2 Timothy 2:2

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And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. ~ 2 Timothy 2:2

Yesterday, we considered what it means to be strong in God's grace. Today, the Apostle Paul gives us the first of four steps that will aid us in becoming stronger in the grace of God. 

The most important word in today's verse is the word "teach."  Most of the time we are teaching and we do not know it because people watch our lives more than do our lips. More is caught than is taught because people look more deeply than what we say.

Notice the succession in our verse today: Being taught, then teach and those we teach are to teach. The Lord Jesus modeled this when He taught the Twelve. And they taught the next generation, and they taught the next. We are in a living chain that takes us link by link all the way back to the Lord Jesus. We have entered a relay race where someone gave us the baton, and we are giving the baton to somebody else.

At the beginning of today's verse we read, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses."

We often find ourselves questioning what we believe is really real, really true. The fact that there were many witnesses of the revelation that God had given to Paul proves that it went through a process whereby it was proven true. The change in Paul's life was so radical and true that only God can be credited for it.

In Deuteronomy 19:15 we read, “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established." 

In the Old Testament, God taught us the value of having more than one witness in a matter. In this case, there were many thousands of witnesses who confirmed the truthfulness of Paul's testimony and his subsequent teaching. So, Paul is saying, “The things that you have heard from me, not just my ideas, but the Word of God have been confirmed by many witnesses.”

The second part of today's verse reads, "entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others."

This process that you and I are engaged in is discipleship, giving the truth that God has given us to faithful and trustworthy believers who want to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. We invest in the reliable and then, they pass the teaching along to others who are faithful.

If we are going to grow strong in the grace of God, we will be involved in sharing our story and the revelation that God has given us with others. This will be challenging and humbling because the truth of God reveals our flaws as we instruct others.

I am able teach others the truths that God has taught me because I sought Him in reference to what was going on in my life. Most of the time that something that was going on in my life was caused by my sinfulness or my failure. Then I sought the Lord and He taught me. And, if we are to effectively teach others, we must teach them the whole truth, including our struggle with sin and our subsequent failure. This gives framing to the real star in the show, the word of God.

So, if we are going to be strong believers, we have to see ourselves as teachers, even if we are not gifted as teachers. In our authentic walk with the Lord, we are getting to know Him personally and His truth intimately. And this means we must be diligent to seek Him as we study His word. 

In addition, we must be willing to allow Him to do His work in us and through us. The Lord's primary tool for teaching us His culture is through His word with the aid of the teaching skills of the Holy Spirit. Then, we must be willing to teach others this reconstruction project that is going on in our very lives.

2 Timothy 2:1

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You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. ~ 2 Timothy 2:1

It is so important that we are authentic with ourselves and others. This is so for our posterity because, if we are not, we will train them to be more dependent upon us or themselves rather than on God. We must never forget that we are not the answer, for ourselves or anyone else. 

In order to combat this, I have found that it is helpful to make it a habit of admitting that I struggle and I am not the answer. It is the God of the Bible who is the truth and the answer to all of our struggles. And, we really need Him. In fact, we are most spiritual when we are most dependent upon Him. He is the One that everyone in this world is searching for, whether we know it or not.

When we come to God by way of His word daily, we must come seeking Him. And, when we interact with Him, we must be careful to be honest with Him. It is in this context of honesty that He teaches us the best lessons. Never underestimate His ability to reveal truth to you for He longs to do this, even when you have failed. Don't buy the lie that you somehow must make up lost ground with God in order for Him to bless you. He is not like that.

The secret to Paul’s great ministry was the grace of God. It is also our secret to success. The ability to study His word and understand it, is a gift of God’s grace. This is why in v.1 the Apostle writes, "You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."

We underestimate God's grace, thinking that our sin is greater. Grace is what God freely gives us through His Son's perfect performance and we do not earn it or deserve it. The initial characteristic of God's grace is the forgiveness of our sins. Oh, the lifting of the guilt of sin. When we trusted Christ as our Savior, a great load of guilt was removed out of our account before God. He forgave us in Christ of all of the things we had done and will ever do here on earth. He even forgave us for the attitudes and shameful actions that we had indulged in to that point. But He didn't stop there, His grace is inexhaustible.  

