Discovering The Young Church – Chapter 6: Timothy and Titus
Chapter 6. Timothy and Titus
From the beginning of history the central area of Turkey has seen villages and towns come and go. The remains of some ancient cities and towns are still visible, but some places, which were once quite large towns, have left no remains. The cities of Lystra, Derbe and Iconium were once quite large Roman outposts in the southern central region of Turkey. The mileposts along the highways have survived, but little of the towns themselves. They held defensive positions close to the mountain and, judging from the large number of Latin inscriptions found by archeologists in this area, must have held very large numbers of Roman soldiers.
Today, nothing remains. Likewise, the whole area of the churches to which Paul’s Letter to the Galatians was sent is unknown to us, with scholars arguing for both northern or southern regions as the likely areas.
During the seventeen silent years after he had become a Christian and before he left on his fist missionary journey, Paul visited this central area of Turkey regularly from his hometown of Tarsus. When Paul and Barnabas left on their first missionary journey, it was only natural that they should come back to this area which Paul had visited some years before.
It was in the area of Derbe that Timothy first met Paul and became a Christian. Nearby Paul also met Titus and these two young men, both in their early twenties, continued on the missionary journey with Paul and became two of the first pastors of the early church.
Paul used these fit and enthusiastic young men in various ways: as evangelists, going into the surrounding areas to preach the gospel whenever he came into a major town; as pastors, to help the newly founded churches grow until elders and other leaders were appointed; as messengers, to carry the letters that Paul wrote to the churches that we now have in our New Testament; and as trouble-shooters, to help solve some of the problems in new congregation.
Paul trained a number of young men as pastors and evangelists to help the believers grow in the churches he established throughout the Roman world. There were Silas and John Mark, Demas and Crescens, Sopater of Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus form Thessalonica, Gaius, Titus and Timothy who came from the area of Derbe and Lystra, and Tychicus and Trophimus who came from Colossae.
Several of these young men travelled with Paul and he would leave one or more behind to pastor new churches recently established. Timothy was to go to Thessalonica, to Corinth, to Philippi and to Ephesus, while Titus was to be sent to Corinth, to Crete, to Nicopolis and to Dalmatia, later called Yugoslavia – although tradition in Albania also claims Titus as their first bishop.
Titus
We know little about the family life of Titus. He first appears when he travels with Barnabas and Paul to Jerusalem. Titus was a Gentile and not circumcised, and some of the Jewish Christians were scandalized by this. They insisted that Titus be circumcised, but Paul refused, explaining to Titus that, ‘in order to keep the truth of the gospel safe for you, we did not give in to them for a minute.’ 1
Titus was the first Gentile pastor of the Christian church. He was an associate with Paul in the long ministry in Ephesus and took the first letter to the church in Corinth. He probably also took the missing second letter to Corinth as well, referred to as ‘the severe letter’.
Part of his ministry was to correct particular church situations and to work in the difficult city of Corinth. The church was wracked by internal divisions and unworthy behaviour, while others had disputed Paul’s leadership and authority. Titus was sent to correct this situation and travelled to Troas to meet up with Paul, who continued to move throughout Turkey.
When Paul arrived in Troas, Titus was not there to meet him which increased his anxiety about the younger man. But then, when Paul had crossed over to Macedonia, he met with Titus who was on his way to meet him. Titus reported the situation to Paul, relieving Paul’s concern.
Paul immediately sent Titus back to Corinth to build the believers up in their faith and to make arrangements for the special offering that was required for the poor in Jerusalem. Paul complimented Titus by telling the Corinthians that they could judge Paul himself by the character of Titus. 2 Titus seems to have been a faithful and reliable servant.
Timothy
Timothy came from a mixed marriage. His mother, Eunice, was a Jew and his father was a Greek. That mixed marriage gave Timothy an insight into both cultures.
His Greek cultural background was to help Timothy when he went and ministered in the Greek cities of Corinth, Nicopolis, Thessalonica and Philippi. His mother’s strong faith, firstly as a Jew and then as a Christian, was something for which Paul was thankful. He said, ‘I remember the sincere faith you have, the kind of faith that your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice also had. I am sure that you have it also.’ 3
Paul had visited this area during his seventeen silent years of ministry in Tarsus and it was during one of these visits that Timothy, his mother, and grandmother had become Christians.
