Acts 16:1-3
Well reported of by the brethren
A young disciple of mixed parentage is recruited in his home town. The circumcision is a travelling decision and the text says exactly why.
People of the Bible
Timothy
Was half Greek in a town that cared, young in a job that did not suit it, and kept at it for twenty years.
Paul finds him at Lystra, where the local believers speak well of him. His mother is a Jewish believer named Eunice and his grandmother is Lois, and his father is a Greek, which in that region put him in a category with no comfortable place in it. Paul takes him along and circumcises him because of the Jews in those quarters, a decision made by the same man who had just won the argument that circumcision was not required, and made for travel rather than doctrine.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Timothy
- 01
- 02
Philippians 2:19-22
As a son with the father
Paul says he has no man likeminded who will naturally care for their state. The recommendation is about temperament rather than ability.
- 03
1 Timothy 4:12-16
Let no man despise thy youth
The answer to being underestimated is not seniority but conduct, word, charity, spirit, faith, purity. Meditate on these things, give thyself wholly to them.
- 04
2 Timothy 1:5-7
The faith of thy grandmother Lois
His family line is named as the source. The spirit given is not of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
- 05
2 Timothy 3:14-17
From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures
All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Why it matters
From there he is everywhere. He is left behind at Berea and at Ephesus, sent back to Thessalonica when Paul cannot bear the suspense, named as co-author on six letters, and trusted with the churches Paul cannot revisit. The two letters written to him are the plainest advice in the New Testament about doing a hard job while young: let no man despise thy youth, stir up the gift, endure hardness, and the line about the Scripture that has stood over every printed Bible since.
2 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
