Monday 18 October 2010

Background

This letter belongs to a small group generally known as thePastorals: 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. These epistles clearly statethey have come from Paul, but their authorship is not asstraightforward as that.

It was a common practice in the ancient world to write a letter inthe name of a person who had died as a tribute to them. It wasintended to flatter rather than deceive. And there was, of course,the added benefit of giving more authority to the letter byattributing it to a well-known person.

The language, style of writing and general outlook of thesePastorals seem quite different from that of Paul, which is known tous from letters which undoubtedly come from Paul. Although, it ishighly likely that he did not normally actually write his ownletters; he used an amanuensis - a professional letter writer. Thiscan sometimes account for slight differences in language andstyle.

A greater question mark over Paul's authorship comes fromidentifying when Paul could have writtenthe various epistles. At its simplest, if Paul was executedfollowing his imprisonment in Rome, he did not write the Pastorals;only if he was released from imprisonment and went on a furthermission to Spain can we see the opportunity for him to write theseletters, despite the heavy personal references and instructions intoday's passage. (Several of these personal references are topeople known elsewhere in the New Testament, especially in the Actsof the Apostles, such as Titus, Mark and Luke; others are not sowell-known.)

What is Pauline, however, is the conviction that God's grace alonewas sufficient to see Paul through his imprisonment. Human resourcedeserted Paul, but God gave strength so that Paul's mission to theGentiles might be enabled. In this way, the letter becomes a sounddefence of that very mission to the Gentiles - non-Jewish peoplewho became Christians. At Paul's insistence, they were welcomedinto the new Christian community without having to submit to theJewish Law.

To Ponder

What are your own experiences of being desertedby those who you hoped would be your support?

What was your response?

In what ways have you experienced God's gracestanding by you and giving you strength?

Is it right to expect this all the time, or onlywhen it enables God's purposes to be fulfilled?