Getting To Know 1 Timothy

Charles McGuckin

Description

Come and experience a revolutionary approach to individual or group Bible study. This book is three books in one that consults twenty-two different versions of the Bible. It uses the ancient Socratic Teaching Method of asking questions as the legitimate tool to build understanding and learning. It focuses strictly on what the apostle actually said rather than a commentary about what he said.

Sujets

• Short story

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 05 décembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781937520441
• Langue: English

Extrait

Getting to Know I Timothy
A Love Letter For The Survival Of The Church


By
Charles J. McGuckin
ISBN 978-1-937520-44-1
Published by First Edition Design eBook Publishing
December 2011
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com
Copyright © 2011 by Charles J. McGuckin



All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form whatsoever — including electronic, photocopy, recording — without prior written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version. KJV. Public Domain. Additional noted sources are listed at the end of this eBook.
FIRST EDITION (PRINT)
Published by NewBookPublishing.com, a division of Reliance Media, Inc. 2395 Apopka Blvd., #200, Apopka, FL 32703 NewBookPublishing.com (PRINT)
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Dedication and Acknowledgement
Forward: Deciding Which Approach To Use
The Historical Context In Review
The Historical Context: Questions To Consider
A Verse By Verse Approach:
-Chapter 1
-Chapter 2
-Chapter 3
-Chapter 4
-Chapter 5
-Chapter 6
A Thematic Approach:
-Chapter 1
-Chapter 2
-Chapter 3
-Chapter 4
-Chapter 5
-Chapter 6
A Survey Approach
-Chapter 1
-Chapter 2
-Chapter 3
-Chapter 4
-Chapter 5
-Chapter 6
Bibliography
Dedication and Acknowledgement

This book is dedicated to all the current day saints who follow in the footsteps of Paul and Timothy by struggling day in and day out to help the church of the twenty-first century regain the spiritual power, wide eyed amazement, absolute fortitude, and complete dedication to Jesus, the Christ of God, who was the hallmark and rock of the church of the first century. It is to you, who need a dependable tool by which you may discover the comprehensible truths of God’s Word while exhibiting them in a world desperately in need of understanding those same truths, that this book is dedicated with great admiration and humility.
I wish to also publicly acknowledge the great sacrifices and complete support that my loving wife, Carolyn, has, without fanfare, given to me all during the planning and writing of this book. Sometimes I wonder if she bore with quiet endurance my periods of isolation in my library or was it with unmentioned thanksgiving for her own peace and solace. Nonetheless, it is to her that I am forever indebted.
Writing such a Holy Spirit invested work as is this book would be more than I could measure up to except for the undaunted support of my entire family. My mother, kids, and grandkids all provided a constant fountain of encouragement, for which I am most grateful, especially during the more trying and doubt riddled times.
Lastly, a very big debt is owed to my friend and editor, Mrs. Jordan, who painstakingly took the manuscript from “the rough” and turned it into “a jewel.”
Forward: Deciding Which Approach To Use

As you begin your study, you must first decide which of the three approaches to studying the epistle best coincides with your interest level. To determine that, simply decide what your preference is according to the descriptions that follow.
If an in-depth or advanced level approach is desired, then the section entitled “ A Verse By Verse Approach ” should be utilized. This section takes each verse and explores the language as well as the thought relationships not only within that verse but also with surrounding verses. In this manner, the individual verses begin unfolding like the narrative event they were originally part of.
The middle section of the book is entitled “ A Thematic Approach. ” This section divides each chapter into groups of verses that share a common theme, action, or event. This section provides a basic level approach to understanding the epistle.
If an introductory level approach is desired for the purpose of just exploring the general flow of the context of the epistle, then utilize the section entitled “ A Survey Approach. ” This part of the book takes each chapter and presents it as a whole, identifying main ideas and common threads of understanding found in each individual chapter.
The Historical Context In Review

Due to rapid geographic expansion of the church in the first century, and dramatic growth within the individual church bodies, the Pastoral Epistles were written to meet a great need that had developed regarding establishment of:
Order within the worship service.
A creedal summary designed to unify the theology of all the churches by identifying commonly held beliefs.
A code of discipline to be administered within the churches to insure holiness among all the believers.
Paul’s purpose in writing this letter to Timothy was to:
Encourage Timothy to oppose false teachers and their false doctrines.
Furnish Timothy with written credentials of authority as a church leader acting in Paul’s behalf.
Instruct Timothy on how to handle church problems as they arose.
Exhort Timothy to be diligent in his pastoral duties.
Who was Timothy?
He had a Jewish-Christian mother, Eunice, the daughter of Lois (II Timothy 1:5) and a Greek father.
He lived in the city of Lystra, in south central Anatolia, now modern day Turkey (Acts 16:1).
He was converted and circumcised by Paul on Paul’s second missionary journey to Lystra (Acts 16:3).
After his conversion he accompanied Paul and Silas on the rest of Paul’s second missionary journey (Acts 16:4).
He was left in charge in Macedonia, along with Silas, after Paul left to continue the missionary journey (Acts 17:14).
He later rejoined Paul in Athens but was then sent back to take charge of the mission in Thessalonica (Acts 17:16 and 18:5).
During Paul’s third missionary journey Timothy was sent by Paul to resolve difficulties in the Corinthian church, but he met with little success. Therefore, Paul sent the more forceful, less timid in nature Titus to deal with the Corinthians (II Corinthians 8:13).
He accompanied Paul on his way to Jerusalem at the end of the third missionary journey (Acts 20:4).
He served as Paul’s close companion during his first imprisonment in Rome (Colossians 1:1).
From Rome, Paul dispatched Timothy to help lead the church in Philippi (Philippians 2:19).
Paul requested of Timothy to come to him during his second and final imprisonment, but it is unknown whether Timothy made it or not before Paul’s execution (II Timothy 4:9).
By the time Paul wrote the two Epistles to Timothy, he was the spiritual leader, or pastor, of the church in Ephesus and would, according to the historian Eusebius, become the first Bishop of Ephesus.
In 356 A.D., Emperor Constantius transferred Timothy’s mortal remains from Ephesus, where he is reported to have been martyred, to the Church of the Apostles in Constantinople (modern Istanbul), a basilica built by Emperor Constantine.
The Pastoral Epistles
I Timothy, II Timothy, and Titus are called the Pastoral Epistles because they deal with issues of church leadership, organization, and administration.
The key verse to I Timothy is 3:15,
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
The Historical Context: Questions To Consider

(1) Why had common order during worship become a problem in the early first century church?
(a) There was no complete New Testament written to provide behavioral expectations during worship services.
(b) There was no historical reference point, other than the Jewish traditions from which the early church was rapidly divorcing itself as it became increasingly gentile in orientation, to govern behavioral expectations during worship services.
(2) Why was it necessary to establish a standard creed (Latin credo : “I believe”) for the church?
(a) The novelty and limited distribution of New Testament canon, as well as provincial interpretive differences, made it difficult to identify universal core beliefs essential to the Christian faith so a creedal formula had to be developed.
(b) As the church became increasingly culturally diverse, due to rapid expansion, it also became increasingly difficult for the churches to identify with one another as a united Body of Christ.
(3) What is church discipline? Why did it become necessary to implement church discipline in the first century church? Is it still necessary?
(a) Positive church discipline : the instruction of biblical knowledge and the training in the application of that knowledge to daily living.
(b) Negative church discipline : the correction, reproof, rebuke, and punishment for failure to submit to authentic biblical truth.
(c) Because biblical truth most often contradicts the desires of the unrepentant human heart, it therefore requires a corresponding shift in the paradigm of daily living. The early church discovered that many were professing the Word but were not living holy, exemplary lives .
(d) Yes, church discipline is still necessary because human nature has not changed since the dawn of time, and therefore the need for both positive and negative church discipline remains.
(4) What historical processes were affecting the first century church so profoundly as to create these problems for it?
(a) Dramatic growth within the individual churches.
(b) Dramatic expansion into all areas of the Roman Empire.
(c) Acculturation of the faith into culturally diverse societies.
(d) Persecutions not only by the Roman government but by local demographic, political, and religious groups.
(5) What conditions in the first century contributed to the problem of false teachers and false, competitive, doctrines within the church?
(a) The absence of the codex of the New Testament caused subsequent dependence on oral tradition rather than biblical study.
(b) The ab