Paul’s attention now turns to Timothy; in fact, from this verse on to the end of the chapter, the focus is on Timothy and how he is expected to behave as a young leader of the Christian community.

Do your best translates a verb that refers to the act of putting the utmost effort in some activity; hence “make every effort,” “try as hard as you can,” and so on.

Present translates a verb that literally means “to place beside” and in an extended way has taken the meaning “to exhibit, to prove, to show, to present.” In languages that do not use the passive voice, this first sentence may be expressed as “Try as hard as you can to win God’s approval,” “… to cause God to approve of you,” or “… to cause God to feel pleased with you.”

For workman see 1 Tim 5.18 (“laborer”). Here, of course, it is used with an extended meaning referring to one who works for the gospel.

Who has no need to be ashamed translates a compound verb composed of a negative prefix and the word for being ashamed (for which see 2 Tim 1.8, 12, 16).

Rightly handling also translates a Greek verb that occurs only here in the New Testament. Literally it refers to the act of cutting something in a straight way; figuratively it refers to expounding something rightly, or teaching something correctly. Here, what needs to be handled correctly is the word of truth, which may refer to the gospel itself (see Eph 1.13). The word of truth may be translated as “the true word” or “the true message,” or perhaps more properly “the message about the truth.” For truth see 1 Tim 2.4.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• You must try as hard as you can to cause God to fully approve of you as a worker who is not ashamed of his work and correctly teaches the true message.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .