I suppose when a man knows he is going to die, a lot of things come into focus. Things start taking on more realistic value. Money, possessions, and property all diminish sharply when you know you aren’t going to be around to enjoy them. The people in your life whom you love and who love you become much more important.

When Paul was in prison for the last time, and knew this was it for him, he had to write one last letter to the one man who meant more to him than anyone. He was a younger man, whom Paul called his son in the faith.

The letter he wrote in these last days is intensely personal. The old intensity is just visible below the surface, but it is the mellow Paul who wants to see Timothy before he dies. We are reading, some 2,000 years later the private correspondence of a very remarkable man.