The epistle’s opening verse expresses Paul’s first point: The heart of joy is selflessly serving King Jesus and others for his sake. Paul’s emphasis on servanthood can be seen in two small but significant variations to the standard opening of a first-century letter. First, with respect to authorship, Paul groups Timothy’s name with his own, and then shares with Timothy the title servants or, more precisely, slaves.3 In other letters Paul included the names of
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