1 Tim 1:1-11; 2 Tim 1:1-5: Truth & Distortion, Together

This week Ben introduces a new series in 1 & 2 Timothy, asking what church is for and why life together matters amid widespread disillusionment with the concept of “Church.”

Framing Paul’s letters to Timothy as a corrective, we argue that Christian community must start with God’s truth—grace, mercy, and peace that come from God—while resisting distortions like legalism, license, prosperity, and syncretism. Paul’s exhortation is that truth must be pursued in community, not isolation: it’s both taught and caught through relational discipleship (like Timothy’s mother, grandmother, and Paul), not just from sages, stages, authors, public pastors, and podcasts.

Rightly used, Scripture functions as guardrails that call wanderers back, shaping head, heart, and hands so that believers grow in purity, a clear conscience, and sincere faith. The aim of all true teaching is love, and authentic truth leads the church into humble, united life together under God. In this, Paul points us back to find salvation in Jesus alone — who alone lived out God’s truth without distortion, and was indeed the embodiment of God’s truth on earth.