Grace Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey

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Pastor's Pulse

by Paul Leggett, Pastor

Paul’s Letters to Timothy and Titus

September 2009

“I am grateful to God — whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did — when I remember you contstantly in my prayers night and day.” – II Timothy 1:3

This fall, in our Sunday evening Bible study, we’re going to be discussing the Pastoral Epistles.  These are the three letters of Paul entitled First and Second Timothy and Titus.  Actually I have already begun studying and discussing these books with several young couples in the church.  To minister to a congregation as diverse as ours requires a measure of flexibility.  We continue to look for new ways to expand our opportunities to study God’s word.  This has also been borne out by our web site ministry (www.gracemontclair.org).

Timothy and Titus were young Christian leaders in situations that were not unlike what we face today.  Both had been discipled by the apostle Paul.  At the time of these epistles Paul was in prison in Rome, though in different circumstances at the writing of II Timothy than his first letter to Timothy and the letter to Titus.  Timothy was assigned to the church in Ephesus.  This church had been founded by Paul (Acts 18:18-19).  Ephesus was the most important city in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.  It was in many ways the New York City of its era.  It was an important commercial center (as in Wall Street) but also with no strong spiritual or moral center.  In fact it was a center of magic and myth (Acts 19:19).  Its statue of the idol, Artemis of the Ephesians (Acts 19:23-41), was one of the wonders of the ancient world.  Here Timothy as a young pastor was being called upon to lead believers in Christ on a path of discipleship that was beset with constant temptations.

Titus might even have been in a more challenging situation.  In Paul’s terms he had been left behind in Crete (Titus 1:5).  Crete was an island off Greece which also had a strategic and commercial importance.  The greater challenge of the Christian community there, to which Paul had assigned Titus, was a dark history of idolatry and fearful monsters such as the Minotaur.  The Cretans themselves were no prize either.  Paul quotes one of their own poets who describes them as “liars, vicious brutes and lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12).  To this day calling someone a “Cretan” is an insult.  Yet this was the context of Titus’ ministry.

The realities of ancient Ephesus and Crete are not far removed from America in the twenty-first century.  There is much that we can learn from studying and discussing these letters.

September marks a return to our full schedule.  There is much that will be taking place for all ages and we encourage everywhere to get involved in some part of what we believe will be an exciting and rewarding ministry.  We are thankful also for the full-time presence of our Princeton Seminary intern, Ms. Candace Whitman.