Paul opens four of his letter by associating the greetings from Timothy as well as from himself. In four of the letters he is specifically mentioned as a follow worker of Paul’s, and in five places in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke describes the labours of Timothy. Two of the pastoral letters are addressed to him.
Throughout his life, the picture of Timothy is one of a hard-working and faithful pastor who travelled widely to a number of the churches, counseling and guiding their spiritual growth, and becoming the leader of the second generation of Christian leaders. He was an example for other younger missionaries and pastors and, in such a capacity, the pastoral letters from Paul to him and Titus may have been typical rather than personal.
The pastoral epistles
The traditional view of the authorship of the pastoral letters is that, in about AD 64, just before his own death, Paul, with the help of his writer Luke, wrote two letters to Timothy and one to Titus.
These letters are full of advice to the young ministers on how to handle believers and situations that arise in church life. Their main aim is to confirm the believers in their faith, to establish a system of local church leadership and to build up ’the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. 4 Paul has described them as fellow workers, labourers, ministers, servants, ambassadors of the gospel and so on. Paul says, ‘He (Timothy) is the only one who shares my feelings and really cares about you…he has proved his worth and he and I, like a son and his father, have worked together for the sake of the gospel.’ 5
There are a number of difficulties with this viewpoint, for one thing, neither Timothy nor Titus were at this time as inexperienced and incompetent as the advice given to them makes them appear. They both were experienced and able missionaries and ministers. Some scholars believe that in these three letters we have large portions of letters written by Paul but gathered together and written in a more general form by Luke after Paul’s death in such a way as to encourage any young minister. A number of recent scholars have taken this position.
The concepts of church government and the role of bishops or elders seems to date from a later period in the church’s life, as do the warnings against heresy and the urgency for preventive measures in the church’s life.
The writer perhaps believed Paul’s advice and teaching was standard and authoritative and would be helpful to the younger men who were the successors of Timothy and Titus – in other words, the first professional clergy in the church. The issues fit the post-apostolic era and are similar in detail to other contemporary writings like The Didache and the Letters of Ignatius.
The author believes that the pastoral epistles include letters written by Paul and edited for later and wider distribution. For the sake of brevity, we will include these pastoral epistles with the other letters of Paul and refer to him as their author.
Missionary travels
Timothy and Titus travelled a great deal around the Mediterranean area helping the young churches cope with problems and grow in their faith.
Timothy came to Corinth at least twice. Paul had sent him because the church was facing a number of problems among the members. The Corinthian church was surrounded by the immorality of the cult of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and many of the members of the church had previously been followers of the Greek god. Over 500,000 people populated this important trading and commercial centre.
On the top of Acro-Corinth, a 1,875-foot-high-mountain overlooking the city, was built a fort and temple to Aphrodite, popularly known as the goddess of love. The temple was serviced by one thousand prostitutes.
The whole area became a centre for visiting sailors whose ships were being dragged over the droklos, or ship-slipway of rolling logs that covered the four-mile Corinthian isthmus. Ships were dragged overland to avoid the long voyage round the Peloponnesus.
Timothy had experience in working with Greeks and the lessons he had learnt from his Greek father certainly helped him. Some significant people in Corinth became members of the church, including Priscilla and Aquila and the city treasurer, Erastus.
Archeologists have discovered near the theatre a marble plaque set up when the new road had been completed with the following inscription: Erastus pro aedilitate S P Stravit (’Erastus, in return for his aedileship, laid this pavement at his own expense’). The aedileship was a government post such as ’minister of public roads’. Is this the same Erastus, treasurer of the city, of whom Paul writes: ‘My host Gaius, in whose house the church meets, sends you his greetings; Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings?’ 6
Timothy was also with Paul when the church was first founded in Philippi far to the north and Paul sent him back there on a later occasion. In that letter, Paul said:
I hope that I will be able to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be encouraged by news about you. He is the only one who shares my feelings and who really cares about you. Everyone else is concerned only with his own affairs, not with the cause of Jesus Christ. And you yourselves know how he has proved his worth, how he and I, like a son and his father, have worked together for the sake of the gospel. So I hope to send him to you as soon as I know how things are going to turn out for me. And I trust in the Lord that I myself will be able to come to you soon. 7
After Paul had established the church in Berea, he left Timothy behind to consolidate the work there. Timothy later caught up with Paul in Athens, gave him news of the churches far in the north, and was sent back by Paul to help the church at Thessalonica. From there he returned to share with Paul in Corinth. They laboured together for more than eighteen months. Archeologists discovered an inscription to the proconsul Gallio, mentioned by Paul, which dates their time here in Corinth to the years AD 51 and 52.
