Awake & Alive: 1 Timothy Reading Plan
Day 1
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
2To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 1 Timothy 2:1-2
There is much to be deduced in this opening greeting to the Pastoral Epistle which is 1 Timothy. It’s important as we begin this journey to lay a bit of foundational framework that will help us understand precisely what we are reading. Let’s answer a few questions that will help us with this task.
We find in this opening greeting that Paul is the author of this book. If you are unfamiliar with the apostle Paul, there is much to be learned about him by journeying through the book of Acts. Saul, born into a devout Pharisaic Jewish family, would have spent his entire childhood and adolescence learning to unpack the Law of Moses along with other Old Testament works like the prophets and Psalms. Saul was quite the opponent to this new thing called Christianity. He sought to persecute it [or “stamp it out”] in an attempt to protect the Jewish heritage he had given his life to study and understand. Jesus saves Paul while en route to one of these missions and quite quickly sends him back out in service of the Kingdom of God.
This letter is written in the mid-60s AD, likely during the final decade of Paul’s life and missionary career. It is normally encapsulated as part of what is referred to as the Pastoral Epistles (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus). These books are written to men who are leading churches that Paul helped establish. This gives us a bit of helpful insight into the letter. They are personal. In fact, we see this in verse two above. Paul sees Timothy as family. He is like a son to Paul, and Paul is writing to encourage and help him lead the church at Ephesus.
Ephesus was an important port city in what is modern-day Turkey. It was a cultural and religious mixing ground. It’s important to mark this to memory as we will find some of this religious mixing to be among the topics addressed by Paul.
Let’s note two quick things that are easy to miss in this greeting. First, Paul tells us who he believes himself to be and how this relates to the task he has set out to accomplish in this letter. Paul is an accomplished man at this point, though not likely by the Western view of success we use to define the term. He has studied, traveled, planted churches, seen miracles, and even experienced miracles himself, but this is not the grounding for this letter. Paul grounds his introduction on who he is in Christ (and an apostle) and who has given him the command to write (God). This is not just a personal letter of encouragement to a friend. This is a divinely commissioned task that Paul is answering obediently. Paul could, with Just Cause, open this letter with a list of personal qualifications to remind his beloved friend of all the reasons he should listen, but he opens instead by pointing that reminder back to the work Christ has done and continues to call Paul to do.
Next, let’s note the way Paul closes this greeting. There is a word added here to Paul’s usual greeting found in other Pauline letters. That word is mercy. Bernard makes a beautiful summary of these three traits Paul uses to greet Timothy, “Even grace will not give peace to man, unless mercy accompany it; for man needs pardon for the past no less than strength for the future.”1
From just this brief introduction, we can reason it is Paul’s hope for Timothy that this letter encourages him (and as an extension, us) to lean into Christ. To anchor his life to what Christ has done and to allow that to call out shame and ring in purpose. Timothy can be confident in his work just as Paul is because at its core it is truly the work of Christ. Timothy can walk confidently as a young pastor knowing that his past is forgiven, his future is secure, and the Gospel message he must defend is the unshakeable hope that brings peace.
1* Bernard, John Henry, The Pastoral Epistles, Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1897), 22.