to this fact, to this truth. Okay. So we know that even when we look into our past lives that, you know, the depth of sinfulness that we were in and how God, you know, showed his mercy and his kindness, his grace. He lavished upon us and he brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light and, you know, bestowed his grace and his mercy. And we are now children of the Most High God. And we're also in a position where he has seen us faithful and he's called us to serve him. And we see that Paul always, you know, testifies about his salvation experience. He's always talking about his, he's always reminding himself about who he is and what God has done for him. In verse 15 he says, Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners of whom I am a chief. And this is so amazing because even after all these years of great apostolic ministry, you know, Paul focused on the one main thing. That is Jesus Christ came to save sinners and he calls himself the chief of sinners. You know, Paul is always, you know, establishing this fact that who he was, that he was the chief of sinners and God, how Jesus Christ saved him. Irrespective of all the things that he has done, you know, the amazing things, the ministry that he's done, the places that he's gone. You know, the churches he's established, the young people that he's trained and the churches that he's overseeing and overlooking the amazing work that he's done. He does not, you know, talk about all of his accomplishments, but he's always talking about his salvation experience, who he was and how Jesus Christ saved him. In verses 16 and 17, you know, Paul says that what God did is an example, is a pattern of his abundant grace and great patience. And why does he say this? This is to encourage others who believe in Jesus Christ. Paul is saying, you know, even though I was in deep sin, you know, Jesus saved me and here I am, you know, saved by his grace and just living in the abundant grace and kindness that Jesus has lavished on me. He says, not only me, but, you know, Jesus Christ will shower his, or lavish his abundant grace and show his great patience to all those who believe in him. And this is just to encourage the church at Ephesus and the other seven churches surrounding Ephesus and also to encourage Timothy. And then we see that, you know, Paul is so overjoyed and excited at, you know, what God has done in his life and how he saved him, he breaks out into praise to God. He says, now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Okay. So that is verses 12 to verse 17. Anyone has any doubts on these verses? Anything you want to say? No? Paul is saying, I'm the chief of the sinner, but the grace of God is now the minister of God. That's very powerful truth. When we are doing ministry, when we walk into the salvation, always we should remember where we got saved and we have to thankful to God. We have to always repent in the salvation. What, how God has changed us. That is the true gospel when we are preaching and preaching to the people. That's what I think. Yes, true Thomas. Yeah, thank you for sharing. Yes, the true gospel that we are really sharing is our very lives. And our very lives is actually showing the transformation power of God, the salvation power of God in our lives that has happened in our lives. It is taking place in our lives. And that is why this word also tells us that we need to work out our salvation daily, daily with fear and trembling. Yes. Right. Thank you for sharing that. So we need to be mindful of not just where we are, the position that God has brought us. How much he's blessed us, but we also need to be mindful of who we are and where God has brought us to and just be thankful and praise him. You know, when we do that, we will also be considered. We will also be gentle. We will also be patient with those who are our sinning. You know, we see that many of the people who were in Paul's team, you know, they deserted him, they did things to bring him harm and danger. We see that many of the churches that he had planted, you know, were going away from the truth of what he had taught them from God's word. It would have broken Paul's heart, but Paul never gives up on them. Still very patient. He's still very gracious to them. Yes, sometimes he comes hard on them, but he says it's because of his love for them, his care for them. You know, and we see that the way he shepherds the flock, the sheep that God has entrusted to his care with great responsibility, with great love, with great concern. And that's why he says, you know, night and day, I keep praying for all of you. You know, so burdened for the church is so burdened for the people. And that is why he's taking the time to write these letters to encourage and Timothy and Titus and asking them what to do in their situation and encouraging the church as well. Yes. Anyone would like to share any more thoughts? Okay, if not, we will go ahead. Okay, we'll move on to verses 18 to 20. Can somebody read verses 18 to 20, please? 18 or 18 to 20. This charge, I commit to you, something of the according to the prophecies previously made that by them, you may be, may what wage the good warfare, having faith and good conscience with some have rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck of home or he nemesis and Alexander, whom I deliver to Satan that they may learn not to blasphemy. Yes, thank you. So in verse 18, we see Paul is telling Timothy, make use of the prophecies spoken over your life, use them to fight the good fight, use them in spiritual warfare against the enemy. Okay, so here is an encouragement for him in his situation. He knows that, you know, this young Timothy is facing a lot of false teachers, doctrines, people who are arguing, you know, also the elders of the churches who are trying to, you know, much older to him, who are trying to, you know, validate the false teachers and the Jewish fables. So he's saying, you know, use the prophecies spoken over your life, declare it, remind yourself of it. And, you know, use that as weapons to