Chapter 1

(vv. 1-2)
Paul's salutation to Timothy.
(v. 3)
For what purpose he had left him at Ephesus.
(vv. 4-7)
What the false apostles taught in opposition to the truth.
(vv. 8-11)
The true use of the law.
(vv. 12-17)
Paul thanks God for his own conversion, and describes his former State.
(vv. 18-20)
Paul exhorts Timothy to hold fast faith and a good conscience, and speaks of Hymeneus and Alexander who had made shipwreck of their faith.

         The introduction that Paul gives to this epistle is different from the others that he has written.  One big difference is that in this epistle he is writing to a person, while in his others he is writing to churches.  The reason for Paul’s writing to Timothy is apparent.  After Paul was released from his Roman imprisonment, he returned to Ephesus, where he found that the church in Ephesus had gotten entangled in a storm of false (i.e., heretical) teachings.  What he found there was really a fulfillment of the warning that he had given to the Ephesian pastors some five year previously (Acts 20:29-30).
         The place of the writing of the epistle:  It seems that Paul was in Macedonia when he wrote this epistle to Timothy; while the purpose of the writing seems to express his concern for the young preacher Timothy.  The opposition in which he, Timothy, was facing in his work there in Ephesus made it necessary that he be given some special authorizations, beyond that of just a verbal commission, in order to enable him to exercise the authority that Paul had already given to him.  First Timothy is basically a Charge to Timothy Regarding False Teachers.