As Timothy wages war by means of these prophetic utterances, he is also exhorted to hold on to faith and a good conscience. These are also combined in 1 Tim. 1.5, for which see discussion there. Since faith here does not have the article, it is perhaps used subjectively as a relationship term, that is, trust in and commitment to Jesus Christ. Holding is literally “having” (so New Revised Standard Version); since, however, Timothy is neither an unbeliever nor a new Christian, it is more logical to admonish him to maintain (or “keep,” Good News Translation) that which he already has. So one may also translate “You must continue to believe in Christ and make clear distinctions (or, distinguish clearly) between right and wrong.”
To emphasize the importance of conscience, Paul gives an example of certain persons (literally “some”) who have not paid attention to their conscience, and what that has done to their faith. That these are the false teachers referred to in verses 3-7 is beyond doubt.
Rejecting translates a middle participle of the verb that means “to repel,” “to push aside”; in the reflexive sense it means “to thrust away from oneself,” hence to completely ignore (so Good News Translation “have not listened”). This clause may also be expressed as “Some people have ignored what their heart, that distinguishes between right and wrong, tells them” or “Some people were not able to distinguish clearly between right and wrong.”
As a result of their completely ignoring their conscience, these people have made a shipwreck of their faith. The military metaphor has been abandoned in favor of a nautical one; this has led to the comment that a Christian must not only be a good soldier but must be a good sailor as well. Comparing negative experiences to shipwrecks is frequently used in Greek literature at that time; it is likely therefore that Greek influence is again apparent here. This nautical metaphor may be difficult to retain especially in languages where ships are not well known and sailing is not a common experience. The important thing is to make sure the translation makes clear the ground of comparison of the metaphor, namely, the destruction of the ship being compared to the destruction of the faith. So one may render this clause as “they have stopped believing in Christ, just as a ship is wrecked on rocks,” or in some cultures translators may have to leave out the ground of comparison and simply say “they no longer believe in Christ” or “they have completely abandoned Christ.”
It should be pointed out, however, that there is a difference of opinion between interpreters regarding the interpretation of faith in this context. This stems from the fact that the Greek can be literally rendered “have made shipwreck concerning the faith.” One possible interpretation is to take faith as referring to the faith of these false teachers; it is their faith that is destroyed, which means either that they have become unbelievers or that they have begun to believe and teach false doctrines. This position is reflected by many translations (in addition to Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, so also New International Version, New English Bible, and others). Another possibility is to interpret faith here as referring to the Christian faith as a religious movement, or to the total Christian message. This means that it is not the faith of the false teachers that is in focus here. It is true of course that their faith has also been destroyed, but more importantly, it is the Christian faith itself that has suffered the greater damage.
A third possibility is to take faith here as subjective (which is the same as the second position) but as defining the area in which these false teachers have experienced their destruction. By abandoning true doctrines, these false teachers have in a sense lost their standing within the Christian community; they are shipwrecked in so far as the Christian faith is concerned. A literal translation of the Greek would suggest this kind of understanding (compare New Revised Standard Version “have suffered shipwreck in the faith”). All in all, the first of these three options seems to be more appropriate in this context.
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .