Paul is old and in prison when he writes this one, and he knows how it ends.
2 Timothy 1:3-7 is the passage, and 2 Timothy is the last letter we have from him. He says in chapter four that he is ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand, and he asks Timothy to bring a coat he left in Troas, and to come before winter.
Timothy is the recipient. A younger man Paul had taken with him out of Lystra, left in charge at Ephesus, and who by this letter appears to be struggling. Paul tells him not to be ashamed, tells him to endure hardness, and mentions his tears.
And in the middle of a letter about all that, Paul does something that is almost domestic. He names Timothy's family.
When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.2 Timothy 1:5, King James Version
Lois. Eunice. A grandmother and a mother, both named, in Scripture, in a letter that will be copied and read for two thousand years.
He counts backwards before he asks for anything
Notice the direction Paul moves in that sentence, because it is not the one you would expect.
He starts with Timothy. The unfeigned faith that is in thee. Then he goes backwards. Which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice. And only then does he come forward again: and I am persuaded that in thee also.
He is showing a discouraged young man a line, and he shows it to him going back before he shows it to him going on.
And there is a detail in Acts that makes this sharper. Acts 16:1 says Timothy's mother was a believing Jewish woman and his father was a Greek. It does not say his father believed. It never mentions his father again.
So the line Paul is naming runs through two women and skips a generation of the men entirely, and Paul does not treat that as a defect. He treats it as the line.
You are not the end of this line. 2 Timothy 1:5 traces it backwards through two named women before it says one word about the future, and it is the Holy Spirit who keeps that direction in front of somebody counting forward and finding nothing.
Now the word unfeigned, because he uses it deliberately.
It means unhypocritical, without pretense, the real thing rather than a performance. Applied to a household faith, it is a compliment with teeth: what Lois had was not a habit and not a family style. It was genuine, and it survived transmission twice.
You have been handed something real rather than a habit, and Paul checked it before he named it. The written word says unfeigned about a faith that came down two generations, and the same Spirit who preserved that adjective is the reason an inherited faith is not a lesser one.
Then, six verses later, what he actually asks Timothy to do about it.
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.2 Timothy 1:6, King James Version
Stir up. The word is about rekindling, fanning a fire that is banked rather than lighting one that is out.
That is a small and enormous distinction. Paul is not telling him to acquire something. He is telling him to poke the coals of something already there.
You have something banked rather than something extinguished, and the instruction is about fanning it. 2 Timothy 1:6 says stir up rather than obtain, and it is His Spirit who is the reason that reaches somebody who has been assuming they need to start again from nothing.
And then verse seven, and it is the pastoral heart of the passage.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.2 Timothy 1:7, King James Version
Read it in context and it is not a slogan about confidence. It is said to a specific young man who is frightened, in a letter that also tells him not to be ashamed of the gospel or of Paul's chains, which is a thing you say to somebody who is tempted to be.
Paul is not pretending Timothy is not afraid. He is telling him where the fear did not come from.
You have been told where the fear did not originate rather than told to stop feeling it. 2 Timothy 1:7 says hath not given, which is a statement about the source, and the same Spirit who kept it in that form is the reason nobody is being scolded for being frightened.
So stop counting forward and finding nothing.
You have been doing the arithmetic in one direction, and Paul does it in the other first. He names a grandmother, then a mother, then says and I am persuaded that in thee also, which is the only forward-looking clause in the sentence and comes last.
You are being counted backwards before anybody counts you forwards. 2 Timothy 1:5 names Lois and Eunice before it names any future, and it is the Holy Spirit who is the reason that reaches a man in a pew rather than staying a greeting in a letter.
You have coals rather than ashes, and the instruction is to fan them. The written word says stir up, which assumes something present, and the same Spirit who kept that verb is the reason nobody is being asked to start from nothing.
And I will not lay one gram on you: your children's choices are not on your account. Timothy's father is mentioned once in Acts and never again, and Paul does not explain him, and he does not blame anybody for him. What God does not itemize, nobody itemizes, and He has never once required a person to produce results in the next generation before He would call their faith unfeigned.
Declare this over yourself
- Feeling that it stops with me, you are not the count. 2 Timothy 1:5 names a grandmother and a mother before it names any future at all, and His Spirit reads the line backwards before He reads it forward. I am not the end of this line.
- Suspicion that inherited faith is lesser, get out, in the name of Jesus. You have told me a thing handed down is a habit, and the written word calls it unfeigned after two generations of handing, which ends you, and his Spirit has kept that clause in the account for exactly this. What God calls genuine, nobody downgrades.
- Lord, You are the God who told a frightened man where the fear did not come from, and You are doing that here. Scripture says hath not given, which is about the source and never about my feelings, and Your Spirit is the power and the love and the sound mind in that verse. I am writing the name down, and I am fanning what is already banked.
2 Timothy 1:5
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