“But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you … for I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state” (Philippians 2:19-20).
Timothy was a young man who came from a city called Lystra. This was a place where they at first wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas, but later they stoned Paul, and thought he was dead. But Timothy was saved there, and he became like a son to the Apostle Paul. His father was a Greek and his mother was a Jewess — another marriage forbidden by the law of Moses. But grace brought him to Christ, and he became a most devoted servant of the Lord.
We find him traveling with the Apostle Paul on many of his journeys, and even suffering too because of this. At some point he was put in prison, we are not sure where, but at the end of Hebrews, it is noted that “our brother Timothy is set at liberty” (Hebrews 13:23).
As we see in our verses today, Paul gives him a very high commendation, and in another translation, it reads, “For I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on” (Philippians 2:20 JND). Here was a young man who really cared for the believers, and who was willing to sacrifice his life to encourage them.
At the end of Paul’s life, when he was in prison in Rome, the Lord had revealed to him that he was not going to be released again. At that time Paul wrote his last epistle to Timothy, giving him instructions as to how he should behave when things were not going well in the assembly. Paul expected Timothy to carry on faithfully after he was called to be with the Lord, and we have every reason to believe that he did so.
Today we need godly young people who are willing to learn from those who are older, and who are prepared to carry on faithfully for the Lord when some of us older ones are gone. Are you ready to be one of them?