I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day.

As I recall your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.

For I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure is in you as well.

For this reason I also suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

Share in hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No soldier in active service gets entangled in civilian affairs, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.

But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, knowing from whom you learned it,

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.