Paul issues a strong challenge to Timothy calling him "Man of God". As God's word, Paul's challenge comes to us also. We glory in the name of Christian. Like Timothy, then, we should seek integrity, piety, faith, love, steadfastness and a gentle spirit.

Paul often mentions the three virtues faith, hope and love, though not always in the same order. In this passage from the First Letter of Timothy, however, Paul speaks, in the midst of other virtues, of "faith, love, steadfastness". The word 'steadfastness' seems to replace the word 'hope', and indeed this is not uncommon in Paul's letters. That is to say, rather than mentioning hope directly, Paul prefers to speak of 'steadfastness' or constancy. In a passage in Jeremiah (Jer. 31:3), God affirms: "I have loved you with an everlasting love, and I am always constant in my affection for you". As weak human beings we often perhaps feel ourselves to be very inconstant, lacking steadfastness. But we can place our hope in God because God's love for us is steadfast. In turn, hope will cultivate within us a sense of growing fidelity, an ever greater constancy. Constancy is the effect of hope on our moral lives.