2Ti 1:1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,

2Ti 1:2  To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

2Ti 1:3  I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

The Apostle Paul gives unto Timothy the exhortation doctrine that is designed by God the Father to comfort, and to give Timothy the godly peace by the scriptures when he became a “partaker” of the afflictions of the ministry as Paul himself also suffered. Notice Paul’s exhortation is of a ‘father to a son’ type teaching? It is not as if Paul only counts Timothy as his ‘son in the faith,’ but he gives Timothy the doctrine, so that Timothy can “follow” Paul, as he followed Christ in the doctrine of the sufferings of Christ for the ministry’s sake. And the Apostle Paul’s ‘service’ unto the Father was taught to him by the scriptures of the “forefathers,” and were Paul’s ensample as a “beloved son” unto the Father.

Php 2:19  But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. 

Php 2:20  For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. 

Php 2:21  For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. 

Php 2:22  But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel. 

Paul knew that Timothy was “likeminded” according to the sound doctrine designed to establish the saints, and to continue to edify them unto the doctrine of godliness, and that Timothy fully understood the will of God. And “as a son with the father,” Timothy served with Paul in the ministry, but Timothy was allowing  some of the things listed in Romans 8:35-39 to “separate” him from the selfless love of Christ, and he had to be ‘reminded’ the selfless doctrine of the “love of Christ,” and His selfless ensample, as He suffered for “our sakes,” and that we ourselves are taught that the sufferings of Christ that we “endure” is for His “sake.”

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 

Furthermore, this selfless ensample of love for us by Jesus Christ was shown by Paul as he suffered “for Christ’s sake,” and this is the exhortation given by Paul unto Timothy as a ‘father to a son,’ so that he too would know the selfless love of Christ as He displayed, and that we are being taught in the above verses. Neither we, nor Timothy ought not to allow the things listed in verses 35 to “separate us” from the selfless “love of Christ,” as we are by the Lord and Savior Himself, as He gave Himself for us, and by Paul’s ensample, as he experienced the sufferings of Christ.

2Ti 1:4  Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;

2Ti 1:5  When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

2Ti 1:6  Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

2Ti 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Why does Paul have to “call to remembrance” what Timothy already knows? We ought to understand, and appreciate what Paul is saying here, because Paul is saying that at the time Paul was writing to Timothy, he DID NOT have the “unfeigned faith,” that his Mother and Grandmother, and the other faithful had, and what makes it a “reproof” unto Timothy, and ought to “shame” him, is when Paul said, “and I am persuaded that is in thee also.” Paul knows that there is doctrine lacking within Timothy, Timothy was NOT partaking of the afflictions of the gospel, and doing things like ‘charging some that they teach no other doctrine” would bring about “afflictions of the gospel.”

2Ti 1:8  Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Finally, Timothy’s “spirit of fear” was actually being “ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,” whether he thought it was, or not. But when he said nothing to the people who were teaching bad doctrine, he avoided afflictions, did not have to be in fear, and he was actually working against the testimony of our Lord when he did not declare the gospel unto the unsaved, and when he did not charge those ‘teachers’ of the bad doctrine, that they would teach “no other doctrine.” And when we as sons  ‘clam up,’ or think it is a godly thing not to warn the saints, or to give reproof , or corrective doctrine to the saints who are ‘weaker in the faith,” we hurting the growth of the saint, and our reputation, like Timothy’s,  becomes ‘ called into question,’ but we ought to use the ensample given unto Timothy, and understand that, the Apostle Paul our “pattern” not only in word, but also in the sufferings of Christ as well.

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

2Ti 1:10  But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

2Ti 1:11  Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

2Ti 1:12  For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Rod Jones