Timothy, Titus & Philemon Overview

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As I have explained in the past, one of the reasons I am doing this blog is I am curious to see what kind of messages one might get from reading the bible. What might one learn as a take-away. Here is my quick summary of the good and bad from 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus & Philemon.

I've recently decided to put more items in my overviews, and as such it seems like I need to organize these things into categories. I thought of this last minute, so it is a little clumsy this time, but I plan to work on the categories more in the future. It is nice to organize things, but also, you don't want to force things into categories where they don't quite fit. I'm certain some refinement will be necessary.

I've also added a category "Redacted Good Items". These are things I had marked as good when I read the chapter, but I either look back and see it as an error, or more often, things that I have found a different verse negating the message.

(note: the chapter link takes you to my page on that chapter, the verse link takes you to the verse on biblestudytools.com)

Good:

--love--

I 1:5 love comes from a pure heart and good conscience

"The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

I 6:11 love steadfastness and gentleness are virtues

"But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness"

--generosity--

I 6:9 Greed can be dangerous (oversimplification, but good rule of thumb)

"But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction."

I 6:18 The rich (and presumably everyone else) should be generous

"They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share"

I 5:16 if your family can help, they should so the church can focus its resources on the needy

"If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows."

T 3:14 Help people in need

"And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful."

--do good things--

I 4:12 Prove your worth with actions

"Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity"

T 2:7 You should do good works and have dignity and integrity

"Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,"

T 3:8 People should devote themselves to good works.

"The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people."

II 2:10 endure hardship to help other people out

"Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

--don't do bad things--

I 1:9-10 those who strike their fathers and mothers, murderers, enslavers, liars, and perjurers are bad

"...those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers..."

T 2:8 leave your enemies nothing bad to say about you

"and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us."

T 3:2 Be nice to everyone, don't spread rumors

"to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people."

I 2:8 Avoid anger and quarreling. 

"I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling"

--the rest--

I 4:14 do not neglect your gifts

"Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you."

I 5:24-25 some deeds (good and bad) are obvious, but some are hidden, only showing up later

"The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden"

II 4:2 Always be prepared to teach, also teach with patience

"preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching."

T 2:2 You should be sober-minded, dignified, and self-controlled

"Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness."

T 3:3 Remember the mistakes you made in the past and give other people some leeway as well

"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another."

Phil 8-9, 14 making request is better than giving orders

"Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you..."

"but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord."

Phil 16 Paul requests Onesimus be released from slavery

"no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother--especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord."

Phil 18 Paul takes on Onesimus' debt

"If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account."

Redacted Good Items:

I 1:4 myth, genealogies and speculation are bad

"nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith."

I was clearly trying to hard to come up with a good item here, this is just Paul saying other religions are bad

I 1:6-7 don't confidently teach things you don't understand

"Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions."

This conflicts with every mention of faith, examples are plentiful

II 2:25 Calm discussion is best

"[RE: the Lord's servants] correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth"

This sounds good, but Paul regularly instructs his leaders to rebuke those who need correction. A perfect example is 1 Timothy 5:20

Bad:

--slavery--

I 6:1 Slaves should work hard to reflect well on God

"Let all who are under a yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled

T 2:9 Endorsement of slavery

"Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative"

Phil 11 it is implied that trading slaves is an acceptable form of payment

"Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me."

--women--

I 2:12 Women are not allowed to be teachers

"I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet"

I 5:13 young single women are gossips and busybodies

"Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not."

II 3:6 anti-women

"For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions"

T 2:3-5 A woman's main goal should be to please her husband

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled."

--faith--

I 1:5 Love comes from sincere faith

"The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."


I 6:11 Faith is a virtue

"But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness"

II 1:5 faith is a virtue, also nepotism

"I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well."

II 3:14 Keep believing what you already believe

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it"

Phil 6 we gain knowledge through faith

"and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ"

--other religions are bad--

I 1:3 Don't let people teach other religions

"As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine"

I 4:1 People who disagree with us follow demons

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons"

I 4:7 Divisive, calls other religions silly myths

"Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness"

I 6:3-4 Demonizing other religions

"If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions"

T 1:10, 14, 16 Antisemitic 

"For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party"

"not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth"

"They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."

T 1:11 Jews are greedy

"They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach."

--glorification of suffering--

II 1:8 suffering is good

"Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God"

II 2:3 Suffering itself is a good thing

"Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus."

--fear mongering--

I 5:8,20 Ruling through fear

"But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever"

"As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear."

--anti-intellectualism--

I 6:20 Anti-intellectual

"O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge,"


II 3:7 anti-intellectual

"always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth."

T 3:9 Don't have disagreements or quarrels

"But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless."

T 3:10-11 If someone asks too many questions, warn them twice, then have nothing to do with them. Anti-intellectualism.

"As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned."

II 2:16 looking at details is bad

"But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness"

--the rest--

I 1:9 people are either good or bad, no in between

"...the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless..."

I 1:10 sex and being gay are bad

"the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality..."

II 1:9 God works in mysterious ways

"who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began"

II 1:18 Paul seems to think the end times are near

"may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day!--and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus"

II 2:22 passion is bad, and another mixed list of good and bad things claimed all good

"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."

II 3:2-5 Another list, grouping bad things with not so bad things

"For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people."

II 3:12 Christians will be persecuted

"Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted"

II 3:16 All scripture is breathed out by God (clearly false)

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness"

II 4:14 Wishing for revenge through God

"Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds."

T 1:12-13 Obvious straw man

"One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.' This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,"

T 3:1 Promoting submission and obedience, also coupling of ideas.

"Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work"

Phil 19-20 By being saved, your life is owed to the church

"I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it--to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ."

Interesting:

I 2:4 God desires that all people be saved. Why doesn't he make it happen if he's all powerful?

"[God,] who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Philemon

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As usual, let's start by looking at the wikipedia page for Philemon. Apparently Philemon was the leader of the Colossian church. The book is generally regarded as one of the undisputed works of Paul, neat.

Greeting (v. 1-3)

Mostly just a greeting, Paul says he's writing the letter from jail, and that in addition to Philemon, he intends for Apphia and Archippus to read this.

Philemon's Love and Faith (v. 4-7)

Philemon's love and faith are great, he should share them. v.6 "I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good things that is in us for the sake of Christ"

This section is mostly just Paul telling Philemon how awesome he is. I found verse 6 interesting, Paul says he wants Philemon to share his love and faith and he hopes that it will give us knowledge. I guess it really highlights a way of thinking, if we get our knowledge directly from God (or from the spirit or something) then the best thing we can do for knowledge it to spend all of our time getting closer to God. All important knowledge will come as a consequence of that. It actually has a sort of logic to it, the problem is if you are wrong about God existing, or if you believe in the wrong God, it is a huge waste of time.

Paul's Plea for Onesimus (v. 8-22)

Philemon had sent his slave Onesimus to help out Paul, and now Paul is sending him back to serve Onesimus once again. Part of Paul wishes he could keep Onesimus near him instead, but he is sending him back to Philemon because he doesn't want Philemon to do something purely by command. (I'm guessing they had previously agreed that Onesimus would help Paul out for a specified amount of time and then be returned). Paul says he loves Onesimus and wants Philemon to accept him back as a brother, not as a slave. He says if Onesimus has wronged Philemon or owes him anything, the debt should be applied to Paul instead.

I actually like this section quite a lot, which is pretty remarkable since it does involve the topic of slavery. Let's actually hit that topic right away, in verse 16 Paul pleads for Philemon to release him from slavery and instead treat him as a brother. This is pretty awesome, as freedom has got to be one of the greatest things you could give to a slave. In fact, I could imagine a modern day reader might try to argue that this is an indictment of slavery as a whole. I think this is taking it a bit far, as the plea from Paul is a specific plea for a specific slave he has grown close to. This doesn't read to me as "slavery is bad, everyone deserves freedom", but rather it reads as "I love this person, please free him". That being said, the simple fact that there is an argument (even a tortured argument) within the bible that slavery should go away is a good thing.

As expected, Guzik tries to make this argument. He says "Paul effectively abolished the sting of the “master-slave” relationship and laid the foundation for the eventual legal abolition of slavery." and he quotes Bruce who says "What the letter to Philemon does is to bring the institution into an atmosphere where it could only wilt and die". This argument falls flat for me, as slavery was still around for another good 1800 years.

