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# Introduction to 1 Timothy
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## Overview
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Paul wrote Timothy to help him correct the church at Ephesus. Many false teachers were
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in this church. They caused a lot of problems. Paul knew this would happen. He also told
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others it would happen when he met with the leaders in the Ephesian church. Paul wrote
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to Timothy to encourage him to correct the false teachers. He also wrote him to give
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Timothy an example of how to do the things that honor God. The main purpose of 1
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Timothy was to help Timothy to teach and care for the churches.
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See Map: Ephesus
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### Who wrote 1 Timothy?
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Paul wrote that he was the author of 1 Timothy. He wrote about how he used to
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persecute the church. Also, he wrote about how the story of how he started to believe in
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Jesus was an example of God’s grace toward people (1:12-16). He called himself an
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“apostle” (see: 1:1, 2:7), a “herald,” and a teacher of the gentiles (see: 2:7).
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See: [Persecute (Persecution)](../articles/persecute.md); [Grace](../articles/grace.md); [Apostle](../articles/apostle.md); [Gentile](../articles/gentile.md); [Herald](../articles/herald.md)
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### When did Paul write 1 Timothy?
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1. Some scholars think Paul wrote First Timothy during his third missionary journey. He left Ephesus and went to Macedonia (see: Acts 20:1). Timothy joined him later (see: 20:4).
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1. Some scholars think that Paul was released from his Roman imprisonment (see: Acts 28:30-31) and then wrote this letter before a second imprisonment in Rome.
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See: [Paul's Missionary Journeys](../articles/paulsjourneys.md)
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See Map: Macedonia; Rome
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### To whom did Paul write First Timothy?
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Paul mainly wrote this letter to Timothy. However, he also wrote this letter to the church
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of which Timothy lead. He did this so they would know that Paul wanted Timothy to lead
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this church. Paul had Timothy join him while on Paul’s second missionary journey (see:
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Acts 16:1-3). Later, when Paul going into Macedonia, he asked Timothy to stay in
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Ephesus to help the church there with problems it was having (see: 1:3).
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See: [Church](../articles/church.md); [Paul's Missionary Journeys](../articles/paulsjourneys.md)
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See Map: Macedonia
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### Why did Paul write First Timothy?
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Paul wrote the letter to give Timothy instructions about helping the church at Ephesus.
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They needed this help because false teachers had taught the wrong things and caused
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many Christians to sin. People thought the church in Ephesus did evil things. Paul
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wanted Timothy to make people to think good things about this church because it did
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good things. He wanted Timothy to do this by teaching Christians the right things about
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God. In particular, he wanted families to live in an orderly and godly way (see: 3:4-5,
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3:12, 5:4-8, 13-14; 6:1-2).
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See: [Church](../articles/church.md); [Sin](../articles/sin.md)
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### What did the false teachers teach other people?
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The false teachers taught a different type of Judaism. Teachers in that day used much
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time arguing about tiny details of the Old Testament (see: 1:3-8; 6:4-5; 6:20). Some of
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the teachers believed that Gentiles could not be saved (see: 2:4-7). They thought that
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some things in the world were unclean, such as certain foods and marriage (4:3-5).
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Some teachers taught that there would not be a future resurrection of Christians (see: 2
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Timothy 2:18). They also did sinful things and love to have a lot of money (see: 4:2; 6:5-
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9). Paul taught that Satan tries to get people to believe the wrong thing and to do things
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that do not honor God (see: 4:1; 5:15).
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See: [Satan (The Devil)](../articles/satan.md); [Gentile](../articles/gentile.md); [Save (Salvation, Saved from Sins)](../articles/save.md); [Clean and Unclean](../articles/cleanunclean.md); [Marriage](../articles/marriage.md); [Resurrect (Resurrection)](../articles/resurrect.md)
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## Outline of 1 Timothy
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1. Paul greeted Timothy (1:1-2)
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1. Timothy needed to stop false teaching in Ephesus (1:3-20)
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1. The Christians in Ephesus must all do the things that Christians should do (2:1-15)
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1. Timothy must appoint good leaders for the church (3:1-13)
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1. Timothy must be a good leader (3:14-4:16)
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1. The Christians in Ephesus must all do the things that Christians should do, continued (5:1-6:2)
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1. Timothy must warn against false teaching and against greed (6:3-19)
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1. Conclusion (6:20-21)
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