Week 49 1 Timothy
Bible writers sometimes tell us exactly why they’re writing, and that’s what Paul does right in the middle of this letter. He tells Timothy he wrote: so that you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and support of the truth.
So 1 Timothy was Paul’s Guide-to-Conduct-in-the-Church. I scanned backward and forward looking for what-all Paul included.
A few of the big-ticket items were:
prayer in the church
women in the church
leaders in the church
needy people in the church
conflict in the church
slaves in the church
money & wealth in the church, and
teaching in the church.
Some pretty interesting topics that make me regret that I’m hurrying to read through.
The church has all kinds: men and women, old & young, rich & poor, powerful & powerless. A mixed company, all of us more or less committed to the Lord, all of us part of the church of the living God, and all of us with our centrifugal pulls of gender, wealth, opinion, influence and age whirling away and pulling us apart.
It seems like a pretty shaky group. But Paul isn’t fooled, and calls it the pillar and support of the truth.
Note: quote from 1 Timothy 3:15 (NLT). I forgot my end of the month tally yesterday so checked today: I’ve read 1662 of 1730 pages. 96% finished in 92% of the year.