Shipwreck: Slandering God and His Truth
Shipwreck: Slandering God and His Truth.
“I am giving this charge to you, Timothy, my dear son, in keeping with the prophecies that were said over you earlier, so that you may fight the good fight, holding faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and made a shipwreck of their faith. Hymenaeus and Alexander are among them, and I have delivered them to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (1 Timothy 1:18-20).
Using the meanings of the Greek words in this passage, it could be paraphrased this way:
My dear child Timothy, as someone who is closely alongside you, I am entrusting these instructions to you which are based on God’s special messages that were given concerning you earlier, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, clinging tightly to your faithful trust and your God-empowered conscience that joins together a mature moral and spiritual awareness. Two men in the church, for example, Hymenaeus and Alexander by name, have thrown their convictions overboard and caused a shipwreck of their trust, leaving their faith in ruins. I have expelled them from the church, handing them over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to slander God or speak profanely of sacred things.
If anyone can speak with authority about shipwrecks, it’s St. Paul. He survived four shipwrecks during his missionary travels on the Mediterranean Sea. The first three wrecks were mentioned by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (11:25), and the fourth was described in detail by Paul’s partner Luke, in Acts 27-28. He even had to endure the harrowing experience of hanging on to some piece of wreckage in the open sea for a full night and a day! Somehow, I imagine Paul floating in the middle of nowhere in the waters, singing hymns and praising God, like he did with Silas while shackled in the deepest dungeon cell (Acts 16).
Yes, Paul was all too familiar with what it means to have one’s ship veer dangerously off course in the midst of a severe storm, smash against the rocks in shallow waters, or run aground on a sand bar. So this was an unforgettable image for him as he sought to describe what it looks like when someone makes a shipwreck of his faithful trust in God. He couldn’t think of a better picture of what some of his church members were doing to their faith. Paul wanted us to see this image of a believer making a ruin of his faith and having nothing but pieces of their trust in the Lord floating in the wreckage.
Timothy was a young man mentored by Paul in the church of Ephesus, and Paul was very concerned in this Pastoral Epistle that heresies and false teaching were starting to circulate. Two particular men, Hymenaeus and Alexander, somehow veered off course, whether it was because of a strong storm in their faith journey, or having the wrong captain guiding the ship, or carelessly simply drifting away. There may be other reasons, too, but it’s clear Paul was not treating this situation lightly. These men intentionally rejected their faithful conscience and left their trusting relationship with God in ruins. The Greek word for “rejecting” was actually a nautical term that meant “cast overboard,” to throw out or thrust away. What did they specifically do that was so serious and left their faith in ruins? Paul states it right up front… Blasphemy. They turned their backs on God’s truth and replaced it with false teaching in the church.
Paul thought of blasphemy as an evil disease that could easily spread like gangrene in the Body of Christ (2 Tim. 2:17). So he performed surgery and excommunicated them from the church. To Paul, blasphemy meant that someone insulted God, slandered Him, and continued to speak profanely about sacred things. Blasphemers used abusive language against God and His believers, and went out of their way to reject what was worthy of respect and reverse moral values established by God. Blasphemers, no light matter, defamed the good as if it were evil. Paul couldn’t let this slide by and he continued to encourage Timothy to tackle it head on, Teaching sound doctrine and establishing Christian morals in his church. These two men thought they knew better than Paul and his Christ-centered teaching, and they proceeded to thrust their clean conscience away. So Paul is saying here that they have to suffer the consequences of making a complete mess of their faith.
When Paul declared that he was “turning them over to Satan,” that was a manner of speech used by the early church, a way of saying that they were officially cast outside the fellowship and teaching of the church. Paul made it clear that he was not going to allow the false teachings of these two men to infect that Ephesus community. Paul is saying here that he is putting these two men back into the sphere of Satan, the influence of the world outside the church. Paul did not condemn them, he exercised a needed discipline for the sake of the believers in Ephesus. These men were not experiencing a final judgment. Paul was not telling them that they were eternally damned, or that there was no turning back into God’s graces. Paul didn’t tell Satan, “Okay, Satan, they’re all yours. I give up. Have at ’em!” Paul wanted them to rebuild their faith, their trust in God, their submission to sound doctrine. Paul made this clear in his letter to the Corinthians: “Hand this man over to Satan, so that his sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved…” (1 Corinthians 5:5). The expelling of them was intended to be for their good, that they would learn the right way and be welcomed into the fellowship again. They did not lose their salvation here, they were kicked out in order to return. The world here for “learn” is “paedeia,” which means to be instructed, taught, educated, to receive discipline, to be discipled in the truth. Paul was hoping with these two men that they would repent and return, a contemporary version of prodigal sons, welcomed home by the loving Father.