2 Timothy 1:1-18

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: 2 Timothy

Rusty's Notes

64 A.D.

• Rome was burned, and the blame was placed on the Christians.
• Therefore, being a public Christian or follower of Paul became dangerous.

War in Jerusalem - Spring 66 A.D.

• The Jewish revolt against Rome begins.
• For the next four years, war will rage between Jewish revolutionaries and Roman soldiers, beginning in Judea and spreading throughout Israel.
• There is great unrest and discord in the city of Jerusalem.
• The Christians leave the city and disperse into the Gentile churches outside of Israel.

67 A.D.

• Paul is still imprisoned in Rome.
• Priscilla and Aquila are still in Ephesus, trying to save the church from the constant threat of heresy.
• The false teachers are winning out, and there is a wholesale departure from Paul’s ministry in Asia Minor.
• Further, because Paul is imprisoned, the Christians no longer wish to associate with him out of fear that they, too, will be imprisoned.
• Two brothers in Christ that Paul trusted Phygelus (fe-jealous) and Hermogenes (Hermo-je-knees) turn away from him.
• Demas forsakes Paul because of his love for the world and returns to Thessalonica.
• Paul sends a man named Crescens to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia (Illyricum) to work with the churches there.
• He sends Tychicus and Onesiphorus back to Ephesus to help Priscilla and Aquila.
• Paul’s preliminary hearing (primo actio) occurs, but no one is present to support him. (2 Timothy 4:16)
• Due to Paul's lack of support, the trial goes forward.
• Upon hearing this, Luke immediately visits Paul in prison.
• Some survivors from Nero’s persecution of the Roman church also visit Paul to check on him occasionally.
• Among them are Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, and Claudia.
• Paul is burdened for the future of the churches.
• He knows that his time of departure is near.
• Paul longs to see Timothy and prays for him day and night.
• He wishes to encourage Timothy in his calling, to exhort him to be optimistic and strong in the face of his opposers, to warn him of the coming apostasy (falling away), and to remind him of those intangible things that he (Paul) has deposited in him over the years.
• Nero committed suicide in June 68 A.D.

 
Date: Fall of 67 A.D.

• (4:21 - Make every effort to come before winter.)

 
Author: Paul (Prison in Rome)

• (2:9 - For this, I suffer, to the point of being bound like a criminal)
• Knew he was going to die soon (4:6 - For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close.)

Recipient: Timothy (Ephesus – Several references)

• 2 Timothy was written as a personal letter to Timothy to encourage him and ask him to come see him in Rome.
• Written to a friend who understood his theology.
• Not Titus: a church that didn’t understand.
• Not 1 Timothy: a church understood but chose to ignore.

GREETING
2 TIMOTHY 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, for the sake of the promise of life in Christ Jesus:

•  When friends desert us, and opposition becomes intense, nothing gives Christians confidence like the assurance that we are doing God's will.

2 To Timothy, my dearly loved son.

•  This description emphasized Paul's affection for Timothy and his relationship with him as a spiritual son and protégé whom he had nurtured in the faith.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.


THANKSGIVING
3 I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, when I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. 4 Remembering your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and now, I am convinced, is in you also.

•  Paul voiced in his first epistle to Timothy thanks for his own salvation and ministry (1 Tim. 1:12 - I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry[1]).
•  In this second epistle, he began with thanks for Timothy's salvation and ministry.
•  His tears – Due to the separation in 1 Timothy 1:3 - As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine 4 or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies.[2]
•  How do your family members influence your faith?
•  What is it about Moms?

6 Therefore, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands.

•  Timothy received divine enablement to do the work God was leading him into.
•   It was not Paul that gave Timothy the Spirit… It was purely symbolic.
•   March 26, 1989 – I was “ordained” and had hands laid upon me.

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power,, love, and sound judgment.

•   7 God doesn't want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible. (The Message)
•   7  For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. (NAS)
•   7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. (NIV & NLT)
•   “us” – Encouragement to Timothy but included himself so as not to call out.
•   What did they have to be “fearful/timid” of? Nero & the Romans!
  
  

NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL
8 So don’t be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, or of me his prisoner. Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.

•   Nothing for you to be ashamed of… I’m in prison because I have been spreading the Gospel.
•   What if the same thing happens to you!?!
•   It would be worth it!
•   Just trust the Lord.
  

