01 Introduction to 1 Timothy

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we're starting a new series on Paul's first letter to Timothy. In this episode, we'll meet Paul and Timothy and we'll trace the journey of how they met and worked together for more than a decade. This background will enrich our understanding of the difficult task that Paul asked Timothy to tackle in Ephesus and explain the advice Paul gives him. This is the first talk in a series on the book of First Timothy. It marks the 28th season of the podcast and the 15th year of the Wednesday in the Word podcast. Thank you for listening for all these years. Well, today we're starting a study on the book of 1 Timothy, and as usual, we'll start with a historical background. This letter is one of what we call the pastoral epistles because Paul wrote them to an individual. Instead of his regular letters like Corinthians or Philippians, where he writes to a church and expects it to be circulated, this one was written to one person, although I think Paul did still expect it to be circulated and shared. The pastoral epistles are 1 and 2 Timothy and the letter to Titus. Paul has asked Timothy to remain in Ephesus and help the troubled church there while he continues on in his travels, and Timothy is facing a difficult task. The church has teachers who are spreading confusion, and the gospel is in danger of becoming little more than religious talk. Paul wants Timothy to understand how the truth of the gospel produces godliness, which is a theme we'll talk about a lot in this series, and he wants godliness to transform the way they live and work together as a community of believers. Before we look at the letter itself, we need to know something about the author, the recipient, and their relationship to each other. And that's what we're going to cover today. I'll introduce you to Paul and Timothy, assuming you've never met them before, and then we'll talk about some of the major themes and the structure of the letter. We'll start with Paul, the author. Paul was one of the most important figures in the early church. He was an apostle of Jesus Christ. He taught the gospel to mostly Gentiles throughout the Roman world, and he wrote most of the New Testament. But Paul didn't begin his life as a follower of Jesus. In fact, when we first meet him in Scripture, he is one of the church's most determined enemies. At that point, the Bible calls him Saul. Saul was his Jewish name. Paul was his Roman name. Acts 13 9 introduces him as Saul, who was also called Paul. And from that point on, the book of Acts refers to him as Paul. I'll refer to him as Paul just for simplicity's sake. Paul was born in the city of Tarsus, which was in the Roman province of Cilicia. Although he was thoroughly Jewish, he was also a Roman citizen by birth. And you'll see if you read through Acts that Roman citizenship was a valuable legal status that gave him certain rights and protections, and it played an important role in his encounters with the Roman authorities. We know almost nothing about Paul's parents or his childhood. Acts briefly mentions that he had a sister and a nephew. His nephew at one point learned of a plot to kill Paul and warned the Roman commander, so he helped save Paul's life. Paul tells us that he was from the tribe of Benjamin, and that might explain why his Jewish family gave him the name Saul, after Israel's first king, who was also from the tribe of Benjamin. But that's speculation. As a young man, Paul went to Jerusalem to study with one of the most respected rabbis of the time. Paul trained as a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a Jewish group known for their devotion to the law of Moses and the traditions they developed around it. The scribes, who were also Pharisees, were the primary teachers of the law. Like other young Jewish men, Paul learned a trade. He became a tent maker, which was a common trade in the city of Tarsus. Paul later used that trade, that skill, to support himself while he was preaching the gospel. When it was necessary, he worked with his own hands rather than depending on the financial support of the churches he was serving. When you stop and think about it, Paul's education, his religious commitment, his Roman citizenship, and his practical trade equipped him really well, unusually well, for his work as an apostle of Jesus Christ. But before he used those gifts to spread Christianity, he used them to destroy it. Paul believed that the followers of Jesus were dangerous. From his perspective, they were promoting a false Messiah and threatening the faith of Israel. And with the approval and support of the Jewish ruling council, Paul began persecuting Christians. He would arrest believers and drag both men and women off to prison, forcing them or trying to force them to disavow Jesus. He pursued believers from city to city, determined to silence this heretical movement before it could spread any farther. But everything changed to one day on the road to Damascus. Paul was traveling from Jerusalem to Damascus so that he could arrest Jewish Christians there and bring them back in chains. Instead, he encountered the risen Lord Jesus in a blinding light. And in that moment, Paul discovered Jesus was the true Messiah. The Christians Paul had been arresting were telling the truth, and by persecuting the followers of Jesus, Paul had been persecuting Jesus himself. So now the persecutor became a preacher. The man who tried to silence the gospel now began to carry it throughout the Roman world. Jesus specifically called Paul to be his apostle to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles are just the nations beyond Israel. After his conversion, Paul spent a period of time in Arabia before returning to Damascus. He