The Making of a Bishop

Timothy was a disciple of St. Paul. He was baptized together with Eunice, his mother and Lois, grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5) when Paul was visiting Lystra in his first missionary journey. When Paul visited the city again in his second missionary journey in around 50 A.D., he took Timothy along as an assistant in his preaching. Timothy was a half-Jew. His father was Greek and Eunice Jewish. In order to avoid unnecessary troubles from Jewish attackers, Paul took the precaution to circumcise Timothy before taking him along (Acts 16:1-3). Some fifteen years later, Paul consecrated Timothy a bishop to oversee the church in Ephesus. The church has collected two epistles written to Timothy, giving him advice to work as a bishop to oversee a church. Probably Timothy was still relatively young. Paul felt that he needed some pastoral advice. That is why the Church calls these epistles "Pastoral Epistles".

From the epistle, we know that in Ephesus, Timothy had to deal with heresies. Some people taught a different faith. Others spent their time doing curious, yet useless, tasks.
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,
nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith (1 Timothy 1:3-4)
The first and foremost responsibility of a bishop was to oversee a church. A church is a community of redeemed believers. Therefore, keeping this community together has been the primary duty of a bishop.
Heresies break up a community. When people believe in different things, or even contradictory things, schism would happen. In our daily dealing with people, we should be tolerant towards dissidents because it is morally bad to impose belief on others. Why is it bad to make people believe in the truth? It is all because of free will. A person must choose for himself, out of his free will, what to believe. Therefore, an imposed faith is worthless.
Here is a contradiction. On one hand, a bishop has to respect the free will, the conscience of a man. On the other, the bishop has to maintain the communion of the church, thus attempts to stamp out heresies. How does a bishop balance the two different demands?
A bishop should nip a heresy in the bud. Therefore, his job becomes a preventive one. Prevent the budding of heresies is better than subsequent inquisitions. That was why Paul advised Timothy to stamp out myths, genealogies and speculations.

Scholars generally believe that Paul wrote this epistle in his old age. His view on laws has become more mature. He no longer advocated faith to the exclusion of performing the law. That was the position in the Romans and Galatians. But now, Paul said something about the advantages of obeying the laws. He was still a Pharisee.
Now we know that the law is good, if any one uses it lawfully,
understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers (1 Timothy 1:8-9).
Good men do not need laws imposed on them. They do good because it is good, it is right to do so. Average men need laws to remind them not to do bad things. Bad men need the laws to scare them into doing good. Laws are useful for average men and below. As a bishop, Timothy needed to set up a correct understanding and attitude towards law.

Dear Lord, Timothy went through trainings under St. Paul to become a good and competent shepherd. I wish I may be able to serve Your fold competently in the future. Amen.