1 Timothy - Faithfulness

Lesson 1: Introduction
1 Timothy 1:1-2 - www.bible.com/bible/59/1ti.1

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

In this study we will look at the two books of Timothy, letters which were written by the apostle Paul to his friend whom he regarded as a son and whom he had taught to be a preacher. Some of the details we know about Timothy come from the book of Acts, chapters 16 through 20.


Paul had trained Timothy to be a preacher, and from this letter we know that Paul left Timothy in the city of Ephesus while Paul moved on to another country. Timothy apparently felt inadequate to replace Paul as the pastor of the church in Ephesus. After all, who wouldn’t feel this way if you were replacing such a highly-educated man as the pastor of one of the first churches he had begun in Asia?

In this study we will focus on the twin traits in our Christian lives of faithfulness and endurance. They are not traits which can either save us or keep us saved – they are important only because they affect our relationship with our Father.

Faithfulness means we intentionally choose God’s way of doing things or knowing things or following him. Endurance means we keep on being faithful even when we don’t believe we have enough information or ability or time (or whatever) to be able to complete the task which has been given us. So we look at faithfulness as the choice, and endurance as the passion or maybe sometimes even just determination. Our Christian life is rarely about experience or happiness or feeling good about what we are or what we’re doing, because God asks us to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). This study is about how we keep going when we can neither feel nor see God in our life or in our work.

 I pray God’s blessing for you as you learn how to be faithful and how to endure in Him when your life is not going as you wished or had planned.