Introduction
What do you do with old letters? Some obviously end up in the bin – or preferably recycling box. But I doubt if there are many people who throw all their old letters away. Some are too precious to be chucked. In houses up and down the country there must be thousands of shoe boxes, big envelopes, filing cabinet drawers full of old letters. What stories they would tell, of love and betrayal, triumphs and defeats, illnesses bravely born, travels to exotic destinations, hardships and heartaches. Many such letters take us into territory very different from our own world and yet human nature remains unchanging.
Thankfully many of the letters written by the apostle Paul are preserved for us and today we resume our study of three such letters known as the pastoral epistles as we look at the first chapter of 2 Timothy. These letters do indeed take us into a world very different from our own. This letter finds Paul in prison again, this time not under house arrest but in chains. The infant Christian church is under threat from without and within. The Emperor Nero has instigated a programme of persecution and Paul is anticipating his imminent execution. Major heresies threaten the church from within and Paul is anxious to bolster the fledgling leadership.
Paul’s chief concern is that the gospel for which he has contended and in the cause of which he is about to loose his life, should be preserved and passed on to others. So Timothy is charged not to be ashamed of the gospel but to guard it vv. 8,14 and to be willing to share in suffering for the sake of the gospel. This gospel, or good news, Paul speaks of in terms of life and grace through Jesus Christ. Vv.9-10.
I have been particularly struck in preparing this passage by the intertwining of human and divine, material and spiritual. On the one hand we have the very human aspects of Paul’s writing, his sense of loneliness and abandonment v.15 and the human encouragement he received by contrast from Onesiphorus. We have too the recalling of Timothy’s tears and longing to be reunited with him v.4. On the other hand there is this intense preoccupation with the gospel.
In a similar way Timothy is instructed to “Fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands”v.6 The precise nature of this gift is open to debate, no doubt some equipping for ministry which Timothy had received at “ordination”. Whatever it was, it was a divine gift, not a human attribute or acquired skill. Nonetheless Timothy was exhorted to exercise it – to fan it into flame. This is an important spiritual truth and one which we should all take to heart as we live out our life of discipleship. What gifts has God given you? How can you keep the gift alive? (ice skating illustration)
It may be that you are thinking this applies simply to the likes of Timothy and Paul who have been “ordained” but Paul goes on to speak of the Spirit who has been poured out on all of us. “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline”v.7 We are all endowed with the Holy Spirit when we become Christians – many of us can recall our confirmation when the bishop laid his hands on us and said “Confirm O lord your servant……with your Holy Spirit. This filling with the spirit should give us the power to live out our Christian lives in love and self-discipline cf. the fruit of the Spirit
We live in very different times and circumstances from Paul and Timothy and yet some things don’t change. The gospel is still under attack from without and within. What are we doing to guard the gospel? How are we exercising our God given gifts? How open are we to being filled with a spirit of power, love and self-discipline?