Lesson 1
introduction
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we acknowledged that You are Almighty God, God of creation, God of salvation, God of redemption, and God of reconciliation. We pray for divine inspiration, understanding, insight, and enablement to understand and apply Your Word, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Author, Place, Date, Purpose, and Recipient
Paul wrote a personal letter to Timothy to encourage, warn, and instruct him. He penned this letter from Macedonia between 62 to 64 after released from his first Romans imprisonment. Timothy was Paul’s protege, spiritual god-son, and pastor of the Ephesian church.
This is one of three pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. Ephesus was a Roman port city in Asia Minor and was home to the temple of Diana or Artemis. False teachers who prohibited marriage and eating of certain foods had infiltrated the Ephesian church.
Themes:
Some of the themes are false doctrines, holiness, godliness, prayer, world evangelism, Christian conduct in worship, qualifications of church leaders, and Christian relationships.
Outline:
1: 1-20, Salutation, warning about false teachers
2:1- 2:16, Prayers, evangelism, Christian conduct during worship
3:1-14, Qualifications of overseers and deacons
4: 1-16, warning about false teachers, Instructions for Timothy
5:1-25, Instructions for the church, part 1
6:1-21, Instructions for the church, part 2
Application:
Paul’s warnings and instructions to Timothy and the Ephesian church apply to us. We are to reject false teachers, pray, evangelize, and conduct ourselves properly in church worship. We are to adhere to the criteria for choosing church leaders as spelled out by Paul.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You that we can study the epistle of 1 Timothy. Open our eyes and ears as we open up holy scriptures. Open our understanding to explore the riches of Your word. We pray for insight into controversial passages, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
