Paul expresses his gratitude to God for Timothy, recalling his faith and the faith of his mother and grandmother, and encourages Timothy to revive the gift of God within him. He reminds Timothy that God has given him a spirit of power, love, and self-control, and urges him not to be ashamed of the Gospel or of Paul's imprisonment. Paul has been appointed to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles and is confident in God's power to preserve what has been entrusted to him. He instructs Timothy to hold to sound doctrine and guard the good entrusted to him through the Holy Spirit.
1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, in accord with the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus 2 to Timothy, most beloved son. Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord 3 I give thanks to God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. For without ceasing I hold the remembrance of you in my prayers, night and day 4 desiring to see you, recalling your tears so as to be filled with joy 5 calling to mind the same faith, which is in you unfeigned, which also first dwelt in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice, and also, I am certain, in you 6 Because of this, I admonish you to revive the grace of God, which is in you by the imposition of my hands 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of virtue, and of love, and of self-restraint 8 And so, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. Instead, collaborate with the Gospel in accord with the virtue of God 9 who has freed us and has called us to his holy vocation, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus, before the ages of time 10 And this has now been made manifest by the illumination of our Savior Jesus Christ, who certainly has destroyed death, and who has also illuminated life and incorruption through the Gospel 11 Of this Gospel, I have been appointed a preacher, and an Apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles 12 For this reason, I also suffer these things. But I am not confounded. For I know in whom I have believed, and I am certain that he has the power to preserve what was entrusted to me, unto that day 13 Hold to the kind of sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus 14 Guard the good entrusted to you through the Holy Spirit, who lives within us 15 Know this: that all those who are in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phigellus and Hermogenes 16 May the Lord have mercy on the house of Onesiphorus, because he has often refreshed me, and he has not been ashamed of my chains 17 Instead, when he had arrived in Rome, he anxiously sought me and found me 18 May the Lord grant to him to obtain mercy from the Lord in that day. And you know well in how many ways he has ministered to me at Ephesus