9 He has 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 in Christ Jesus before time began.

•   God has delivered us from the penalty and power of sin.
•   He has called us to a special purpose, not because of us but by His free choice.
•   Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace.
•   He enables us to achieve this purpose by His sufficient grace that comes to us in Christ.
•   Which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.
•   Our calling took place before the creation of the universe (cf. Eph. 1:4; Rom.16:25; Titus 1:2)

10 This has now been made evident through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

•   But God has revealed its full dignity only since Christ has come.
•   Jesus Christ destroyed the effects of death and made it possible for us to live with God eternally.

11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher,

•   The gospel is the revelation of this plan, but Timothy appears to have felt ashamed of it!
•   Paul proudly acknowledged that God had appointed him, of all people, a herald (announcer), an apostle (establisher), and a teacher (perpetrator) of this good news.
•   What an honor and privilege it is to communicate the gospel

12 and that is why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me, until that day.

•   Paul suffered imprisonment and the discomforts associated with it because he preached the gospel.
•   Nevertheless, he was not ashamed of the gospel or himself.
•   His confidence lay in the person of God.
•   He believed that God is faithful.
•   God would protect something that Paul had placed with God for His protection and preserve that until the day he would see Christ face to face.
  
  

BE LOYAL TO THE FAITH
13 Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

•   Timothy felt the temptation to modify his message and stop preaching it.
•   Paul urged him, therefore, to continue preaching the same message he had heard from Paul and to do so with trust in God and love for people, which Jesus Christ would supply.
•   "With his usual skillful way with words, Paul is saying in effect that as God has guarded the deposit of his life (and will guard Timothy's) so also Timothy must guard the deposit of the faithful account.

14 Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
 

•   He should guard God's revelation that God had entrusted to him as a minister of the gospel (cf. 1 Tim. 6:20).
•   The indwelling Holy Spirit (as well as the Son, v. 13) would enable him to do so.
•   "The appeal has come full circle.
•   It began with God's Spirit and his power and ended with the Spirit's enabling power."

15 You know that all those in the province of Asia have deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

•   The Christians in Ephesus and in the province of Asia where Ephesus stood had so thoroughly abandoned Paul that he could say all had turned from him.
•   Paul may have meant all the leaders or his former colleagues who had left him by himself in prison in Rome.
•   Probably not all these people had turned from the gospel; the statement is probably exaggerated.
•   Timothy was the last to maintain his loyalty to and support of Paul in that group, and he was now feeling tempted to abandon him.
•   Phygelus and Hermogenes' names occur nowhere else in Scripture.
•   They had been strong supporters of the apostle in the past but had eventually turned away from him as the rest.

16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he diligently searched for me and found me. 18 May the Lord grant that he obtain mercy from him on that day. You know very well how much he ministered at Ephesus.[3]

•   Onesiphorus (lit. help-bringer) may have been dead when Paul wrote this epistle (cf. v. 18; 4:19).
•   "In the Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla, Onesiphorus is spoken of as a convert of Paul's who gave him hospitality on his first visit to Iconium."
•   Onesiphorus' remaining household was an exception to the "all" above (v. 15), or perhaps they had felt differently and had later reaffirmed their loyalty to Paul.
•   In any case his family had diligently and unashamedly sought out Paul and had ministered to him during his current imprisonment.
•   For this Paul wished the Lord would show Onesiphorus "mercy" at the judgment seat of Christ (cf. "that day" in v. 12).
•   Because Onesiphorus had "found" Paul, Paul hoped that Onesiphorus would "find" mercy from the Lord.
•   Paul seems to have envisioned a scene in which all his unfaithful brethren would stand before the Lord, Onesiphorus among them, namely, Christ's judgment seat.
•   God would express displeasure with the failure of the others, but Onesiphorus would escape that shame (cf. 1 John 2:28).
•   Timothy knew about Onesiphorus' earlier faithful ministry in Ephesus.
•   Paul also referred to this to encourage Timothy to throw in his lot with Onesiphorus and his family rather than with those who had turned against the chained apostle.
•   "Moral behavior is best learned by observing such commitment in others.
•   Children learn this behavior from parents.
•   Young Christians learn it from older Christians.
•   Ultimately moral behavior cannot be taught merely by character-building courses in public schools.
•   Christians must see moral commitment as a sterling example in others.
•   "Paul was not ashamed to present himself as the initial example he gave to Timothy.
•   He did not doubt that his behavior was worth imitating.

  Christian leaders today need to have such a commitment to Christ that they are unashamed to say in humility, 'If you want an example to follow, look at me!'"

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 1 Ti 1:12.
[2] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 1 Ti 1:3–4.
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 2 Ti 1:1–18.