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What you get:
- Tips for teaching 1, 2 Timothy in a Bible Study
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62 Discussion Questions for 1, 2 Timothy
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Answers and insights for all 62 Discussion Questions
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Atlas of 7 high-definition maps of sites mentioned in Paul's two letters to his friend, Timothy
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2 Versions: high-resolution; optimized for mobile devices
Sample map in 1-2 Timothy Leaders Guide & Atlas
Paul had itchy feet. He didn’t seem to stick around towns very long. He usually seemed to stay just long enough to tell the story of Jesus, and to convince some folks that Jesus was the Messiah that prophets said God would send as a savior. In a few days or weeks, Paul moved on.
Not so in the town where he assigned his associate Timothy to stay: Ephesus. Paul lived there for three years, getting the church up and running. That was a huge investment of his time—twice as long as the year-and-a-half that he spent in Corinth.
Paul was not about to let fake Christians infiltrate and brainwash his congregation, which is what they were trying to do.
After Paul’s three-year stay in Ephesus, he and Timothy made a follow-up visit. They found a group of supposed Christian teachers spreading a warped brand of Christianity. Paul doesn’t say much about what the heretics taught. But it seems as though they tried to spread fake news that “the resurrection has already happened” (2 Timothy 2:18).
Paul couldn’t stay long enough to neutralize the theological poison, so he left Timothy there, perhaps as an apostle’s delegate. But for all practical purposes, Timothy may have served as the pastor or possibly as the bishop over several pastors in the region.
In the two letters Paul wrote to Timothy, he gave him advice about how to select pastors and how to be a good pastor. That’s why Bible experts call these letters, along with a similar letter Paul wrote to an associate named Titus, the “Pastoral Epistles.” “Epistles” is a two-dollar word for a one-nickel word: “letter.”
Two Timothy is a deeply personal letter. When Paul wrote that letter, he knew he was about to die. He asks Timothy to come to Rome as soon as possible because like most folks about to die, Paul wants the people he loves most to be with him when it happens.
The Bible never tells us if Timothy was able to make the 1,000-mile (1,000 km) trip in time.
In addition to 1-2 Timothy Leaders Guide & Atlas
You might consider the Ephesians Leaders Guide & Atlas
Best resource for comparing other Bible translations: Bible Gateway. This isn’t an ad. It’s a recommendation from the Casual English Bible.
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