Then the time came for Timothy to be sent back to Thessalonica to help the church solve their misunderstanding of the second coming of Jesus. Paul sent his first letter to the Thessalonians with Timothy.
Some time later Timothy was back in Corinth helping minister to the church when Titus arrived from Ephesus, bearing a letter to the church at Corinth. Titus later took news back to Paul at Ephesus telling him of the ministry of Timothy, and Paul sent a further two letters back with Titus to Corinth. A few years later Timothy was still ministering in this area, for when Paul revisited Corinth and wrote from there the letter to the Romans, he mentions the ministry that Timothy is conducting.
Paul wrote the two letters to Timothy while Timothy was ministering in the city of Ephesus in Turkey. Paul had spent three years establishing the church there and had a particular interest in the people. The lack of significant personal greetings in the pastoral letters to people in the local church is another reason for believing these pastoral letters only contain portions of Paul’s original letters and were collated by a later hand for general use among younger ministers.
Ephesus was regarded as the principal city in Asia Minor, having some 300,000 inhabitants in the first century. It was the centre of the worship of Artemis or Diana, and the great temple here was the largest building in the world – three times larger than the Athenian Parthenon. There were also three huge temples to Caesar and a 25,500-seat theatre. Ephesus was also the international banking capital of the Roman world.
Priscilla and Aquila were here as leaders in the church when Paul asked Timothy to minister in what was to be one of the most important congregations in the first century.
Titus also served with him when Paul left to go back to Jerusalem. Paul was to be taken on to Rome and to be imprisoned there in about AD 63. It would have been at his time that Paul wrote the two letters to Timothy and one to Titus. The content of these three letters is very similar even though their structure is not close-knit. Paul made three main points: there should be right doctrine, good leadership and the scriptures should be taught.
Right doctrine
Paul told the young pastors to make sure they taught the right doctrine. They needed to turn people from false beliefs and to keep them in the truth:
I want you to stay in Ephesus, just as I urged you when I was on my way to Macedonia. Some people there are teaching false doctrines, and you must order them to stop. Tell them to give up those legends and those long lists of ancestors, which only produce arguments; they do not serve God’s plan, which is known by faith. The purpose of this order is to arouse the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience and a genuine faith. Some people have turned away from these and have lost their way in foolish discussions. They want to be teachers of God’s law, but they do not understand their own words or the matters about which they speak with so much confidence. 8
Paul wanted to build a church based upon pure love, a clear conscience and a genuine faith. He wanted Timothy to make sure that people would keep clear of false teaching: ’The Spirit says clearly that some people will abandon the faith in later times; they will obey lying spirits and follow the teaching of demons. Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead, as if burnt by a hot iron.’ 9
Instead, he urged Timothy to teach the right doctrine and preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and not be afraid of the fact that he was only a young man. ‘Give them these instructions and these teachings. Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example for the believers in your speech, your conduct, your love, faith and purity.’ 10
The false teaching encountered by the young pastors was causing great harm in the church. But others had faced a similar problem. The writers of the letters of Jude, 2 Peter, 1 John and the Revelation of John refer to it. Paul faced problems from Jewish Christians who insisted that true believers should fulfill all the requirements of the Jewish religion to be complete Christians. Paul argues strongly in Romans, Galatians and Ephesians that we are no longer under the imprisoning religion of the Jewish Law, but that we live in the realm of God’s grace and the Spirit’s freedom.
