“Paul's First Letter to Timothy — 
Giving Heed to the Dispensation Which is According to Faith”

We introduce our studies today in Paul’s first letter to Timothy by looking at his introduction to the letter, his statement of apostleship and his very personal reference to the recipient of the letter, his very dear and precious Timothy.  The special place brother Timothy had for Paul is well summarized by this expression, my “own son in the faith”.  Paul had it seemed been the one who led Timothy to saving faith and not his mother or grandmother who are said elsewhere to be believers as well.  But the letter is written to encourage Timothy to wage warfare against the false teachers who had been so successful at Ephesus.  They were legalists of a sort and so that is his main emphasis in this chapter.  The pure and effective teaching would be concerning grace as indeed this is a special dispensation directed to that abundance of grace and the faith that engenders it as verse 4 indicates.  The best manuscripts of that verse read “the dispensation of God, the one which is of faith”!  I wish the translators of the KJV had had those manuscripts available to them, but it seems they did not.