The three pastoral letters or epistles are books of the canonical New Testament: the First Epistle to Timothy (1 Timothy) the Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Timothy) and the Epistle to Titus. They are letters from Paul the Apostle to Timothy and to Titus. They are generally discussed as a group (sometimes with the addition of the Epistle to Philemon) and are given the title pastoral because they are addressed to individuals with pastoral oversight of churches and discuss issues of Christian living, doctrine and leadership. While the title is not technically quite correct in that the Epistles do not deal with pastoral duties in the sense of the cure of souls, yet it is popularly appropriate as denoting the essentially practical nature of the subject matter as distinguished from the other Epistles attributed to Paul. The term "pastorals" was popularised in 1703 by D. N. Berdot and in 1726 by Paul Anton.

Titus 3:3 We were

Titus 3:3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
In more than one place the New Testament describes life before Christ, the life all believers lived before coming to know him, especially those outside Judaism. Paul uses a number of words or phrases to describe how it was in the past here in Titus 3:3. By nature we were foolish - morally corrupt; we were disobedient - unwilling and unable to obey God; deceived - how little did we understand of our plight and how to be delivered from it; enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures - we thought we were free but far from it, we had no choice but to follow our desires; there was also those twin evils of malice and envy. On the one hand we were hated by others and on the other we were those who were hating others. What a hopeless mess it was. This is how it continues to be for the unbeliever. What misery they know, misery that can only be removed in Christ.

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