Rich & Diane's Place  

Paul writes this last let­ter, addressed to Tim­o­thy, a dear friend, fel­low Chris­t­ian, a younger co-worker. He con­sid­ers Tim­o­thy a beloved son. He writes from prison, prob­a­bly around 64–67 AD, under Nero’s rule. This let­ter con­tains sev­eral reflec­tive pas­sages review­ing his life; quite appro­pri­ate as he faces imma­nent death. Accord­ing to writ­ings of Euse­bius ¹ Paul was beheaded dur­ing Nero’s reign. Still, he con­tin­ues to exhort and to encour­age Tim­o­thy to join with him in suf­fer­ing for the cause of spread­ing the Gospel.

Gen­uine Chris­tians are Com­mit­ted to Christ Dur­ing Dif­fi­cult Times

Paul, 
   an apostle of Christ Jesus 
                            by the will of God, 
                            according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus,                                                            

This seems to be a stan­dard open­ing for Paul. We are given a reminder that God’s had anointed Paul in his apos­tolic min­istry. And, although this open­ing is short, Paul, men­tions that we have the promise of life in Christ Jesus. No doubt, while fac­ing imma­nent death, impris­oned dur­ing times of per­se­cu­tion under Nero’s rule, this was an espe­cially dear com­fort to Paul.

                                
                         
                         |   Grace, |         
To Timothy,              |   mercy  |        |  God the Father        
         my beloved son: |    and   |  from  |  and                   
                         |   peace  |        |  Christ Jesus our Lord.
                         |          |

This again, fol­lows very stan­dard open­ings for Paul. Paul ask for spir­i­tual bless­ings of grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I thank God, 
          whom I serve with a clear conscience 
          the way my forefathers did,  
                                   as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, 
                                   longing to see you, 
                                                    even as I recall your tears, 
                                                    so that I may be filled with joy. 

After the open­ing, we imme­di­ately catch a glimpse of how Tim­o­thy is always on Paul’s mind. Paul longs to see him; he men­tions remem­ber­ing a time when Tim­o­thy had tears — per­haps this was the last time they were together, before they last parted com­pany. Could it have been that Roman sol­diers attested Paul, in Timothy’s pres­ence? Was young Tim­o­thy watch­ing as Paul was car­ried away, filled with tears? Is this why Tim­o­thy is always on Paul’s mind in his prayers night and day? I have no basis for this being the case, just curi­ous spec­u­la­tion — just a thought that comes to mind when read­ing this section.

What we do know, is that, his­tor­i­cally, Nero began a cam­paign of extreme per­se­cu­tions of Chris­tians around AD 64. Nero was espe­cially wicked; his­tor­i­cal accounts claim that he even mur­dered his own fam­ily mem­bers, — some accounts even include his own wife. The accu­racy of these claims are unknown, but Chris­tians were cer­tainly liv­ing in fear­ful times of severe per­se­cu­tions and Paul is impris­oned at Rome dur­ing these times — and he has a strong desire to see young Tim­o­thy, to whom this let­ter is writ­ten. Emo­tions seem high, even as Paul states, he would be filled with joy if he could see Tim­o­thy again.

Here’s some unan­swered ques­tions to think about:

• Do you think Tim­o­thy was able to meet with Paul in response to this letter?
• If they were able to met before Paul’s death, what do you think they talked about?
• How many times do you think Tim­o­thy read this let­ter from Paul?
• Do you think Tim­o­thy felt part of some­thing big, from God, that was greater than his fears of per­se­cu­tion? Do you think he pos­sessed an inner peace from God in his life?

1. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.vii.xxvi.html [↩]
2. This phrase, the way my fore­fa­thers did, may refer to: (1) Paul thanks God, as did his fore­fa­thers. (2) Paul thanks God with a clear con­scious, as did his fore­fa­thers. –or– (3) Paul thanks God con­stantly in prayers, as did his fore­fa­thers. [↩]
3. who was his fore­fa­thers? Is he talk­ing about spir­i­tual fore­fa­thers in the fam­ily of God, or his blood-related ances­tor fore­fa­thers? [↩]