Greeting

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,[#2Co 1:1; #Eph 3:6]

²To Timothy, my beloved son:

Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Loyalty to the Gospel

³I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience as my forefathers did, as I continually remember you in my prayers night and day,[#Ac 23:1; #Ro 1:8–9]

⁴greatly desiring to see you, remembering your tears, that I may be filled with joy,[#2Ti 4:9, 21]

⁵remembering the genuine faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and that I am persuaded lives in you also.[#1Ti 1:5; #Ac 16:1]

⁶Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you by the laying on of my hands.[#1Ti 4:14]

⁷For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and self-control.[#Ro 8:15; #Ac 1:8]

⁸So do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, His prisoner. But share in the sufferings of the gospel by the power of God,[#Mk 8:38; #Eph 3:1]

⁹who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not by our works, but by His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,[#Ro 16:25; Titus 1:2]

¹⁰but is now revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,[#Ro 2:7; 16:26]

¹¹for which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.[#1Ti 2:7]

¹²For these things I suffer, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that Day.[#2Ti 1:8; #1Ti 6:20; 1Pe 4:19]

¹³Follow the pattern of sound teaching which you have heard from me in the faith and love that is in Christ Jesus.[#Titus 1:9; #1Ti 1:14]

¹⁴Guard the treasure that was committed to you through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.[#Ro 8:9; 1Ti 6:20]

¹⁵You know that all those who are in Asia have turned away from me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.[#Ac 19:10; 2Ti 4:16]

¹⁶May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.[#2Ti 4:19; #Ac 28:20]

¹⁷But when he arrived in Rome, he searched me out very diligently and found me.

¹⁸May the Lord grant that he may find mercy from the Lord on that Day. You know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus.[#2Ti 1:12; #Heb 6:10]