3C's Bible Study Josh A I & Renewed Everyday

Timothy, a youthful pastor, had to direct and correct the young and the elderly, relate with younger women faithfully, and address crucial problems around caring for widows and keeping elders accountable.

In this chapter, Paul hands Timothy and us practical tools for dealing with the major obstacle to godliness - relationships.

In these verses, Paul reveals that there is profit to godly living, and shows us how to develop a godly life and uncover the value in godliness.

In these verses, Paul highlights the two main streams of error that the church and believers will contend with in the last days as revealed by the Holy Spirit.

We consider these the twin problems of license and legalism and the key that unlocks balanced and mature Christian living in the face of the temptation to be drawn to one or the other.

We also look at the issue of "departing from the faith", what the root causes are and how to avoid such an outcome in our lives and those who hear us.

Paul goes on in this chapter to outline the qualifications for Bishops, Elders, Pastors & Deacons in the church, and the heart of these qualifications is to live blamless life.

Such a life is founded on the principle of reverence and submission to God, and grows out into soberness and self-control towards ourselves, others and the world.

Blameless living is supposed to be part of the normal Christian life because of the living presence of the Holy Spirit in each of us.

Paul discusses the role of prayer and intercession in facilitating the ministry of the church to the world and the place of submission in ensuring the order that God desires in the home and the church, which eventually flows into society.

Paul's primary goal of writing to his son in the faith Timothy is to stir him up to "remain in Ephesus", which is an apt metaphor for his charge in this chapter to "fight the good warfare".

We explore the central themes of this letter in this episode and the practical meaning and strategies for waging the good warfare.