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.

1 Timothy 4:14 Don't neglect

1 Timothy 4:14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Paul here reminds Timothy, not for the first time (see 1 Timothy 4:18) of the time when the elders laid hands on him and he was set aside to his work as part of the apostolic team. The verse is very similar to 2 Timothy 1:6. We are again reminded that when the laying on of hands took place there was prophecy and there was the receiving of the gift necessary to do the work he was due to do. It might have been tempting for Timothy to think that given the prophecy and the laying on of hands by the elders and the fact he now had the gift there was no more to be done. However, Paul tells him not to neglect the gift. No, he must pay attention to it and do all he can to cultivate and stir it up. Of course, Paul and Timothy lived in the days of extraordinary spiritual activity but to this day those called by God and gifted to be pastors and preachers must be careful not to neglect that gift.
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