tells us in Galatians that he learned of the gospel through a revelation from Jesus himself, and we don't know for certain, but that probably happened during his time in Arabia. Eventually, Paul returned to Jerusalem, but understandably the Christians there were afraid of him. They didn't believe that he had truly become a disciple of Jesus. And this is where Barnabas enters the story. Barnabas is one of my favorite New Testament characters. Barnabas took Paul to the Apostles and he explained how Paul had encountered the risen Lord and had been preaching boldly in his name. So Barnabas was willing to stand beside Paul when everyone else was afraid of him. Later on, Barnabas found Paul in Tarsus and brought him back to Antioch, where there was a church of Gentiles that was growing. Barnabas recognized that Paul was exactly the kind of teacher this new church needed, and Paul and Barnabas taught in Antioch for about a year. It was from Antioch that Paul began the missionary work that he is best known for. Over the course of three journeys, Paul traveled throughout the Eastern Roman Empire. He preached in synagogues, in marketplaces, in private homes and lecture halls and public gathering spaces. He reasoned from the scriptures, he explained the gospel, and he called people to repent and believe in Jesus. And as you would expect, some people accepted his message, and others strongly opposed him. Paul was often mocked and beaten and arrested and stoned and driven out of the cities that he preached in, yet he kept preaching. Wherever people believed, Paul gathered them into churches. He taught them, appointed leaders for them, and later wrote letters to encourage them, correct them, and answer their questions, and those letters are now our New Testament. Paul's ministry eventually brought him to Rome as a prisoner. He was imprisoned twice. During his first Roman imprisonment, he was allowed to live under guard in rented quarters, where he continued teaching and receiving visitors. He was released probably around AD 63 and resumed his ministry. And we think it was during that period right after his release that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy. Later, Paul would be arrested again and imprisoned in Rome under much harsher conditions, and that second imprisonment ended with his execution probably around AD 66, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. So that's Paul, the author. Now let's meet Timothy, the person he wrote this letter to. Timothy was one of Paul's closest co-workers and most trusted representatives and dearest friends. Paul described him as his true child in the faith. But when Timothy first enters the story, he is simply a promising young disciple living in the city of Lystra. We first meet Timothy in Acts 16, which is during Paul's second missionary journey. Paul had visited Lystra before, during his first journey, and perhaps Timothy became a believer during that first journey. We don't really know. Scripture doesn't tell us how. Some scholars think Paul personally led Timothy to faith during that first visit to Lystra. Others think that he had already been a believer through the influence of his mother and grandmother. And Scripture does not settle that question for us. Paul certainly played a major role in Timothy's spiritual life, but Timothy also had a remarkable heritage from his home. In 2 Timothy 1 5, Paul writes this I'm reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. That suggests that his mother and grandmother had carefully taught him the Old Testament scriptures from the time he was young, and that at some point they all became believers in Jesus. We know from scripture that Timothy's mother was Jewish, but his father was Greek. X does not tell us whether his father ever became a believer. In fact, Scripture tells us almost nothing about him beyond the fact that he was Greek. When Paul returned to Lystra during his second missionary journey, he discovered that Timothy had already developed an excellent reputation among the Christians in the area. This is Acts sixteen verses one through three. Paul came also to Derby and to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Notice that Timothy was not merely regarded well in his hometown, the believers in both Lystra and the nearby city of Iconium spoke highly of him. Even though he was probably still a young man at this point, he had already demonstrated faithfulness and some measure of spiritual maturity. His reputation had spread beyond the congregation that knew him best to the nearby town. So Paul recognized Timothy's faith and invites Timothy to join him on his travels, and we know from Acts that Timothy joined Paul and Silas as they carried the gospel from city to city. We'll see in the letter that at some point the elders, or a group of elders, probably in Lystra, publicly commissioned Timothy through the laying on of hands. Paul also participated in that ritual and a prophetic message accompanied it. When they laid hands on Timothy, somebody, probably Paul, received a prophetic revelation about how Timothy would serve, and we'll talk more about that when we get to that spot in the letter. Before they leave, Paul has Timothy circumcised. Acts explains that Paul did this because the Jews in the region knew his family background. Everyone knew his mother was Jewish and his father was Greek. Paul did not circumcise Timothy because circumcision was in any way necessary for salvation. We know from Paul's other letters that he strongly opposed anyone who taught that Gentiles had to be circumcised in order to be saved. Timothy's situation was different. Because his mixed race heritage was well known, Timothy's lack of circumcision could be an unnecessary obstacle whenever they entered a