We began to look at a couple of pericopes from the book of 2 Timothy a couple of Sundays ago. I touched on the purpose of 1 Timothy as the backdrop to 2 Timothy, and explored how 1 Timothy was a personal letter written by Paul to encourage and instruct his spiritual son Timothy in his challenging task of overseeing that church. There were false teachers, doctrinal errors and the fruit of these false teachings that needed to be addressed. Paul did so in 1 Timothy, practically outlining some steps that Timothy could take in addressing the specific challenges that he faced at that time and within that context. Basically, the apostle instructed his spiritual son on how to combat false teachers, and how to bring order, the qualifications required for elders and deacons, and how to deal with the different groupings of people within the church. All the while, he wanted Timothy to continue to teach sound doctrine and lead an exemplary life.