I'm still pluggin' on the Pastorals, and will be for awhile. I'm through 1Ti 2.1-2. This means the next section I'm working through is 1Ti 2.3-7, which is one of my favorite sections of 1 Timothy:
3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. (1Ti 2.3-7, ESV)
As a fan of creeds and catechisms, and as a fan of the Pastorals, this kind of stuff gets me excited. It's a little daunting — there are some serious theological issues in the above excerpt — but fun nonetheless. Verses 5-6 are interesting because of the concept of Christ as the one standing between God and men; and also of Christ as a ransom. Some interpreters see vv 5-6 and see an excerpt of an early Christian statement of belief (creed? baptismal statement of belief?) and conclude that the Pastorals must be later in date, and therefore could not be authored by Paul. Others see this and attribute this statement to the Holy-Spirit-inspired genius of Paul and see it as confirmation of Pauline authorship. I think it's probably evidence that Paul knew a good argument when he heard it, and wasn't afraid to use good arguments if he knew them and if they would help his cause. He was a smart guy, that Paul.
And what does that part in verse 3 about all people being saved mean?
And in verse 3, the phrase “God our Savior” crops up again. What's that all about?
Not only that, but Paul says that for “this” (v. 7) he was appointed an apostle & preacher. So, what is “this”? I know what I think, but I'll be quiet about it for now.
The digression in verse 7 is also interesting. Why did Paul have to reiterate that he was telling the truth? Had he lied earlier? Was his audience untrusting for some reason? Or is the “this” so weird as to be unbelievable, thus requiring Paul's extra assurance to his readers?
All in all, an interesting section. Note that we see something similar to vv. 4-5 in 1Ti 3.16; which is also most likely some sort of early Christian hymn or statement of belief cited by Paul.