Jewish synagogue. People might have rejected Timothy before they ever listened to the gospel he preached, and Paul decided to remove that obstacle. So Timothy's circumcision did not make him a Christian, it did not earn him salvation, it simply allowed him to enter Jewish settings without creating a needless controversy. After Timothy was circumcised and commissioned, he left Lystra with Paul and Silas. Acts 16 tells us they traveled through the cities delivering the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem at the Council of Jerusalem, which is recorded in Acts 15. And Timothy now begins learning ministry by doing it. He watched Paul preach in the synagogues and the public places, he heard him reason from scriptures, he saw how people responded to the gospel with both faith and hostility, and he probably learned that missionary work was rarely comfortable or predictable. He traveled with Paul and Silas as they went through Macedonia. He saw Lydia and her household come to faith in Philippi. He saw Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned and the Philippian jailer believe in the gospel after an earthquake opened the prison doors. He traveled with them to Thessalonica, where some believed, but others stirred up opposition, and then continued with them to Berea, where the people received the word eagerly. But opposition followed them. Acts 17 tells us that when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also preaching in Berea, they traveled to Thessalonica and began stirring up trouble, and the hostility became so intense that the believers quickly sent Paul away. But Silas and Timothy remained behind, and I think that's a significant moment in Timothy's development. At this point, Paul is willing to leave him in a difficult ministry situation. Paul had to escape because he was the primary target of the opposition, but he left Timothy and Silas behind to work with and strengthen the new believers and continue his work. So here we see him entrusting Timothy with real responsibility. Paul later sent word for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. After traveling through Athens, Paul went on to Corinth, where Silas and Timothy joined him, and they stayed there for a long time before they sailed to Ephesus. It was during that stage that Paul probably wrote 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Timothy's name appears along with Paul and Silas in the opening greetings of those letters. That means Timothy was not merely present, he had become a recognized member of the missionary team. Timothy's name also appears in other greetings of Paul's other letters, including Philippians and Colossians, and those letters were written later. The fact that Timothy's name appears in the greetings of Paul's early letters and his later letters shows just how long their partnership lasted. This was not a brief relationship. Timothy remained with Paul through many years of ministry, travel, conflict, and church planting. After their time in Corinth, the group eventually traveled to Ephesus. Ephesus became one of the most important cities in Paul's ministry and would later become central to Timothy's own work. Ephesus was one of the most important cities in the Roman province of Asia. It was famous for the temple of Artemis there and for all the commercial activity that surrounded the temple. Paul spent several years teaching there, and the gospel became very influential in Ephesus enough to provoke public opposition. We learn from Acts 19 that Paul trusted Timothy enough to send Timothy out on his own behalf. This is Acts 19, 21 and 22. Now after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. So here we see Paul is trusting Timothy enough to send him ahead of him into Macedonia as his representative. So Timothy is no longer simply following Paul and watching him work, he is now traveling on Paul's behalf and carrying out ministry assignments in places where Paul couldn't represent himself. So to summarize, Paul found Timothy in Lystra when he was already a strong believer, already had a well-deserved reputation among the believers. He invited Timothy to join him. The church leaders commissioned Timothy for ministry. Paul brought him into the work, taught him, trained him, and gradually entrusted him with greater responsibility. At first, Timothy traveled beside Paul, then Paul began to leave him behind with Silas, and later Paul began sending Timothy out on his own. So we see through this that Paul became Timothy's spiritual father, mentor, teacher, and friend. And Timothy became one of a select group of people that Paul trusted to represent his teaching when Paul couldn't go himself. So the next thing we want to know is when was this letter written? The letter itself suggests that Paul has traveled to Macedonia and left Timothy behind in Ephesus. So when did that happen? Well, Acts ends with Paul's first Roman imprisonment, and most people think this letter was written shortly after Paul's release. Eventually, Paul would be arrested a second time and later executed. But that's not included in Acts, that's later in history, and in the intervening period is when we think 1 Timothy was written. At the time the letter was written, Timothy is probably now in his late twenties or his early thirties. He's known the Apostle Paul for at least 10 years, or maybe 15, depending on how you date things. He and Paul have become very close. He's one of Paul's trusted disciples and advisors, and Paul is willing to entrust him with great responsibility. Now before we end today, I want to talk about two major themes that run through the letter. The first is introduced in 1 Timothy 1, verse 5. