A Brief Overview

#1 In today's Prime Time Devo I am going to start a new series as I look at Paul's letters to Timothy. It is generally agreed that these letters were written shortly before Paul's martyrdom in 66 A.D. They are sort of a last will and testament handed down to Timothy, who was a “spiritual son” of Paul if you will. Last words are important, they are usually, those things that the soon to be departed person desires to stress and pass on as vital information to the next generation. Every good father desires to pass along his accumulated wisdom to his children, and this is just one of the filters we will apply as we go through these letters verse by verse. This is stuff that the Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul wants His church to know! It is advice designed to keep the church operating as God intended and so in 1 Timothy, we will find warnings about false teaching. We will find exhortations and instructions for prayer! We will find qualifications for church leaders! And instructions for taking care of widows, which may be more important than we think in light of the passage in James that says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27) But 2 Timothy is even more treasured by the church because it is Paul's farewell letter. There is a special emotional fervency to this letter as it was written when the end was near for Paul. In this letter, Timothy (and all believers) are encouraged to be good soldiers in the Kingdom of God . We are encouraged to “rightly handle the Word of God.” We are reminded, in one of my favorite and foundational passages in all of the Bible that, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16,17) The letter also contains warnings about the itchy ears of the Last Days and therefore Timothy is charged to remain faithful to the word preaching it “in season and out of season.” Father, help me as we dive into these Holy Spirit inspired letters of Paul. Help me to rightly divide it, and may it be a source of encouragement for all who read and hear these words.