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2 Timothy 2:14-26

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Exhortation to Resist False Teachers The concern for the “salvation” of “God’s chosen people” expressed in verse 10, plus the exhortation to perseverance, with its warning against apostasy in verses 11–13, bring Paul—and Timothy—back to the hard realities of the situation on Ephesus, with the presence of the false teachers (cf. 1 Timothy). Apparently they continue to plague the church, as Onesiph...

2. Advice About Widows, Elders and Slaves

1 Timothy 5:1-6:2

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

This paragraph serves as something of a transition in the argument. On the one hand, it flows naturally out of 4:11–16, with a set of two more imperatives to Timothy (in the second person singular), and the content continues to reflect concern over Timothy’s relationship to the church community, now in very specific ways related to his own youthfulness. This content, on the other hand, also serve...

3. Doing What is Good

Titus 3:1-11

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Instructions for Living in State and Society: After a brief exhortation to Titus (2:15) to “teach these things” (at least 2:1–14), Paul returns in this section to the major concern of the letter—“good works” (i.e., genuinely Christian behavior) for the sake of the outsider (3:1–8) and in contrast to the false teachers (3:9–11). This section, however, makes a decided turn in the argument. In 2:1–14...

4. Encouragement to Be Faithful

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Salutation After the long elaboration in the salutation to Titus (see disc. on Titus 1:1–4), Paul reverts to a more standard, brief form in this final letter to Timothy. Indeed, except for some slight modifications, these two verses are nearly identical to 1 Timothy 1:1–2. However, as in all his letters, these “slight” modifications reflect nuances of his changed circumstances and of his concerns...

5. Final Greetings

2 Timothy 4:19-22

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

As with Titus, but unlike 1 Timothy (see disc. on 1 Tim. 6:21), Paul concludes this letter with personal greetings, both for friends in Ephesus and to Timothy from some Roman believers. Such greetings are typical both of the Hellenistic letter and of the Apostle Paul (cf. 1 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon). Although no one of these is formally like the...

6. Godlessness in the Last Days

2 Timothy 3:1-9

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

With this paragraph Paul shifts his focus from Timothy to the false teachers themselves and sets them against the backdrop of the eschatological urgency that runs throughout the letter. The only personal word to Timothy is the reiterated imperative in verse 5—that he should have nothing to do with such people—which functions to tie the two parts of the paragraph (vv. 1–5, 6–9) together. Timothy i...

7. Instructions on Worship

1 Timothy 2:1-15

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Proper Objects of Prayer Following the charge to Timothy in chapter 1, which points to the presence of false teachers as the occasion of the letter, Paul now moves on to give a series of specific instructions (2:1–7 on the proper objects of prayer; 2:8–15 on the proper demeanor for prayer; 3:1–13 on qualifications for church leadership). All of this leads directly to 3:14–15, where Paul repeats h...

8. Instructions to Timothy

1 Timothy 4:1-16

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

The False Teachings Censured Because of the content of 3:14–16—the statement of purpose climaxed by the hymn—it is easy to think of chapter 3 as bringing us to some kind of conclusion, or major break, in the middle of the letter. But to view 3:14–16 that way is to miss the very close tie between chapter 4 and what has preceded. Paul is about to elaborate in some detail upon the two matters expre...

9. Love of Money

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Paul is about to bring the letter to its close. One more time he exhorts Timothy: These are the things you are to teach and urge on them. But before he concludes, the exhortation to teach and urge these things leads Paul to go back over the two dominant concerns one more time: the false teachers and Timothy’s role. In this section he presents the final exposure and indictment of the false teacher...

10. Overseers and Deacons

1 Timothy 3:1-16

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Qualifications for Overseers To this point, Paul has addressed some concerns related to the community at worship and corrected some abuses generated by the activities of the erring elders. Now he turns to the elders themselves and sets forth some qualifications for “office.” He begins, in verses 1–7, with a group called episkopoi (“overseers”); then moves in verses 8–13 to a group called diakono...

11. Paul's Charge to Timothy

1 Timothy 6:11-21

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Final Exhortation to Timothy The preceding paragraph, with its final indictment of the false teachers, was the third such exposure of these teachers in 1 Timothy (cf. 1:3–7, 18–20 and 4:1–5). In the two preceding instances, the direct word against the false teachers was accompanied by a corresponding personal word to Timothy to resist them and to be their antithesis in the church in Ephesus (cf. 1...

12. Paul's Charge to Timothy

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Another Appeal to Loyalty and Endurance With this paragraph, which focuses on its single imperative in verse 14 (continue in what you have learned), Paul renews the appeal with which the letter began. (Note how many themes from 1:3–2:13 are touched on: Timothy’s long relationship to Paul [vv. 10–11, 14; cf. 1:4, 6, 13]; Paul himself as the model of loyalty [vv. 10–11; cf. 1:8, 11–12, 13; 2:9–10];...

13. Personal Instructions and Greetings

Titus 3:12-15

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

In a typically Pauline fashion the letter closes with some final personal instructions (vv. 12–13; cf. Rom. 16:1–2; 1 Cor. 16:5–12; Col. 4:7–9), plus a “parting shot,” repeating the concern of the letter (v. 14; cf. Rom. 16:17–20a; 2 Cor. 13:11; Gal. 6:17), final greetings, including greetings from Paul and his companions to all believers in Crete (v. 15a; cf. most of the Pauline letters), and the...

14. Personal Remarks

2 Timothy 4:9-18

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

This section exhibits all the earmarks of a piece of private correspondence from antiquity. The author urges its recipient to come posthaste (v. 9); indicates why he wants him to come (he is alone, vv. 10–11a), who and what to bring (vv. 11b–13), and whom to watch out for along the way (vv. 14–15); and concludes with information as to how things have been going with him (vv. 16–18). On its own all...

15. The Lord's Grace to Paul

1 Timothy 1:12-20

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

A Testimony About the Gospel This paragraph is so clearly a digression in the argument of the letter that it is easy to read it, or comment on it, apart from its immediate context. But to do so is to miss a large part of its significance. The whole paragraph flows directly out of the preceding one. First of all, it is a presentation of the “gospel” (v. 11) as a bold expression of God’s grace towa...

16. Titus' Task on Crete

Titus 1:1-16

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Salutation What is striking about the salutation to Titus is its considerable differences from those in 1 and 2 Timothy, especially its lengthy elaboration of Paul’s apostleship (vv. 1–3), a phenomenon found elsewhere only in Romans. These verses, which form a single, extremely complex sentence in Greek, conclude with a note about his apostleship as a trust. The main thrust, however, emphasizes th...

17. Warning Against False Teachers of the Law

1 Timothy 1:1-11

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Salutation The letter begins with the standard form of salutation found in almost all the letters from the Greco-Roman period. Where such a letter in our time would have begun, “Dear Timothy,” and concluded something like, “Your affectionate father in Christ, Paul,” ancient letters began with the name of the writer, followed by the addressee and a greeting. Usually these were terse: “Paul, to Tim...

18. What Must Be Taught to Various Groups

Titus 2:1-15

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Instructions for Groups of Believers Although this section has affinities to several passages in both the PE and the rest of the NT, the material nonetheless appears here in a unique way. It picks up the framework of 1 Timothy 5:1–2, where people are grouped by age and sex, and in verses 2–8 fleshes out some details, not in terms of Titus’ relationship to them but of their own attitudes and conduc...

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