Book Description
This volume of the NIV Application Commentary Series, helps readers learn how the message of 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus can have the same powerful impact today that they did when they were first written.

From the Publisher
Walter Liefield reveals the context and meanings of Paul's letters to two leaders in the early Christian church. He explores the present-day implications of these epistles and helps the reader to accurately apply the principles they contain to contemporary issues.

From the Author
Walter L. Liefeld (Ph.D. Columbia and Union) is distinguished professor emeritus of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is the author of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Luke, Interpreting the Book of Acts, New Testament Exposition, and the IVP New Testament Commentary on Ephesians

From the Back Cover
Most Bible commentaries take us on a one-way trip from the twentieth century to the first century. But they leave us there, assuming that we can somehow make the return journey on our own. In other words, they focus on the original meaning of the passage but don't discuss its contemporary application. The information they offer is valuable -- but the job is only half done! The NIV Application Commentary Series helps us with both halves of the interpretive task. This new and unique series shows readers how to bring an ancient message into modern context. It explains not only what the Bible means but also how it can speak powerfully today.

About the Author
Walter L. Liefeld is distinguished professor emeritus of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is the author of The Expositor's Bible Commentary on Luke.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The NIV Application Commentary: 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus Copyright © 1999 by Walter L. Liefeld Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Liefeld, Walter L. 1 and 2 Timothy/Titus / Walter L. Liefeld. p. cm.(NIV application commentary) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN: 0310501105 1. Bible. N.T. Pastoral EpistlesCommentaries. I. Title. II. Title: First and second Timothy/Titus. III. Series. BS 2735.3.L54 1999 227.83077dc21 9918861 CIP
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PAUL, AN APOSTLE of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, 2To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
THE OPENING LINES of letters at the time of the New Testament followed a conventional style, which included the names of both sender and recipient, with some kind words concerning the latter and solicitous wishes for his or her well-being.
The Sender and His Authority (1:1a)
PAULS IDENTIFICATION OF himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus is similar to the way he identifies himself in every other letter except Philippians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. In Galatians, where he was preparing to make some strong authoritative declarations about what the true gospel is and what it means, he enlarged on the implications of his unique apostleship (Gal. 1:1 2). Here, where he is going to address false teaching, he uses the unusual phrase by the command of God our Savior. We know from several passages that Paul understood his being an apostle as a calling (cf. Rom. 1:1) by the will of God (1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1), but this is the only salutation in a letter where he attributes his ministry to Gods command. The strong word used here (epitage) occurs again in 1:5, 18; 4:11; 5:7; 6:13, 17; Titus 1:3; 2:15.2
Distinctive Elements About God and Jesus (1:1b)
PAUL CALLS GOD our Savior. We are so used to thinking of Jesus as our Savior that the use of that term to describe God arrests our attention. The phrase God our Savior occurs only five times in the entire Old Testament (1 Chron.
16:35; Ps. 65:5; 68:19; 79:9; 85:4) and only six times in the New Testament, of which five are in the Pastoral Letters (here; 1 Tim 2:3; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4; Jude 25). In Titus 1:3 the phrase occurs in the salutation, as here, where it is also linked with the word command.
It is striking to realize that although the word salvation appears fortysix times in the New Testament and the word save 107 times, Savior occurs only twenty-four times. In Pauls letters it occurs only twice outside of the Pastorals (Eph. 5:23; Phil. 3:20), but ten times within them (1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3; 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:10; Titus 1:3, 4; 2:10, 13; 3:4, 6). Almost half of the appearances of this word in the New Testament, therefore, are in the Pastoral Letters. Such words give Pauls opening words to Timothy (and also those to Titus) a weight of authority and majesty. The God who brought about the salvation of Israel time and time again has the authority to command Paul regarding the preservation of the true faith.
