The first time we hear Saul speak, it is to answer the Lord’s question from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute Me?” (Acts 9:4–5). Saul had approved the killing of Stephen (Acts 8:5). Years later, Paul confirmed this in his address to the Jews in Jerusalem who tried to kill him (22:20). He never forgot that he was complicit in the death of a fellow Jew who was in Christ before him. No doubt as Saul kept the clothes of those who shed Stephen’s blood, God used that faithful man’s death to sharpen the goads that pricked his conscience until the Lord intercepted him outside Damascus (26:14).

His own execution imminent (2 Tim. 4:6), Paul writes his last words in Scripture to Timothy, another Jew—his mother Eunice was Jewish—in whom God had done a mighty work, this time using Paul. He had commended him to the Corinthians: “I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly” (1 Cor. 4:17).

Now, like a relay runner, he passes the baton of truth to him as the one responsible for running the next leg of the race (2 Tim. 2:2). Stephen could not pass the baton to Saul as he was on the wrong team at the time, but he asked the Lord to receive his spirit, that part of the human make-up with which we relate to God (Acts 7:59). So Paul prays that the Lord will be with Timothy’s spirit as he looks forward to life and service without the ongoing prayers and counsel of his father in Christ. There is no better comfort and encouragement than committing Him to the Lord and His grace.