“But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me; and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly<\/em>” (Philippians 2:19-24).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIn this passage, Paul is talking about Timothy, not his father. Paul states that Timothy is someone to be trusted and that he has served Paul just like a child serving his father; that is, that Timothy has willingly obeyed Paul. The passage is one of several that shows the close relationship between Paul and Timothy but it tells us nothing about Timothy’s actual father.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I have a comment on one online question about whether Timothy’s father was a believer or not. Philippians 2:22 seems to indicate that Timothy’s father was a believer and co-worker with Paul and Timothy. Answer: “But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[331],"class_list":["post-33776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-timothy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22139,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-timothys-father-a-non-believer\/","url_meta":{"origin":33776,"position":0},"title":"Was Timothy’s father a non-believer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: One passage I'm having a problem with is\u00a0Acts 16:1. In time past I have\u00a0heard a couple of different preachers on different occasions\u00a0say some that Timothy's father was a \"non-believer\". I am not confident in teaching\u00a0that Timothy's\u00a0father was\/was not a believer.\u00a0 While it is true the text does not say\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54162,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-timothys-father-an-aramean\/","url_meta":{"origin":33776,"position":1},"title":"Was Timothy’s father an Aramean?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In\u00a0Was Timothy's father a non-believer? you said, \"In the end, I think all you can state is that Timothy's father was of Greek nationality.\" But Acts 16:1 (translated from Aramaic Peshitta, based on Younan) says, \"And he arrived at the medintha [city] Derbe and at Lostra. Now there was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22974,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-paul-have-timothy-circumcised-after-the-council-in-jerusalem\/","url_meta":{"origin":33776,"position":2},"title":"Why did Paul have Timothy circumcised after the council in Jerusalem?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was scanning the questions and found\u00a0the Jewish lineage one. Timothy was counted as Jewish because of his mother. Paul circumcised him and we know that Timothy's father was a Gentile while his mother and grandmother were Jewish. Why did Paul have Timothy circumcised after the council at Jerusalem?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58617,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pauls-sons\/","url_meta":{"origin":33776,"position":3},"title":"Paul’s Sons","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Earl Robertson via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 8, No. 6, June 2008. The relationship of Timothy and Titus to Paul as sons is spiritual, legitimate, and true -- \"legitimately born, not spurious,\" says Thayer, pg. 119. They were true sons. Paul said Timothy was \"a true child in the faith,\" showing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85969,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-didnt-paul-heal-trophimus-or-epaphroditus\/","url_meta":{"origin":33776,"position":4},"title":"Why didn’t Paul heal Trophimus or Epaphroditus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, sir, May Almighty God continue to bless and strengthen you. My question is: If the Apostle Paul still had the power to heal, why would he leave Trophimus sick, while Epaphroditus was also sick to the point of death in Philippians 2:27, and encouraged Timothy to use\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59914,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/take-heed-unto-thyself-and-unto-the-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":33776,"position":5},"title":"Take Heed Unto Thyself and Unto the Doctrine","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Homer Hailey via The Preceptor, Vol. 1, No. 11, Sept. 1952. \"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine, continue in them: for in doing this though shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee\" (I Timothy 4:16). These words are from the pen of Paul to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}