1 Timothy Chapter 1

1 Timothy Chapter 1

1 Timothy Chapter 1
The background setting of 1 Timothy is that false doctrines have arisen in the Ephesians Church. Paul, therefore, commanded Timothy to stay in Ephesus to “work” on this matter and fight the good fight. Paul, as an apostle, has set a good example for his junior (Timothy) and for us. Firstly, at the opening of the letter, he addressed himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ and he emphasized that Jesus Chris is our hope (1 Tim 1: 1; Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope). This shows that Paul clearly know his role and responsibility, additionally, Paul highlighted the fact that Jesus Christ is our hope. This is something that we have to learn from Paul, we should clearly know what are our godly role and responsibility in this world. And we should unmistakably convey these characters to the world. In addition to that, we should believe that Jesus Christ is our hope of all the circumstance.


Secondly, Paul shared his own testimony to encourage Timothy ( 1 Tim 1:13-14; although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14 and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus). This testimony is very relevant to our life. Paul was a sinner but after being saved from Jesus Christ (1 Tim 1: 15; This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief) and received love from Jesus Christ, he became an apostle (1 Tim 1:12; And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry). The lessons that we can learn from Paul’s testimony are 1) we should follow Paul’s path. We also were sinners and Jesus Christ has saved us as well, thus we are expected to spread the gospel of salvation. 2) Another lesson from this testimony is that we also should learn from Paul in term of how he encouraged another brother (Timothy) which is by sharing his personal testimony. Hence, we are encouraged to share our testimony to other brethrens with the purpose of edifying and strengthening spiritual growth each other just like Paul did with Timothy.