In verse two, Paul addressed Timothy as his son in the faith, and blessed him with grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Jesus the son. That's what I want.  Grace, mercy and peace.

And then he reassures Timothy of how much he needs him to council the church at Ephesus.  Paul had gone to Macedonia and hadn't taken Timothy with him.  I don't know about you, but when I have been left out of an event that is exciting, adventurous, or where everyone else is getting to go, I really feel left out and sad.  I am sure you have experienced such occasions as well.  Even if it is because I am down with some illness, or one of my children has an event I need to attend.  I still am left out.

Paul wanted Timothy to know that he held him in high esteem, even as his own son.  And that Timothy was left out not because Paul didn't want him along, but because Paul had no one else that he could entrust with the job that needed to be done in Ephesus.

And the job was to straighten some people out on their doctrine.  In the fourth verse he tells us that there were people in the church who were stirring up trouble by teaching fables and genealogies, (some people were teaching that you had to be a Jew before you could become a Christian).  In verse six Paul calls it "vain jangling".  One of those 'which came first, the chicken or the egg' type of conversations.  Or 'did Adam have a belly-button?"  Completely off the subject.

In verse seven Paul says that these people don't know what the;y are talking about.  You have to remember that at the time, these churches didn't have any written doctrine except for the letters that they copied by hand and passed around to other groups.  And these groups were small.  So the people were often confused about the gospel.  Can you imagine what it would be like without a New Testament. Paul wanted Timothy to stop interlopers, and to reaffirm the truth, the simple story of Christ.

So don't feel down or sad when you are left out.  God has a purpose for your life and you can't be in two places at once.  If you were left out, it might be because God had something else for you to do.