1 Timothy

About Paul's first letter to Timothy

Paul was a Christian teacher. God sent him to many countries to tell people about Jesus Christ. Timothy was a young man who had travelled with Paul on many of Paul's journeys. See Acts 16:1-5.
After Paul had taught in different places for many years, he was a prisoner in Rome. Rome is the capital of the country that we call Italy. At that time, the Roman people were powerful and they ruled many other countries. Paul stayed in Rome for two years. See Acts 28:30. We think that he stayed there at some time between AD 59 and AD 63. That was about 30 years after Jesus died. After two years, we think that the Romans allowed Paul to leave Rome. So then Paul started travelling and teaching the Christian message again. Timothy went with him to Ephesus, a big city in the country that we call Turkey.
Paul chose Timothy to be the leader of the Christians in Ephesus. When Paul wrote this first letter to Timothy, Paul had left Ephesus. But he had told Timothy to stay there. Some people in Ephesus were teaching the Christians wrong things. These false teachers had caused some of the Christians to obey the wrong ideas that they taught. So Paul wrote to tell Timothy to stop their false teaching.
In this letter, Paul is teaching Timothy how to lead the Christians in Ephesus. Paul also describes how all Christian leaders should live. He says that they should be good examples for other people to copy.