{"id":14482,"date":"2025-09-15T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T16:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=14482"},"modified":"2025-09-16T23:09:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:09:23","slug":"a-young-disciple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2025\/09\/15\/a-young-disciple\/","title":{"rendered":"A Young Disciple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 16:1-5 1<\/sup>And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2<\/sup>He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. <\/em><\/p>\n

Luke condensed the events related to Paul’s and Silas’ trip across Asia Minor, going in the opposite direction from east to west, and focused on their time in Derbe and Lystra. The reason for this is the introduction of another important New Testament figure named Timothy. Luke describes Timothy in four ways. First, he was a disciple,\u00a0<\/em>a follower of Jesus. Luke uses this word more than any other writer, both in his Gospel and in Acts. Timothy and his family appear to be from Lystra, since that is the last place mentioned before he is introduced in verse 1.<\/p>\n

Second, his mother was a believer as well. The two of them may have become believers when Paul and Barnabas went through that area in 14:20. It is unclear whether Timothy’s father was a believer, though he was a Greek. Paul later wrote in 2 Timothy about how Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice became believers first. We know his mother was Jewish, and possibly his grandmother, if she was on his mother’s side. They recognized and believed in Jesus as the Messiah. The family was of mixed culture that had blended. Timothy, like Paul, had both Greek and Jewish connections. Timothy’s father had a significant cultural influence by not allowing Timothy to be circumcised as a child. Timothy found a third and new identity as a follower of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Third, Timothy had a good reputation among believers, even as far away as Iconium, about 20 miles from Lystra. Something about Timothy made him stand out as a promising young leader. The word behind the verb to be well spoken of<\/em> (emartyreito<\/em>) has as its roots the meaning of witnessing or confirming one’s belief in something. Timothy’s life of following Jesus was evident to others, even far away. Could he have been involved in some form of early evangelism and outreach? Timothy went on to become one of the most significant witnesses of the gospel in the early church. His ministry began when he was young and still at home. He serves as a good model for other young disciples “in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acts 16:1-5 1And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Luke condensed the events related to Paul’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14482"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14493,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14482\/revisions\/14493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}