Why Was 1 Timothy Written?

Introduction

This evening we’re going to be starting a new sermon series through a part of the Bible called First Timothy. If you have a Bible nearby, please turn with me to 1 Timothy, Chapter 1. And tonight we’ll just be looking at the first two verses. But before I read the text for us, please pray with me.

[Pray and Read Text]

Often when you’re invited to a new place, or some sort of new event for the first time, it also means that you meet new people. And sometimes being around new people can be a bit uncomfortable. Because it’s not always clear how to start the conversation, or what to talk about. Of course if you already knew the person, then you’d be able to engage with them a lot more effectively. But for as long as that person is a bit of stranger to you, it’s hard to know where to start.

And the same can be true when it comes to engaging with the Bible. Sometimes when we come to a new part of the Bible, there are names that we don’t recognize. There are personal histories of people that we don’t know. And that can make it hard to feel like we can connect to what’s going on.

But in both cases – both when you’re meeting a new person, and when you’re meeting a new part of the Bible – it’s helpful to have someone who can make an introduction for you, and who can help the conversation get started. And so tonight, as we look at these two verses, I want to introduce you to First Timothy. I’ll start by explaining a bit of the background context of when this was written, and then I’ll unpack the three main sections that are here in our text.

Background of 1 Timothy

So first, I’ll walk us through some of the background, here. This part of the Bible was written about 2000 years ago. And at this time in world history, the Roman Empire was in its heyday. It spanned all the way from Great Britain to parts of modern-day Iraq. The Romans had invested in building roads and other pieces of infrastructure to connect their territories and to improve trade and travel. And the Roman government exerted its influence with a large military, which brought a decent amount of political stability, compared to some other ancient kingdoms.

Now, even though the Roman Empire was a single, united Empire, Rome had conquered a diverse range of kingdoms. Within the Empire, different areas still had their own local languages, their own customs, and their own religious practices. But by this time, many of the kingdoms on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea shared at least one language in common. Most people in that region were able to speak Greek, as a language for conducting business in the marketplace. And so anyone who knew Greek could communicate effectively to the vast majority of people who lived for hundreds of miles in any direction.

So when Jesus Christ appeared, when he was born in Bethlehem, this was the world he was born into. That whole region along the Eastern Mediterranean Sea was territory under Roman control. So even though Jesus was born into modern-day Israel, where most people were ethnically and religiously Jewish, the Romans were the ones who had political authority. This is why Roman soldiers were the ones who nailed Jesus to the cross, when he carried the guilt and evils of his people, to die in their place. This is why Roman soldiers were the ones standing guard at the tomb, when Jesus rose from death, and proved his power to bring forgiveness and life with God for all who believe.

And after Jesus gave some final instructions, and ascended into heaven, his followers began to go out with the power of God’s Holy Spirit, and they began to proclaim the good news of Christ. Christianity began to spread.  And the spread of the Christian faith was helped along by the good infrastructure, the political stability, and the shared languages of the Roman Empire.

Shortly after Christianity began to spread, frankly, the Jewish religious leaders – many of the Pharisees – they didn’t like it. And one of these young, ambitious Pharisees began seeking out Christians, to either imprison them or put them to death. He was called Saul – that was likely his Jewish name. But later in the Bible he’s more often known by the name of Paul. And this man, Paul, was confronted by Jesus supernaturally – you can read about that in Acts, Chapter 9. And Paul soon became one of the most important advocates for Christianity. He did a lot to proclaim Christ, and to establish new churches in the first few decades after Jesus’s resurrection from the dead.

And this man, Paul, of course, is the Paul who’s mentioned in our text. He’s introduced to us as the one who wrote 1 Timothy – as the one who’s sending this letter. Because that’s what 1 Timothy is. It’s a personal letter, written by Paul. And over the next few weeks, we’ll see more clearly why this letter was sent. It’s intended to give both encouragement and practical instruction, so that Paul’s friend, Timothy, will be able to care for the people of the Church.

Make sure you realize, though, In those days, writing and sending a letter was quite an undertaking. Really, you would only ever send letters if you had something very important to say. Because writing materials – scrolls and ink – they were rather costly, compared to paper and pens today. And there was no postal service. And so if you wanted a letter delivered, you had to pay someone or find someone to make the uncertain journey from your town to wherever. And because letters involved so much time and effort, it was all the more important for the sender of the letter to be selective in what they said – to make sure that they didn’t waste their words. And so we have quite a bit of confidence, especially because of the Holy Spirit’s superintendence over the writing of this letter – we have confidence that every part of this letter is meaningful.

Now, specifically, many scholars believe that this letter was written around AD 65. And this means that the letter was most likely written during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. Many historians regard Nero to have been a cruel and corrupt leader. And he had no particular love of Christians. After part of the city of Rome burned down, in AD 64, he blamed Christians for the event. And for many years after this, Christians in various places were persecuted.

