God’s message is a message about his Son.  God’s redemption finds manifestation in his Son.  The future Kingdom is brought to fulfillment in its specific character as a kingdom of the redeemed by his Son.  The work of angels is marked out by God’s redemption of fallen humanity.  The work of apostles continually unfolds layers of richness in Christ.

As Paul nears the end of his earthly journey and consequently of his apostolic ministry, he gives both encouragement and admonition to his most consistent and dearly loved son in the ministry, Timothy. This short letter is remarkable for its fullness in theology, autobiography, affection for a friend, expression of lament for the fear and faithlessness of some, confidence in the perfection of the divine plan of revelation and redemption, and determination to be found working when the night finally falls on his labors.

I. Paul Reminds Timothy of Relationships

A. Relations that inform his [Paul’s] ministry

1. To God as an apostle  (1).

• His apostleship particularly concerns Christ Jesus. Throughout Paul’s ministry the whole movement of biblical theology comes to bear in his deep awareness that his task of proclamation has no object other than a display of the full riches that are in Christ. God’s message is a message about his Son.  God’s redemption finds manifestation in his Son.  The future Kingdom is brought to fulfillment in its specific character as a kingdom of the redeemed by his Son.  The work of angels is marked out by God’s redemption of fallen humanity.  The work of apostles continually unfolds layers of richness in Christ.
• It is not a chosen profession, but God’s decree (cf. Gal 1:15, 16). In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul also explores the implications of this call to apostleship. God designed him for the purpose to glorify the triune God in the proclamation and establishing of the gospel in a permanent written form.  God set him apart to this purpose even from his mother’s womb. Not only was Paul to serve as an example of the great patience of God in the redemption of his chosen ones (1 Timothy 1:16 cf with 2 Peter 3:9), but was to give the abiding verbal form to the message he once despised, considered blasphemy, and sought to destroy.
• His apostleship was conformed to, “according” or “with a view to,” the promise of life. This goes beyond the promise embedded in the proclamation of the gospel that all who believe will receive eternal life (John 3:16, 36). Paul is pointing to the premundane promise that resided eternally in the persons of the triune God consciously as a manifestation of grace and mercy in God brought about within history by the work of the Son (“which is in Jesus Christ”). See Titus 1:1 for an expansion of this same idea.  Paul sees this promise particularly as the “faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth according to godliness.”  This is based on the “hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised” before the ages of time began.   This fulfilled the hope believed by the Pharisees. See Acts 26:5-8.  The promise of eternal life, therefore, involves the eternal covenant immutably established in which God sets aside an elect people that he determines that he will bring to repentance and faith (“knowledge of the truth according to godliness”)

2. To Timothy as a Father in the ministry 2 –4

• Paul had no natural son, but in Christ, he served as father to Timothy; “Beloved” (2). Paul alternates between very stern admonition andmelting tenderness. True love does not omit the tough issues of true discipleship. A love for the brethren does not necessarily mean that we desire to shield them from hardship. When this hardship is for Christ and the Gospel, Paul invites Timothy to partake of it. He sees it as for his good and the glory of God in the calling and sanctification of the people that are his own.
• Timothy is the consistent object of his prayers, night and day.This could be stated times of prayer but probably indicates that Paul never is far from prayer throughout the day and in this context of prayer has Timothy and his ministry as a consistent item for intercession. As an element of Paul’s knowledge of the certainty of the accomplishment of God’s decree was his commitment to prayer without ceasing. As he explains in more detail later, God’s sovereignty and power in the service of his unchangeable character puts into motion all the means necessary for and consistent with the gospel. Prayer, as a restoration of knowledge of our dependence on God and as an expression of our delight in his excellence, manifests a love for the first table of the commandments summarized in the greatest commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul,  and with all thy strength.” Our sin in Adam and in ourselves has obliterated that element of worship. The gospel in its underlying moral implications restores a love for prayer and a recognition that our supplications to him constitute an element of his just rule in our lives.
• They shared a deep affection, “Your tears, . . .Longing to see you . . . filled with joy.” (4) Timothy loved Paul for his unvarnished devotion to the gospel that led to his own reception of a charge for gospel ministry, and now shared Paul’s concern for the glory of Christ. See Philippians 2:19-23 for Paul’s evaluation of Timothy’s heart for Christ and his people.

