Apostle Paul in the context of "Ante-Nicene Period"

Intercession or intercessory prayer is the act of praying on behalf of others, or asking a saint in heaven to pray on behalf of oneself or for others.

The Apostle Paul's exhortation to Timothy specified that intercession prayers should be made for all people.

The Areopagus (/æriˈɒpəɡəs/) was a principal council of ancient Athens, later serving mainly as a judicial body responsible for cases of homicide, wounding, and certain religious offenses. It met on a rocky outcrop called the “Hill of Ares,” northwest of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, from which it took its name. Its English name comes from the Late Latin composite form of the Greek name Areios Pagos, translated "Hill of Ares" (Ancient Greek: Ἄρειος Πάγος). The war god Ares was supposed to have been tried by the other gods on the Areopagus for the murder of Poseidon's son Halirrhothius, a typical example of an aetiological myth.

Christianity in the ante-Nicene period was the period in Christian history following the Apostolic Age (1st century AD) up to the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD). Although the use of the term Christian (Koine Greek: Χριστιανός) is attested in the Acts of the Apostles (80–90 AD), the earliest recorded use of the term Christianity (Koine Greek: Χριστιανισμός) is attested by the ante-Nicene Father and theologian Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107 AD).

While the Jewish–Christian community was centered in Jerusalem in the 1st century AD, Gentile Christianity spread widely in the 2nd century AD. One stream of Gentile Christianity (so-called "proto-Orthodox Christianity") that emerged in this period in the persons and theological positions of the Apostolic Fathers would eventually become the international Great Church. Proto-Orthodox Christianity placed importance on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as saving humanity, and described Jesus as the incarnated Son of God come to Earth. The 2nd and 3rd centuries AD saw a sharp separation between Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity, with the latter being derived from the teachings of the Apostle Paul. There was an explicit rejection of Second Temple Judaism and Jewish culture by the end of the 2nd century, with a growing body of anti-Jewish Christian literature. Many doctrinal variations in this era defy neat categorizations, as various forms of Christianity interacted in a complex fashion.

The First Epistle to Timothy is one of three letters in the New Testament of the Bible often grouped together as the pastoral epistles, along with Second Timothy and Titus. The letter, traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, consists mainly of counsels to his younger colleague and delegate Timothy regarding his ministry in Ephesus (1:3). These counsels include instructions on the organization of the Church and the responsibilities resting on certain groups of leaders therein as well as exhortations to faithfulness in maintaining the truth amid surrounding errors.

Most modern scholars consider the pastoral epistles to have been written after Paul's death, although "a small and declining number of scholars still argue for Pauline authorship".

In Christianity, the apostle Paul introduced the concept of the spiritual body (Koine Greek: sōma pneumatikos) in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 15:44), describing the resurrected body as "spiritual" (pneumatikos) in contrast to the natural (psychikos) body:

Christian teaching traditionally interprets Paul as comparing a resurrected body with a mortal body, saying that it will be a different kind of body; a "spiritual body", meaning an immortal body, or incorruptible body (15:53—54). In the Catholic Church, traditionally the resurrected body is called the "glorified body", and retained four characteristics: incorruptibility, subtlety, impassibility, and agility. The bodies of the damned are also raised incorrupt, but not glorified or free from suffering.

Veria (Greek: Βέροια or Βέρροια, romanized: Véroia or Vérroia; Aromanian: Veria), officially transliterated Veroia, historically also spelled Beroea or Berea, is a city in Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the regional unit of Imathia. It is located 511 kilometres (318 miles) north-northwest of the capital Athens and 73 km (45 mi) west-southwest of Thessaloniki.

Even by the standards of Greece, Veria is an old city; first mentioned in the writings of Thucydides in 432 BC, there is evidence that it was populated as early as 1000 BC. Veria was an important possession for Philip II of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) and later for the Romans. Apostle Paul famously preached in the city, and its inhabitants were among the first Christians in the Empire. Later, under the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, Veria was a center of Greek culture and learning. Today Veria is a commercial center of Central Macedonia, the capital of the regional unit of Imathia and the seat of a Church of Greece Metropolitan bishop in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as a Latin Catholic titular see.

The Areopagus sermon refers to a sermon delivered by the Apostle Paul in Athens, at the Areopagus, and recounted in Acts 17:16–34. The Areopagus sermon is the most dramatic and most fully-reported speech of the missionary career of Saint Paul and followed a shorter address in Lystra recorded in Acts 14:15–17.

Backsliding, also known as falling away or described as "committing apostasy", is a term used within Christianity to describe a process by which an individual who has converted to Christianity reverts to pre-conversion habits and/or lapses or falls into sin, when a person turns from God to pursue their own desire. To revert to sin or wrongdoing, especially in religious practice, someone lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior. To be faithful, thus to believe backsliding is a reversion, in principle upholds the Apostle Paul’s condition in salvation: "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)

In Christianity, within the Roman Catholic Church as well as those denominations which teach Arminianism (such as the Methodist churches), backsliding is a state which any free-willed believer is capable of adopting. This belief is rejected by Reformed Christians endorsing the perseverance of the saints doctrine. In these denominations, it is taught that the backslidden individual is in danger of eventually going to Hell if he does not repent (see Conditional security). Historically, backsliding was considered a trait of the Biblical Israel which would turn from the Abrahamic God to follow idols. In the New Testament church (see Acts of the Apostles and Christianity in the 1st century), the story of the Prodigal Son has become a representation of a backslider who repented.