Paul is to be admired for wanting to do the most for Jesus that he could wherever he was. Of course, one might say this was easy for Paul, since he was in prison but such prayer is never easy.
Prayers night and day also shows how much Paul prayed: Whenever it was night or whenever it was day. Paul made it a regular practice to pray with a list and to at least mention in prayer those who were precious to him. Without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day: Timothy was on Paul’s prayer list. So I shall take those three things to myself: ‘Grace, mercy, and peace.’ You may have the two, ‘Grace and peace,’ but I need mercy more than any of you so I take it from my Lord’s loving hand, and I will trust, and not be afraid, despite all my shortcomings, and feebleness, and blunders, and mistakes, in the course of my whole ministry.” (Spurgeon)Ĭ. “Did you ever notice this one thing about Christian ministers, that they need even more mercy than other people? Although everybody needs mercy, ministers need it more than anybody else and so we do, for if we are not faithful, we shall be greater sinners even than our hearers, and it needs much grace for us always to be faithful, and much mercy will be required to cover our shortcomings. But when he wrote to the pastors – Timothy and Titus – he was compelled to write grace, mercy, and peace to them. After all, in the beginning to his letters to churches in general, Paul only wrote grace and peace in his greeting ( Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, Colossians 1:2, 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:2). Grace, mercy, and peace: Spurgeon used this verse, along with 1 Timothy 1:2 and Titus 1:4 to show that ministers need more mercy than others do. To Timothy, a beloved son: Paul thought much about his spiritual family – about Timothy, a beloved son and about his true forefathers, those Jews before Paul’s time that genuinely followed God with a pure heart, not in the self-righteousness of the Pharisees.ī. I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.Ī. To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. ( 2Ti 1:2-5) A greeting and a happy remembrance. Paul sensed this therefore 2 Timothy is not only the last letter we have from Paul, there is a note of urgency and passion we might expect from a man who knew he would soon be executed.Ģ. Paul wrote this letter from his second Roman imprisonment, and he would be soon after the writing be condemned and executed in Rome at the command of Nero. No windows, just a cold, little cell that would have been especially uncomfortable in winter. It is really just a cold dungeon, a cave in the ground, with bare walls and a little hole in the ceiling where food was dropped down. One can go to Rome today and see the place where they say Paul was imprisoned. The Bible doesn’t tell us the details, but it seems that after Paul was released from the Roman imprisonment mentioned at the end of the book of Acts, he enjoyed a few more years of liberty until he was re-arrested, and imprisoned in Rome again. Therefore, this promise was even more precious.
It was appropriate here because Paul was imprisoned again in Rome, facing execution ( 2 Timothy 4:6). According to the promise of life: This statement is unique compared to greetings in Paul’s other letters. Everyone has their own role to play, and to fulfill it by the will of God.ī. Paul had a role to play in God’s plan for reaching the world for Jesus Christ, and his role was apostle – a unique ambassador from God to the world. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God: Paul’s introduction here is like his other letters, with an immediate recognition that he is an apostle according to the will of God, not according to the ambition or whim of man. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.Ī.
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