2 Timothy 1:1-11

“Stir Up the Gift Which Is in Thee”

2 Timothy 1:1

Lonely and facing death the Apostle fell back on the bedrock of the will of God. If it were the divine plan that he should finish his life-work in that miserable plight, he was content that it should be so. But he longs to see his beloved son in the faith once more. He desires to stir up the dead coal of his ardor, in which there was fire and heat, but not enough flame.

Apparently the young evangelist was becoming daunted by the gathering difficulties of the time and so Paul sets himself to encourage him. With this purpose in view he adduces his own example, 2 Timothy 1:3, his fervent affection, 2 Timothy 1:4, the memory of the sainted dead, 2 Timothy 1:5, the solemn vows by which Timothy had bound himself at his ordination, 2 Timothy 1:6, the divine donation of grace and power and love, 2 Timothy 1:8, the eternal purpose which had received its fruition in the advent of Jesus, 2 Timothy 1:9, the clear light which His resurrection had thrown on death and the hereafter, 2 Timothy 1:10. Surely such a chain of arguments must have proved irresistible! God's soldiers must be brave and unflinching in meeting the opposition of the world. When once we realize that the stores which reside in God are at the disposal of our faith, we, too, shall be invulnerable and irresistible.