Already studied 2 Timothy, going back a couple of steps and doing 1 Timothy!
Background to 1 Timmy
Timmy is a young Christian leader (apparently he's about 30) who's in charge of a church that's got problems. Paul's writing to him to tell him some pretty urgent stuff that requires a lot of hard work. Paul wants Timmy to get the church in order, to get their members behaving, and relating to each other --> sorting God's household out!
v1-2
Starts off by saying who the letter is from and who it's to. It's from Paul, not just any old Paul but an apostle (sent one, ambassador for Christ) of JC, by the commandof God, savior and Jesus, his hope. Then says its to Timmy who's a true child to Paul because of his faith in JC. So from the start Paul is sorta asserting his authority almost, letting Timmy know he's the boss and he's his fatherly type figure helping and giving him advice.
v3-4
Paul tells Timmy that he had previously asked him to stay in Ephesus when Paul went to Macedonia so Tim could tell others to stop teaching false things. Straight off, this tells us the confidence Paul has in Timmy. He then tells Tim to tell the others to stop spending time on false stories and family histories as neither help God's work as it just causes arguments. Genealogies would have been a Jewish in nature and they basically weren't showing stewardship because of this. Their teachings were based on myths, and family trees, not on Jesus, and it caused controversy, not faith.
v5
The purpose of the above command and the false teaching is stopping love within the church. Paul says to have love, it comes from:
a pure heart - that's been made clean by Jesus
a good conscience - by avoiding sin, because of love and obeying God
true faith - not just on Sundays, true love and faith towards God
v6-7
Paul then says that people have missed these things of love, and they have turned to"useless talk". But the people who want to be teachers of the law but they don't understand or know anything about what they are talking about, and this is how false teachers develop!
Application
Okay so Timmy's got to do the tough job of standing up to false teachers and so have we, if teaching isn't based on God's word or based on love! But also it's not just being negative, we also need to praise those who do rightfully teach us and the church. We also need to ask God for a pure heart, a good conscience and true faith in him, because it's possible for everyone, and we need to be Christians of love!
Background to 1 Timmy
Timmy is a young Christian leader (apparently he's about 30) who's in charge of a church that's got problems. Paul's writing to him to tell him some pretty urgent stuff that requires a lot of hard work. Paul wants Timmy to get the church in order, to get their members behaving, and relating to each other --> sorting God's household out!
v1-2
Starts off by saying who the letter is from and who it's to. It's from Paul, not just any old Paul but an apostle (sent one, ambassador for Christ) of JC, by the commandof God, savior and Jesus, his hope. Then says its to Timmy who's a true child to Paul because of his faith in JC. So from the start Paul is sorta asserting his authority almost, letting Timmy know he's the boss and he's his fatherly type figure helping and giving him advice.
v3-4
Paul tells Timmy that he had previously asked him to stay in Ephesus when Paul went to Macedonia so Tim could tell others to stop teaching false things. Straight off, this tells us the confidence Paul has in Timmy. He then tells Tim to tell the others to stop spending time on false stories and family histories as neither help God's work as it just causes arguments. Genealogies would have been a Jewish in nature and they basically weren't showing stewardship because of this. Their teachings were based on myths, and family trees, not on Jesus, and it caused controversy, not faith.
v5
The purpose of the above command and the false teaching is stopping love within the church. Paul says to have love, it comes from:
a pure heart - that's been made clean by Jesus
a good conscience - by avoiding sin, because of love and obeying God
true faith - not just on Sundays, true love and faith towards God
v6-7
Paul then says that people have missed these things of love, and they have turned to"useless talk". But the people who want to be teachers of the law but they don't understand or know anything about what they are talking about, and this is how false teachers develop!
Application
Okay so Timmy's got to do the tough job of standing up to false teachers and so have we, if teaching isn't based on God's word or based on love! But also it's not just being negative, we also need to praise those who do rightfully teach us and the church. We also need to ask God for a pure heart, a good conscience and true faith in him, because it's possible for everyone, and we need to be Christians of love!
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