Paul won his case before Caesar in AD 60, and was released. We have no record of where he traveled, but in these letters to Timothy and Titus, we find references to persons and events which cannot be reconciled with the narrative in Acts. This is the primary reason we believe he was not executed until after a second trial around AD 66. The second letter to Timothy is quite obviously written from this second trial, and Paul knew his time was gone.
The problems he addresses in his earlier letters are now past, and there are new threats to the churches and the gospel. Because of this, and because he is addressing the pastors, not the churches as a whole, we find Paul writing in a different style. This may also be a matter of having a different scribe, or even the assistance of Luke as editor. At any rate, these men were both at times his right hand on mission, and Paul had no closer friends, though perhaps a few as close.
Timothy had become the acting apostle at Ephesus. Paul met him at Lystra during the First Mission, and appears to have taken him on staff in his Second Mission. Of a Greek father and Jewish mother, Paul had this young man circumcised because he was already well known among the synagogues of that area. This permitted Timothy a front row seat to Paul's hardest work, teaching and debating in the synagogues. Against Paul's lack of talent, Timothy saw first hand the relentless spiritual power of Paul's truth. We sense Timothy had some of the talent Paul lacked, but suffered his own limitations. While the younger man suffered some from a weaker constitution and was often the youngest among the men present in almost every situation, he must have absorbed that spiritual confidence which made him such a valuable asset to Paul's ministry.
In this first letter, Paul is encouraging Timothy. There are admonitions interspersed with brief and powerful words of worship. Paul offers a brief reminder of things Timothy surely knew about the organization, offices and basic management of churches. However, he mentions them as a means to addressing peculiar issues. It was almost surely meant as a reference document Timothy could produce to stop arguments, because the whole letter addresses rather serious problems.
In his second letter to Timothy, Paul has been arrested again, this time entirely by the secular authorities. A direct persecution of Christians began on the back of Nero's plans to renovate Rome. He had an awful fire started in 64 AD and decided to blame it on the Christians. Paul was easily recognized as the Western leader of Christ followers, and was probably picked up at Troas. This time the charges were not a minor squabble within a religious minority, but an actual crime against the empire. Paul knew this was the end. This was surely his last known writing.
Titus was a long standing companion of Paul's, and one he protected from the pressure to be circumcised. We see Titus handling any number of things for Paul, including the troubles in Corinth. Paul's contact with Crete had been too short in Acts to make much difference. It is one of the strangest places, as we shall learn. We know a few Cretan Jews heard the first gospel message, but as usual, it was the Jewish converts who gave Paul the most heartache, and it was no different in Crete. Obviously Paul stopped on the island after his first confinement in Rome, and left Titus there. This letter was almost certainly written near the same time as 1 Timothy. At some point Paul traveled to Nicopolis, on the northwestern corner of Macedonia. He calls for Titus to join him there, from whence it appears Paul sent him farther north up the Dalmatian Coast. Because this letter arrives in the fall, he had Titus bring his heavy winter cloak, which he then later left in Troas, asking Timothy to bring it to him in prison in Rome.
This introduction would be incomplete if we didn't take a moment to note in these letters we see the birth of Gnosticism. Tied tightly into the Talmudic tradition was the False Messianic Expectations, which asserted the Messiah must of necessity return to raise up national Israel. Not merely to her former status when David was the king and ruled all that part of the world, but the Messiah was to make Israel rule all the world. That is the essential error of Talmudic Judaism, though seldom admitted to outsiders. Since Jesus failed this expectation, as they had it, He could not be the Messiah, could not be the Son of God. Thus, He was just a man, and His ministry was not saving. In the process of trying to seduce a particular church, the Judaizers would not at first blaspheme Christ, but would allow He was a good rabbi. But in the end, they inevitably led to reasserting the Talmudic false traditions and either perverted the message of Christ or asserted He was not divine. From this grew the essential Gnostic twin heresy: Either Jesus was divine and not human, or He was human and not divine. This was the fatal flaw which was adopted from Hellenistic philosophy, that the two realms could not intersect, that God could/would not do that in a single human. Thus, the Judaizers paved the way for the Gnostics to corrupt the Early Church.
Chapter 1 -- Paul commences directly with the need to protect the churches from false doctrine, citing in particular the pernicious influence of the Judaizers.
Chapter 2 -- A reassertion of lifestyle duties which particularly manifest themselves in worship.
Chapter 3 -- Timothy is given a brief reminder of what it takes to hold positions in the church, and why it mattered.
Chapter 4 -- Paul contrasts human achievement in education with the living power of ancient truth.
Chapter 5 -- The New Testament church was first and foremost a family, and should emulate the Old Testament extended household.
Chapter 6 -- Paul reminds Timothy of the ways in which men enslave themselves to this world.
Chapter 1 -- From his prison cell, Paul reminds Timothy he should never be surprised at suffering for Christ in this world.
Chapter 2 -- Paul contrasts the harness of grace with that of the Pharisaical Judaizers who served Satan.
Chapter 3 -- Timothy is reminded the only real theology was biblical theology; all else was mere human imagination.
Chapter 4 -- With a soaring vision of serving the gospel message and a few personal notes, Paul ends this letter begging Timothy to hurry and join him before the ax falls.
Chapter 1 -- Paul reminds Timothy what his mission was in Crete, and why it was so critical to appoint worthy elders.
Chapter 2 -- Titus was to foment a revolution in conduct, shattering the common image of Cretans.
Chapter 3 -- Paul winds down the letter by reminding Titus of the need for the Cretans to learn proper response to earthly authority, and how to avoid senseless chatter in favor of simple good works arising from grace.
By Ed Hurst
09 April 2011
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