3. To His forefathers as a true worshipper of God (3)

• He probably is not speaking of his position as a Pharisee, which he repudiated in Phil 3 concerning the Law, but the position he affirmed concerning the resurrection Acts 23:6-9; 26:5-8. Paul knew that the Pharisee’s doctrine of resurrection was true, but they did not see it as connected with the redemption Christ effected through his death. Resurrection unto life comes only from Christ having paid the wages of sin.  Their hope of resurrection, therefore, was right, but their view of the necessity of the gospel made them deficient.  They did not grasp the nature of regeneration, [John 3, Romans 2], the necessity of atonement for forgiveness [Galatians 3], or of the need for an external righteousness imputed to them [Romans 4, 5, Philippians 3:9].
• At least he has in mind Abraham [Romans 4:9ff; Gal 3:6, 7] and David [Rom 4:6-8]. In the general sense of having received the oracles of God and the covenants, Paul considered all the forefathers as in the truth. As Jesus told the woman at the well, “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).
• Particularly though, he refers to the remnant that was the true circumcision, the elect of God that trusted in God’s provision for forgiveness of sin and righteousness. [Romans 9:6-9].

B. Timothy’s relations that should encourage his faithfulness

1.  To Paul as a son and the object of his love and prayers 2-4 (See 2. above) There is hardly anything more encouraging in earthly relationships than a knowledgeable, devoted mentor giving himself to the usefulness of a younger person.
2. To his Christian heritage and influences, a sincere faith that he himself shares 5 – see references also 3:14, 15. Calvin sees this as a pre-Christian faith in the promise; if so it is similar to what Paul says about himself in verse 3 about his “ancestors.” If so, again, it would have a bearing on how one interpreted 3:15. The language, however, does not seem to permit this, but is designed to speak of the Christian faith and how he was reared in its truth. According to Acts 16:1 his mother was “a Jewish woman who was a believer.”  Paul is convinced that Timothy is nowin this faith.
3. To the ministerial task to which he was set aside 6, 7

• The gift of God – an internal spiritual qualification for the external call of ministry. This could be the gifting that comes to every member of the body of Christ or an extraordinary gift such as Paul said not to quench in 1 Thess. 5:19.  Since Paul links it particularly to the laying on of his hands, it probably is the extraordinary gift of prophesying.  In the passage following, Paul is particularly interested in preserving a deposit that has been granted (13, 14).  The necessity of the preservation of special revelation for a truthful grasp of the gospel is on his mind and he wants Timothy to be fully aware of his own responsibility to receive and pass on this revelation. In addition, he needs to be able to discern when false teachers have entered and have begun to distort the truth revealed to Paul.  Along with the gift of prophecy comes the necessity to test everything in order to reject the false.  See this operative in Paul in 2 Thes 2:1-5. In that passage, we see that the “spoken word” of the apostles had revelatory authority and the churches were to judge other teachers by it. Also, we see that an apostolic “letter” would confirm the spoken message of revealed truth. Gifts of immediate revelation—whether apostolic utterance in preaching, prophecy in the church, or the interpretation of tongues—all were given in anticipation of the finalization of revelation in the entire corpus of Scripture (3:10, 16).
• The command to “fan into flame” this gift shows that the gift of prophetic utterance of revealed truth must be pursued with boldness. It involves a deep sense of stewardship and an awareness that the mysterious symbiosis of human mind and divine Spirit results in a rationally constructed body of instructions, teachings, exhortations or warnings. The instruction about prophetic utterance in 1 Corinthians 14 assumes this relationship so that “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Cor 14:32). One that was a true prophet would recognize Paul’s instruction as “a command of the Lord” and would obey it (1 Cor 14:37). He will also recognize the vital nature of such a gift for the glory of God, the manifestation if truth, and the consequent well-being of the church, and will therefore, pursue the usefulness of this gift granted him (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:1).

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