1 And 2 Timothy, Titus The Niv Application Commentary from Biblical Text--To Contemporary Life

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0310501105

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 49530Library 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: 0-310-50110-5 1. Bible. N.T. Pastoral Epistles-Commentaries. I. Title. II. Title: First and second Timothy/Titus. III. Series. BS 2735.3.L54 1999 227''.83077-dc21 99-18861 CIPThis edition printed on acid-free paper.All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.Printed in the United States of America04 05 06 07 08 / . DC / 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6We want to hear from you. Please send your comments about this book to us in care of zreview@zondervan.com. Thank you.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)PAUL''S 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 God''s "command." The strong word used here (epitage) occurs again in 1:5, 18; 4:11; 5:7; 6:13, 17; Titus 1:3; 2:15.2Distinctive 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 Paul''s 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 Paul''s 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.