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Paul’s second letter to Timothy was the last one he wrote. Paul was back in prison and about to be executed. What was on his mind? What was important? What did he want to tell Timothy, the young man who had been with him for many years and who had proved so useful?
There are words of advice and encouragement for Timothy, but much of it is so applicable to today. Our society is not so different from the educated, yet barbaric, athletic, yet permissive, Greco-Roman world of the first century. The problems, difficulties and temptations which beset Timothy and others, plague many people today, especially new and young Christians.
The teaching in this letter, together with the other two pastoral Epistles – 1 Timothy and Titus – contain wisdom and advice which are so relevant, and so needed, for Christian leaders and for 21st century Christendom in general, yet all to often these lovely letters are ignored in Christian circles. This is a shame, because these letters are not a weighty theological epistles, but letters from an older, mature Christian to a younger one, one whom he dearly loved and cared for.
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