A call for the difficult job. (Chap.1)
Sir Ernest Shackleton the noted Arctic explore gave an ad like this: Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”
The Lord Jesus Christ is building His church on this earth. If Jesus Christ had given an ad for workers, it would have been given like this: “Men and women wanted for difficult task of helping to build My church. You will often be misunderstood, even by those working with you. You will face constant attack from an invisible enemy. You may not see the results of your labour, and your full reward will not come till after all your work is completed. It may cost you your home, your ambitions, even your life.”
A call for a difficult job, entrusting Timothy.
In spite of such difficult demands that He makes, the Lord Jesus Christ receives many applications. He is certainly the greatest Master for whom anyone could work, and the task of building His church is certainly the greatest challenge to every believer. (thoughts taken from BE commentary)
Timothy was one such young man who responded to God’s call to help build His church along with Apostle Paul.
Many missionaries came to 3rd world countries for evangelization in 18th and 19th and 20th centuries. Many times children had to be buried in water while travelling by sea. Many such missionaries never returned to their home countries and their tombs are still there. Such pictures can be seen extensively in India.
The identity of Paul and Timothy: (1:1-2):
Paul identifies himself and takes the credentials that he is an apostle of Christ by the commandment of God and Saviour. This indicates that his letters can be used as a reference or a doctrine to correct the erring churches and believers. At the back of his mind he knew that the church of Ephesus had become a storm centre of false teaching (Acts 20:29-30) where Timothy was asked to oversee it. He knew that Timothy has a tough job to do. In those days Nero was proclaiming himself as a saviour. So by using God the Saviour, Paul was identifying himself with the real Saviour of the world.
He calls Timothy my true son in the faith. Probably Paul led Timothy, his mother to Christ during his first missionary journey (Acts 14:8ff). Paul greets Timothy with all the 3-special blessings of God viz. grace, mercy and peace. This has been a common greeting of Paul to many churches.
Paul urges Timothy to remain in Ephesus (1:3-5):
Timothy was finding very tough in Ephesus. It appears that Timothy wanted to leave and give up the ministry in Ephesus. This was perhaps due to the congregation and leaders were looking down Timothy. Timothy was an young man when he took up the ministry with Paul. It was quite a challenge for Timothy.
Further Timothy was asked to command to stop certain men teaching false doctrines and stick to correct doctrines. Timothy has to stand firm against the false teachers and also charge them or command them to teach no other doctrine except what was taught by Paul. Further there should be no place for myths or genealogies which promote only controversies than glorifying God. The Ephesians church had practiced some strange myth that a person had to discover certain hidden knowledge and had to worship angels. They think that it would aid in their salvation, they even made some mythical stories based on O.T history and genealogies. They were delving into complex genealogies with wild speculations and spiritual mysteries. This had caused endless controversies, taking away their precious time from the study of the Word, threatened them from spending time with God and edifying their faith. This had even caused much problems in the Colossian church (Col. 2:8,18).
This is true with many Christians when they are encountered with Salvation experience, they would simply speak of their family background and the famous persons of their generation. We must understand that God has no grandsons but only sons. Every person has to experience the free gift of Salvation to become a Christian or child of God.