Paul's Letters to Timothy

By Sybrand Van Kwawegen

Daily devotional over seven weeks of the letters Paul wrote to Timothy. present day application.
Bible study guide.
End times revelations from Paul.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sybrand Van Kwawegen
• Release date: Jun 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005117658

Sybrand Van Kwawegen

I was born 21 August 1950 and grew up in a home best described as atheist. I knew nothing about Christianity until my high school years. After school I qualified in the trade of bricklaying before doing a BSc degree in Building Science at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). I worked in construction progressing to Construction manager and managing contract in what is currently known as the provinces of Gauteng, North-west, Limpopo, Mpumalanga Free State and Kwa Zulu Natal. I moved on into full time ministry in the Methodist Church of South Africa and studied for a B.Th. through the University Of South Africa (UNISA). During this time I also served as vice chair and chair of the West Rand Local Peace Committee as well as serving on the Regional Peace committee before and during the first democratic elections in South Africa and served as chair of Hospice in the West. I left full time ministry after 12 years and returned to construction and allied industries until my retirement two years ago. I the started acrylic painting as a hobby and doing further Bible studies that led to this publication.

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GOD – God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Pastor/pastor – used as a general term for all ordained clergy. Includes those variously entitled ministers, fathers, lay preachers, etc.

Word – as opposed to word is the Word of GOD also referred to as the Bible

KJV – The Authorised King James Version of the Word of God

AOV – The Word Afrikaans Ou Vertaling.

RCC – The institution known as the Roman Catholic Church.

Born-again – the name given to people that have remorsefully repented and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour and have been baptised in water by full submersion and born of the Holy Spirit.

Agape – Used wherever the love that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13:3-8. (See also detailed summary in my book "Paul’s Letter to the Galatians.)

Tribulation - The moment in time when Jesus Christ will appear in the Sky to call the born-again believers to join him at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

PNW – Prophesy News Watch

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New Testament Chronology.

New Testament Book Dates

Galatians: AD 49-50

Matthew: AD 50-60

1 Thessalonians: AD 51

2 Thessalonians: AD 51-52

1 Corinthians: AD 55

2 Corinthians: AD 55-56

Romans: AD 56

Luke: AD 60-61

Ephesians: AD 60-62

Philippians: AD 60-62

Philemon: AD 60-62

Colossians: AD 60-62

Acts: AD 62

1 Timothy: AD 62-64

Titus: AD 62-64

1 Peter: AD 64-65

2 Timothy: AD 66-67

2 Peter: AD 67-68

Hebrews: AD 67-69

Jude: AD 68-70

John: AD 80-90

1 John: AD 90-95

2 John: AD 90-95

3 John: AD 90-95

Revelation: AD 94-96

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Suggested way to use this Devotional

Most people that have a regular daily devotional time set aside will adapt their own routine to the use of this book of daily devotions. For those that do not the following is a suggested basis for you to start from. It would be best to stick to the suggested routine for at least three weeks before making your own adaptations to suit your personal lifestyle.

1. Set aside a time each day where you will not be interrupted for at least 30 minutes but preferably an hour

2. Spend a few minutes unwinding and setting the day’s activities aside and then enter into a prayer (conversation) time with the Father through Jesus beginning with the adoration of the Father as our creator and head of the Holy Trinity and ask Jesus to set a guard of His angels around you to keep the tempter out and your mind fixed on the Word of God. Ask that God, the Holy Spirit will open your mind to the understanding and absorption of the Word for the day.

3. Read the daily text(s) carefully and relatively slowly (don’t rush or speed read).

4. Read the commentaries in the text(s) as if they apply to you personally. Where something touches a nerve in you stop, ask the Holy Spirit what He is telling you and then continue. Make a note if something important comes to mind by highlighting the text and making a note as your app allows.

5. After reading spend some time reflecting on the day’s passage(s) and what they are meaning to you. Ask yourself how you can and decide how you will apply that lesson during the next twenty three hours.

6. Close off your time of devotions in conversation with the Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and ask Jesus and the Holy Spirit to help you in your resolutions for the next day. Note that you can expect satan to tempt you extensively to forget or skip just today or a thousand other ways to stop you from a regular pattern of daily devotions. Therefore ask Jesus for a discerning mind so that you will know when satan is attacking and to help you 2Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; The attacks will start in your thought life and that is why we need to take every thought captive to the authority of Jesus and He will make it clear what thoughts to throw out with the trash.

7. The best way to imprint the Word of GOD and its application on our minds is to find someone to share your daily devotion with in the course of the day.

8. On day seven of each week spend your devotion time reviewing the week and making notes that you can come back to in the days and the years ahead.

