1 Timothy 1:2 - Exposition

My true child in faith for my own son in the faith , A.V.; peace for and peace , A.V.; the Father for our Father , A.V. and T.R.; Christ Jesus for Jesus Christ , A.V. and T.R. My true child in faith. A most awkward phrase, which can only mean that Timothy was St. Paul's true child because his faith was equal to St. Paul's, which is not St. Paul's meaning. Timothy was St. Paul's own son, because he had begotten him in the gospel ( 1 Corinthians 4:14-16 ; Philippians 1:10 )—his spiritual son. This is best expressed as in the A.V. by "in the faith" (comp. Titus 1:4 , where the same idea is expressed by κατὰ κοινὴν πίστιν ). Grace, mercy, and peace. This varies from the blessing at the beginning of the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, by the addition of the word "mercy," as in 2 Timothy 1:2 and Titus 1:4 in the T.R., and also in 2 John 1:3 and Jud 2. It seems in St. Paul to connect itself with that deeper sense of the need and of the enjoyment of mercy which went with his deepening sense of sin as he drew towards his end, and harmonizes beautifully with what he says in 2 John 1:12 -16. The analogy of the other forms of blessing quoted above strongly favors the sense our Father rather than the Father . Whether we read ἡμῶν with the T.R. or omit it with the R.T., the idea of Father is contrasted, not with that of Son , but with that of Lord ; the two words express the relation of the Persons of the Godhead, not to each other, but to the Church.