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Those three words, those phrases in there, pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith introduce what Paul is later going to call godliness. And godliness is an important word in 1 Timothy. Paul uses it six times in this short letter because he's concerned with the practical effect of the gospel. What we believe should change us. It should change the way we think, the things we desire, the choices we make, and the way we treat others. And he wraps all of that up in this idea of godliness. Believers should pursue godliness. We are to become people whose lives reflect the truth that we claim to believe. And teaching the gospel should produce a particular kind of life that Paul is going to describe as godliness. So the goal of teaching is not for people to know more theology or to win arguments or know which religious rules to follow. Teaching should produce a genuine love for God and love for other people. And we're going to talk a lot more about that as we get into verse 5 and the rest of the book. The second theme is closely related to that, and it is summarized in 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. I'll read those for you. I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the Living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. So we'll see the second related theme here. The main place we pursue godliness is in the church. In our relationships with other believers. So, in addition to how individual Christians live in response to the gospel, Paul is concerned with the way believers live together as a community and how we represent the gospel to the world. We work out our pursuit of godliness in the church, in the community of believers where we serve and worship. And spoiler alert, I'm going to argue that in this letter, Paul is not really concerned with the church as an institution, an organization, or a building. He is describing the church as the household of God. He's concerned about how a community of people who all believe in God and belong to God and therefore belong to each other, how they live and work together. Paul uses phrases to describe the church like the Church of the Living God. Unlike the lifeless, dumb idols that were worshipped in Ephesus, God is alive and present among his people. And Paul describes the church as a pillar and buttress of the truth. The church, this community of believers, has been entrusted with the responsibility of protecting and proclaiming the truth of the gospel. And that responsibility makes the conduct of the church especially important. And again, we'll talk about that a lot as we go through the letter. There are a number of ways to outline this letter. I like to organize it around the five charges that Paul gives Timothy. And the way I organize it, the charges appear at the end of each section and transition to the new one. You don't have to write this down. I'm I'll put a link to this outline in the blog version of the podcast. So the first section of the letter begins in chapter 1, verse 1, and goes through verse 20. And that is a charge to hold fast to the truth of the gospel and avoid false doctrine. And he summarizes that in verses 18 and 20 as fight the good fight. Then in 2.1 through 316, that's the second charge, and that is how believers are to conduct themselves. And he summarizes that in 314 through 16. Know how people behave in the church community. The next one is chapter 4, verses 1 through 16, and that's regarding false teachers. And he summarizes that in 411 through 16. Command, teach, and practice these things. And then the fourth one says chapter 5, verses 1 through 25, and that is a charge regarding responsibility and accountability in the church. And he summarizes that as keep these things without partiality. And then the last one, chapter 6, is the charge regarding pastoral motives, and he summarizes that guard what has been entrusted to your care. So those five charges that come at the end of each of the five sections is how I like to outline the book. So to summarize, Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's nearing the end of his ministry. He's writing this letter to one of his disciples, a younger man whom he has taught and mentored. Timothy is his trusted friend and his spiritual son, but he is also a relatively young leader and he's facing a difficult assignment. Paul has left Timothy in Ephesus to confront false teaching, to strengthen the church there, and to help believers understand how the gospel ought to shape their lives. Now I think that makes First Timothy a very practical letter. It will teach us how to recognize the difference between sound teaching and what Paul calls empty speculation. It will challenge us to consider why we're teaching and reading the Bible at all, and to ask whether our teaching and our Bible study is reaching its intended goal. And it will show us what faithful leadership and discipleship looks like, how believers ought to care for one another, and why our conduct matters so much both inside and outside of the church. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word. This is the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. The blog version of this episode, including all the links and resources mentioned in the talk, is at wednesdayintheword.com slash 1Timothy 1. You can listen to all the episodes in this series on WednesdayInTheWord.com as well as find 27 other Bible study podcast seasons. There is no charge, no spam, and no ads, just free, trustworthy resources to help you grow in your understanding of scripture. If this podcast has blessed you, please follow it, rate it, and review it on your favorite podcast platform. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. You can hear more of Roger's music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.