My True Child In The Faith Series

Scripture

Today, we begin a new study in the letters of Paul to Timothy and Titus. Paul wrote two letters to Timothy and one letter to Titus. These three letters are usually called “the Pastoral Epistles” because they were written to pastors about dealing with pastoral matters in their respective churches.

Commentator John R. W. Stott writes that in his First Letter to Timothy, Paul addresses six main issues:

The first is the church’s doctrine and how to preserve it intact, uncorrupted by false teaching (1:3–20). The second is the church’s public worship, its global intercession for all humankind, together with the roles of men and women in the conduct of it (2:1–15). Thirdly, the apostle writes about the church’s pastorate, and in particular the conditions of eligibility for presbyters and deacons (3:1–16). Fourthly, after outlining the church’s moral instruction, which arises naturally from the doctrine of creation and calls for personal godliness (4:1–10), Paul addresses himself to the church’s local leadership, specially how younger leaders can ensure that their teaching is listened to and not despised (4:11–5:2). Fifthly, the apostle handles the church’s social responsibilities, not only to widows, but also to elders and to slaves (5:3–6:2). His sixth and final concern, in reaction to those who think “that godliness is a means to financial gain,” is the church’s attitude to material possessions (6:3–21); he addresses both the covetous and the wealthy.

As we study these letters of Paul to Timothy and Titus, we shall discover that they contain precious wisdom for us today. When John Calvin completed his commentaries on Paul’s two letters to Timothy, he dedicated them to Lord Edward, the Duke of Somerset. Part of Calvin’s dedication to the Duke reads as follows:

As far as I am concerned, neither my great distance from you nor my humble station in life can stop me from congratulating you on the way you have spread Christ’s glory in all you have done. God has been pleased to use me to work and struggle to bring back the pure teaching of the Gospel to the world. So, why should I not, no matter how far I am from you, express in the strongest terms my respect for you? For God has made you a protector and defender of this same teaching, in his special goodness. As I had no other way of expressing this affection I have for you, I now present to you my commentaries on two of Paul’s letters. I did not choose the gift out of the air, but carefully selected it as it is so suitable for you. For in these letters Paul tells his much-loved Timothy what kind of teaching will edify God’s church. He tells him what evils and enemies to fight against, and what trials he will have to endure. He encourages him not to give up in the face of any difficulties, but to be courageous, to use his authority to curb the licentiousness of evil people and not to give gifts in an effort to curry favor. These two letters give a summary of how a church should be rightly governed. You are now making great efforts to reform the Church of England in your king’s name…. But you have numerous Timothys doing this work, and with them you could do no better than put your energies into following Paul’s pattern which he teaches. Everything in these letters is relevant for us today, and little that is needed to edify the church cannot be deduced from them.

What John Calvin said nearly 500 years ago – “Everything in these letters is relevant for us today” – is still applicable for us today. Therefore, I am calling this sermon series on the Pastoral Epistles, “Living in God’s Church Today.”

Let’s read 1 Timothy 1:1-2:

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Timothy 1:1-2)

Introduction

“I feel like a monster,” Gabriel Marshall said to his dad.

Eight-year-old Gabriel had recently undergone surgery to remove a tumor from his brain, and he now bore a conspicuous scar on the side of his head. His dad, Josh, had an idea: he got a tattoo on the side of his head that was in the exact shape of Gabriel’s scar.

“If people want to stare at you,” he told Gabriel, “then they can stare at both of us.”

A picture of the two sporting their scars eventually won first place in a Father’s Day photo competition run by St. Baldrick’s Foundation, “an organization dedicated to fighting childhood cancer.”

You are familiar with the expression, “Like father, like son.” It means that the son resembles his father in looks, manners, abilities, and so on. In the previous story, we should probably say, “Like son, like father,” because Josh, the father, got a tattoo to resemble the scar on his son Gabriel’s head.