1
“To: Timothy, My Dear Son”
1 From: Paul, an apostle of Messiah Jesus by the will of God, in regard to+ the promised life that is found in union with Messiah Jesus.
2 To: Timothy, my dear son.
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Messiah Jesus our Lord.
“Join with Me in Suffering for the Gospel”
3 I am grateful to God, whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clean conscience, as I remember ˢyou+ in my prayers continually night and day,
4 longing to see you again, as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy,
5 having been reminded+ about the truly genuine and sincere faith that dwells in you—the kind of faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and which, I am convinced, dwells in you, too.
6 That is why I am reminding you to fan into flame the gift graciously given to you by God, which you received when I commissioned and laid hands on you.
7 God has given us a Spirit+ not of cowardice, you see, but of power and love and good judgment.+
8 Don’t be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, therefore, or of me, a prisoner because of my service to him,+ but join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,
9 who saved us and summoned us with a holy summons, not according to our deeds, but according to his own plan+ and gift, which he planned to grant to us through union with Messiah Jesus before the beginning of the ages,+
10 but has now disclosed through the appearing of our Savior, Messiah Jesus, who has broken the power of death and shed light on life and immortality through the gospel,
11 for which I was appointed a messenger and apostle and teacher.
12 That is why I am suffering, too, these things. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know the one in whom I have placed my faith and am convinced that he is more than able to guard, until that Day, that which he has entrusted to my care.+
13 Hold fast to what you learned+ from me as the pattern+ of sound teaching,+ with the faith and love that are found in union with Messiah Jesus.+
14 Those precious+ things that have been entrusted to you guard carefully, by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
15 This you know: All in the province of Asia have turned their backs+ on me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.
16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he was a source of relief to me time and time again, and was not ashamed of these chains of mine.
17 On the contrary, when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me most earnestly until he found me.
18 May the Lord allow him to find mercy from the Lord in that Day. And you know even better than I+ all the many ways he served in Ephesus.