Second Timothy, part2

"Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:6-7, NKJV)

Scripture records that the Apostle Paul wrote two letters to Timothy. The first letter was written some time after Paul's first Roman imprisonment (ca. 62 - 64 A.D.). It was probably written when Paul was in Macedonia, and sent to Timothy in Ephesus. His second letter to Timothy was written while Paul was imprisoned in Rome for the second and final time (ca. 66 - 67 A.D.). Paul was awaiting his execution, and before he died, he wanted to make sure that Timothy was prepared and encouraged for his ministry. Now Timothy was a fairly timid, young man who probably suffered from some minor physical ailments. In his first letter, Paul had to encourage Timothy not to let his youth get in the way of his duty to lead the church at Ephesus. Now we find that Timothy is starting to weaken spiritually, and his ministry is suffering for it. Paul, more concerned about Timothy than his own impending execution, shows his shepherd's heart and gives Timothy some final words of advice.

"Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands." As noted above, Timothy was starting to weaken both emotionally and spiritually. The church at Ephesus was an important church in a strategic location in the ancient world. Ephesus was a major city in the Roman empire, and was home to all sorts of corruption and pagan idolatry. As such, Timothy's work was cut out for him. He not only had to fight false doctrine and false teachers within the church, but he had to fight rampant immorality outside the church. Such work can be draining. Paul reminds Timothy to "stir up the gift of God which is in you." The phrase, "stir up," in the Greek literally means "to fan into flame." Paul sees Timothy's spiritual gift as a fire that was losing fuel; therefore he urges Timothy to fan the flame! This is a poignant truth. While the Christian life is energized by the Holy Spirit, we are to make sure that the flame is strong and burning bright. We do this by praying to God to fill us with His Holy Spirit ("But be filled with the Spirit" Ephesians 5:18). We are to ask for the Spirit's filling to power our Christian walk. If we fail to do this, we will see our spiritual flame begin to die down.

Now it is interesting to note the phrase "gift of God." Paul tells Timothy to stir up his gift from God. Each believer, when he is baptized into the body of Christ, is given a spiritual gift. Paul outlines this in two main places in Scripture, Romans 12:3-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. Paul lists several spiritual gifts in each passage. Each list is not meant to be an exhaustive list of spiritual gifts. Neither are we to make the mistake of thinking the spiritual gifts listed in each passage are applied in the same way to different people. For example, if I have the gift of teaching and you have the gift of teaching, these gifts can manifest themselves in uniquely different ways in both of us. Finally, we aren't to think that we only get one of the gifts listed. For example, if I have the gift of teaching, this doesn't mean I can ignore the commands in Scripture which call me to giving generously. The proper way to understand the gifts is that each believer has a unique gift. Each gift is specially created by God and given specifically to each believer. Furthermore, each spiritual gift is usually a mixture of the individual gifts mentioned in Romans and 1 Corinthians. It's like God has a pallet of different colors and dips into each color to create an original spiritual gift to give to each new believer. Timothy had a specific gift that Paul urged him to fan into flames.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Now the reason that Paul urges Timothy to stir up his gift is because God didn't call Timothy out to be a scared, young man. The word "fear" is better translated as "timidity." Timothy lost sight of the fact that he was powered by the Holy Spirit; his fear (or timidity) was a result of not walking in the Spirit, but walking in the flesh. When God's Holy Spirit empowers someone, they are energized to overcome fear and doubt. When a Christian stumbles in their walk due to fear and doubt, they are not tapping into the power source that god provides for each believer. What is that power? It is the same power that God used to raise Christ from the dead (" I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms" Ephesians 1:19-20, NLT). That is the power that is available to each Christian to tap into. There is no excuse for believers to act in fear and doubt. There is no reason for believers to feel defeated. The same power that God used to defeat death and sin in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the same power that fills you when you pray to be filled with the Spirit! When the Spirit fills us, we have power, love and a sound mind: power to defeat sin, fear and doubt; love to embrace others; and a sound mind to cut through all falsehoods and deceit.

Like Timothy, we are to fan our Spiritual gift into flames and do the work that God wants us to do with power, love and a sound mind.

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