2To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Next to the apostles, Timothy is probably the best-known character in the NT church. His prominence comes, of course, through his connection with the apostle Paul. Some have called him an understudy, a protégé, an apostolic delegate or assistant, a frequent traveling companion of Paul’s—all of which have an element of truth to them. He represents to us, though, an example, par excellence, of Paul’s discipleship principle:
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Tim. 2:2)
The term “apostle” is never used of him, and he was not an eyewitness of the Lord’s earthly ministry (Acts 1:21–22). Paul referred in his second letter to Timothy’s “youthfulness” (1 Tim. 4:12). Just how old would he have been? The word (“youth” in other translations) was used of “grown-up military-age men, extending to the 40th year” (EBC). Of course, he was much younger when Paul first met him in Lystra on his second mission tour, some twenty years earlier (Acts 16:1). We surmise then that he began traveling with Paul probably in his late teenage years, but here was probably in his late 30s, and possibly he may have looked young for his age, certainly much younger than the apostle.
His mother and grandmother were both Jewish, both being described as women of faith. Timothy was well taught in the way of faith by these two godly women. His father was not Jewish by background but may well have become a believer because of his relationship to two believing women and a son who was highly regarded by the believers (Acts 16:1-2). The family evidently came to faith in Christ during Paul’s first missionary tour, and then when Paul returned to visit those fledgling fellowships, he saw in Timothy a potential traveling companion. Timothy had not been circumcised as a child (indicating that although his mother was a faithful Jew, that basic sign of Jewishness was not embraced in this “mixed” marriage with the non-Jewish father). Paul corrected this problem, which would have been a stumbling block to his evangelism among the Jews, so he had Timothy circumcised (Acts 16:3).
Thus began a decades-long partnership in the gospel between the older Paul and the younger Timothy. Praise God, we have this example of propagating the Christian ministry, giving constant attention to training up those who come after us. This is passing the baton at its finest.
Lord, help me pass on to others the training that others have passed on to me.
I was thinking the “high regard” (Acts 16:2) was referring to Timothy, not his father, as verse 3 continues about Timothy. ???
Eugene, you are right, I stand corrected. Acts 16:2 in the Greek, the pronoun “he” could grammatically refer back to the most recently mentioned individual, namely the father (which was my interpretation) but the context favors seeing it as referencing Timothy, because as you say, Timothy is taken up in the next verse. Further support for that is that his father is not mentioned any further as having any positive influence over Timothy when his mother and grandmother are mentioned in that regard. One might assume that possibly the father was held in high regard since both Timothy, his mother and grandmother stand out as exemplary, but I agree that Acts 16:2 doesn’t support that conclusively.
Thanks for you feedback. Appreciated! I have changed the emed accordingly on the website accordingly.
Chuck