Hidden Heroes: Timothy

by David Chadwick

My next hidden hero is Timothy. We don’t know when, but at some point he became a follower of Jesus and a mentee of Paul.

Over Paul and Timothy’s journey together, Paul developed a tremendous love for Timothy as a fellow worker for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus. He ended up writing letters to him in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy.

Timothy was raised in the Christian faith by his mother, Lois and his grandmother, Eunice. Both of whom apparently had a deep and sincere faith in Jesus (2 Timothy 1:5).

Timothy was also a church planter in Ephesus. We see in 2 Timothy 1:7 that he probably struggled with fear and in 1 Timothy 5:23 that he had a weak stomach that needed an occasional shot of wine, which if you know anything about the gut, may well have been caused by his bouts with fear.

Nonetheless, I so admire Timothy because of his loyalty to Paul, his mentor. When Paul is facing death in a Roman prison cell, it is Timothy who Paul asked to bring him his parchments.

Could it be that these were the bare parchments Paul used to write his letters to the churches? Or more likely, they were the ones where Paul had already written letters about sound doctrine and practices to the churches throughout the Roman Empire. Either way, Timothy is a hero of mine to be a loyal servant and friend to Paul and make provisions for the Gospel to move forward through Paul’s writings.

Most importantly, Timothy was faithful. He was a servant. He gave his life and time to Paul’s ministry.

Loyalty and honor. Two concepts that are often either greatly missing in our modern world.

May we learn from Timothy and be people who act in ways that are worthy of honor and therefore encourage others to stand loyally with spouses, friends, pastors, and leaders.