Who wrote it? Paul, a servant, apostle of Jesus Christ (v1)
Who did he write to? Timothy, a brother in Christ, a faithful disciple under Paul
When was it written? ~62-66 A.D. (after Paul’s release of house arrest in Rome)
Where? Macedonia
Why was it written? To guide Timothy on how to instruct the church with sound doctrine, how to lead and manage the church, and also to encourage him to stand strong.
We return to a Paul letter, which shouldn’t be shocking as he is one of the most prominent writers in the new testament, as he has written 13 of the 27 new testament books we have today.
To refresh you on Paul:
Was once a persecutor of Christians and a highly respected Pharisee (Phillipians 3:5-6)
Strongly opposed Christians and their beliefs—so much so that he would kill them.
Later in life, he was encountered by Jesus and quickly became a CHristian. (Acts 26:12–18)
Shortly after his conversion, he began his many missionary journeys, spreading the gospel across hundreds of nations throughout Asia
Estimated to have traveled roughly 9,150 miles (14,725 km) in just 14 years
Was so bold in spreading the gospel, that he was imprisoned multiple times for his work.
This book specifically is called a pastoral epistle. Earlier in this groups life we went through prison epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon) but this one, 2nd Timothy and Titus are all pastoral epistles. These letters are all in 1 common theme, they teach pastoral things, like how to lead a congregation, how to manage the people you pastor. And uniquely these letters are direct and personal to the person they are being written to.
And so looking into these pastoral epistles we learn why he is writing these direct letters to, because we are with an older Paul. You see Paul has done MANY great works for the kingdom by planting churches, boldly proclaimed the gospel across Asia, and now… he's getting old. He's believed to be around 65 years old at the time of this writing, and by this time roughly 62 AD, he has assembled a team of young disciples that want to help continue on Paul’s missions where he can’t go. Or when he inevitably gets imprisoned again and physically can’t go anywhere. Paul wants his legacy of work to continue when he can’t go anymore. And we have seen throughout Paul’s missions that he has had many people join him on his journeys, people like Silas and Barnabas. These people were devoted to helping him spread this Great Message across the country. One of them in particular that we get to learn about, is Timothy.
Timothy was a young disciple, his name meaning “one who honors God”. Timothy had first learned and grabbed onto the message of Jesus through Paul’s first missionary journey when he first traveled through Lystra. He is converted along with his mother and grandmother. And we see later, and we can confirm it, that Timothy joined Paul during his 2nd missionary journey. (1 Thessalonians 1, Clarifying the Bible). It is believed that Timothy was only around 15-16 years old when he first joined Paul and his missions. Which means that Timothy has traveled with Paul for many many years of his young life.
Think of a leader sending out other members of a group to grow and continue what they have learned, Paul does that with Timothy.
Paul and Timothy grew very close, worked hard together for many years and Paul even says if you can remember back to Philippians; he talks very highly about Timothy and his relationship between them:
Look what he says here in Philippians 2:19-22 “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.”
He sees him so close as to be like a son. (1 Timothy 1:2)
Paul continued to mentor him, pour into him, and grow him in the faith. And after years of mentorship and all the experiences they went through, Paul entrusted and began sending Timothy out to other churches. We see this when Paul, sometime after he was released from house arrest, again… meets up with his group of disciples once again and overhears trouble going on at Ephesus. He hears about leaders in the church teaching false things about Jesus, and distorting what it means to follow Jesus. So Paul decides to send Timothy to this influential church to set the record straight.
And with Timothy being sent to Ephesus, leads us right into the book that we are going through, 1st Timothy. Paul wrote this letter to ensure that Timothy had the “handbook” of what the church was teaching was wrong, and what he needed to do to restore the church back to the true ways of God. And that's exactly what Timothy got.
Chapter 1 starts with Paul letting Timothy know that these teachers are infecting the congregation with false teachings. He says in verse 3-5 about how they are going on about myths and genealogies that instead of growing the church, actually hinder its growth. He goes on to remind Timothy what the charge is that they should be teaching, and that is love. Their goal should be to teach Jesus and not blaspheme the name.
And Chapter 2 leads into Paul charging Timothy to have constant prayer for all people in the high positions of the church and Rome, as they have been distorted and quarreling with one another due to the corrupted teachings. He then in the latter half of chapter 2 briefly brings up modesty for women in the church of Ephesus and more importantly, a topic that is highly debated in today’s time, women in leadership positions. We will go through that when it comes to that time.
Paul then in Chapter 3 speaks directly about these false leaders, telling Timothy to build a new team of overseers and deacons that are built on set qualifications. This is because men and women members of the church made their own decisions on who to lead where, even though Paul calls them out in verses 4-5 of chapter 3 saying “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” He lists tons of qualifications he wants this team of elders and deacons to have: things like being trustworthy, above reproach, not an adulter, sober minded, gentle, not quarrelsome, dignified, not double-tongued, be put against scripture,etc.
This was for Timothy to then create this new team of elders, deacons, and overseers that can set the Ephesus church back on course to teaching the correct way.
And in Chapter 4 we will see Paul actually dive in and go correct these teachers and their bad theology. He covers some of the ideas that were being spread from these leaders about what they are not allowed to eat, like meat and their distorted view on marriage, where they are saying they shouldn’t get married anymore. Which Paul reaches back in the scriptures of Genesis to prove these claims false.
Chapter 5 dives into some of the responsibilities of the church elders in working in their congregation. He highlights to honor true widows, and to encourage each person equally, showing no partiality in who they meet and encourage. And in the end he again talks about more
And finally Chapter 6, finalizes this letter where he reminds Timothy one more time about his charge to the Ephesus church and their false teachings that he told them in the first few chapters. He then talks to Timothy and tells him to stand firm, remain steadfast, and urges Timothy to teach them to not set their hopes in their riches, but instead on God who will provide for them richly.
3 main things we learn in this letter:
The importance of sound teaching and practical worship.
Understanding the qualifications and responsibilities of being a leader in the church.
Our readiness to stand firm, pursue righteousness, hold onto eternity, and fight the good fight.
If I could add 1 more takeaway from this, it's that we should all want to be a Timothy to a Paul. What does that mean? That means like Timothy, we should desire to sit under a wise teacher, someone farther in the spiritual walk than ourselves, someone that can be put against scripture, someone that can be with us weekly and encourage us to continue on, someone we can reveal sin to and ways to combat it, all these things so that we can grow in our walk in Christ and teach His great message to others. Does Matthew 28:19 not say, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”.
How can we go make disciples with a message we don’t understand? You can’t.
We must be discipled, so we can go out and disciple more disciples.
Look at 2 Timothy: 2 Timothy 2:2 – “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
The reason a teacher pours into a student is so that the student can go out and teach others when they aren’t around, or so you can discipline the people they can’t reach like you can.Think of a relay race. You don’t grab the baton and just stand there. No, we carry on the baton to the next person.
This is what we have termed here “teaching to teach”. Where we teach each other how to teach others about the gospel, and that idea is what Paul was to Timothy. He was a mentor to him. So we should all desire to be like a Timothy to a Paul so that one day we can be a Paul to a Timothy. And this book may seem like it's a lot of things about deacons, teachers, things that you may be. And this message may only seem like it applies to the teachers of the word.But that's actually the contrary. This book should show us what we should seek out with our leaders in the church. Our pastors, our bible study teachers, our young adults leaders, youth pastors, online evangelists, 1on1 mentors, whoever we look upon for help in scripture. We should use these pastoral epistles as handbooks to what a good leader of a group looks like.