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# Introduction to 1 Timothy
## Overview
Paul wrote Timothy to help him correct the church at Ephesus. Many false teachers were
in this church. They caused a lot of problems. Paul knew this would happen. He also told
others it would happen when he met with the leaders in the Ephesian church. Paul wrote
to Timothy to encourage him to correct the false teachers. He also wrote him to give
Timothy an example of how to do the things that honor God. The main purpose of 1
Timothy was to help Timothy to teach and care for the churches.
See Map: Ephesus
### Who wrote 1 Timothy?
Paul wrote that he was the author of 1 Timothy. He wrote about how he used to
persecute the church. Also, he wrote about how the story of how he started to believe in
Jesus was an example of God’
“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?
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).
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
### To whom did Paul write First Timothy?
Paul mainly wrote this letter to
of which Timothy lead. He did this so they would know that Paul wanted Timothy to lead
this church. Paul had Timothy join him while on Paul’
Acts 16:1-3). Later, when Paul going into Macedonia, he asked Timothy to stay in
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
### Why did Paul write First Timothy?
Paul wrote the letter to give Timothy instructions about helping the church at Ephesus.
They needed this help because false teachers had taught the wrong things and caused
many Christians to sin. People thought the church in Ephesus did evil things. Paul
wanted Timothy to make people to think good things about this church because it did
good things. He wanted Timothy to do this by teaching Christians the right things about
God. In particular, he wanted families to live in an orderly and godly way (see: 3:4-5,
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?
The false teachers taught a different type of Judaism. Teachers in that day used much
time arguing about tiny details of the Old Testament (see: 1:3-8; 6:4-5; 6:20). Some of
the teachers believed that Gentiles could not be saved (see: 2:4-7). They thought that
some things in the world were unclean, such as certain foods and marriage (4:3-5).
Some teachers taught that there would not be a future resurrection of Christians (see: 2
Timothy 2:18). They also did sinful things and love to have a lot of money (see: 4:2; 6:5-
9). Paul taught that Satan tries to get people to believe the wrong thing and to do things
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
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continued (5:1-6:2)
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See in Reader
