Sunday, October 9, 2016

The Pastoral Epistles

Paul's letter to Timothy is the first of three pastoral letters preserved in the New Testament. The term "pastoral" (first used in the eighteenth century for I & II Timothy and Titus) identifies these letters as written to young men active in Christian ministry.  The letters are intimate and personal, written from an experienced senior to young men with whom he has spent months and years.  Although personal letters, the writings also give ministry advice, laying out some of Paul's principles of ministry.

Wikipedia has this page on the pastoral epistles.

Paul's first letter to Timothy is primarily advice to a young man committed to representing Christ in Ephesus.  Timothy apparently leads a church (or "assembly" of Christians) there.  Paul's letter describes two types of church leaders, "episkpoi" (bishops, elders) and "diakonoi" (servants, deacons.)  It also has a segment concerned about errors and deception, particularly errors to come in the future.

Paul's second letter to Timothy seems to be much later and has an air of finality as Paul appears to prepare for death.  Paul asks for some aid from Timothy and is aware he is giving some final advice.

Paul's letter to Titus (in Crete) also deals with church structure and the spiritual life of a minister.

OverviewBible has some nice summaries of the three epistles here: 
  1. I Timothy
  2. II Timothy
  3. Titus
These three letters consist of a total of 13 chapters in our modern New Testament so we will cover them in just over two weeks.  The chapters are relatively short, less than 20 verses per chapter on average.

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