The remarkable thing is that such things can so strongly affect us that they completely paralyze us in the moment. These people are often in danger of being consumed and overwhelmed by their fears, which can make them ineffective, and that was the core of Timothy's problem and the reason why Paul had to explain to him. He praised him for his faithfulness in that scripture and then he explained to him why he could not let fear freeze him in place.
Now he raises the reasoning to a higher level and gives us a specific teaching of a two-fold lesson in verse 7: first, it is a reprimand, and second, it is a reminder, and both are vital to get the point across. So the first thing Paul does is to reprimand Timothy. And he points to him and says, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear," and that is a reprimand. Timothy was now gripped by fear, and so Paul reprimanded him.
The spirit or the principle here is that our essential trouble, if we suffer from this specific manifestation of fear, anxiety, and spiritual depression, is our failure to recognize God's gift of the Holy Spirit and to acknowledge that He continues to give it to us through thick and thin.
So in Luke 9:55, the rebuke is negative, but in II Timothy 1:6, the reprimand is positive, and Paul has to tell Timothy to stir up the gift of God.
In effect, he says to Timothy, "Timothy, you seem to be thinking about yourself and about your life and all you must do, as if you were still an ordinary worldly person. But Timothy, you are born from above and the Spirit of God is in you, but you are facing all these things as if you are still what you once were, a worldly person."
Paul says to Timothy that the thing to do is to remind yourself that you have been given the gift of God's Spirit and to realize that because of this, your whole outlook on life and the unknown future must be different from what you were before conversion and different from what you thought before conversion.
But the difference regeneration makes is that there is now a higher control even over our temperament, that points our temperament in the right direction and enables us to use it correctly. The power of the Holy Spirit enables us to function in our own particular way according to our temperament, and the process of conversion is the practice of learning to control our temperament and desires. Temperament remains, but it no longer controls us, and the Holy Spirit is the controlling power.
So let us clarify what we know. God has not given us a spirit of fear. What, then, is the spirit He has given us? Again, notice in II Timothy 1:7, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power," and that power is what Paul puts first in his list there of the three. We have a task and we know our own weakness.
It is God's Spirit that enables us to serve God properly, and by its power, we can overcome fear and weakness. The word fear in verse 7 means timidity, cowardice, and the Holy Spirit gives us the power to fulfill our responsibility to God with boldness.
So the fear and trembling remain, and that is partly our temperament, but we are enabled to work by the power that works in us to will and to do. So we do not become a person who is unafraid and no longer subject to fear. We still must work out our own salvation with that power and that spiritual power enables us to work this out in godly fear and reverent trembling.
Then the next thing after power that Paul mentions to Timothy is love. In II Timothy 1:7 again, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love." So why would Paul place love at this point in the list? Why does he place the spirit of love second here? Why does a timid and nervous person need love during high pressure situations?
Paul shows great wisdom here because after all, is not fear the main cause? And the answer is self—self-love, self-concern, and self-protection, which is non-love for others or hate for others and putting ourselves … . . .
