2Timothy  ◦   Chapter 1

1 From Paul, an ambassador of Jesus Christ appointed by God, to promote the Remedy procured by Jesus Christ, which brings eternal life.

2 Dear Timothy, whom I love like a son: May you receive strength, love and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

3 I am so thankful to God who has cleansed my conscience and who enabled me to represent him as my forefathers were called to do. You are on my mind and in my prayers all day, every day.4 I miss you and long to be with you so that my heart may rejoice in your company.5 I remember your deep love for the truth about God, and your passion for sharing the Remedy. That unwavering confidence and trust in God's kingdom of love was first known by your grandmother Lois, then by your mother Eunice, and I am certain you know it as well.6 So continue to exercise, develop and expand the gifts and enabling which you received from God when I laid hands on you.7 For God did not give you a character of insecurity, doubt and fear, but a mind and character of confidence, power in the truth, love, and self-control.

8 Don't ever be embarrassed to speak boldly about our Lord, and certainly don't be ashamed of me being in and out of prison for spreading the Remedy. Instead, by God's power, join me in enduring the hardship that comes with distributing the Remedy.9 For God has healed us and invited us to an eternal life of love — not because we somehow cured ourselves, but because he is gracious and it is his intention, will, and purpose to heal all who will let him. Before time began, Jesus was God’s means of healing humanity,10 but the manner in which he would accomplish it wasn’t revealed until the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ who in his human brain loved perfectly: He destroyed death by destroying the infection of selfishness, and perfectly restored God’s law of love into humanity, healing the species and revealing life and immortality through the Remedy he achieved.11 I was commissioned as a distributor, emissary, and teacher of this great Remedy,12 and that is why I have been harassed and persecuted. But I don't regret it for a minute, because I know and trust Jesus, and I am certain that he will oversee the distribution of the Remedy he entrusted to me, until the day he returns.

13 Keep what you learned from me as a model of how to — with confidence and love in Jesus — promote and distribute the Remedy.14 Protect the healing truth that has been entrusted to you, by cooperating with the Holy Spirit who applies the Remedy within us.

15 You already know that everyone in Asia has abandoned me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

16 But may God watch over and protect Onesiphorus and his family, for his home was always open to me, and he was never afraid to be seen with me, even though I was in and out of prison.17 Just the opposite: when I was imprisoned in Rome, he searched everywhere, letting everyone know he was looking for me, until he found me.18 It is my prayer that when Christ returns, the Lord will treat him with even greater kindness than Onesiphorus has treated me; and you know how much he did for me at Ephesus.