When we fail to celebrate His forgiveness, we lose sight of the bedrock motivation for pursuing Him in this life. Grace is the most powerful change agent in the world, but if it is not doing its work in our hearts on a daily basis, we lose the motivation to pursue God. So, we preach the gospel of grace to ourselves daily. There is a difference between merely reminding ourselves of grace, and preaching it to ourselves everyday. The latter is consciously and intentionally reminding ourselves of God's provisions through His Son, the Lord Jesus. And, He did this even while we were His enemies.

The heart of 2 Timothy comes to us in the words, “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” which is what produces the theme of 2 Timothy, "Faithful til the end." The only way we are faithful til the end is if we are strong in grace, but most, it seems to me, are malnourished of His grace.

The imperative “be strong” is a present passive imperative, meaning someone outside of us is producing the power. Literally Paul wrote, “Keep on being empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” It is not being strong in our own strength; it’s being empowered in His perfect strength. Let me reiterate that this command is written in the passive voice, which means God is the source of the empowerment.

In Jude 20 we read, “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” We do not earn God's favor, nor do we maintain it. To live out of the posture of God's complete acceptance of us on the basis of Christ's merit is the beginning of being empowered by God's grace. We must stay in His grace. We must not allow ourselves to think that God will ever change His posture toward us, even when we sin egregiously. 

In Romans 5:2 we read, “we have gained access (to God) by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” In the eyes of God, we are perfected in Christ. So, we are never to earn God's favor because the Lord Jesus has done this for us. And, when we learn to wallow in His grace, it gets all over us and we grow in our understanding of it. It is at this point that we begin to understand, and over time, we begin to stand in it with the confidence of Christ Himself. It is His confidence given through His grace that makes us strong in His grace.

Our determination to be good or our strength to be strong factors not in being strong in His grace. We can offer God nothing. In our own strength we can do nothing. We need grace for our justification and our our sanctification. 

It's ironic that we grow in His grace most often on the heels of a reminder of our weaknesses or our failures or our humiliations in life. I have often wondered why God doesn’t just remove the stuff that trips me up in my pursuit of perfect obedience. But, if He did, I'd lean on my own strength instead of His. A few stumbles might be what I need to convince me, once again, that His grace is sufficient for everything in my life, including forgiveness of my sin. And, I am learning to rest in that grace that makes me stronger with each passing day. I like this quote from Max Lucado, "Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off."

2 Timothy 1:15-18

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15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.16 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. 18 May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus. ~ 2 Timothy 1:15-18

Today's text begins with desertion. Everyone had abandoned the Apostle Paul for it was dangerous to be associated with him. This was a dark period for Paul. So dark that it was difficult to recognize what God was really doing. False doctrines were spreading throughout the church, and Paul would have loved to be free to defend the faith—but he was in a Roman prison. 

The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 1:12-14 that his imprisonment happened to advance the gospel. He went on to write in Philippians 3:10, "I want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death." 

The Lord Jesus endured the desertion of God so that we would not.  Everything that separated us from God was absorbed by the Lord Jesus on His cross so that we might know Him intimately in an increasing way. Pain and suffering is unavoidable in this fallen world, yet, there is a silver lining to this very dark cloud: that we might know Him and make Him known. 

In this passage there are two groups of people: those who deserted Paul and those who helped him. The group we choose to identify with will impact our lives the most. In Hebrews 11 there is a group known for their faith in the God of the Bible. This is the group that we want to be associated with because it is much easier to pull someone down than it is to pull them up.

We read in v.16, "May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains."

But there was one man who dared to leave Ephesus and come to Rome to assist Paul, Onesiphorus whose name means “profit-bearing” or "bringer of help." He certainly lived up to his name and was a profitable friend to Paul. We most often live our lives according to what we are beholding at the moment. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

God made us to receive and to give, and when we give, in some way, we are blessed. Those who live to only get are miserable. We must be careful to follow the example of Onesiphorus by daily looking for those to whom we can be a blessing in one way or another. It may be a simple smile or it may be a long trek from Ephesus to Rome.

There are two bodies of water in the nation of Israel: the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Both have in common an inlet. These bodies of water receive water everyday by way of the Jordan River. But what sets these two bodies of water apart is what makes them different. You see, one of them teams with all forms of life and the other is known for no life in it at all. The difference is only the Sea of Galilee gives. The Dead Sea only gets and it is the worse for it.

