Pastoral 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…

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Pastoral 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…

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Pastoral 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…

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Pastoral 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…

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Pastoral 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…

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