Bible Commentaries
1 Timothy

1Ti THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK AS A WHOLE. 1 Timothy 1:1-2 . BENEDICTION. 1 Timothy 1:3-20 . ADMONITION. PRACTICAL. Faith and a good conscience defined. 1 Timothy 2:1 - 1 Timothy 3:13 . INSTRUCTION AND DISCIPLINE. Men. Kings and others. Women. Men. Overseers and ministers. 1 Timothy 3:14-15 . INTENDED VISIT AND INTERVAL. Faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 3:16 . THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. 1 Timothy 4:1-12 . THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY. Its characteristics. What is needed to meet it. 1 Timothy 4:13-16 . INTENDED VISIT AND INTERVAL. 1 Timothy 5:1 - 1 Timothy 6:2 . INSTRUCTION AND DISCIPLINE. Men. Women. 1 Timothy 6:3-21 . ADMONITION. PRACTICAL. False teachers. Riches (Danger). Riches (Charge). Charge. 1 Timothy 6:21 . BENEDICTION. THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY INTRODUCTORY NOTES. 1. The Son of a Gentile father and of a Jewish mother, Timothy was born either at Derbe or Lystra, probably the latter. He is already a "disciple" when first mentioned (Acts 16:1 ). His father is nowhere named, but his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, have secured honourable mention wherever the Scriptures are read (2 Timothy 1:5 ; 2 Timothy 3:14 ). Most likely Timothy had been brought to the light during the apostle''s first visit to Lystra, and thereafter the two were much in association. Paul refers to him in affectionate terms as his own son in the faith, his dearly beloved son, his son Timothy, and while undergoing his second imprisonment at Rome he earnestly begged that his felloe-worker should come to him. See also Philippians 2:19 Philippians 2:22 . 2. This, the earliest of the three Pastoral Epistles, as they are termed, was written probably in A.D. 67 (Appdx-180), but it is not known where the apostle was at the time, although some think he was at Troas, others in Macedonia (Appdx-180). 3. To Timothy were given the earliest instructions for orderly arrangement in the church, these instructions being of the simplest nature, and, as Dean Alford well observes with regard to the Pastoral Epistles as a whole, the directions given "are altogether of an ethical, not of an hierarchical, kind". These directions afford no warrant whatever for the widespread organizations of the "churches" as carried on to-day. 4. Even in the earliest period the increasing heresies are much in evidence. Some there were who had swerved and turned aside altogether; others denied vital truth and thus overthrew "the faith of some". Hence Paul''s constant warnings against such, and instructions to enlighten the opposers, "if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth". How the leaven spread is only too plainly shown in Paul''s Second Epistle, which has been aptly termed a picture of the ruin of the church through departure from the apostolic doctrine.