2 Timothy 1

{I,} Paul, {write this letter to you.} God chose to send me to represent Jesus the Messiah. So, I tell others that God has promised that people whom he has united to Jesus the Messiah will live {with God forever}.

{I send this letter} to you, Timothy. I love you as if you were my own son. {May} God the Father and Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, {continue to be} kind and merciful to you and {make you} peaceful. \*

I worship God just as my parents and grandparents did, and I know that I am doing what is right. I thank God when I pray for you, which I do very frequently.

I think about how you cried {when I left you}, and I desire to be with you again. Then I will rejoice greatly.

I also think about how you truly trust {in Jesus}. Your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice first trusted in him. I know that you also trust in him like they do! \*

Because you truly trust in {Jesus}, I urge you to continue to eagerly do what God has graciously enabled you to do. God enabled you to do that when I touched you {to authorize you}.

{You should eagerly do that} because God did not cause us to be afraid. Instead, he enabled us to serve him powerfully, to love others, and to control ourselves. \*

Because of that, do not think that telling people about our Lord {Jesus} disgraces you. Do not think that I, who am in jail because of him, disgrace you. Instead, you should be willing to let bad things happen to you, as they have happened to me, so that {you can proclaim} the good news. God will enable you {to endure those bad things}.

He is the one who rescued us and chose us to be people whom he sets apart for himself. He did not do those things because of what we had done. Rather, he did those things because he wanted to and because he decided to act kindly toward us. Before the world began, he prepared to act kindly toward us when he would unite us to Jesus the Messiah.

Now is the time when we can experience how God acts kindly toward us. That happens because Jesus the Messiah, the one who rescues us, came {to this world}. He has made it so that, when people die, they do not have to always be dead. He has given us the good news, which shows us how we can live {with God forever} and never die.

For the sake of that good news, God commissioned me to speak for him, to represent Jesus, and to instruct people. \*

Because {God commissioned me to do those things}, bad things are happening to me. However, I do not think that experiencing those bad things disgraces me. That is because I understand who God is. He is the one in whom I have trusted. I am sure that he will preserve what I have given to him until Jesus returns to this world.

You should maintain the basic parts of the right message that you learned from me. {As you do that,} you should trust in {Jesus} and love others. {You can do those things} because God unites you to Jesus the Messiah.

You should carefully preserve the true message that God has given to you. The Holy Spirit who empowers us will enable you {to do that}. \*

You realize that almost all the believers in {the province of} Asia {Minor} have left me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

{I pray that} the Lord {Jesus} will be kind to Onesiphorus and his family. {I pray that} since he often encouraged me. Further, even when people put me in jail, he did not think that I disgraced him.

In fact, when he came {here} to {the city of} Rome, he kept looking for me until he located me.

{So, I pray that} the Lord {Jesus} will be kind to Onesiphorus when the Lord Jesus returns to this world. Additionally, you realize how much Onesiphorus helped {me when we were} in {the city of} Ephesus. \*