As Paul is writing this letter, though, there doesn’t seem to be active, widespread persecution happening – at least, not yet. And Paul himself indicates that he’s been freely traveling to serve various churches. Based on the clues we get in different parts of Scripture, it would seem that this letter is being written after the events that are recorded in the book of Acts. It’s believed that after spending two years under house arrest in Rome, Paul is set free, and he makes one more journey to proclaim Christ in Spain, and to visit some other churches. And this letter to Timothy seems to be written during that window.

But even though the threat of persecution isn’t affecting the churches where Timothy is at, false teaching is. That will become more clear as we continue on in this series. And so over the course of this letter, we’ll see that Paul reminds Timothy of sound doctrine. He explains what right relationships and right order in the church should look like (which has implications today, for what our church in Mt Pleasant, MI should look like). And he encourages Timothy to hold to these things confidently.

So that’s a basic overview of the background here. But let’s spend our remaining time, digging in to these two verses – the greeting of this letter. And let me point out the three main sections that we see here. First, we’ll be looking at Paul and his credible authority. Then, I want to say a few things about Timothy, and the importance of his Consistent Faith. And then thirdly, we’ll consider God – his kindness and blessing. These are the three main sections we see here.

Paul, and His Credible Authority

So first, we’ll look at Paul’s Credible Authority. Paul mentions that he has a special, God-given role in verse 1. He introduces himself as Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.

But I don’t want to assume it’s already clear – what does that word apostle even mean? What is an apostle? Well, the word that’s translated as apostle here, it’s sometimes used in the Bible in a generic way. It can refer to anyone who’s been sent out as a messenger. But then in many places, including here, the word apostle is used in a very exclusive, specific way. Because there was a special group of people, hand-selected by Jesus, who were uniquely sent out by him – who were directly called by him to be his apostles. And Jesus sent this select group out with a special role and with special authority.

This group included the disciples who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry – men like Peter, Andrew, James and John. But also, in a very unique way, it included Paul. The Bible tells us that Paul also received a direct call, and a special commission from Jesus. He was sent out to proclaim the good news of Christianity to non-Jewish nations throughout the Roman empire. And Paul’s special commission is spoken about in many parts of the Bible – first in Acts Chapter 9, but then also in Romans 1:5, and Galatians 2:7, and even later, here, in 1 Timothy, Chapter 1.

So Paul was given a very distinct role and responsibility to help establish the Christian church in those early years. And as a special spokesman for Jesus – as an apostle – Paul was also used by God to give us parts of the Bible. He was perfectly guided by the Spirit of God, to give timeless wisdom and instruction to God’s people through letters like this one. And so even though, on one hand, 1 Timothy is a personal letter, from Paul to Timothy, God intended from the beginning that this letter would be more than that. In this letter, God reveals to us his own divine truth – the teachings of the apostles. And since this is God’s Word to us – not just Paul’s word – then this necessarily means that it comes to us with God’s own authority! This means that if we go against anything that’s written here, we aren’t just contradicting some random man who lived a long time ago – but we’re contradicting God.

And this is one of the things that Paul wants to remind Timothy of, here – in this greeting. He wants Timothy to remember, that Paul’s teaching didn’t ultimately originate with Paul. It’s not a human invention. But Paul has simply been sent as a messenger, an apostle, by the command of God. And so what we see reflected here is God’s message, coming from God’s authority, revealing God’s own knowledge and truth.

Now, you might wonder though – why does Paul need to mention that? This likely isn’t new information for Timothy. So what’s the point in this reminder?

Well, as I already mentioned, already – even just a couple decades into church history, false ideas are starting to creep up in the church. And Paul wants to make sure that Timothy doesn’t slide off the rails, too. In fact, he wants to make sure that Timothy will have confidence to clearly defend and articulate sound teaching.

And so Paul reaffirms that he has received special authority – apostleship. And he does this, not because he’s trying to intimidate Timothy or anything. But Paul wants to assure Timothy, that his message is the true good news of God. Whatever Timothy has received from Paul – whatever instructions we see here in this letter – Paul wants us to be certain that it is a reliable Word from heaven, and that it’s a good word for us.

In fact, in verse 1 here, we can be certain that Paul is coming with a good message, because he’s been sent to us by a good God. We’ll look a bit more at God’s goodness later, but I just want to point out how Paul speaks about God, here. He identifies the Lord as God our Savior – by this he’s referring to God the Father. And he refers to Christ Jesus, the divine Son of God, as our hope. We have a God who saves. And we have a God who has good things waiting for us, that we can wait for expectantly, with hope. And so Paul is being a faithful apostle, here – a faithful messenger. Because he’s speaking for God, and he’s pointing us back to God. Paul won’t spend much time in this letter explaining how God saved us. He gives more attention to that in his other letters. But the understanding that underlies this whole letter is that we have a God who saves – a God who speaks for our good. And that explains why we listen to his voice, with trust and with joy – because God has demonstrated his love for us, and his trustworthiness, and his noble plans. His commands aren’t burdens. They’re blessings, intended for our good. And if we understand this, we’ll be in a good frame of mind to receive God’s instructions when we read them in the Bible – whether later on in 1 Timothy, or anywhere else.

