Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Our New Testament readers finish their 17th book today and our full Bible readers finish their 56th book.

Today and tomorrow, Paul is writing letters to the young new leaders of relatively young churches.

One of the things that's interesting to notice is which information he shares with both leaders

and what is specific to just one leader.

That can help us as we try to learn more about the context of each church's problems

and or which instructions and counsel are universal to all churches. Timothy is one of the leaders

at the church in Ephesus which Paul planted.

Ephesus is the town where they worshipped so many false gods, specifically the goddess Artemis,

that the Silversmith Union started a riot over the gospel.

The Ephesians are so steeped in their culture of pagan worship that Timothy has a real battle on his hands when it comes to good doctrine and orderly practice. They are

bookended by his desire for them to have good doctrine.

They're proud and untechable and to make matters worse,

they want to be teachers and leaders.

But good leaders are first and foremost good followers.

You can imagine how intimidating this scenario could be for Timothy.

He is the new guy in town and he's younger than most of the church members

and here Paul is telling him to rebuke the locals who want to be leaders but

who aren't even obeying the moral laws God laid out and who don't want to listen.

But there's hope for these sinners yet. After all, God saved Paul.

His story is a canvas on which God's mercy and patience shines.

And that's his hope for the too many hands over to Satan

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