Timothy Joins Paul and Silas
16:1 Paul1 came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers2 at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
(ESV)
14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless1 guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent2 you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ,3 as I teach them everywhere in every church.
Footnotes
[1] 4:15
Greek you have ten thousand
[2] 4:17Or am sending
[3] 4:17Some manuscripts add Jesus (ESV)