1 Timothy

First Timothy is a mentor's handbook for a young leader guarding a strategic church. Paul leaves Timothy in Ephesus to confront false teachers peddling myths and law-wrangling, and to set the church's life in order. The letter ranges over sound doctrine, prayer and worship, the character required of elders and deacons, the danger of greed, and the meaning of true godliness. Its concern is not bare rules but a community whose life matches the gospel. At its center stands a trustworthy saying: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — and a vision of the church as the household of God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.