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Introduction to Timothy

Hitherto Paul's epistles were directed to churches; now follow some to particular persons: two to Timothy, one to Titus, and another to Philemon--all three ministers. Timothy and Titus were evangelists, an inferior order to the apostles, as appears by Eph. iv. 11, Some prophets, some apostles, some evangelists. Their commission and work was much the same with that of the apostles, to plant churches, and water the churches that were planted; and accordingly they were itinerants, as we find Timothy was. Timothy was first converted by Paul, and therefore he calls him his own son in the faith: we read of his conversion, Acts 16:3

The scope of these two epistles is to direct Timothy how to discharge his duty as an evangelist at Ephesus, where he now was, and where Paul ordered him for some time to reside, to perfect the good work which he had begun there. As for the ordinary pastoral charge of that church, he had very solemnly committed it to the presbytery, as appears from Acts xx. 28, where he charges the presbyters to feed the flock of God, which he had purchased with his own blood.

The first letter to Timothy was written from Laodicea, which is the chiefest city of Phrygia Pacatiana. The second letter to Timothy, ordained the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians, was written from Rome, when Paul was brought before Nero the second time.

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Contents:

Glossary

New Testament Chronology.

Suggested way to use this Devotional

Introduction to Timothy

Week 1: 1 Timothy 1:1 to 1:20

Week 2: 1 Timothy 2:1 to 3:13

Week 3: 1 Timothy 3:14 to 5:8

Week 4: 1 Timothy 5:9 to 6:21

Week 5: 2 Timothy to 2:4

Week 6: 2 Timothy 2:5 to 3:9

Week 7: 2 Timothy 3:1 – 4:22

Other titles by this author

About this author

Bibliography

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Day 1 – 1 Timothy 1:1-2

1 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; 2 Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

I have jumped over expositions of Paul’s letters to some of the churches so as to get to some of the more personal letters that Paul wrote directly to friends. Paul’s approach in this and other personal letters is more direct towards one person and it is always useful to distinguish these letters from the ones to the churches and to apply them more directly to our own personal walk with Jesus Christ towards sanctification.

One noteworthy fact about Paul’s salutations in the letters to friends is the introduction of the word mercy into it. The letters that Paul wrote to friends were written to those that were engaged in evangelism, teaching and preaching and although they are considered a step lower in the hierarchy of the Church it is clear from this that Paul thinks that the people in the full time ministry are in particular need of the mercy of GOD.

In those days I think it is reasonable to assume that that was the case because of the physical persecution of born-again believers and in particular of their leaders many of whom like the Apostles, suffered as martyrs for the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Does that mean that in the West our fulltime clergy are now no longer in need of this additional mercy? Not at all. The persecution of present day clergy may not be physical but they have to face the enemy on a far more unpredictable and invisible level. In the technologically advanced days we do not only have a great deal of access to information, but have to distinguish information from disinformation. The fact is that the majority of media moguls of our time are by far more against the Church of Jesus Christ than for the Church. They are consciously pumping out masses of disinformation while at the same time doing everything in their power to block true information that points toward Jesus Christ.

In addition there is a massive worldwide invisible war being waged by the communists that is aimed at demoralising and destroying the West’s will to discern the truth and in particular the Truth of GOD. These things mean that true men of GOD are nowadays almost permanently under attack by the majority of the world and being accused of falsehoods and lies.

If that was all then it would be bad enough but the fact is that the teachings of almost every university and seminary is teaching doctrines that are not in accordance with the Word of GOD. They also almost invariably openly support every new version of the Word of God no matter how much is left out or falsely interpreted. Add to this that the education of children under the age of twelve in the knowledge and understanding of the Word of GOD is almost completely neglected in the vast majority of Christian homes and then we can begin to see what the pastors of our time are facing. The fact is that in the final analysis the pastors will be held accountable by Jesus Christ for what they have disseminated to their flocks.

As a last straw add to all the foregoing the fact that in far too many of our churches the congregations have usurped the right to decide on what the pastor may speak on and what is taboo. What congregants need to wake up too is that not only is the knowledge and understanding of the Word of GOD their own personal responsibility (Hosea 4:6) but that while the pastors will be held responsible for what they fail to disseminate and what they do disseminate, congregants will be held responsible for what they block and what they fail to know.

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

May GOD have mercy on us all!

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Day 2 – 1 Timothy 1:3-4

1 Timothy 1:3-4 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

Matthew Henry says ministers must avoid controversy. Paul says we must avoid genealogies and fables. Matthew Henry goes on to say Ministers must stick to those teachings that are generally accepted based on what he claims to be Paul's intended meaning. I see a great deal of following by present day theologians of Matthew Henry but very little of what Paul says.

Certainly there is not a great deal to be learnt from endless genealogies such as in Matthew's Gospel that cannot be said in a few words but that does not mean Paul dispenses with the need to record the facts.

Avoiding fables is a different matter altogether. At the time of writing this