The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy: Expository Commentary from Sermons by Dr Peter Masters

Bible Commentary on the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy

by Dr Peter Masters, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London (adapted from sermons)

Timothy was from Lystra in southern Galatia, a Roman province now part of modern Turkey. His father who was Greek probably died before Timothy was converted since we see no sign of him, but his mother and his grandmother were Jewish and they had taught him the Scripture since he was a child. So he was brought up in the Jewish faith and very well versed in Scripture, very knowledgeable. He was converted under the ministry of the apostle during his first missionary journey at the age of around 20, and he became a tremendously committed servant of the Lord.

Timothy was saved during the course of Paul’s first missionary journey, and on Paul’s second missionary journey, some while later, he joined the missionary journey of Paul the apostle, and became one of his closest assistants. By this time he had matured greatly in the faith, and obviously preached a good deal, and was commended by the people from all the churches in the larger community around Lystra as a preacher and one who would stand up to opposition. Paul was able to take him on recommendation and he joined the Apostle Paul and became his son, as it were, in service. He was probably present and helping when Paul was taken up for dead having been dreadfully stoned. He had accompanied him and stayed by his side through thick and thin. He is mentioned as being specifically with him at various different points of his journeys. He was not imprisoned with Paul, but during Paul’s first imprisonment was the one who had access to him most and who administered to him.

Now at the time of 1 Timothy he is a prototype pastor being dispatched by Paul to different places to stabilize and establish churches, but he is still a young man. This is probably 10 to 12 years after his conversion. It was Timothy who was sent by the apostle Paul, to go and be an initial pastor in various different places. Indeed, as this letter was written, Timothy, as we shall see, is at Ephesus. And there he has a commission, a charge to pastor the church, but particularly to deal with certain people who were bringing error into the church.

In Philippians there is the one of many references to Timothy by the apostle Paul: ‘But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. ²⁰ For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. ²¹ For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's’ (Philippians 2:19-21). Now that sounds rather discouraging, but it's not actually as dismal as it appears. It indicates that Timothy was the most conspicuously unselfish and sacrificial in attitude towards others of all the preachers available to Paul. Timothy was steadfast. He was immensely warm-hearted and devoted to others. He was zealous and utterly trustworthy. He was clearly a capable preacher and pastor in his own right: he must have been, because Paul left him in different places to put things right, to minister where things were going wrong, and he had great capability. But at the same time he was chiefly his companion.

Was Timothy some kind of a superman, to be so steadfast, to be so unselfish, to be so zealous, so committed, so effective? No, actually the evidence is rather the opposite. The evidence is that Timothy had many disadvantages and many weaknesses. He not only had his youth against him which counted very much in the culture of those days, but he was susceptible to discouragement and weariness and weakness. We can tell that from the nature of the exhortations which the apostle gives him in a kindly way in these epistles. Timothy was not a person who was naturally powerful and strong in personality, and there are many examples of exhortations which are calculated to hold him and help him. One example would be 2 Timothy 1:6: ‘Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.’ Now the apostle would never have said that if there was not a tendency in Timothy to run down in zeal and enthusiasm. This is an exhortation which is full of understanding for the person he addresses. Verse 7: ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.’ You can see how Timothy's susceptibilities were being borne in mind here as Paul strengthens him and exhorts him. In verse 8 he says, ‘Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.’ Paul is in a dire situation and Timothy may therefore be very downhearted and discouraged. So he is firmed up by the apostle. Timothy who was so steadfast and so unselfish and so loyal was not naturally made like that. He had weaknesses and tendencies to discouragement, and yet God held him and that is an encouragement to us, that these things can be accomplished even in those of us who are weak.

Now, Timothy himself was imprisoned for the faith at some time, and we read at the very end of the letter to the Hebrews that he had just been released at that time from an imprisonment. So he was a sufferer for the Lord, a preacher for the Lord. What he was not – as some people mistakenly say – was a special apostolic delegate or a special apostolic assistant when he was sent to churches. No, when he was sent to churches, he served in those churches as a kind of prototype pastor. What the apostle Paul is doing is not just sending a representative, a delegate to straighten out certain things that might be going wrong and to preach the word to people. He is sending somebody in a way that is to be imitated; because everything the apostle did forms a pattern, and it is to be imitated by the churches of Christ throughout time. The apostle goes out of his way to tell us this and to instruct us along these lines three times, and another three times in an oblique and an indirect manner. So everything the apostle did forms part of a pattern. There is a pattern for the New Testament Church in the Scriptures. That pattern is particularly expounded in the so-called Pastoral Epistles – 1 and 2 Timothy, and the letter to Titus. Timothy is serving in Ephesus for a period of time as a pastor, and so this first epistle particularly gives us some rules for church government, and discloses the heart of Paul. But is not just about church government and procedures and how we should conduct ourselves in the church of Christ; it is also full of doctrinal statements and tremendous statements for our help.