Greeting and Encouragement
(Parallel teachings: 1 Timothy 4:11-16; 1 Peter 4:12-16)
- 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus the Anointed through God’s will, according to the promise of life in Jesus the Anointed,
- 2 to my beloved child Timothy: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus the Anointed our Lord.
- 3 I’m thankful to God (whom I serve with a pure conscience as my ancestors did) as I unceasingly have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day,
- 4 *remembering your tears, longing to see you so I might be filled with joy,
- 5 having received remembrance of the sincere faith in you, which first dwelled in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. And I am *persuaded that it’s also in you.
- 6 For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.fnquotation/allusion to Numbers 27:18-23; Deuteronomy 34:9 (also quoted/alluded to by 1 Timothy 4:14)
- 7 For God didn’t give us a spirit of cowardly timidity, but of power, and ^love, and self-control.
- 8 Therefore, you shouldn’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord (nor of me, His prisoner) but suffer with me for the gospel according to the power of God,
- 9 the One who saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us by Jesus the Anointed before the timefn“time” literally: “times” of the ages.
- 10 And now having been revealed through the appearance of our savior Jesus the Anointed, who indeed abolished death and illuminated life and immortality through the gospel,
- 11 of which I was appointed a herald, and an apostle, and a teacher.
- 12 I also suffer these things for this reason, but I’m not ashamed. For I *know in whom I *believe, and I’m *persuaded that He’s able to keep my deposit until that day.
- 13 Hold fast to the example of sound words which you heard from me, in the faith and ^love which are in Jesus the Anointed.
- 14 Keep the good deposit entrusted to you through the Holy Spirit, the One dwelling in us.
- 15 You *know this: that all the men in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.
- 16 May the Lord give mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and wasn’t ashamed of my chain.
- 17 But having been in Rome, he earnestly searched for me and found me.
- 18 May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord in that day! And you know very well how much he served in Ephesus too.