Timothy

Biography

Timothy was the son of a Jewish mother, Eunice, and a Greek father, raised from infancy in the sacred writings by his mother and grandmother Lois, whose sincere faith Paul later commended as living also in Timothy. When Paul passed through Lystra on his second missionary journey, the believers there spoke well of Timothy, and Paul took him along, having him circumcised for the sake of Jewish sensitivities in the region, though Paul refused this compromise for the Gentile Titus in a different context. Timothy quickly became one of Paul's most trusted companions, sent on sensitive missions to churches in crisis, including Thessalonica and Corinth, and named alongside Paul as co-sender of several epistles. Paul's affection for Timothy is evident throughout his letters, calling him his true child in the faith and his beloved son. Paul eventually left Timothy to lead the church at Ephesus, charging him to command false teachers to stop their errors and to be an example to the believers in word, conduct, love, faith, and purity, despite his relative youth. Paul's two letters to Timothy are deeply personal, urging him not to be ashamed of the gospel, to guard the good deposit entrusted to him, and to continue in what he had learned from childhood, the sacred writings able to make him wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Tradition holds that Timothy served as Ephesus' first bishop and was martyred there, having faithfully carried forward the pastoral and doctrinal legacy Paul entrusted to him.