Study of 1 Timothy

 

Paul

A man responsible for 13 of our books of the bible 14 if you include Hebrews. He penned such sayings as Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.Many would say that he was one of the greatest men to ever live. It wouldn’t be out of line to say that he furthered the gospel more than any other man has ever done. Many men in history never anticipated what impact their work would have on generations to come. For instance the Wright brothers could of never imagined what an impact their flying machine would have on travel and the economy of the world. Another would be the invention of the motorized buggy by Henry Ford. New medicines that are developed will continue to benefit people in the future. This could be said about the impact of the life of Paul would have on the world. Paul was an intense person who lived according to his convictions.

 

The Birth of Saul

 

It is accepted by most historians that Paul was born about the year Jesus was born give or take a year. When you include John the Baptist being born about 6 months before Jesus you have 3 boys that would have the greatest impact on mans salvation. John being the forerunner, Jesus being the redeemer, and Paul being the proclaimer and missionary.

 

  1. Paul was a Jew. He speaks 3 times of his Hebrew birth. Rom 11:1, 2Cor 11:22, Phil 3:5-6
  2. Paul was a Greek. He was born in Tarsus of Cicilia Acts 22:3 Tarsus was the capital of Cicilia and was a very important city. In fact Paul states that Tarsus was “no mean city”. (Insignificant) Act 21:39
  3. Paul was a Roman and like many Jews he had 2 names. His Hebrew name was Saul and his Roman name was Paul. Paul was born a Roman citizen and claimed to be a Roman. Acts 22:27-28 Julius Caesar had granted the citizens of Tarsus Roman Citizen Ship and made Tarsus a free city.

 

There were many benefits being as Roman citizen. It was against the law to punish a Roman Citizen without a trial. It was a very serious offence to mistreat a Roman citizen. A Roman citizen could not be crucified either. They also had the right to appeal to Caesars imperial court. This gave Paul an advantage in spreading the gospel. He could speak both Hebrew and Greek and he used his Roman Citizenship at times as we see in Acts 16.

 

A slave girl possessed by a demon who had brought here master great profit with her fortune telling follows Paul and Silas (see-las) for many days crying out saying “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” Vrs 17. Paul got tired of hearing this and he cast the demon out of her. So when the master of this girl seen that his profit making was over he had Paul and Silas dragged to the magistrates (the judges, the authority). The magistrates ripped Paul and Silas cloths off and had them beaten with rods and then had them thrown in prison. Of course this was all done without them knowing that they were Roman citizens. Even though they had been beaten and thrown into prison we find Paul and Silas singing praises unto God. They used their time in bondage to praise God. Even after the earthquake and their chains had been loosed they stayed at the jail and not only did they stop the Philippian jailer from committing suicide they taught him and his household the word of God in which they accepted and were baptized.

 

The next day the magistrates tell the jailer to release Paul and Silas. The bible does not tell us why they decided to let them go. Maybe they heard of the earthquake and the events of that night or maybe they just wanted to beat these men and put them in jail over night to teach them a lesson. Whatever the reason they were not prepared for what they were going to find out about Paul and Silas. Read vrs 35-38 They find out that these guys are Roman citizens and they know that what they did to them is punishable by death. They were guilty of doing the following without a trial.

 

  1. Beating them publicly
  2. Beating uncondemned men
  3. Beating them with rods.
  4. Throwing them into prison

 

Paul wasn’t going to let them dismiss him without first coming in person and acknowledging their mistakes and correct them. This would mean they would have to publicly claim their innocence just like they had publicly condemned them. We find the magistrates pleading with Paul and Silas to leave the city. They did not have the right to demand them to leave and Paul and Silas did not have to leave but they did. So Paul defiantly had advantages being born a citizen of Rome.

 

The early life of Paul

 

All though we do not have historical records of what Paul’s early life was like we can do know that his parents and his environment influenced him. We know that he was born in Tarsus and that he would have been brought up according to Jewish custom. Jewish custom would consist of at least these 3 things.

 

  1. He would be circumcised on the eighth day Phil 3:5
  2. He would be schooled concerning the law of Moses. The earliest teaching would of came from his parents as it was commanded by Moses (Deut 6:7) When he reached the age of 6 or 7 he would be expected to attend school where the OT would be the basis of teaching. He would learn them in Hebrew and in Greek. As he advanced he would memorize much of the law to be able to quote it accurately. Then at the age of 13 he would become bar mitzvah (son of the commandment). This simply means that he would assume the full obligation of the law. From here he would go to Jerusalem to receive further training  by Gamaliel gam-al-ee-ale (a very famous teacher of the time, considered one the best  teachers around. ) Lets look at some passages that show that he did follow the Jewish tradition and that he was very zealous in his studies of the law. Read Acts 22:3 , Gal 1:14, Acts 26:4-5.
  3. We can know that Paul was taught a trade. A Rabbi named Judah said this. “He that teacheth not his son a trade, doth the same as if he taught him to be a thief,” We learn from Acts 18:3 that Paul’s trade was tent making. He made tents to earn his own money.

 

Paul the persecutor

 

When Paul did something he went all the way. He put his entire heart and soul into it. He was a very determined and dedicated man. Paul wanted to destroy the church of Christ. Gal 1:13 He would go into Christians homes and haul both men and women to prison.  In fact he stood there and watched as Stephen was stoned to death for preaching the gospel. Acts 8:1-3 Paul testified to his great hatred and persecution of Christians in Acts 26:9-11. Even right up to the point before Paul was about to encounter Jesus on the road to Damascus we see how determined he was to wipe out the church in Acts 9:1-2

 

Paul’s Conversion

Read Acts 9:3ff Paul makes a complete U turn. If Paul could be converted there is hope for all.

 

He immediately started preaching in the synagogue 9:20

He received his knowledge from Jesus and not man Gal 1:11-12, 1Cor 2:12-13

The people were amazed and the Jews were stumped. 9:21-23

 He goes to Arabia at some point and returns Gal 1:15-17

Paul escapes through a wall and goes to Jerusalem Gal 1:18, Acts 9:23-24, 2Cor 11:32-33

Paul was not idle in Tarsus but was teaching as hinted by Gal 1:21-22

 

TIMOTHY

 

Timothy was hard worker and was given great responsibility as he was left at churches to help establish them and build them up making sure that they teach the one doctrine.

 

Paul loved Timothy as a son and it no surprise that Paul wanted to see him one last time before he was put to death. 2Tim 4:9, 21

 

FRIENDSHIP.

Prov 17:17 a friend loves at all times.

Prov 27:9 Ecc 3:9-12 two is better than one

Amos 3:3 can 2 walk together unless they agree.

 

Jonathan and David, Naomi and Ruth

 

Authorship

 

Believe or not there are modern day liberals that will deny that the Paul wrote these letters. For one thing they would say it was to advanced for its time in regards to the organization of the church. However we see in Acts 14:23 that Paul was already appointing Elders so it would be appropriate for him to write the qualifications for elders and church conduct in this  letter to Timothy.

 

2nd they notice that there are over 100 different words used in this letter that Paul had not used in his other letters. This is the same tactics that people use to dismiss Mark 16:9-20.

First of all Paul’s other epistles were written to church’s but here he writing to an individual. 2nd of all why does Paul have to be limited to the same words over decades of writing different letters. People in today’s time don’t like the content of these  letters because it goes against how they want to organize the church.