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Pastoral Epistles 09 – Care of Widows
In the society surrounding the early Christian community, there was no support network for widows. Paul instructs that if an older woman’s husband dies, and this woman devotes herself to the work of the Church and vows never to marry again, the community should support that woman if the woman’s family is not present. Younger…
Read MorePastoral Epistles 08 – Unnecessary Restrictions on the Congregation
Paul returns to the subject of a particular heresy that is threatening the church at that time, but he instructs Timothy not to engage the arguments about it and does not specify the heresy here. We know that they were talking in part about food laws and imposing further restrictions on the Church. These restrictions…
Read MorePastoral Epistles 07 – Character of Authority
Authority in the Church comes from men, and while it does not preclude the wise counsel of women, this particular kind of authority can come only from men. A priest should not be a drunkard or quarrelsome or greedy and desirous of money. He should not be a recent convert and must be held in…
Read MorePastoral Epistles 06 – Salvation for the Multitudes
Paul reminds the men that Christ’s death was a ransom for the multitudes, and that there is no limitation on who may be saved by a secret knowledge or ancestry. This does not mean that we may worship God however we please. Those who attend the Mass must do so in a respectful manner. We…
Read MorePastoral Epistles 05 – Intercession
Paul instructs us to pray for the salvation of all men, including leaders and kings. There had been an error that said that not all could be saved, and perhaps this was the error that Paul was writing the letter to combat. We are to desire the salvation of all and pray for all. We…
Read MorePastoral Epistles 04 – Excommunication
Even though Paul was familiar with the beliefs of Christians, he says that he had an ignorance of Christianity. The people that are causing trouble in Ephesus are not in a similar situation. They are or were in some sense believers, but have gone astray, and Paul says that they must be separated from the…
Read MorePastoral Epistles 03 – Heresy in Ephesus
The letters to Timothy begin shortly after the end of Acts, with Paul’s release from Rome in 62 AD. Paul writes a personal letter to Timothy, but it is evident from the language that it is an open letter. In Ephesus, where Timothy was, there were people, at least two known to Paul, who were…
Read MorePastoral Epistles 02 – Timothy and Titus
Timothy was a convert to Christianity, a product of a mixed marriage between a Jewish mother and a pagan Greek father, and a Christian of some note in Lystra by the time of Paul’s second visit to that city. Timothy would have heard Paul’s preaching that afflictions would be necessarry to enter the kingdom of…
Read MorePastoral Epistles 01 – Introduction
This study of the Pastoral Epistles of Paul comprises the two epistles to Timothy, the epistle to Titus and also the epistle to Philemon, which is not considered part of the pastoral epistles. Paul had a marked ability to find and train men to as parts of a missionary network, and while these letters show…
Read MoreEzra/Nehemiah – Conclusion
We must know God’s word if we are His people, but we must also have it in our hearts. This word is for all of us, not just the clergy. We must drill it into our children’s hearts so that we can act on it rather than knowing the word but not acting on it.…
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