fight against every force of evil and darkness that is coming against your ministry and against the churches. And so, you know, Paul refers to these prophecies again. And later on in his letter in 1st Timothy chapter four was 14 and 2nd Timothy chapter one was six. In verse 19, once again, is a reminder to hold on to fate with a good conscience. Okay, so I said, I told you that, you know, Paul keeps on using this word good conscience throughout this letter and also elsewhere in 2nd Timothy. So I said that the good conscience is simply living right before God and man says, if you do away with God, good conscience and do things that conscience says that are wrong, then he says you will shipwreck your own fate and destroy your own fate. And he says, you know, yes, there are many things that are going around wrong, wrong teachings, false teachers around you, but you know, don't do away with your good conscience of knowing what is right and wrong and holding on to what is right and doing away with what is wrong. If you give in to these wrong teachings and wrong teachers, then it will make a shipwreck of your faith and destroy your own fate. And then he brings about an apostolic judgment on hymenious and Alexander. Now hymenious is also mentioned again in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 17, where he's mentioned in connection with philates, who was a very dangerous man. Paul mentions him as a dangerous man. Now, this hymenious, you know, he was promoting a doctrine that the resurrection was passed already. Okay, that means the resurrection of the dead of those who died is already passed. And he says this and he mentions about this and this is a false teaching. So Paul is telling him, you know, telling Timothy to be careful of hymenious. And he's bringing about an apostolic judgment. Okay, what is the judgment that he brings upon him? Before that, we look at Alexander. Alexander here, you know, is a copper smith. He's mentioned in 2nd Timothy was chapter four was 14. And there he's mentioned as someone who did much evil to Paul. And it's possible that it's the same Alexander that Paul is mentioning here in 1st Timothy chapter one. Now Paul is saying, you know, hand over these men. You know, he says, I've handed over these men to Satan that they may learn not to blasphemy. Now, if you look at these words, it can be a really strong word to say, how can Paul, what authority or what right has he to hand over these men to Satan. Now Paul mentioned something similar to this in 1st Corinthians chapter five, verse five, and we need to understand this as, you know, Paul excommunicating these people from church. Okay, that means he's putting these people out from the fellowship of the church. And once he puts them out of the fellowship of the church, they are no longer under the spiritual oversight of the church leadership, or they're not under the spiritual covering of God or under the spiritual protection of God. And once they are out, they are prone to Satan attacking them. Satan causing a lot of confusion, harm, danger bringing about sickness and difficulty in their life. And Paul is doing this so that, you know, when they're excommunicated from the church, and when they are out without any spiritual covering of protection, what would happen to them is when they go through all the suffering, sickness, pain, difficulty, is brokenness, then they will come to a realization of what they have done is wrong, or what they have done was wrong. And that can lead them back to repentance, going back to God and asking God for forgiveness. And we see in another letter, Paul says, take this person back because he has changed. So the whole idea behind this is not just to lead them to Satan so that Satan can destroy their life and they can land up in hell for eternity. But the idea is so that these men, when they're out of the spiritual protection or covering, or the oversight of the church leadership or the covering and protection of God himself, then, you know, they're open and more prone to the attacks of the evil one, and they can realize what they've done is wrong, and they can, you know, come back in repentance. And when they do, you know, the church can deceive them. Okay, so this is the end of this chapter. And our key takeaway is verse five and verse 19 where it says, we must live and must love out of a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith. If I do away with a good conscience, do things that my conscience says wrong, I will make a shipwreck of my faith and destroy my own faith. Okay, so this is end of chapter one. Any doubts, any comments, anything you'd like to say? No, if not, can we move on to chapter two, please? Yeah, so can we read chapter two, there are about 15 verses, so maybe three of us, three of y'all can read five, five verses. So can somebody read verse one to five, then someone else can read five to 10 and somebody else from verse 11 to 15. First of all, then I urge that petition, prayer, request and thanksgiving be offered to God for all people, for kings and all other who are in authority that we may live a quiet and peaceful life with all reverence towards God and proper contact. This is good and it pleases God our Savior who wants everyone to be saved and to come to know the truth. So for there is one God and there is one who brings God and mankind to carry the man, Christ Jesus. Thank you, Erin. Can somebody read from six to ten, please? Six. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. He is the message of God gave to the world as just the right time and I have been chosen a preacher and a apostle to teach Gentiles this message about faith and truth. I am not engrossed in just telling the truth. In every place of worship, I want men to play with holy hands lifted up to God, freedom, anger and the controversy. And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their ears by the wearing gold or the pears and expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do. Thank you, Kiran. Can somebody read from verses 11 to 15, please? Let a woman learn in silence with all submission and I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over man, but to be in silence. For Adam was former first and Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transmission. Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love and holiness with self-control. Thank you. Just take a couple of minutes just to go through this chapter again and then maybe like we did for chapter one, each of you can take a minute to just share something that really impressed your heart, something that the Holy Spirit really communicated, some words that really stood out for you and we can just take one minute to share. So we'll just take one or two minutes to just look at it again and then maybe each of us, each of you can take turns to share. Yes, Adam. Yeah, from chapter 1 verse 1 to 4, whatever I understood from this passage is that I think this is talking about having a good character as a leader because, you know, our character really matters, you know, a lot to someone out there because as you see, suppose if we are preaching about love and if we don't show love to someone else, it doesn't matter a lot. So yeah, to save someone and to bring out someone from the lost things. To save them from the sin and to Jesus. So yeah, this character really matters a lot. So yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Erin. No problem. So thank you for sharing that. Yes. Important that, you know, as leaders, we live peaceable lives in all godliness and reverence. It's a life that matters, a life that talks, and it's a life of love that will cause others to turn to Jesus. Anyone else would like to share? Everyone can just take a minute to share. Yes, Dave. Okay, quickly, we all need to just take a minute to share. Erin, first verse, Paul is saying, therefore, exert first of all, supplications and prayers intercession. He's encouraging us to do intercession prayer and be thankful for all the people. That's what he's saying. People who are doing serving and Christian life, we are supposed to intercession, do the intercession for the authorities, leaders, and for all the people. Yes, thank you. And in times that we're living in, you know, we need to really pray for our church leaders, for wisdom, guidance, because there's so many new things that and wrong teaching and doctrines that are keeping the church. Many sins that have been accepted and said it's okay, you know, it's very sad to see that so we need to pray for churches. We also need to pray for people because many of them around us are suffering with this pandemic. And I think yes, supplications, prayers intercessions, very, very important at this time for the believers, for the people. Especially for the churches also, because of the pandemic and lockdown, people are stopped attending the churches. This case of there and pastors are suffering to take the church forward. And there's a culture where people sit and relax and online services and things and all happening. So many issues are there to pray this situation is going very critical. True, yes. People have got so comfortable, you know, sitting at home and not going to church and online and yes, just pray that there'll be a more revival in the church. So the survival is spread out that many people will know Jesus Christ even before he comes back soon. Okay, anyone else? Yes, I was. Yes, Dave, I'll request you to please increase your volume because we really won't be able to hear you then. I'm at the loudest. Okay, fine. So first five and six, I was saying we as a leader and a pastor, we are supposed to be like a mediator that Jesus leads between God and man. Sometimes even in the New Testament ages as we are, sometimes some believers and some people might find it difficult to get and communicate. And we have to, we as a leader as a pastor, we have to be a mediator between God and some of our men. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. So it's talking about verse five where we need to be mediator between God and man, standing the gap, intercede for people. Yes, that's so important to cry out to God for them, you know, cry out for the lost who have not yet known him. So yes, we need to be mediators. Thank you for sharing that. Anyone else? Yes ma'am, nine to nine to 15 here is Paul is teaching us like some manner for women and the men being a simple life and be simple. Outside also and inside be simple and some, some guidance is there. It's very nice. Thank you. Okay, guidelines for women. Okay. To be simple. Okay. But God is looking for more of godliness, godly women and not just our good works. Yes. Okay. Prince and conan. Yeah, versus nine to 15. I'm also saying the same thing. And what my thought was, it also suits for men because these days men's also wearing some, yeah, very worst dresses. So it also suits for men also. Okay. So you are going with Kiran and saying not just women but also men. Okay. To dress appropriately in a manner and also live lives that are wholly pleasing and acceptable to God. Okay. Prince. So Jesus is the only way to salvation. So Sabbath says six says that who gave himself a reason for all. So God planned that all men, everybody should be get salvation. That's why he gave to Jesus for us. And like before five says that he is a mediator. That's like we also need to mediate for the unsafe people. Okay. Thank you. So Prince is pointing out to verse six. It says it's, you know, Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all. Okay. And so he's saying that, you know, Jesus is the only way for salvation. And at the right time God brought about the salvation plan and Jesus accomplished it. And, you know, and also pointing out to verse five that, you know, we need to stand as mediators between modern men intercede for men and women. Okay. Okay. If, okay, we'll look at, you know, the explanation verse by verse and look at more details of each word in this chapter in the next class. So we'll end class now. Okay. Thank you all for joining. Have a blessed day and see you all at next, for the next class. Thank you.