Paul goes on to describe Christ Jesus as our hope. This phrase does not occur anywhere else, nor does the phrase God our hope, but certainly the idea does. For example, May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you (Ps. 33:22). Three texts in Titus have the word hope: the hope of eternal life (1:2; 3:7), and the blessed hopethe glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (2:13). Significantly, the words God and Savior reappear in that phrase in connection with Jesus Christ.
The Recipient (1:2a)
TIMOTHY IS PAULS true son in the faith. The word for true (gnesios) is different from the more common one (alethes), which means true as opposed to false. The present word means genuine as opposed to illegitimate or fake. The word could be used of a child born within a legitimate marriage, and the implication in the figurative statement here refers to the quality of Timothys relationship to Paul. Paul had met this young man in Lystra; Acts 16:1 describes him as a disciple, with a Jewish mother and Gentile father. Second Timothy 1:5 refers to Timothys sincere faith, which first lived in his grandmother and mother, Lois and Eunice. From his infancy Timothy had known the Scriptures, through which he had come to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (3:15).
This repeated terminology about faith and the identification of his believing mother provides a background for Pauls reference to Timothy as his true son in the faith. Timothys mother provided the environment of Jewish faith in which he had grown up; Paul provided the nurture of his Christian faith. Since he is called a disciple at the outset of the Acts 16 narrative, he probably had become a Christian before Pauls arrival, possibly through Pauls earlier ministry in Lystra (Acts 14:820). Paul also had a part in the conferral of a spiritual endowment on Timothy (1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6).
The other extant Pauline letters are to churches (and, at Philippi, to their leaders), not to individuals. Outside the Pastoral Letters only Philemon, which is clearly personal, is addressed to an individual. This fact gives the impression that the early churches had a plural leadership and that Timothy and Titus are addressed individually only because they have a special mission as apostolate delegates (i.e., sent by the apostle as his authorized representatives). These letters are probably not only for their personal reading but function as public documents attesting the authority bestowed on these two delegates.
Kind Wishes (1:2b)
IT WAS CUSTOMARY for letters in the first century to convey kind wishes for the continued well-being of the recipients. Paul uses some Christian terms for this purpose, but also uses common terminology with a Christian meaning. Here he expresses these thoughts with the words grace, mercy and peace. Those who spoke Greek would normally greet a friend with the word chaire. The word for grace, charis, has a similar sound.
Pauls third greeting, eirene (from which we derive our word irenic), means peace. This word recalls the Hebrew greeting shalom, which connotes wholeness and well-being as well as peace.
In addition to these usual two words of greeting in Pauls letters, 1 and 2 Timothy add mercy (cf. also 2 John 3). This word can shade towards the idea of pity or compassion. It recalls the Hebrew h. esed, with its overtones of mercy and kindness to those within Gods covenant. The terms grace and mercy imply that those who receive those benefits have a need they cannot fulfill themselves.
In most of his letters, Paul indicates, as here, that these beneficial favors come from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. This is not to deny the fact that the Holy Spirit gives gifts, but it simply attributes generosity to God as Father (James 1:17) and adds the name of Christ, who conveys Gods grace to us.
BRIDGING CONTEXTS IS always important, but because opening greetings seem so familiar, we may not realize that they also require attention. It is helpful to read such a text as these first two verses carefully, as though for the first time. Apostle. Since communication requires shared points of reference, mention of a concept, event, person, or object is meaningless unless the reader or hearer has some knowledge of the subject. If we, for example, received a letter from an unknown person who identified him or herself as the Chancellor, we would need to know the significance of that word in the senders vocabulary. Is this from the honorary head of some American university, from the prime minister of a foreign country, or perhaps from a British government official? In a similar manner, we cannot simply assume that a contemporary reader of Pauls letters knows what the term apostle means, especially how this word was used in a different culture and a different language nearly two thousand years ago.
