Parents’ prayers matter. Paul thanks God for the prayers of his parents and grandparents for him; even though they did not know about Christ, they were trusting in God’s promise of the Messiah. Although there is no evidence that Paul was ever married (1 Corinthians 7:7 states that he had the gift of celibacy), nor had children by birth - he counted Timothy as his son and prayed for him constantly.
 

Paul was in prison because he preached Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world and the judge of everybody. Instead of telling Timothy that everything would be all right in Ephesus, Paul told him that there was no shame in suffering for Christ and the gospel. It was an important hurdle for Timothy to get over; once he had accepted that he might well be imprisoned or even killed for his faith, he could then get on with the task of church leadership and evangelism without internal constraints. The future was in God’s hands and not his.
 

Today’s title does not seem very appealing! Most of us will do anything to avoid suffering. But the Apostle Paul knew that faith in Christ and suffering are linked. Jesus Himself was flogged and crucified: and before his conversion, Paul had persecuted the church, throwing men and women into prison and approving their execution. Now he was in prison because he kept on preaching that Jesus Christ is God the Son, and that people can only know the true God through Him.
 

Rome, under Nero’s rule, was a dangerous place for Christians. Many were being imprisoned and killed. Paul was being held secretly somewhere away from the main prison and Onesiphorus had to search hard to find him - identifying himself as another believer in Jesus. However it was costly: Paul’s prayer for God’s mercy to be on Onesiphorus’ family, and Paul’s special greeting to them (2 Timothy 4:19) indicates that he died serving the Lord because of his compassion to Paul.