2 Timothy 1:1,2 - To Timothy, my beloved child

1:1

As mentioned in the introduction, this is Paul’s final charge to Timothy. Paul is near the end of his ministry and is giving Timothy the benefit of all he has learnt over his many years of serving Christ. As he does in most of his letters, Paul introduces himself as an apostle of Christ JEsus by the will of God. Lest anyone takes this as boasting, we should remember that as far as Paul was concerned being an apostle involved regular periods of imprisonment, beatings, false accusations etc. This was “in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus”. We do well to remember that. Any position of leadership involves cost, and at times we can wonder if it is really worth it. The answer is yes, because the task we have is one of bringing life to others, and of receiving life ourselves. Or rather, it is Christ bringing life to others and ourselves, and involving us in the process.

1:2

Having introduced himself, Paul then names Timothy as the recipient of the letter, and addresses him as “my dear son”. Paul had trained Timothy, but this was much more than a mentor-mentee relationship. There is a tendency in the church today to talk about things in terms of management speak. While there are things we can learn from management skills and methods, we need also to remember that there is so much more. Everything in the church should be about a relationship in Christ.

“Grace, mercy and peace”. This again appears at the start of all of Paul’s letters, and we need to remember it, especially in leadership positions. We encounter all sorts of situations, many of which are, humanly speaking, beyond us. We also know that we have many failings and make many mistakes. So what chance is there for us? How can we ever hope to succeed, or even have any right to do what we do? It is because of the grace and mercy of God, towards us, and towards those whom we serve. And then there is the peace of God. We should look for the peace of God in the midst of the trials, and ask God to give us His peace. By nature we would look for peace by giving up! By the Spirit we can look for peace in Christ in the midst of the battle.