(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
Greeting and Encouragement
- Paul, an apostle of Jesus the Anointed through God’s will, according to the promise of life in Jesus the Anointed,
- to my beloved child Timothy: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus the Anointed our Lord.
- I’m thankful to God (whom I serve with a pure conscience as my ancestors did) as I unceasingly have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day,
- *remembering your tears, longing to see you so I might be filled with joy,
- having received remembrance of the sincere faith in you, which first dwelled in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. And I am *persuaded that it’s also in you.
- For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
- For God didn’t give us a spirit of cowardly timidity, but of power, and ^love, and self-control.
- Therefore, you shouldn’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord (nor of me, His prisoner) but suffer with me for the gospel according to the power of God,
- the One who saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us by Jesus the Anointed before the time1“time” literally: “times” of the ages.
- And now having been revealed through the appearance of our savior Jesus the Anointed having indeed abolished death and having illuminated life and immortality through the gospel,
- of which I was appointed a herald, and an apostle, and a teacher.
- I also suffer these things for this reason, but I’m not ashamed. For I *know in whom I *believe, and I’m *persuaded that He’s able to keep my deposit until that day.
- Hold fast to the example of sound words which you heard from me, in the faith and ^love which are in Jesus the Anointed.
- Keep the good deposit entrusted to you through the Holy Spirit, the One dwelling in us.
- You *know this: that all the men in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.
- May the Lord give mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and wasn’t ashamed of my chain.
- But having been in Rome, he earnestly searched for me and found me.
- May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord in that day! And you know very well how much he served in Ephesus too.
Next: 2 Timothy chapter 2
Previous: 1 Timothy chapter 6
Up: BOS Bible Index
Note: If you think a word, phrase, or passage could be better translated - or is wrong - then Please Say Something. This is an open source Bible that's accountable to all Christians. See this link for details.
Legal Use: Please feel free to quote the BOS Bible, but follow the guidelines on the Legal Use page when doing so. They are easy and mostly common sense.