Part of the pastoral letters, in which Paul is addressing particular individuals. In this case he is addressing Timothy, his "true son in the faith."
Paul is again battling false doctrine, and urging Timothy to command people not to pay attention to "myths and endless genealogies." Paul characterizes this as "meaningless talk," and contasts it with "love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."
After noting that the false teachers want to be teachers of the law, Paul then states the purpose of the law, which is not for righteous people, but for sinners. Interestingly enough, in his list of sinners, Paul references "slave traders" in verse 10. Somehow the people in the antebellum South never got around to quoting this particular piece of scripture in their Biblical justification of slavery.
We’ve talked about Paul as a braggart. Well, he’s certainly a braggart here, claiming to have been the worst of the sinners. However, his bragging is to prove a point – namely, that Christ can forgive anyone.
Paul refers to prophecies made about Timothy, but says no more about them. He does say, however, that Hymenaeus and Alexander have shipwrecked their faith, and that Paul is handing them over to Satan. Actually, Paul doesn’t have to do anything – when we depart from God, we only have Satan as our comfort.
P.S. Despite Paul’s claim, he is not the worst sinner of all. Exodus 32:19 identifies the worst sinner. See http://ologo66.blogspot.com/2006/09/exodus-32-verse-19.html (You may groan now.)
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