According to v.16, Paul prays that the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus because somewhere on his trip back to Ephesus, he somehow died. We do not know how he died and we are not given much about Onesiphorus but he certainly was a tremendous blessing as Paul faced his final days in prison.

In v.17 we read, "On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me."

Onesiphorus, painstakingly, and at great effort, sought and found the Apostle Paul. That was not easy to do because the Romans told no-one where Paul was imprisoned. But Onesiphorus kept looking until he found him. He found him at great risk to his own life, for, to befriend an enemy of Caesar in those days was to put one's own life in peril.

In v.18 we read, "May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus."

When someone is a blessing to us, our hearts well up for them. We find ourselves praying for them more. This was the case here for Paul toward Onesiphorus. Granted, we do not bless to be blessed, but the principle in nonetheless true. Let me encourage you today to ask God to give you the ability to see the needs around you. Then, look for practical ways to be a blessing to those whom He brings into your pathway.

We all have an orientation to life. Most often it is our pain that makes us most useful to others. God redeems our pain as He brings healing through us to those around us. God gives us opportunities to share the Scriptural truths that He has given us as lifelines. And God gives us the privilege of coming alongside people to believe for them and to pray for them. In this type of giving, we even find healing for ourselves.

2 Timothy 1:13-14

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13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. ~ 2 Timothy 1:13-14

In our last passage of study, the Apostle Paul wrote about how his life was entrusted to God. In today's text Paul writes about how God has entrusted the word of God to Timothy. Can you imagine a world without truth? How chaotic it would be. There would be no trust for without the truth trust dies. Trust is quite difficult when we do not know who or what we are trusting.

In v.13 we read, "What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus."

The Apostle begins with, "What you heard from me." The "What" spoken of here in this verse is the truth from God, given to the Apostle Paul. The word "heard" reminds me of Romans 10:17 which reads, "Faith comes by hearing by the word of God." The word used here for "word" is rhema which is the spoken word of God. We do not hear God with our ears, we hear Him with our hearts and minds. It is the experiential word of God that gives birth to faith in our hearts. This is why we must be in the word daily, expecting God to speak to our hearts through His word.

The word “keep,” in our text, means to hold tightly or firmly, to grasp. The idea behind this word is to hold onto in such a way that we interact with it. In this way, it holds on to us. The truth is meant to be interactive. It was given to us by God in order to impact our lives in a qualitative way. We struggle with it and that is good. We must be careful to remain honest with it or we will trump it by what we think is right. Of course, our way is not the way.

We struggle with doubting the veracity of truth and this is normal. The Lord Jesus consistently made a distinction between doubt and unbelief, not doubt and faith. Doubt is the shadow cast by faith. Doubt is can’t believe, whereas unbelief is won’t believe. Doubt is honestly wrestling with the truth, but unbelief is being obstinate with the truth. Doubt is looking for light whereas unbelief is content with the darkness.

The word  “pattern," means "an architect’s sketch.” In v,13 Paul writes, "keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus." This means the pattern came from the architect, God Himself. He is the architect of the truth and we are not making it, it is making us. 

The word "sound" means "healthful and whole," words that will lead us to wholesome living. In Proverbs 14:12 we read,  "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death." There is our way that leads to destruction or there is God's way which leads us to a life filled with "faith and love which are in Christ Jesus."

It was the Holy Spirit who committed the truth to Paul, and then, Paul committed God's truth to Timothy. Apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we are in the dark when it comes to having the truth and understanding it. God's word is so important because in it, God has shown us the way, the truth, and the life. And, from the beginning of human history, Satan has opposed God’s Word because "it is the power of God unto salvation for all who choose to believe it."

In v.14 we read, "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us."

This word "guard" means to retain the standard of sound, wholesome, life-giving words. Be committed to it, to the proper theological structure, the proper interpretation of Scripture, the proper outline of the truth that produces spiritual growth, spiritual maturity. This will result in sound theology.

We live in a world where people get squeamish when we have biblically based convictions, but those with strong convictions must be bold. The "good deposit" is the Scriptures. Though the word truth does not actually appear in this verse, we are to "guard the truth with the help of the Spirit." The glory of Christianity is that it is knowledge that can free us from the lies that the world in its blindness is following to its own destruction.

