Let us go back to what Paul says in II Timothy 1:7, you do not have to turn back there. But again, he says, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." So he addresses the negative aspect of the spirit of fear and he counters it with three positive aspects.
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.
And that was really the trouble with Timothy, as it is with all fearful Christians. It is a failure to recognize what God has done for us and what God is still doing in us. So in fact, we can use the very words that Jesus Christ once used in a different context.
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.
So our fears stem from our failure to stir up, our failure to think, our failure to get a grip on ourselves. We find ourselves looking to the future, imagining things, and we say, "I wonder what's going to happen?" And then our imagination runs away with us and we are gripped by this thing; and we do not stop reminding ourselves of who we are and what we are, and this thing overwhelms us. And down we go into despair when we already have the answer or the power within us that we must stir up to counter these discouraging attitudes.
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.
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.
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 above them. The essence of this trouble is that these fearful people are too self-absorbed. They are constantly turning to themselves, looking at themselves, concerned about themselves.
There is only one way to get … . . .
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 … . . .
II Timothy 1:6-7 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind [or of "discipline," is really the best translation of that last word].
Without God's Spirit, understanding what we do about how we have been influenced—unwittingly, we did not know it—by a deceiving and destroying spirit, we are all to some degree insane, destructive, unbalanced, not able to properly use the powers that God has given to us.
Pentecost celebrates the giving to man of the one power that he needs to rightly guide and control and use all other powers: love. A spirit of love, a spirit of power, a spirit of discipline. That word translated "discipline" means "a reasoned use of." In other words, a person stops to think before he does what he does.
A person who has the Spirit of God to counteract the spirit of Satan is beginning already to have the tool he needs to rightly use things, because, like God, he is now in a position to do things as an act of love. He has then the power to make a reasoned use of, that is, reasoned according to God's Word, not according to Satan's methods, reasoned according to truth, reasoned according to right doctrine, reasoned according to right examples, before one acts and carries through with the thought that one might have otherwise gone on to do.
