Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Timothy 1

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. (See Barnes on Romans 1:1).

By the will of God. Called to be an apostle in accordance with the Divine will and purpose. (See Barnes on Galatians 1:1).

According to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. In accordance with the great promise of eternal life through the Saviour; that is, he was called to be an apostle to carry out the great purpose of human salvation. (Compare Ephesians 3:6.) God has made a promise of life to mankind through faith in the Lord Jesus, and it was with reference to this that he was called to the apostleship.

To Timothy, my dearly beloved son. See Barnes' Notes on 1 Timothy 1:2.

Grace, mercy, and peace, etc. See Barnes' Notes on Romans 1:7.

I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers. Paul counted among his forefathers the patriarchs and the holy men of former times, as belonging to the same nation as himself; although he might also have included his more immediate ancestors, who, as far as is known, might have been distinguished examples of piety. His own parents, it is certain, took care that he was trained in the ways of religion. (Acts 26:4–5).

The phrase "from my forefathers" probably means, after the example of my ancestors. He worshipped the same God; he held substantially the same truths; he had the same hope of the resurrection and of immortality; he trusted in the same Savior having come, on whom they relied as about to come. His religion was not, therefore, different from theirs; it was the same religion carried out and perfected. The religion of the Old Testament and the New is essentially the same. .

With pure conscience. .

That without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

I have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day. .

Greatly desiring to see thee. See 2 Timothy 4:9, 21. It was probably on account of this earnest desire that this epistle was written. He wished to see him, not only on account of the warm friendship which he had for him, but because he would be useful to him in present circumstances. See Intro., paragraph 3.

Being mindful of thy tears. Alluding probably to the tears which he shed at parting from him. The occasion to which he refers is not mentioned; but nothing is more probable than that Timothy would weep when separated from such a father and friend. It is not wrong to weep in this way, for religion is not intended to make us stoics or savages.

That I may be filled with joy. By seeing you again. It is easy to imagine what joy it would give Paul, then a prisoner, and forsaken by nearly all his friends, and about to die, to see a friend whom he loved as he did this young man. Learn from this that there may be very pure and warm friendship between an old and young man, and that the warmth of true friendship is not diminished by the near prospect of death.

When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in you. (See Barnes on 1 Timothy 1:5).

On the faith of Timothy, see Barnes on 1 Timothy 4:6.

Which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois. That is, the same faith dwelt in her; or, she was a sincere believer in Christ. It would seem probable from this that she was the first of the family who had been converted. In the Acts of the Apostles, Acts 16:1, we have an account of the family of Timothy: Then came he to Derbe and Lystra; and behold a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek. In this account, no mention is made of the grandmother Lois, but there is no improbability in supposing that Paul was better acquainted with the family than Luke.

There is, at any rate, no contradiction between the two accounts; but the one confirms the other, and the "undesigned coincidence" furnishes an argument for the authenticity of both. (See Paley's Horae Paulinae on this passage.) As the mother of Timothy was a Hebrew, it is clear that his grandmother was also. Nothing more is known of her than is mentioned here.

And in your mother Eunice. In Acts 16:1, it is said that the mother of Timothy was "a Jewess, and believed;" but her name is not mentioned. This shows that Paul was acquainted with the family, and that the statement in the epistle to Timothy was not forged from the account in the Acts. Here is another "undesigned coincidence."

In the history in the Acts, nothing is said of the father, except that he was "a Greek," but it is implied that he was not a believer. In the epistle before us, nothing whatever is said of him. But the piety of his mother alone is commended, and it is fairly implied that his father was not a believer. This is one of those coincidences on which Paley has constructed his beautiful argument in the Horae Paulinae in favour of the genuineness of the New Testament.