¹ From Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God in accordance with his promise of life in Christ Jesus,

² to Timothy, dear son of mine. Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.

³ Night and day I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience as my ancestors did. I remember you in my prayers constantly night and day;

⁴ I remember your tears and long to see you again to complete my joy.

⁵ I also remember your sincere faith, a faith which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure dwells also in you.

⁶ That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess through the laying on of my hands.

⁷ God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control.

⁸ So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but share in my hardships for the sake of the gospel, relying on the power of God

⁹ who has saved us and called us to be holy -- not because of anything we ourselves had done but for his own purpose and by his own grace. This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time,

¹⁰ but it has been revealed only by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus. He has abolished death, and he has brought to light immortality and life through the gospel,

¹¹ in whose service I have been made herald, apostle and teacher.

¹² That is why I am experiencing my present sufferings; but I am not ashamed, because I know in whom I have put my trust, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to safeguard until that Day what I have entrusted to him.

¹³ Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ With the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, look after that precious thing given in trust.

¹⁵ As you know, Phygelus and Hermogenes and all the others in Asia have deserted me.

¹⁶ I hope the Lord will be kind to all the family of Onesiphorus, because he has often been a comfort to me and has never been ashamed of my chains.

¹⁷ On the contrary, as soon as he reached Rome, he searched hard for me and found me.

¹⁸ May the Lord grant him to find the Lord's mercy on that Day. You know better than anyone else how much he helped me at Ephesus.