It is not merely the words of the Bible that make it powerful, rather it is the presence of the Holy Spirit enlightening the words of God contained in the Bible. The Spirit illuminates the Bible so that we can take it to heart. He makes the words of the Bible living words that enlighten our minds, pierce our hearts, words that produce profound changes in attitude and behavior in us that we can't produce ourselves. This is the reason we must keep and guard it because it keeps and guards us.

2 Timothy 1:11-12

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11 And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. ~ 2 Timothy 1:11-12

Faithful til the end is the overarching theme of 2 Timothy. Faithful, as we considered yesterday, is to be full of faith which always has a forward lean to it. Our problem with this is: we do not do well with trusting, especially if those whom we should have been able to trust were not all that faithful to us when we were in our formative years.

I have a dog that my son and daughter-in-law rescued out of a park near downtown Columbia. Although, for two years now, I have been nothing but loving to Millie, she sometimes struggles with trusting me. When we brought her home with us, she was five months old. I've often wondered, "What happened in her life in those first five months that makes her struggle with trusting me?" You see this truth is not only true for dogs, it is true for us.

Another problem that we have with faith is we do not know what tomorrow will bring. But, we can trust the God of the Bible who has always been faithful to His promises. Of course, we must give Him time to bring about His promises and His timetable is not on par with ours. Corrie ten Boom said it well when she said, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

Today's text begins with, "And of this gospel I was appointed a herald." The focus of all things must be the gospel which includes the utter helplessness of man, the coming of the Savior, His death, burial and resurrection. And, most importantly, that we believe it, that we trust in His gospel. And, for fallen people, trusting is a very hard thing to do.

Think of the Apostle Paul as he wrote this, he was a prisoner in a Roman dungeon. This is where the gospel led him and he was not daunted in his faith. Why? Because through the darkness a light shined forth which never stopped lighting. He was strategically abandoned by all who had helped him to that point. I say strategically because we will never be convince that the Lord Jesus is all we need until He is all we have.

The Apostle Paul was appointed, as we all are. You and I are appointed to the advancement of the gospel in one sphere or another. As the Apostle Paul was called to be a herald, so are you and I. And, I might add, people are convince more by our deeds than they are by our words. We must keep the message simple. We must focus on the gospel and share it consistently and all the rest, God will see fit to teach. He may use you and me to do the further teaching, but we must be patient to give people the time to process the gospel first.

In v.12 we read, "That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day."

Paul's confidence was in Christ because he knew His faithfulness. Notice his emphasis on the person of Christ: “I know whom I have believed.” As you probably already know, Paul went through hell on earth to garner such confidence in the Savior. This is how it works in a fallen world. And, we have to trust that even the bad stuff is used of God for our good. Our problem is our definition of what is good. If we allow God to define things for us, we will have a biblical understanding of what is good.

Salvation is not the result of believing certain doctrines, though doctrines are important. A sinner is saved because he believes in a Person—Jesus Christ the Savior. Paul had deposited his soul in the care and keeping of the Savior, and Paul was sure that Jesus Christ would faithfully guard that deposit. 

In these difficult days that we live in, it is important that we stand true to Christ and be willing to suffer for Him. We may not be put into prison, as was Paul, but we will suffer in other ways: the loss of friends, being bypassed for a promotion, loss of customers, being snubbed by people, and so forth. 

Our text for today ends with, "and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day." Paul had sunk to the lowest lows, yet he was at the highest heights regarding his faith, his heart's ability to see God. It is at rock bottom that we realize the bed-rock nature of our God's faithfulness. The key is that we learn to use the unwanteds of life as a means to knowing the Lord Jesus. This is what it means to "entrust" it to Him. Taking all of our stuff, both good and bad, and giving it to Him, and trusting Him with the outcome. And, God writes a far better story than we.

2 Timothy. 1:9-10

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9 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. ~ 2 Timothy 1:9-10

Martin Luther once said, “Where the battle rages, there, the loyalty of the soldier is proved.” We come back to the book which has as its theme: Faithful til the end. In order to remain faithful to the end, we must recognize truth for what it is; sometimes it is pleasant, and, at others, it is the hardest thing to embrace. One thing is for sure, the truth is the only thing that we can count on in this fallen world and our lack of faithfulness to it is not wise.

