Simmons TPT The Books of 1 & 2 Timothy

12-Lesson Study Guide
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-4245-7036-2
Verlag: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 176 Seiten

Reihe: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series

The books of 1 & 2 Timothy are apostolic epistles rich with teaching on leadership, church life, and the last days. These letters from Paul to his spiritual son reveal heaven's urgency and focus our hearts on Christ, his glory, and his resurrection.   This 12-lesson study guide on the books of 1 & 2 Timothy, designed for both individual and group study, provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details the authorship of 1 & 2 Timothy, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. The lessons then walk you through every portion from the books and include features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history.   Enrich your biblical understanding of the books of 1 & 2 Timothy, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.  

DR. BRIAN SIMMONS is a passionate lover of God. After a dramatic conversion to Christ, Brian knew that God was calling him to go to the unreached people of the world and present the gospel of God's grace to all who would listen. With his wife, Candice, and their three children, he spent eight years in the tropical rain forest of the Darien Province of Panama as a church planter, translator, and consultant. Having been trained in linguistics and Bible translation principles, Brian assisted in the Paya-Kuna New Testament translation project. After his ministry overseas, Brian was instrumental in planting a thriving church in New England (U.S.) and currently travels full time as a speaker and Bible teacher. He is the lead translator of The Passion Translation®.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Simmons, Brian

Leseproben

LESSON 1

1 Timothy: Heaven’s Truth

(1 Timothy 1)

The two letters to Timothy are affectionately known as the “Pastoral Epistles” because of their rich instruction for “pastors and leaders to help them bring order and ordain elders (pastors) for the churches he [Paul] planted.”2 These letters were written as a means of guidance from a spiritual father (Paul) to his spiritual son (Timothy). But they are certainly much more than that. They are letters for churches and their leaders that we might more affectionately rename the “Apostolic Epistles.” After all, Timothy was a representative of the apostle Paul to many churches in the Mediterranean world. Timothy was an evangelist, “an itinerant apostle who planted and brought healing and truth to the churches in which he ministered.”3

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Paul’s first letter to Timothy provides counsel and instruction on a wide range of topics, including faithfulness, prayer, how to handle false teachers, qualifications for church leadership, and how to live as a servant of the living God. This first letter to Timothy, then, is paramount to the Christian lifestyle, whether an individual serves as a faithful local church member or a leader. Prepare to be challenged, as Timothy most certainly was, because Paul doesn’t hold back in laying out the numerous heavenly principles required for Christians as they mature in Christ and as they manage their churches and households.

Authorship, Audience, and Date

The apostle Paul was the human writer of the two letters to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:1; 2 Timothy 1:1). Unlike most of the other letters we have from Paul, which were written to church congregations, these two letters were written to one individual, Timothy. They are, therefore, more personal.

Their recipient, Timothy, was a native of Lystra in Lycaonia (the interior region of Asia Minor, north of the Taurus Mountains). His father was Greek, and his mother and grandmother were of Jewish descent and also Christians. Timothy is first mentioned in the book of Acts, and what is said of him is quite positive: “Timothy was well known and highly respected among all the believers of Lystra and Iconium. Paul recognized God’s favor on Timothy’s life and wanted him to accompany them [Paul and Silas] in ministry” (Acts 16:2–3).

This meeting happened during Paul’s second missionary journey and his third time in Lystra. The first two times he was there, Barnabas was with him. During this first missionary journey and his initial ministry times in Lystra, Timothy and his mother may have become Christians. As Bible scholar F. F. Bruce explains:

His [Timothy’s] Jewish mother (Eunice by name) brought him up in her faith, with the added encouragement of her own mother Lois (2 Tim. 1:5); in particular, he was well versed from childhood in the OT scriptures, presumably in their Greek form (2 Tim. 3:15). He first appears in Luke’s narrative when Paul (accompanied by Silas) pays his second visit to Lystra, returning to his Gentile mission-field after the Council of Jerusalem. By this time Timothy could be called a ‘disciple…’(Acts 16:1); it appears, then, that mother and son had come to faith in Christ during Paul’s previous visit to Lystra…, two or three years previously (Acts 14:6–20). That Timothy was a convert of Paul’s is further implied by his description as Paul’s ‘true-born child in the faith’ (1 Tim. 1:2).4

The remaining references to Timothy in Acts demonstrate the close relationship between Paul and Timothy (Acts 17:14–15; 18:5; 20:4–5), with Paul often dispatching Timothy to represent him (e.g., 19:22). Timothy represented Paul and his ministry in the churches of Thessalonica, Corinth, Philippi, and Ephesus. Moreover, Paul specifically referred to Timothy as his “ministry partner” (Romans 16:21), his “loyal son” (Philippians 2:22), and even his “brother” (2 Corinthians 1:1, where Paul also mentions Timothy as a coauthor of his letter).

Paul mentored Timothy in Christian ministry and church planting. Mentoring, of course, is a rather broad term, covering guidance related to the daily challenges of life to major questions surrounding a person’s life goals. Paul’s relationship to Timothy included involving him in Paul’s apostolic tasks (1 Thessalonians 3:1–8) and guiding him as he found his own calling in ministry (1 Corinthians 4:17; 16:10–11).5

The first letter to Timothy was likely written in the early sixties, probably around AD 62 or 63. The second letter was written near the very end of Paul’s life, anywhere between the years 65 and 67.6

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Major Themes

There are three major themes in 1 Timothy: (1) false teachers and sound doctrine, (2) qualifications for church leadership, and (3) living in the household of God. These topics cover issues that Timothy confronted while ministering in churches in Asia Minor, especially in the city of Ephesus.

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Paul didn’t pull any punches as he wrote to Timothy. In 1:3, he immediately addressed a pressing concern within the Ephesian church: false teaching. He charged Timothy to remain in Ephesus and make it his task to keep the gospel and sound teaching in the forefront of his work there, confronting those individuals who focus on “deceptive doctrines…cultural myths, traditions, or the endless study of genealogies” in their teaching (vv. 3–4). The reference here may include pagan teachings and legends as well those coming from wayward Jewish groups and writings.7 Paul called such teachings “digressions” that bred “controversies and debates” and were “devoid of power that builds up and strengthens the church in the faith of God” (v. 4).

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  THE BACKSTORY

The city of Ephesus, where Timothy served in ministry at the time of the writing of 1 Timothy, was “the leading city of the richest region of the Roman Empire.” Ephesus was “the Roman provincial capital of Asia Minor” and “the most prosperous commercial center of the time, controlling the financial affairs of western Asia Minor.”8 Its harbor was “one of the busiest seaports of the Roman Empire.”9 Trade also came into the city by major roadways. So central was the city for the flow of goods coming from the East that milestone markers show that “mileages to other cities in Asia Minor were measured from Ephesus.”10 One of its roads east connected to “an ancient road that led all the way into Babylonia.”11

Ephesus was also home to magnificent structures, the most renowned of which was the temple of the goddess Artemis. Biblical scholar F. F. Bruce states that this temple “covered an area four times as extensive as the Parthenon in Athens; it was supported by 127 columns, each of them sixty feet high, and it was adorned by some of the greatest sculptors of the age.”12 In Paul’s day, this temple was considered the greatest of the seven wonders of the ancient world.13 Ephesus also had a large theater that could seat twenty-four thousand people. This theater was “home to the , an annual series of games drawing competitors from throughout the province and involving both athletic and artistic competitions, including music and dance.”14

Marketplaces, bathhouses, smaller but beautiful temples, gymnasiums, a large civic center that contained several public buildings, and many large homes filled the city of at least two hundred fifty thousand inhabitants. One of the excavated homes of the rich...