Paul says twice (v. 8-9 and 14) that he is in a position of power over Philemon and he could order him to do something, but he doesn't want that, he wants Philemon to act on his own accord. This is pretty cool. My understanding is that Paul is basically the pope of the early church. As he says, he could simply command Philemon to do whatever he wants him to do. But instead he makes it a request, and even sends Onesimus back to Philemon to fulfill their previous deal. Seems like a good way for a leader to act, trust your people to do what is right, encourage them, but give them some latitude.

In verse 18, Paul takes on Philemon's debt. This is pretty great as well, it gives Philemon no excuse to not free Onesimus. He is really going above and beyond to help this guy out. One thought I had was that since Paul was in jail, taking on his debt isn't a big deal, but I quickly abandoned that thought. Paul is in charge of the church, and presumably he is in charge of a great deal of resources at this point. Furthermore, he obviously cares greatly about the church, giving away the churches time and money is not something he would do lightly. The more I think about this, the more it seems like a very nice gesture. One final point here, in v22 Paul asks that a room be prepared for him, he clearly doesn't expect to be in jail for much longer, which is a further point in favor of Paul taking this debt very seriously

If I want to be nitpicky (and I do) there is one verse in this section I really don't like. v11 is talking about the situation where Onesimus was sent from Philemon to Paul, it says "formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me." The way I read this is that Philemon owed Paul something, and he decided to pay him with a fairly useless slave. Paul says this in a fairly matter of fact way. It apparently makes sense to him that slaves are properly used as payment. This makes sense, as slavery was just a fact of life at the time, but it is part of what keeps this section from being an indictment of slavery in its entirety.

Well this is interesting, Guzik says that Onesimus ran away from Philemon and went to Paul. So him being formerly useless is because he had run away. Having run away, he was no longer in the possession of Philemon and is therefore useless to him. I'm not sure I am convinced, but this certainly seems consistent with what is written in the text. In verse 15, it says "this is perhaps why he was parted from you for a while". I interpreted this as him being traded, but perhaps it means he ran away. I tried looking at other translations to see if it helps, but it still seems pretty ambiguous to me. I tried looking at other translations, but it is not clear, I still think it reads more like a loan of a slave.

v19-20 "I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it--to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ."

This is interesting, he is trying to say that he will repay any debt that is owed to Philemon by Onesimus, and he follows up by pointing out what Philemon owes him. He basically says Philemon owes him his life since Paul saved him. Makes me think back to Pascal's wager, can you really say you lose nothing by believing?

One other stupid thing I'll mention, I don't really know what to make of this, but both Guzik and Gill noted that Onesimus means profitable. Is this actually a real story, or is it supposed to be a lesson and the characters are aptly named? It's not impossible that his name means profitable and he happens to be in a dispute over whether or not he is a profitable slave, but it sounds like lazy writing. To use an  analogy, I'm sure there are some librarians with the last named Bookman, but if you saw one in a story with that name you'd probably judge the writer for it.

Final Greetings (v. 23-25)

Just says goodbye, nothing to see here.

For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)

Good:

Phil 8-9, 14 making request is better than giving orders

"Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you..."

"but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord."

Phil 16 Paul requests Onesimus be released from slavery

"no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother--especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord."

Phil 18 Paul takes on Onesimus' debt

"If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account."

Bad:

Phil 6 we gain knowledge through faith

"and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ"

Phil 11 it is implied that trading slaves is an acceptable form of payment

"Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me."

Phil 19-20 By being saved, your life is owed to the church

"I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it--to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ."

I've mentioned this before, and if I recall correctly, it has always gone in the other direction before. But simply counting the number of good versus bad is not a very good metric for judging how good or bad a book is. In this instance, I have 3 good things and 3 bad things, but I would not judge this book as equally good and bad. In my opinion, the bad things are more nitpicky, and in v11 it is an interpretation of mine that I'm not even particularly confident of (I still think it's worth mentioning though). The point is, even though we have 3 vs. 3 here, I would argue that this book is more good than bad if we examine the content more deeply.