To Timothy – 1 Timothy 1:1-2

It is often said that every believer ought to have a Paul, a father and discipler in the faith, a Barnabas, a brother in the faith who holds you accountable, and a Timothy, one you are disciplining.  Paul’s disciple, Timothy, became one of Paul’s most trusted fellow workers.  He wasn’t perfect, as we will see, but he was teachable.  What kind of disciple are you?

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith:  Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.  (1 Timothy 1:1-2 ESV)

This is a letter from Paul to Timothy.  Timothy was recruited by Paul to serve with him on his second missionary journey.  Paul had been sent by the church in Antioch, a church north of Jerusalem that was an early adopter of ministry to Gentiles.  Barnabas, a hero of the Jerusalem church, the first church ever, had mentored Paul after his amazing conversion from persecutor of the church to follower of Jesus and proponent of Jesus as Messiah.

When the work in Antioch was growing under Barnabas’ leadership he called Paul to come and help him and together they had very fruitful ministry with Jews and Gentiles.  Paul and Barnabas were then later sent by the Spirit via the ministry of the Antioch church to several cities west of them and north to preach the gospel, and many became followers of the Way.  But before their second journey out they had a parting of the ways over John Mark, who had deserted them on the first journey but whom Barnabas wanted to take on the second.

On Paul’s second journey he traveled even further west toward what we now know as Europe, and along the way found Timothy to have excelled in spiritual development such that Paul wanted him to become his team member along with several others already traveling with Paul.  Paul began to use Timothy to go back to churches they had established to finish up important work when he couldn’t.  This was due in some cases to the persecution Paul and that new church would have experienced if Paul were the one ministering.  Timothy was his trusted right hand man.

So it seems a little odd that Paul introduces himself in this letter as “an apostle of Christ Jesus” when Timothy is well aware of that (compare his personal letter to Philemon).  This suggests that though this letter is for Timothy about his leading the church he is now working with (probably the church at Ephesus, a large sending church in what is today Turkey), it is also intended for reading in all the congregations of that city.

Paul is an apostle, one commissioned by Jesus to be his most trusted representative and keeper of the authoritative expression of the faith, because God and Jesus commanded it of him.  Though Jesus is usually designated as the Savior, here the Father is because He is the one who sent Jesus.  And Jesus is here uniquely described as “our hope.”  Jesus is our expectation of life eternally, the one who is coming back to receive us to himself forever.

Timothy is like Paul’s son, his true child in the faith, one who faithfully keeps the truth secure in his life and teaching.  Paul wishes him from God and Jesus grace, mercy and peace.  A leader needs all three.  He needs grace, just like all believers do.  This is God’s undeserved favor based in Christ’s sacrifice for us.  A leader needs mercy, God’s undeserved clemency, as he or she often fails in leadership, makes mistakes, and finds him or herself the lightning rod for followers’ displeasure.  And a leader needs God’s peace, as do all.  It is God’s shalom (Hebrew word for peace) that keeps us going, keeps us well and strong in the midst of labor and the hardness of life.