1 Timothy
Paul had a disciple that he sent to Ephesus to be the pastor of the church there. But Timothy was young and needed some advice. This letter is so helpful to us today because we learn a lot of things about how a church should run. For instance, we learn about what is good worship and what is bad, what are good leaders and who should not be allowed to lead, how to treat widows, and the danger of money.
2 Timothy
This is almost certainly Paul’s last letter. He probably wrote it very shortly (a few days, a few weeks?) before he was executed by the Roman government. He wrote this letter from prison to encourage Timothy to be strong and persevere even though Paul would not be with him to help him. When I was younger, this was one of my favorite books. (It could still be, but I just have not spent much time reading or studying it lately.)
Titus
Paul had another young disciple that he left on the island of Crete in order to provide leadership to the churches. You ‘ll notice that he gives him some of the same advice that he gives to Timothy. My favorite passage in this book is 3:3-8.
Hey, Todd. Please tell me I’m just reminding you of something you already know, but calling Timothy “the pastor” of Ephesus is completely anachronisitc. At the very least, the NT doesn’t know any pastors, elders, overseers or other authorities who go it alone, so the “the” is my first objection. For another thing, Timothy didn’t stay in Ephesus indefinitely (see 2 Tim & Hebrews), so he was still much more of an apostle than [what we today would call] “a pastor”.
Grace & Peace
Bill – Thank you. An important aspect of this series is that I wrote it for my 10-year-old son who was reading through the Bible in 35 days. So I was trying to keep it simple. While I agree that Timothy was only in Ephesus temporarily and thus was not a pastor per se, he functioned as one in some important ways (and thus the book can be transferred to our situations so readily today). Yet as you imply, Timothy “stood above” the elders as Paul’s apostolic representative and if that is transferred to pastors today, that would be a mistake.