Once we embrace the truth, we must learn to look at life as a voyage of discovery, all the while running the risk of disappointment, fear and failure. As C.S. Lewis once said, "You can't have the love without the pain." Those who find a way to be defined by God's truth will be more faithful to it than those who hide behind the less substantive things of this world. To be faithful is to be filled with faith. When we are not defined by the truth, we will struggle at discovering our true identity.

In v.9 we read, "He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time."

God made the choice to call us to Himself by His grace “before the beginning of time.” He is transcendent which means He is not bound by time and space as we are. Given our fallen state, He had to allow pain and suffering to be part of His sovereign plan, otherwise we would have been programmed, and, where is the love in that? It is difficult to understand that the bad things that have happened to us throughout our lives are useful in the loving hands of this One who love us more than we can fathom.

The emphasis in this verse is on grace. God had to sacrifice His Son in order to make it possible for mankind to be saved because we lack the ability to save ourselves. He called us to Himself, not on the basis of our good works, but totally on the basis of His favor that we can never merit. And, our pain and suffering enables our ears to hear His gracious call. Once we hear, we discover that it is His purpose that we wisely want, and if these purposes include suffering, then we can accept it by faith and know that God’s will is best. All of this grace was given to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Notice the reason God saved us by His grace: So that we might experience His holiness. His holiness lacks nothing. Unlike Him, mankind lacks, and, this is the root to all of our problems, we lack. This is why we covet. My mother died when I was five years old and I desperately lacked the affection that I did not get from her. That lack defined me so deeply that I made many bad and destructive choices until I came to the place of understanding His holiness.

When God's holiness defines us, our lack problem will increasingly be addressed until the point where we will experience His wholeness. His wholeness will never be perfect in us this side of heaven, yet, it gradually murders our insecurities, if we let it. And, the freedom that comes to the once shackeled soul is as liberating as when Frodo dropped that ring into the pit of fire at Mount Doom. 

There have been times in my life when it was as if I could hear the chains clang in my mind as they fell to the floor of my existence and I was freed from my own demise. It wasn't the demise of God or my mother, it was my demise. I came to understand that ninety percent of life is how I respond to the ten percent that happens to me.

In v.10 we read, "but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

Through His resurrection, Christ has defeated our last and ultimate enemy: death. He not only destroyed death, He revealed life and immortality. In the Old Testament the doctrines of eternal life, death, and the resurrection were kept in the shadows. Then, the Lord Jesus Christ came shining His light on all that is really real, and, through His teachings, He has pulled back that stiff curtain that separated us from all that is substantive, enabling us to see the real which garners for us assurance of the life to come.

“Immortality” is “incorruptibility” which will be the believer's eventual condition and experience. Our present bodies are corruptible thus they will die and decay. But our eventual bodies will be like His, never again subject to decay or death. The grave and the terror death has held over us all of these years will be vanquished, and, we will know our heavenly inheritance in an upclose way.

We must fight against allowing the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus to become mechanical and indifferent to us. These are at the heart of the Christian faith. We must live so close to the cross that we find ourselves in danger of getting splinters in our noses. This is why, by the way, God gave us the Lord' Supper. As often as we remember Him on that cross, the more our hearts will possibly be engulfed in His.

When the Lord Jesus destroyed the power of death, He eliminated it. The word destroyed is the Greek word that means "to bring to nothing."  But the practical aspects of a destroyed death is yet to be realized by us. There will come a day when we will know nothing but life, death will be a thing of the past.

Our text today ends with, "immortality to light through the gospel." The Old Testament does not give a lot of information on what lies beyond, but when the Lord Jesus came, He made clear that our long dark struggle with sin and death will soon be over. Then, we will live life to its fullest, permanently enjoyed into our everlasting future.

The word "life" here is a reference to the change that will take place when we are given new bodies, but it also refers to that which occurs in our hearts when we are invaded by God's presence. The new quality of life that was imparted to us was delivered by the Lord Jesus. He made it visible to us through the paradox of His death and resurrection.

It is the power of God that brings that kind of certainty and hope into our lives, if we choose to be defined by it. It is the gospel, and it is the answer to the deepest longings of people everywhere. We live in a world of the superficial. When we allow it to define us, we find ourselves trapped by the fallen devices of the enemy. The reality is, when we examine what is real, we are left with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus which not only rescues us from death but frees us from the obnoxious lack that has plagued us from birth. 

