Study Desk

Be sure to pray that God will make a way for us to spread his message and explain the mystery about Christ, even though I am in jail for doing this.

I am sending him to cheer you up by telling you how we are getting along.

I am signing this letter myself: PAUL. Don't forget that I am in jail. I pray that God will be kind to you.

I always sign my letters as I am now doing: PAUL.

Timothy, my son, the instructions I am giving you are based on what some prophets once said about you. If you follow these instructions, you will fight like a good soldier.

This is why God chose me to be a preacher and an apostle of the good news. I am telling the truth. I am not lying. God sent me to teach the Gentiles about faith and truth.

I hope to visit you soon. But I am writing these instructions,

so that if I am delayed, you will know how everyone who belongs to God's family ought to behave. After all, the church of the living God is the strong foundation of truth.

Night and day I mention you in my prayers. I am always grateful for you, as I pray to the God my ancestors and I have served with a clear conscience.

I also remember the genuine faith of your mother Eunice. Your grandmother Lois had the same sort of faith, and I am sure that you have it as well.

Don't be ashamed to speak for our Lord. And don't be ashamed of me, just because I am in jail for serving him. Use the power that comes from God and join with me in suffering for telling the good news.

That's why I am suffering now. But I am not ashamed! I know the one I have faith in, and I am sure that he can guard until the last day what he has trusted me with.

And because of this message, I am locked up in jail and treated like a criminal. But God's good news isn't locked in jail,

and so I am willing to put up with anything. Then God's special people will be saved. They will be given eternal glory because they belong to Christ Jesus.

Timothy, you know what I teach and how I live. You know what I want to do and what I believe. You have seen how patient and loving I am, and how in the past I put up with

I would like to keep him here with me, where he could take your place in helping me while I am here in prison for preaching the good news.

I am sure you will do all I have asked, and even more.

He also said, "I will trust God." Then he said, "Here I am with the children God has given me."

That's why the Scriptures say, "I am the holy God, and you must be holy too."

It is just as God says in the Scriptures, "Look! I am placing in Zion a choice and precious cornerstone. No one who has faith in that one will be disappointed."