Timothy, and His Consistent Faith

But let’s consider the second part of our text, here, dealing with Timothy and his consistency in the Christian faith. We see this in verse 2. Paul says that this letter is to Timothy. And he describes Timothy as his true child in the faith.

Now, even before we get to this letter, the Bible has already introduced us to who Timothy is. The first place that he’s mentioned is back in Acts, Chapter 16. Paul is on his second missionary journey with Silas, and as they’re coming through the towns of Lystra and Derbe – where Paul had established churches previously – he meets up with a young Christian named Timothy, who’s well respected by the other believers in that community. And Paul asks Timothy to continue along with him on his journey, to proclaim Christ, and to organize new churches. And so Timothy becomes a close companion of Paul at this point. And multiple times, when Paul’s unable to do it himself, he sends Timothy back from time to time, to check in on churches they’ve planted, and to strengthen them in truth and love. So through all this, Timothy becomes one of Paul’s closest, most reliable co-workers.

But you’ll notice, Paul doesn’t just view this younger man, Timothy, as a good worker, or as a reliable cog in the wheel that keeps the machinery moving. But he speaks of Timothy in a very affectionate way. He calls him a “true son in the faith.”

It’s probably helpful to clarify, Timothy wasn’t Paul’s son biologically. But when Paul calls Timothy his son, this, of course, shows that Paul has a deep affection for Timothy. And it’s likely that this bond was made sweeter because of the family situations that these two men were coming from. Paul never married or had any children. And Acts, Chapter 16, tells us that Timothy’s dad was a Greek – an unbeliever. So Paul, and his younger friend, Timothy, become dear to each other. In the Church of Christ, these lonely men find family – they find a tangible flesh-and-blood place where they belong, and where they’re cared for. This is one of many beautiful things about what Christ does, when he brings his people into the Church. It’s not just a social club. It’s not a place where people come, to try to prove how wise and holy they are to other people. But it’s a place where we can come as forgiven sinners, and where we can know that we belong to each other – where we can learn, and love, and grow together, as a family. So this “true son in the faith” comment – it speaks of Paul’s affection for Timothy, and the close bond that they share as fellow Christians.

But in this comment, you’ll notice that Paul specifically calls Timothy a true son in the faith. And this is significant. Because, remember, one reason Paul is writing this letter is because he’s concerned about false sons – people who are claiming to be Christians, but who are teaching falsehood. But here, he doesn’t want Timothy to be second-guessing himself. Paul wants to strongly affirm that he’s on the right track. He wants Timothy to know that he’s a true son in the faith.

And frankly, this type of encouragement is important for us – and it’s good to give this encouragement to one another. Because counterfeit versions of Christianity exist today, just as they did back in the early church. We’re faced with so-called Christian teachings that rest on human tradition, or that are warped by political pressures, or that are caught up in mysticism and spiritual experience. And from time to time, we might be tempted to think that the grass is greener somewhere else.

But consider for a moment – this passage is indicating that if our beliefs are aligned with the same things Paul believed, then we can have confidence that we’re true sons and daughters in the faith, too. If our understanding of the Bible is the same – if we’re passionate about the same things Paul was passionate about – if we love God, His Word, and his people like Paul did – if we’re following in his footsteps, that’s the true Christian faith. And we can have confidence as we stand firmly in it.

God, and His Kindness and Blessing

But in last section of our text, Paul again draws our attention to God’s kindness and blessing. This is my third and final point here – God’s kindness and blessing.

This last section in the letter – the second half of verse 2 – it’s a common part of Paul’s greetings. In all of his letters, he consistently includes some words like this, proclaiming “Grace and peace” to the person or people receiving his letter. But even though it’s a common part of his letters – even though it’s repeated – it still has meaning. In all of his letters, Paul gladly declares that we have a God who deals with us in a way that’s far better than we deserve.

As I’ve already mentioned, back in verse 1. We have a God who has saved, and a Lord who has brought us hope. And because of this, Paul affirms to Timothy – and he affirms this to us, too – that everyone who trusts in Christ is now living under God’s smile. This is why Paul declares, “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” In Christ, God gives us his grace, mercy, and peace.

Grace is kindness that he gives us, even though we haven’t earned it. And God shows us mercy when he spares us from the punishments and consequences that our bad deeds deserve. And God also gives us his peace – peace with Him, peace in our relationships with others, and inner peace that’s greater than our fears and anxieties. Paul declares that these blessings are for us. And they aren’t just blessings for us to enjoy tomorrow. These are blessings that affect today.

So be encouraged, and be instructed by this. Paul intends for this letter to build up his beloved son in the faith, Timothy – and this letter is intended to encourage and instruct us, too, in a similar way. So let’s remain anchored in the preaching and pattern of life that we see in Paul, and the other apostles. Let’s be eager to invest spiritually in those around us, to be family them, and to pass on the faith to other sons and daughters in the faith. And let’s confidently enjoy the blessings that God has brought to us in Christ. Let’s pray: