Paul speaks, in these verses, about those who are wealthy in earthly things. The Apostle does not condemn earthly riches, but, rather, trusting in them. Timothy is to charge the rich not to be haughty (that is, to think more highly of themselves than of others), nor to set their hopes on earthly wealth. The good things of this world

Yesterday, we considered several attributes of God about which Paul writes in this passage. Today, we concentrate on a fact of which Paul speaks in verse 14 - the promised return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Greek word that is translated (in the ESV) as "appearing" is the word from which we get "epiphany." While God is Spirit and,

As Paul encourages Timothy to fight the good fight and make the good confession, he reminds him of several attributes of God. First, His Power: In verse 13 he says God is the One "who gives life to all things." He is the Creator and Sustainer of everything. Without Him, the world would never have existed and without Him it

At the end of last week, we read of Paul's admonishing Timothy to pursue godliness, faith, love, steadfastness and gentleness. Today, he encourages the young pastor to "fight the good fight of the faith." This is similar to his command in chapter one that Timothy "wage the good warfare," but, this time, Paul uses the word from which we get

As we have seen in recent days, teachers of falsehood are often motivated by a love of money, which produces all kinds of evil. Paul tells Timothy to flee these things, calling him a "man of God." Timothy is the only person in the New Testament who is called a man of God. In the Old Testament, the expression "man

Yesterday we saw in this passage that the usual motive of a false teacher is the desire for earthly rewards such as money or renown. Paul says that such people view godliness as a means of gain. That he is speaking of false teachers who seek to enrich themselves is seen in the following verses in which Paul reminds us

A major purpose of this letter is to help Timothy deal with false teachers in the church at Ephesus. In chapter one, Paul reminded Timothy that sound doctrine is that which accords with the Gospel of salvation by grace, alone, working through faith, alone, in Jesus Christ, alone. Here, Paul speaks of "different" doctrines. These teachings are different (strange and

In today's reading, Paul deals with how Christian slaves are to treat their masters. Paul was in no way approving of slavery, but just dealing with the fact that slavery existed in his day. Moreover, the word translated as "slave" may also be translated as "bondservant," and, thus, can refer not only to people who are forced into servitude and

In today's passage, Paul teaches us several things about how we are to treat the elders in our churches. First, as we have already seen, we are to honour them, giving double honour to those who rule well (and paying those who labour as teaching elders) (v.17-18). Second, we must be careful not to listen to or participate in gossip

Last week, we noted that while all elders have ruling authority in the church and every elder should be able to teach, some are called "teaching elders" because they labour in preaching and teaching. That is, they are supported by the church so that they may dedicate their time to preparing to preach and teach God's Word. Paul says that