In the pastoral epistles, the young church was facing another problem from people who were influencing the believers. These believers, generally converts from Judaism, believed they were above the Law and were no longer subject to God’s moral commands. They had a superior knowledge, or gnosis, that made them different from others and superior in their rights.
In reply, Paul argued that the Law is good if it keeps us from wrongdoing, and to this end the scriptures are given for ‘rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living.’ 11 Christians were not people who opposed the Law; they obeyed it, yet did not live their lives in bondage to it. Christians kept a delicate balance: by living out the indwelling life of Christ, they live in a accordance with the Law’s demands, not by obeying rules, but by being close followers of Jesus who fulfilled the Law.
The Gnostic philosophy was to become a major heresy in the second century of the church’s history. But already it was developing a system of ‘legends and long lists of ancestors’, ’godless legends which are not worth telling’, and ‘Jewish legends and human commandments which come from people who have rejected the truth.’ 12 They were to come to believe their superior spirituality would remove them from the evil of all matter. They would completely renounce this world, and the flesh would be mortified.
Good leaders
Timothy was urged to appoint church members who would be good leaders in the work. Good leaders would insist on right doctrine and correct the wrong emphasis of the false teachers and leaders. Both 1 Timothy and Titus reject leaders whose ‘minds do not function and who no longer have the truth. They think that religion is a way to become rich.’ 13 How every generation needs to be on guard against such bad examples of leadership!
The pastoral epistles to Timothy and Titus show us Paul encouraging both these young men to appoint bishops or elders and deacons in their church. It was obvious by this time that Titus was being regarded as a travelling bishop and Timothy as a settled bishop and the early church was moving to appointing church leaders who had the responsibility for oversight of the local congregation.
These epistles reveal the growing stages of the early church’s government, and consequently cannot be used to provide a blueprint for contemporary church government. Side by side, we have the germinating seeds of what one group of Christians see as an episcopal system of church government, another sees as a presbyterian form of church government, and others see as a congregational form of church government. The fact is that the pastoral epistles do not contain any developed form of government, but simply general instructions on the selection of right leaders to meet the needs of a young church facing a severe test at the point of its doctrine and leadership.
Both Timothy and Titus had the qualifications that were necessary for such positions. Paul said, ’if a man is eager to be a church leader he desires an excellent work’ and he outlined the role of bishops or elder and deacons, stressing that they had to be mature Christian characters so as to produce maturity in others. As Paul says, Timothy’s task was to ‘be strong through the grace that is ours in union with Jesus Christ. Take the teachings that you heard me proclaim in the presence of many witnesses, and entrust them to reliable people, who will be able to teach others also’. 14
Teach the scriptures
The third aspect of the teaching of the pastoral epistles was that Paul’s young co-workers had to trust and to teach the scriptures.
The problem with false teachers stemmed from the fact that they did not understand the scriptures despite the fact that they spoke about the Law with such confidence. The answer lay in a proper understanding of the gospel which flows from a knowledge of the scripture. Paul stressed that sound teaching ‘is found in the gospel that was entrusted to me to announce, the good news from the glorious and blessed God’. 15
Here Paul gave one of the most beautiful insights we have into the nature of scripture:
Continue in the truths that you were taught and firmly believe. You know who your teachers were, and you remember that ever since you were a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed. 16
Timothy here is given the task to preach sound doctrine from the scriptures and to make sure other people followed it, being faithful even as Paul was to death. Paul constantly distinguishes between the faithful Timothy who continues in the scriptures, and others who are evil and who add their own concepts to the scriptural basis of truth. Every generation faces the temptation to add to the scriptures new understanding and interpretation that is simply humanist or human-centred reasoning. Paul’s thinking was that Timothy could safeguard himself by testing his own new thoughts against those of Paul who had taught him the faith.
This use of the apostle’s life and thought as the test for orthodoxy was not egoism. This was true of each of the apostles: those who had been closest to Jesus were in themselves yardsticks against whom the young believers should check their words and actions. There is a consistency about Christian teaching. What is written is seen in the life of the Master and those who knew him and were appointed by him to be apostles. Christian teaching can be read both in words and character. The test we have is to align our words with those of the scriptures, and our characters with those of the Master and his apostles.
