Daily Thought

This Epistle, written from prison in Rome, is thought to be the last by the apostle Paul. The recipient is his dearly beloved son Timothy. In this opening chapter Paul is writing out of a keenly felt sense of loss: loss of his freedom which, for a little while, had been so sweet; loss of Timothy’s company; loss of support from Phygelles and Hermogenes; and the loss of ‘all . . . in Asia’. Additionally, he is now facing the loss of his own life. So, it is rather amazing that he speaks of ‘the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus’. None of these losses could extinguish, or even dampen, his enthusiasm for the promise that physical death was but the entrance to eternal life in glory.

He looks back and speaks of his own forefathers and their influence on his early life. Then he considers Timothy, and is buoyed by the remembrance of the unfeigned faith seen in the lives of his mother and grandmother. This same faith and its intensity he now sees in Timothy himself. Parents and grandparents have a huge influence on the spiritual strength of their offspring today, as well as those did in the first century AD.

Now he looks forward to the future needs of the Lord’s people and reminds Timothy that he has a gift graciously given by God and recognized by Paul and the brethren. However, that gift, like all gifts, needs to be constantly encouraged, so Timothy is told to ‘stir up the gift’ that was in him. In other words, ‘If you don’t use it, you lose it’! God is gracious to enrich His people through the giving of gifts, and servants must be responsible for their appropriate use. Associated with God’s call and gifts are also His purpose and particular plan for their use.

In certain circumstances the exercise of gift may involve suffering, perhaps even unto death. But God has abolished death and should it occur then Timothy could look forward with Paul to ‘life and immortality . . . through the gospel’. Thus, he should not be ashamed of the message but preach it at every opportunity. Paul says, ‘I am not ashamed’. Concerning Onesiphorus, ‘he . . . was not ashamed’, and to Timothy, ‘Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord’. For such selfless sacrifice there will be abundant mercy in that day!