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This letter, like the two that follow, is addressed not to a community of believers but to an individual. The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus are sometimes grouped under the heading “pastoral letters,” because they have to do with challenges faced by pastors—bishops and others in leadership in the Church. Timothy is frequently mentioned as Paul’s companion, coworker, and “true child in faith.” The letter is full of practical advice about keeping the ock united in the face of challenges from the prevailing culture and from within the community. This makes it as relevant today as ever.
1:5 Paul summarizes the whole letter in a few words: pure heart, good conscience, sincere faith. With these, one will not go astray.
1:9 It is not that the righteous are outside the law; rather, we feel its weight only when we break it by sin.
1:13 As in many of the letters, Paul’s own checkered past is recalled in order to glorify God. Paul, who persecuted
the followers of Christ, becoming the “foremost” of sinners, is a sign of God’s boundless mercy.
a. [1:1] 2:3; Lk 1:47; Ti 1:3; 2:10 / Col 1:27.
b. [1:2] 2 Tm 1:2; Ti 1:4.
c. [1:3] Acts 20:1.
d. [1:4] 4:7; Ti 1:14; 3:9; 2 Pt 1:16.
e. [1:5] Rom 13:10.
f. [1:6] 6:4, 20; Ti 1:10.
g. [1:8] Rom 7:12, 16.
h. [1:10] 4:6; 6:3; 2 Tm 4:3;
Ti 1:9; 2:1.
i. [1:11] Ti 1:3.
j. [1:12] Phil 4:13 / Acts 9:15;
Gal 1:15–16.
k. [1:13] Acts 8:3; 9:1–2;
1 Cor 15:9; Gal 1:13.
l. [1:14] Rom 5:20; 2 Tm 1:13.
m. [1:15] Lk 15:2; 19:10.
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 TIMOTHY 
I. ADDRESS
1Greeting.*
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,a 2to Timothy, my true child in faith: grace,
mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.b II. SOUND TEACHING
Warning Against False Doctrine. 3* I repeat the request I made of you when I was on my way to Macedonia,c that you stay in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to teach false doctrines 4* or to concern themselves with myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the plan of God that is to be received by faith.d 5The aim of this instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.e 6Some people have deviated from these and turned to meaningless talk,f 7wanting to be teachers of the law, but without understanding either what they are saying or what they assert with such assurance.
8* We know that the law is good, provided that one uses it as law,g 9with the understanding that law is meant not for a righteous person but for the lawless and unruly, the godless and sinful, the unholy and profane, those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, 10the unchaste, sodomites,* kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to sound teaching,h 11according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.i
Gratitude for God’s Mercy.* 12I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry.j 13I was once a
blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.k 14Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.l 15This saying is trustworthy* and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost.m
* [1:1–2] For the Pauline use of the conventional epistolary form, see note on Rom 1:1–7.
* [1:3–7] Here Timothy’s initial task in Ephesus (cf. Acts 20:17–35) is outlined: to suppress the idle religious speculations, probably about Old Testament gures (1 Tm 1:3–4, but see note on 1 Tm 6:20–21), which do not contribute to the development of love within the community
(1 Tm 1:5) but rather encourage similar useless conjectures (1 Tm 1:6–7).
* [1:4] The plan of God that is to be received by faith: the Greek may also possibly mean
“God’s trustworthy plan” or “the training in faith that God requires.”
* [1:8–11] Those responsible for the speculations that are to be suppressed by Timothy do
not present the Old Testament from the Christian viewpoint. The Christian values the Old Testament not as a system of law but as the rst stage in God’s revelation of his saving plan, which is brought to ful llment in the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
* [1:10] Sodomites: see 1 Cor 6:9 and the note there.
* [1:12–17] Present gratitude for the Christian apostleship leads Paul to recall an earlier time
when he had been a erce persecutor of the Christian communities (cf. Acts 26:9–11) until his conversion by intervention of divine mercy through the appearance of Jesus. This and his subsequent apostolic experience testify to the saving purpose of Jesus’ incarnation. The fact of his former ignorance of the truth has not kept the apostle from regarding himself as having been the worst of sinners (1 Tm 1:15). Yet he was chosen to be an apostle, that God might manifest his rm will to save sinful humanity through Jesus Christ (1 Tm 1:16). The recounting of so great a mystery leads to a spontaneous outpouring of adoration (1 Tm 1:17).
* [1:15] This saying is trustworthy: this phrase regularly introduces in the Pastorals a basic truth of early Christian faith; cf. 1 Tm 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tm 2:11; Ti 3:8.