2 Timothy 1:6

‘For which reason I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.’

And it was because of that unfeigned faith that clearly longed to serve God that he wanted to remind Timothy to ‘go on stirring up’ the gift of God which was in him, through the laying on of his, Paul’s, hands. As a man of faith he had been given that gift and he needed to express that gift in action through constantly looking to the Holy Spirit. It is not necessarily a criticism of Timothy’s diffidence, but rather a reminder to him of the resources that were continually at his disposal and available to faith. He must daily look off to Christ for Him to live and work through him (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:16-17).

This would take Timothy’s mind back to the day when as a young man the presbyters had gathered round (1 Timothy 4:14), with Paul among them, and had laid their hands on him, possibly at the time of his baptism, but see Acts 13:3 which might suggest that it has in mind the time when he was set aside to go with Paul on his missionary travels (Acts 16:3). And as a result he had received a gift from God, probably that of evangelism and teaching. For when God calls, He endows. Alternatively Paul might also have desired to arrange for him to receive a special gift at a different time, and may have laid his hands on him for that purpose. But it should be noted that the laying on of hands represented the identification of Paul and the elders with him before God, in trust that God would give him the Holy Spirit. For in the end the Holy Spirit is subject to no man. There is only One Who can drench men with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11).

‘For which reason.’ A phrase occurring in Acts, but in Paul’s letters only in the Pastoral letters (compare 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 1:13) It suggests a Latin provenance, being the translation of quamobrem, a favourite Roman connecting word. This thus ties in with Paul’s later days when he had been in Rome and influenced by its language.

‘Gift’ (charisma). Found also in 1 Timothy 4:14, fourteen times in Paul’s other letters, and only once elsewhere (in 1 Peter). It is a favourite Pauline noun.