1Dear Timothy This letter is from me, Paul. God picked me out to be his special messenger to tell people about Jesus Christ. He gave me this job, to tell other people that they will live for ever if they believe in Jesus. God promises to do this for us. Timothy, I love you like you are my own son. I pray to God, and to our leader, Jesus Christ, that they will show you that they love you. I am asking them to be good to you, and to make you feel happy and quiet inside yourself.
3I thank God for you, Timothy, and I pray for you all the time, every day and every night. I work for God, and I really want to work properly for him. (My father wanted to work for God properly, too, and so did my grand-father and my family from a long time ago.)
4I remember that you cried the last time we left each other so now I really want to see you again and be really happy.
5I also remember that you really believe in Jesus. First your grand-mother Lois believed in him, then your mother Eunice. And I know that you too believe in Jesus now, just like they do.
6Do you remember the time that I laid my hands on you and prayed for you? God’s spirit gave you special power at that time. It is God’s special present to you. Well, now I want you to remember this. You have to keep using that power in your work for him. If you have not used it for a while you need to stir it up again.
7His spirit in us doesn’t make us frightened but he makes us strong so that we do great things, and he makes us love people, and he makes us stay cool and think properly.
8So don’t be ashamed to tell people about our leader, Jesus. And don’t be ashamed of me. I told people about him and now I’m in jail. But you just go ahead anyway and tell people about our leader Jesus. And then maybe some people might make trouble for you, just like they made trouble for me, but don’t worry about it. God will make you strong and you will not worry about that trouble.
9It is God that saved us, and he picked us to be his own people. We didn’t do anything to get him to like us, but he was good to us anyway. He sent Jesus Christ to come and save us. God planned all this right from before time started,
10and now he makes it clear for us all to see. Jesus came to save us, so that if we believe the good news about him we will not stay dead after we die but we will live for ever.
11And God gave me this job, to tell everyone this good story and to teach everyone that Jesus can save them.
12So I tell everyone about him. Those people that don’t like Jesus make trouble for me. But I know God, and I believe in him, so I’m not ashamed to get that trouble. I know that he will look after me right up till that last day, the day when Jesus will come back.
13Whenever you preach to people you have to make sure that you tell them the same true message that I told you before. Don’t let anyone get you to change it into a wrong message. That message is something really dear and you have really got to look after it properly. The Holy Spirit lives in us and he will help you look after it properly. So you have to make sure you keep on believing in Jesus Christ and loving people just like he does. You joined up to him now so you can do that.
15You probably know about the people that came here from Asia. They all left me now. Even Phygelus and Hermogenes left me. It is like they don’t want to know me any more.
16But Onesiphous wasn’t like that. He came here to Rome and looked everywhere for me and then he found me here. I’m in jail, but he wasn’t ashamed of me. He often came and cheered me up. So I pray that Jesus, our leader, will be really good to his family. And you already know about that time that he was over there in Ephesus with me, and he helped me in lots of ways. One day our leader, Jesus, will judge everyone and I pray that he will get God to be really good to Onesiphous on that day.
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