This volume seeks to expound 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, which are generally known as The Pastoral Espistles, and Paul's only surviving private letter, Philemon.
The Pastoral Epistles, as 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are called, have been undeservedly neglicted by ordinary readers of the Bible. They are of the greatest interest, for no letters in the New Testament give such a vivid picture of the growing Church. In them we see the problems of a Church which is a little island of Chirstianity in a sea of paganism; and in them we see as nowhere else the first beginnings of the ministry of the Church. These letters have an interest on their own; and the more studies them, the more interesting they become. It has been the fashion to describe them as sub-aphostolic, to speak of them as a second generation Christianity, to imply or even to say they fall below the level of the letters written in the great thrilling dawn of the Church. But the fact is that just because they were written when the Church was becoming an institution, they speak most directly to our situation and condition.