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2 Timothy 1:1-14 - Homilies By R. Finlayson

Address and salutation.

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord." The language is similar to what is found in other of Paul's Epistles. The peculiarity is that his apostleship is here associated with the promise of the gospel, which like a rainbow spans our sky in this dark world. It is the promise by preeminence; for its object is life, which is a name for all that can be needed here, or manifested under better conditions. It is a promise which has actually secured sure footing in Christ Jesus, being the realization of the sure mercies of David. But, in order that this promise may become the means of life to men, it must be proclaimed; and this points to the employment of an instrumentality by God. It was according to the promise in this view that Paul was employed as an apostle. It is further to be observed that his true child in the First Epistle is here his beloved child. If the one points to the possession of his spirit, the other points to the love that is properly founded on it. Good past to be followed by a good future.

I. THANKSGIVING .

1 . Personal association in giving thanks . "I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience." He implies that Judaism was the forerunner of Christianity, and lays claim to the possession of a godly ancestry. The pure conscience (notwithstanding Acts 23:1 ) is not to be absolutely applied to his whole life. He did turn aside from the godly direction in an unenlightened and culpable resistance to Christianity as seeming to threaten the existence of his inherited and beloved Judaism. But in the Christian position which he had so long maintained, as he had been indebted to godly forefathers, so he had preserved the godly continuity in his family. It is in view of what he has to say about Timothy that he makes this pleasing and interesting reference to his forefathers.

2 . Feelings toward Timothy in giving thanks for him. "How unceasing is my remembrance of thee in my supplications, night and day longing to see thee, remembering thy tears, that I may be filled with joy." Always in the underground of the apostle's consciousness, the thought of his beloved Timothy came up uninterruptedly at his times of devotion. Every night and morning he felt the spell—so tender was this strong man's heart—of the tears shed by Timothy at their parting; and the desire rose within him that he might be filled with the joy of another meeting.

3 . Matter for thanksgiving in Timothy ' s faith which was hereditary. "Having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in thee; which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and, I am persuaded, in thee also." Something had come to the apostle's knowledge which reminded him of the reality of Timothy's faith. It was not feigned faith, that fails under trial. The apostle thinks of it as a kind of heirloom in the family. He could go back himself to two ancestresses of his in whom it dwelt. There was first Lois, his grandmother, who, we can believe, besides being godly according to the Jewish type, was before her end a Christian believer. She had to do with her daughter Eunice becoming a Christian believer. We are told of Eunice, in Acts 16:1 , that she was a Jewess who believed, while her husband was a Gentile. She in turn had to do with her son becoming a Christian believer. The apostle had all the greater confidence in the reality, and also vitality, of Timothy's faith that (apart from Jewish influences of a godly nature) he was a Christian believer of the third generation. We have the promise that God will keep covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. God's intention is that godly and Christian influence should be transmitted. He made one generation to follow another, proceeded on a principle of succession and not of contemporaneousness, that he might thereby have a godly seed (Ma Acts 2:15 ). The best established Christians are among those who are of a godly stock. Therefore let the godly upbringing of the young be attended to. At the same time, let those who have had the advantage of a godly upbringing see that they are not left behind by those who have been reclaimed from ungodly society.

II. EXHORTATION .

1 . Timothy is to stir up his gift. "For the which cause I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee through the laying on of my hands." Paul is an adept at exhortation. Timothy, from the memory of Lois and Eunice, must catch fire. Nay, he had a personal association with Timothy, in having laid hands on him at his ordination. On that ground he can call upon him to stir up the gift then received, viz. the ministerial gift. Let him be true to his duties as a minister of Christ.

2 . Confirmatory reason pointing to special exhortation. "For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline." Let him stir himself up against cowardice to which, as persecuted, he was exposed, and by this consideration that the imparted spirit in its amplitude excludes cowardice. It is a spirit of power. God has no jealousy of us; he wishes to be served with our strength and not with our weakness. It is a spirit of love; warmth of feeling, and not coldness, God would put into our service. It is a spirit of discipline. So far as this is to be distinguished from the other two words, it points to the guidance of reason. God wishes to be served, not with our ignorance, but with our well disciplined thoughts. With more power in our wills, with more glow in our affections, with more reason in our thoughts, we shall not cower before opposition.

3 . Timothy is called upon to be specially on his guard against false shame. "Be not ashamed therefore of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but suffer hardship with the gospel." "Shame attends fear; when fear is conquered false shame takes flight" (Bengel). He had no reason for being ashamed on account of his association with the Lord to whom he testified. Neither had he reason for being ashamed on account of his association with Paul, who was not the Lord's servant, but, more honourably ( Galatians 6:17 ), the Lord's prisoner, i.e. by the will of Christ, more than by the will of Caesar—a prisoner, the disposal of him extending to the time, and all the circumstances, of his imprisonment. To suffer hardship with the gospel involves an unusual collocation of person and thing. It is usual to interpret the hardship as being suffered with Paul for the gospel. But as the thought requires the fixing of the attention, not on the second, but on both of the preceding clauses, it is better to leave indefinite with whom he is associated in suffering hardship.

4 . Reason against false shame in the power of God. "According to the power of God." The idea is that we should be free from shame in suffering for the gospel, according to the power on which we have to rely.

5 . Reason against false shame in the example of the apostle.

6 . Timothy is further called upon to attend specially to his orthodoxy.

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