Paul asserts that all scripture is ‘inspired’, or ‘breathed’ by God. The Holy Spirit filled the mind of the writers, including Paul’s, so what they wrote was guided by God. Their individual personality and differing perspective gave variety to their work, but the Spirit’s presence within them gave their writing its quality, consistency and authority. That is what makes it useful and profitable, both for our believing and our conduct.
Communicating with young people
Paul knew how to communicate to his young co-workers. In fact, these pastoral epistles appeal to young people in general. Paul took the young person’s interest in athletics and made several comments about the sport. There were great stadiums for athletics, not only in the areas in which the young men had travelled, but also where they were ministering. Paul wrote:
Keep yourself in training for a godly life. Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is valuable in every way, because it promises life both for the present and for the future. Run your best in the race of faith, and win eternal life for yourself, for it was to this life that God called you when you firmly professed your faith before many witnesses. An athlete who runs in a race cannot win a prize unless he obeys the rules.
As for me, the hour has come for me to be sacrificed, the time is here for me to leave this life. I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. And now there is waiting for me the prize of victory awarded to a righteous life, the prize which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that Day — and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear. 17
Paul also used another analogy that young people understood. It had to do with a farmer who planted seed in preparation for the harvest. He wanted Timothy and Titus to work hard and be workers who could look back with a sense of satisfaction on hard work knowing it brought a good reward:
The farmer who had done the hard work should have the first share of the harvest… Do you best to win full approval in God’s sight, as a worker who is not ashamed of his work, one who correctly teaches the message of God’s truth…keep away from foolish and ignorant arguments, you know that they end up in quarrels. The Lord’s servant must not quarrel. He must be kind towards all, a good and patient teacher who is gentle as he corrects his opponents, for it may be that God will give them the opportunity to repent and come to know the truth. 18
In Australia, more than most countries, there was little respect for a minister of religion in the early days, but great respect for the man who was a ‘fair dinkum parson’. The famous Australian writer, Henry Lawson, once wrote about such a man. He said the Australian farmer seldom raised his hat to anybody and when the bush parson came round the men would judge him by how he cared for his horse. Henry Lawson told of Peter McLaughlan, who used to visit in the outback. ‘The bushman will seldom lift his hat to any man, but out there in the west, even the worst of characters used to listen bare-headed when Peter McLaughlan preached.’
That was the highest tribute the men could pay – they recognized a workman of God who had no need to be ashamed. It seems that Timothy and Titus had the same respect. It was men like that to whom we owe the success of the young church.
Endnotes:
1. Galatian 2:5
2. 2 Corinthians 12:18
3. 2 Timothy 1:5
4. 1 Timothy 3:15
5. Philippians 2:20-22
6. Romans 16:23
7. Philippians 2:19-24
8. 1 Timothy 1:3-7
9. 1 Timothy 4:1-2
10. 1 Timothy 4:11-12
11. 2 Timothy 3:16
12. 1 Timothy 1:4; 4:7; Titus 1:14
13. 1 Timothy 6:5
14. 2 Timothy 2:1-2
15. 1 Timothy 1:11
16. 2 Timothy 3:14-17
17. 2 Timothy 4:8; 2:5; 4:6-8
18. 2 Timothy 2:6; 2:15-16; 23-25
For personal reading
Theme: Partners in the gospel
Monday : Teach right doctrine (1 Timothy 1:3-7; 4:1-5)
Tuesday : Encourage others (1 Timothy 1:12-14; 4:11-5:22)
Wednesday : Teach others to teach (2 Timothy 2:2-7)
Thursday : Work hard (2 Timothy 3:10-17)
Friday : Trust the scriptures (2 Timothy 3:10-17)
Saturday : Preach the message (2 Timothy 4:1-5)
Sunday : The Christian life (Titus 2:1-10)
For group reading
Topic: Training for the teaching ministry
1. How important was Timothy’s upbringing as preparation for his later ministry?
2. What teaching of Paul would Timothy think about when he saw a stadium?
3. How relevant is Paul’s teaching to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:11-5:22 today?
4. What does Paul teach about teaching others?
5. Paul praised Titus for his capacity as minister. What do you think young ministers could learn from the life of Titus?
