Paragraph 4:22

Paul ended his letter to Timothy with a short blessing.

4:22a

The Lord: The Lord here refers to the Lord Jesus.

be with your spirit: Another way to say be with your spirit is “be with you” or “bless you.” In Greek, your spirit is in the singular, and this shows that Paul addressed this to Timothy.

4:22b

Grace be with you all: Paul frequently ended his letters with these same words, or very similar words. (See Galatians 6:18; Philippians 4:23; Colossians 4:18 and 1 Timothy 6:21.)

Grace: As Paul did in 1:2c, here he was using Grace as a Christian blessing. It refers to God being kind and favorable toward people. Therefore avoid using a long phrase to describe grace in this context.

you all: Paul blessed Timothy personally in 4:22a. Here in 4:22b, he blessed both Timothy and the other believers at Ephesus.

General Comment on 4:22b

These words are a wish or a prayer. In some languages it may be necessary to begin this prayer with the words “I ask…” or “I pray…,” for example:

I pray that God will…be kind to you (Contemporary English Version).
-or-
I ask God to bless you.

If there is a word or phrase in your language for “bless” that means “to do good things for another person,” this may be appropriate here. If you use “bless” in your translation of this verse, you should be certain that it means: “May God help you (plur) and do good things for you (plur).”

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.