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LEVEL 6Moral Implicationsp) Pastoral care1 TIMOTHYThe next 3 Books (p), like the last 3 (r), are represented on the diagram as incomplete cubes, to suggest the fact that they are addressed to individuals. Those under p, called the Pastoral Epistles, concern the care of churches. When Paul left Lystra and Iconium, on his second missionary trip, he took the young man Timothy with him. Timothy's father was Greek but his Jewish mother and grandmother (2Tim 1;5) had instructed him as a child in the Scriptures (2Tim 3:15). Learning of his good reputation, Paul chose him as a helper (Acts 16:1-3) and circumcised him, to avoid Jewish criticism. He was timid (1Cor. 16:10,11; 1Tim 4:12) and somewhat sickly (1Tim 5:23). Paul's letter to the Philippians highly commends him: "I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own interests, not the things that are Jesus Christ's. But you know the proof of him, that. as a son with his father, he has served with me in the gospel". Paul wrote to him to choose overseers of local churches and to perpetuate his own ministry (2Tim 2:2). To understand some verses in both letters of Timothy, it is necessary to keep in mind the prevalence in Apostolic times of the Greek philosophical belief that the body and bodily functions are evil. Paul had to assure women that they will be saved in faith and charity even if they bear children (1Tim 2:15). Those who forbid marriage and foods which God has created for our good are convicted of spreading "doctrines of devils' (1Tim 4:1-5). Others said there would be no resurrection of the body (2Tim 2:16-18). TITUSTitus was older than Timothy and is not mentioned in the Acts. At an early period he had accompanied Paul and Barnabas to the Jerusalem council, providing a Gentile presence at that decision-making juncture of the mission to the Gentiles (Gal 2:1,3-5). Paul called him his "son in the faith" (Titus 1:4) and was vitally concerned when he sent him to correct the Corinthian church, and awaited his return, so much so that He found no rest in his spirit, and could not continue his work (2Cor 2;13). On finding him, Paul was greatly comforted by the work of reconciliation God had accomplished by him (1Cor 7:5-16) and later reminded the Corinthians of his honesty and unselfishness (2Cor 12:17). At a later date Paul left him in Crete, to put things right in the church (Titus 1:5), appoint church leaders in every city, refute false teachers and teach submission to civil authorities. 2 TIMOTHYSecond Timothy, which concludes Paul's Epistles, is notable for its exposure of false teachers in chapter 3 and its indication of the whole of the Scriptures as the remedy against them. Chapter 2 compares the Christian worker to a good soldier, a wrestler, and a vine-keeper who has the right to partake of the fruit of the vine. The final touching testimony of Paul is found in chapter 4. It seems that many Christians in Asia Minor had lost confidence in him because of slander. He says, "All those who are in Asia have turned away from me" (2Tim 1:15). He bore witness alone in his first trial at Rome, but the Lord enabled him to fully present the gospel there (2Tim 4:16-18). q) Appeals to Jewish believersJAMESJames, the half-brother Jesus (Gal. 1:19), did not believe in him during his ministry (Jn 7:5) but met the resurrected Christ (1Cor. 15:7) and joined the disciples after the Resurrection (Acts 1:14). He writes to believing Jews in the Diaspora, speaking of Jesus as the glorified Lord (1:1; 2:2:1), present healer and coming judge (5:7-9,14,15). James has been thought to contradict Paul. He says "By works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (Jas 2:24) while Paul concludes that "a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (Rom 3:28). Both refer back to Abraham who "believed in the Lord and it was counted to him for righteousness" (Gen 15:6). However, the "faith" that James held to be insufficient was a mere belief in one God (Jas 2:19). Paul was speaking of the trust that Abraham had in God to do the impossible, to give Sarah a child in very old age. James, like Paul, taught that God gives gratuitously to anyone who asks without condemning him for his past sins, on condition he does not at all doubt that he will receive (Jas 1:5-8). Nor did James disagree with regard to God's new calling of Gentiles to be his people (Acts 15:14-17). JUDEThe destination of this letter seems to be the church at Jerusalem, for it mentions James, and Jerusalem was the place where James had exercised most of his ministry and would have been pre-eminent above all other "James". Moreover, the recipients of the letter were reminded that "the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, used to say to you...” (Jude 17,18). The only church which had known the ministry of all the Apostles for a long period was the church at Jerusalem. Thirdly, to the Jerusalem church, hearers of the Apostles' testimony, would have especially fallen the duty of contending for the faith "once for all delivered to the saints" (v.3). Jude adds: "though you know all things once for all" (Jude 5, NAS). They once knew all things about the faith, because of the early presence of all the Apostles with them. James had now died, and Jude wrote with the same authority as his brother, to warn of new perils. HEBREWSThere is some evidence in the early Western church that Barnabas wrote this Epistle. Barnabas' authorship fits the Book's contents. He was named "son of exhortation" by the Apostles (Acts 4:36), and Hebrews is full of exhortations. He was a Levite, and the Book speaks much of the Levites. He was generous and hospitable and the Book exhorts to generosity (Acts 4:36; Heb 13:16) and hospitality (Heb 13:2; Acts 9:27). He was full of faith (Acts 11:24) and chapter 11 describes men of faith. Acts 14:4 classes him as an apostle. The date of writing was evidently late in the Apostolic age, since those addressed had long been converted (5:12; 10:32). Their evangelizers were now dead, having died a memorable death (13:7 NAS). On the other hand, the temple, destroyed in 70 A.D., still operated (8:4,13). The recipients of the letter had not yet "resisted unto blood" (12:4), so we may not locate them in Rome after Nero's time. Thus "those of Italy" were those with the author, in Rome (13:24). Timothy was going to Rome when Paul last wrote him (2Tim 4:16,17, 21) and Timothy also appears in Hebrews 13:23. Hebrews speaks of the "better things" of Christ: his name is better than that of angels (1:4), he brings a better hope (7:19), a better covenant than Moses (7:22), better promises (8:4), a better sacrifice for sins (9:23), and a better, heavenly, land (10:34). r) Applications of the faith to lifePHILEMONThis Book exhibits a touching view of Paul's close relationships with his fellow believers. Paul was writing to his friend and convert Philemon, by the same messengers who were delivering the letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians. Philemon had possessed a slave named Onesimus, whom circumstances had brought to Paul in prison, probably in Caesarea, and whom he had been able to lead to faith in Christ. Paul then wrote to his friend Philemon that he was sending his slave back to serve him, since he had now become profitable. He entreated him to treat him as better than a slave, "as a brother beloved". Paul even told Philemon that, if Onesimus had wronged him or owed him anything, to "put that on my account". That is essentially what Christ said to the Father on our behalf. 2 JOHNWe now come to the last two little Epistles which complete the "roof" of our diagram of the whole Bible. They do not add much to our knowledge of the truth, but they illustrate its application. From that time on, in the following centuries, the Word of God was complete and teaching and obeying it was what was important. It is not certain if "the elect lady", to whom John addresses the letter, was a church, as some think, or a person. It would be nice to think that at least one Epistle was addressed to a lady. As in 1Jn 4:1-5, in this letter the Apostle was obliged to write against false teachers who taught that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh. The heretics of whom John speaks denied the body and humanity of Jesus. Although that was a false teaching, it is interesting to note that at that early date Jesus seemed to them more as God than as man. Greeks did not know of God's good work in creation, so thought of the body as unspiritual and evil. These men "went further" than what was written, distorting the Gospel. 3 JOHNIn his third letter John highly complimented his friend Gaius, who had caused him great joy by showing hospitality to wandering evangelists. These were apparently of Gentile origin, since they had been offered help by Gentiles, but had declined. Thus it seems that John's ministry was normally to Jews, as was once agreed upon (Gal 2:9), but that his heart, home and church were completely receptive to converted Gentiles and to their ministry. The would-be leader, Diotrephes, would not receive the non-Jewish brothers, and excluded those who did, even John! Even so soon, in the history of the church, divisions and heresies had begun (cf. 1Cor 11:18,19). > Click on Next to move on to the section on Daniel's Great Prophecy or on Back to go to the Overview Section 5. |
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