1:2 dearly beloved son. This epistle was Paul’s last before his martyrdom, written from his prison cell in Rome, and it is appropriate that it was written to his faithful disciple, Timothy. In his first epistle to Timothy, Paul called him his own son in the faith; in this, he calls him simply “my dearly beloved son.” Paul had no real son of his own, and Timothy’s father was not a Christian, so they had grown to love each other like father and son.