Listen to 2 Timothy 1

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus, ²to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. ³I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day ⁴longing to see you, remembering your tears, that I may be filled with joy; ⁵having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, in you also. ⁶For this cause, I remind you that you should stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷For God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. ⁸Therefore don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God, ⁹who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, ¹⁰but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News. ¹¹For this I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. ¹²For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day. ¹³Hold the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. ¹⁵This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. ¹⁶May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain, ¹⁷but when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently and found me ¹⁸(the Lord grant to him to find the Lord's mercy in that day); and in how many things he served at Ephesus, you know very well.