“When I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there in Ephesus and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth.” 1 Timothy 1:3 NLT 

Footsteps #409. The Bible’s silence on the ultimate fate of Paul has engendered a great deal of debate. The book of Acts ends with Paul sitting in a Roman prison awaiting his hearing before the Roman emperor, a privilege of appeal that all Roman citizens possessed. However, the writing of the Pastoral Epistles clearly dates to a time after the events of Acts. So where was Paul when he wrote 1 Timothy? Paul had expected the Romans to release him from prison, something that likely happened near the end of AD 62 (see Philippians 2:24). His release allowed him the opportunity to travel to Ephesus and eventually place Timothy in ministry at that church. Paul then went on to preach in Macedonia, where he heard reports of Timothy’s work at Ephesus that prompted him to write 1 Timothy, probably in AD 63. 

First Timothy presents the most explicit and complete instructions for church leadership and organization in the entire Bible. This includes sections on appropriate conduct in worship gatherings, the qualifications of elders and deacons, and the proper order of church discipline. Paul advised Timothy on these practical matters in a way that would have helped the young pastor to emphasize the purity that should characterize Christian leaders and the gatherings they oversee. 

In Paul’s years in ministry, he had developed a team of co-workers in his mission. Timothy was one of these. Paul met Timothy’s mother and Grandmother in Lystra and he was impressed by Timothy’s passion and devotion to Jesus. (Acts 16:1-3, 2 Tim 1:5). So Paul mentored him for many years and eventually started sending him on missions to different churches. When Paul got word about a group of leaders who infiltrated the influential church in Ephesus (they were spreading incorrect views about Jesus and what it meant to follow Him) He wrote to Timothy to confront these leaders and restore order to this church. Paul sent this letter to follow up and instruct him on how to fulfill this mission. 

The letter has an interesting design. There is an opening and closing commission to Timothy to confront these leaders in their bad theology (Chapters 1 & 6b). This surrounds two large central sections that are full of really practical instructions about the problems Timothy faced in the Ephesian church (Chapters 2-3.) Finally, all these sections are linked together or concluded by a series of three poems that each exalt the risen Jesus as the king of the world (Chapters 4-6a).