Pauline Epistles Reflective Essay

Abstract

The three Paul's letters (1Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus), which are also called Pastoral Epistles, are addressed by Paul to individual pastors. The first two are written to Timothy while the last is addressed to Titus. Since these three letters are for particular individual pastors, they only include very specific instructions compared to the other letters of Paul. Paul considers Titus and Timothy to be his sons in the walk of faith (Tit 1:4; 1 Tim 1:2). Paul trusts the two pastors to manage well the local churches they have been given a task of taking care of and maintain only his sound teaching (Tit 1:5, 2:1; 1 Tim 4:6). Each pastoral epistle has a high-level idea that is important for the churches today. No wonder, these letters still teach people on how the church ought to be managed well—they are specifically helpful for those people are planting a church (Fiore, 2007). Pauline themes carried out in the Pastoral Epistles are Pastoral care of the faithful, overcoming hardship in the ministry and overseeing the Church according to the truth and true faith, I am going to expound on this in reference to my church. Paul mainly instructs Timothy and Titus regarding sound doctrines of the church, Christian conducts, and the proper structure and order of church leadership.

In 1 Timothy the letter mainly talks of Paul's guide to sound teaching for Timothy, the young pastor, and godliness at Ephesus. The audience is Timothy and Bishop of Ephesus. The main theme is 1 Timothy is Pastoral care of the faithful. The letter talks of the role of clergy care for women, slaves and widows, combating heresy, and ministry. The main purpose of writing 2 Timothy was tell Timothy that Paul's death is closer, and thus he charges him to continue with his gospel work. The audience is still Timothy and Bishop of Ephesus, and the key theme overcoming hardship in the ministry. The third letter that is addressed to Titus was to tell him that he was left with a task at Crete of setting up orders in the churches out there. The audience is Titus and Bishop of Crete and the opponents are various heretics that include Judaizers and gnostics. The main theme in Titus was overseeing the Church according to the truth and true faith (Fiore, 2007).