2 Timothy 1:6-8

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6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 8 So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. ~ 2 Timothy 1:6-8

The emphasis in this second letter written by Paul to Timothy is remaining faithful to God til the end. When Timothy came to Christ, like all believers, he received the incredible gift of a personal relationship with God through the indwelling Holy Spirit. As we learned in Paul's first letter to Timothy, a prophetic utterance was given that indicated that Timothy was a young man who would be greatly used of God. 

Paul wrote,"For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God." 

Every Christian does not have the same spiritual gift(s), but every Christian has the gift of the Holy Spirit. When the believer in Christ yields to the Holy Spirit, we make it possible for the Holy Spirit to freely work in and through our lives in such a way that God is glorified. The ultimate purpose of the Holy Spirit is to aid us in knowing God and the advancement of God's kingdom in the sphere wherein we operate. To do this we must fan into flame the gift of God.

The verb “flame” means to get the fire going and keep it blazing. The believer must not put the fire out; we must fan it by feeding the Holy Spirit rather than our flesh. Like getting oxygen into a struggling fire, we feed the Spirit by walking in God's will, by praying, reading His word, and sharing our findings with others. To fan the flame is to practice the presence of God in our lives and to yield to His daily leading.

In v.7 we read, "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline."

At the time of the writing of this second letter of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, Paul was in a Roman dungeon. This was Paul's last will and testament, so to speak, his final words. That dungeon that he was in was dark and cold, yet, it was a great reminder of the need of a warm flame. Paul's conditions no doubt aided his thoughts as they were penned. 

The most often repeated command in the Bible is "Fear not!" When we fan the flame or give freedom to the Holy Spirit to do His work in and through us, we experience His power. Through His power the enemy is broken and God enables us to see the validity and fulfillment of His will in our lives. 

The word “power” is the Greek word from which we get our English word dynamite. It means dynamic energy and it doesn’t matter how powerful the adversary is, the power of God will always trump him, and enable us in our yielded state, to accomplish that which God has called us to do.

God's power is released to and in us when we choose to obey God. He does not make us feel powerful, we still struggle with our feelings of weakness, but His strength is imparted to us to see and follow the truth, as we serve Him in this dark and dreadful world. Our courage rises out of a sense of our calling and giftedness. When we know our calling and our giftedness, we will not be ashamed because this is what we are designed to do while we are in this world. This is what the Spirit of God has enabled and empowered us to do, and it is from the Holy Spirit that we gain the motivation to do it.

In addition to providing the power that we need to overcome our fears, the Holy Spirit provides us with God's love to share the truth with others. This is commitment love. It is the highest type of love wherein we volitionally choose to love another. 

As we grow in our understanding of God's love for us, we will subsequently see others through His eyes of love and compassion. Nothing gives more proof that a person is filled with the Spirit than when he evidences concern for somebody else's eternity.

In addition to power and love, the Holy Spirit provides the yielded believer self-discipline which means the control of one’s self, no matter the circumstances. This is the only time this Greek word is used in the Bible. It is that sound judgment that takes every feature of life and makes it positive for the advancement of the kingdom of God. It’s more than wisdom. It’s the application of  wisdom. And, every believer in Christ has access to this resource.

Finally, in v.8 we read, "So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God." 

The believer in Christ must be programmed for rejection and the threats from people who say that if we don’t change our message or stop sharing it, they’re going to sue us. Therefore, we must not be reluctant to preach the Gospel of Christ in word and in deed.

I remember a day back in 1983 when I was punched in the face for giving testimony of Christ. I was working in a Pawn Shop in Savannah, Georgia. It was a Saturday morning and I was listening to Charles Stanley on the radio. A man who also worked at the Pawn Shop turned off the radio. At the time, I didn't realize that he had turned it off, so I went over and turned it back on. After that this colleague came over and punched me in the face and said to me, "I do not want to hear that @#&%!"

I was startled, caught between two great emotions: love and anger. I wanted to punch him in his fat gut. I immediately walked away. About fifteen minutes later he came and appologized to me. I will never forget that moment for it was the first time I had ever experienced any type of persecution for the Lord Jesus. And, although it was hard, it felt good. I was happy that I could suffer for the name of Christ. I only hope it aided that man in coming to the Lord Jesus before he entered eternity just a few years later.