Even if such a person knew that messengers, such as official envoys, were called apostles in ancient Greek, that person might not know the special use of the term for Jesus apostles and for a few others, such as Paul. In the Jewish world later reflected in the Mishnah, the term shaliach denoted a person who was sent on a mission and was to be received as though he was the sender himself (m. Ber. 5:5). In the New Testament, the qualifications for being chosen to take over the apostolic ministry abandoned by Judas Iscariot included the stipulation that the candidate had been with the Lord Jesus during his ministry and had witnessed his resurrection (Acts 1:2126). Pauls vision of the risen Lord and Gods choice of him thus qualified him to serve as an apostle. Therefore, he calls himself an apostle of Christ Jesus. Translators rendering this for some cultures may need to employ some culturespecific term both to express the meaning of apostleship and to explain why Paul functioned under a command.
God and Christ. The relationship between God and Christ is difficult to understand and explain. In verse 1 the command comes from both God and Christ Jesus. To those who have a non-Trinitarian monotheistic view of God, the term God excludes Christ. To those who have a polytheistic religion, Christ can also be a god, but the two persons (in Christian terms, the Father and the Son) would be considered different gods. The biblical view is that there is only one being who is God and that he exists in three persons. Christ, therefore, is God as to his nature and the Son as to his person. Many attempts have been made to illustrate the Trinity, but endeavors to do so from the material world fail because God is not material, but spirit in essence. Likewise, what is illogical or impossible in human experience does not determine what is logical or possible for God.
Paul calls God our Savior. During the Hellenistic period, when religious aspects of Greek culture blended with the Roman, the term savior was applied to various mythical figures. In no case, however, was there a divine being who brought people into relationship with himself by personally removing the guilt of sin. The New Testament understanding of salvation is in accord with that of the Old Testament, not derived from the Greco-Roman world.5 God is the Savior in both spiritual and human spheres. In understanding the significance of this concept in the pluralistic world of today, we need to maintain the distinctiveness of Christian salvation.
Of course this distinctiveness includes the truth that Christ, who is Immanuel (God with us), died to be our Savior. His death and resurrection bring forgiveness and eternal life. Therefore, when Paul calls Christ Jesus our hope, he is going beyond the ideas held in the various cultures of his day. As he says in 2 Timothy 1:10, Christ destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
THE NEED FOR clarity and authority. The biblical hope just mentioned often tends to be replaced by a subjective, fuzzy optimism about a future life. When we invite people to the Christian hope, we must do so with a clear explanation as to how the Christian message offers the only basis for hope. We must also proclaim this truth, as other truths, with biblical authority. This authority is an important theme in the Pastoral Letters. Unless the original reader had some awareness that this apostleship gave Paul authority to declare what was (or was not) orthodox teaching, Timothys attempt to repudiate false doctrine could seem overbearing.
That would especially be the case for anyone today who has a democratic, pluralistic worldview. On occasion, citizens will grant extraordinary authority to a ruler, such as happened in Belarus while I was writing this, in reaction to what many considered an ineffective democratic arrangement after years of monolithic communist rule. But in most countries today where there is a choice, totalitarianism is rejected. Likewise, to many people the idea of a mere human being claiming authority derived from God, such as happens in various cults, seems medieval or even worse. But we must not hesitate to state that what Paul speaks in his letters, he speaks with divine backing. Furthermore, the whole idea of a coherent universe in which truth can be known objectively and a universe governed by exclusive divine authority is contrary to the postmodern worldview. By its very nature, 1 Timothy 1:1

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Most Bible commentaries take us on a one-way trip from the twentieth century to the first century. But they leave us there, assuming that we can somehow make the return journey on our own. In other words, they focus on the original meaning of the passage but don't discuss its contemporary application. The information they offer is valuable -- but the job is only half done! The NIV Application Commentary Series helps us with both halves of the interpretive task. This new and unique series shows readers how to bring an ancient message into modern context. It explains not only what the Bible means but also how it can speak powerfully today.

Author Biography: Walter L. Liefeld is distinguished professor emeritus of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is the author of The Expositor's Bible Commentary on Luke.

SYNOPSIS