For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us the spirit of timidity, but of power, love and a sound mind.
(II Timothy 1.6-7)
I have always felt a filial relationship with Timothy. He is a local preacher, as am I, and our backgrounds, though separated by 19 centuries, are similar in many points. And so Paul’s letters to him about the work of a preacher have been particularly personal for me. I find I and II Timothy easy to take literally. For instance, Paul tells Timothy to treat the older women as mothers, and the younger ones as sisters. So if you are twenty or more years older than me I’ve probably kissed your forehead, and if you are younger than that I’ve probable punched you in the shoulder. That is easy enough.
I have taken to heart Paul’s insistence in both letters that Timothy focus his attention and efforts on God’s word – reading it (I Timothy 4.13), working hard to use it properly (II Timothy 2..15), trusting it to fully equip the servant of God (II Timothy 3.16-17), and sharing it in every circumstance (II Timothy 4.1ff).
These are just a few of the many passages where Paul urges Timothy to speak up. Paul has a concern about Timothy, and the effectiveness of his work. Even before he names the weakness we know what that concern is – he fears Timothy is timid.
How timid could a man be to travel with Paul and face angry mobs, then be sent to a fledgling congregation in a hostile town, then be called back by Paul to tend to him in prison at Rome – all things Timothy did. Would you worry that such a man is timid? Paul did, and I understand. I am timid. Though I am sure that is an adjective none of you have ever applied to me. It is a valid one nonetheless. When it comes to personal evangelism I am intimidated, and thus hesitant.
Whence comes this timidity? It is not what God intends – it is, as Paul asserts above, counter to what He does intend. Why, then, are brother Timothy and I (and you?) so challenged?
It isn’t because we haven’t from childhood learned the word of God. Paul reminds Timothy of this in II Timothy 3.15: “from childhood you have known the sacred writings,” and in 1.5: “I am mindful of the sincere faith that is in you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice.” I benefited from similar attention and training from Pauline and Sandy. It isn’t because we haven’t been involved in the work for years, and in difficult work for some of those years – because we both have. It isn’t because we are without a spiritual father in the faith who mentored us and nurtured us along – he had Paul. I have had John, and John, and John, and John, and Clifton, and Kermit, and Lucien, and Neil, and Elmer, and others.
With us both it is personal. With brother Timothy it seems to be his relative youth (I Timothy 4.12). With me it is unworthiness- impatience, self-absorption, temper- just to scratch the surface. If I talk to a guy, say, who is a spouse of a member, and who isn’t baptized, I think: “Who am I to talk to him about being saved – he’s a nice guy, and I’m not.” Of course I know in my head that we are not saved by being nice, we are saved by the blood of Jesus. But in my heart I hesitate.
So what is the answer to this timidity? Paul tells Timothy to do two things when his youth becomes an issue – be good, and catch fire:
In speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity show yourself as example of those who believe, he says in I Timothy 4.12. He continues by telling Timothy, regarding the scripture he is to read publicly (v.13), the “prophetic utterance” (v.13), that he is to focus on, to be consumed by it (v.15) – or as Paul later says of the power of the word Timothy has in him (II Timothy 1.6), he must “fan the flame.”
Timidity doesn’t come from God. God empowers. Timidity comes from somewhere, nonetheless, and it debilitates some (perhaps many) of us. Its source is personal – and therefore as varied as persons are, but the answer to it is the same for us as it is for Timothy. To overcome it we must be good, and catch fire. The power and opportunity to do both resides in the word itself, and so whatever the source of our timidity, its persistence is unnecessary.
