² To Timothy, my true child^[a] in the faith:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.^(A)

² To Timothy, my beloved child:

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

⁴ To Titus, my true child^[a] in the faith we share:

Grace^[b] and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.^(A)

Fatherly Admonition

¹⁴ I am not writing this to make you ashamed but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵ For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I fathered you through the gospel.^{(A) 16} I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me.^{(B) 17} For this reason I sent^[a] you Timothy, who is my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

Timothy and Epaphroditus

¹⁹ I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I, too, may be consoled by news of you. ²⁰ I have no one so like myself who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. ²¹ All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.^{(A) 22} But Timothy’s^[a] worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.^(B)

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

16 Paul^[a] went on also to Derbe and to Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.^{(A) 2} He was well spoken of by the brothers and sisters in Lystra and Iconium. ³ Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.^(B)

² who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood:

May grace and peace be yours in abundance.^(A)

⁷ To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.^(A)

A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus

2 You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,

¹⁸ This charge I commit to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight,^(A)