Daily Sacrifice, October 8 (1:4-5)
“Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also” ―2 Timothy 1:4, 5.
THE home in which Timothy grew up was not actually Christian, as the gospel did not came to his mother and grandmother until after he was well-grown, and his father is not said to have been even a proselyte to Judaism. But it was a pious, Jewish home, nevertheless, where the sacred Scriptures were read and loved, and so the heart of the lad was ready for the message of the grace of God in Christ, when Paul and Barnabas came to Lystra and Derbe. Timothy’s early training bore rich fruit in future years, and led to his becoming an earnest servant of the Lord Jesus after he was converted through Paul’s ministry.
—Carl Johann Philipp Spitta.