READING: 2 Timothy 1-4 – Paul’s Last Letter                     Archives are here  

Paul wrote this letter from a prison in Rome. Seeing the end first, he sounds deserted needing friends. Demas forsook him because he loved the present world. Paul sent Tychicus to Ephesus and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke was with him. He told Timothy to bring Mark with him when he came “for he is useful in my ministry.” He asked Timothy to “bring the cloak left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.” (More writing?) In his first defense, “no one came to his support, but all deserted him.” He prayed it would not be counted against them! “The Lord stood by him and gave him strength.”  

His last words to Timothy were, “Do your best to come before winter;” he would need his cloak. Looking at the end gives us an idea of his state of mind. Yet, even in what we call depression, he gave Timothy good instructions from 1:1–4:8. He worked for the Lord in all he wrote. 

He loved Timothy and wanted to see him in chapter 1, and where he spoke of the faith that was first in Timothy’s grandmother and mother – and which was certainly in Timothy. He encouraged Timothy not to be ashamed of Paul’s suffering for the Lord but u him to join in suffering for the gospel. He spoke of the grace given in Christ before the world began, which has been revealed through the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. 

He challenged Timothy, “Hold to the sound teaching you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

Favorite passages: 

• “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” 1:7. 
• “I know the one whom I believed, and I am sure He will guard what I have entrusted to Him” 1:12. 
• “What you heard from me, entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others” 2:2. 
• “Do your best to present yourself to God, approved by him, a worker with no need to be ashamed” 2:15. 
• “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly, patient, correcting with gentleness” 2:24-25.  
• “From childhood, you knew the sacred writings instructing you for salvation through faith in Christ” 3:15. 
• “Preach the word; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable” 4:2. 
• “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. There is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not to me only, but to all who have longed for His appearing” 4:7-8. 

Paul was a great mentor for Timothy from Timothy’s teens about a.d. 50 until Paul’s death in Rome c. a.d. 66. 

I wish each believer would mentor at least one “Timothy” in our lives; one of our children, a convert we taught, or a friend we meet along the way. 

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PRAY FOR YOURSELF  

Father, I pray that I may have someone to teach me as Paul taught Timothy; this is my prayer, in the name of Jesus, Your Son, and my precious Savior, AMEN!   

MY PRAYER FOR YOU (and for myself)  

Holy Father, my prayer for all who read this and for myself, is that we will each pour ourselves into the lives of a few who will be able to do the same for another few. For myself, and for all who read this, in the precious name of Jesus, I pray, AMEN!