2 Timothy
THANKSGIVING
2 TIMOTHY 1:1-5
Paul recalls several matters which lead him to give thanks. How thankful are we?
As with 1 Timothy, Paul opens this letter in the conventional way, but he adapts the conventional framework in order to bring out Christian teaching. He speaks of his being an apostle as “by the will of God” and also as “according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus” (1:1). God does not send his apostles aimlessly. He has a definite plan, and they move according to that plan, a plan which concerns the bringing of life to sinful humanity. The word “promise” is a reminder that life comes as God’s gift. It is not earned by human merit. Paul strikes a note of tenderness when he refers to Timothy as “my beloved child” (1:2). Clearly Timothy was very dear to him.
As we turn to Paul’s opening thanksgiving we may profitably reflect that this is a necessary part of the Christian life. An ungrateful Christian is a contradiction in terms. All that is necessary to come up with matters to give thanks for is a good memory. Paul uses three different expressions for remembering in 1:3,4,5 (and another in 1:6). Memory is important and many-sided.
So Paul now remembers that his ancestors had served God “with a clear conscience” (1:3) and he is following in their steps. The Christian faith he professed was not a recent invention but the fulfillment of all that was involved in the religion of his ancestors. He worshiped the same God as they had, and did it with complete sincerity. Paul is able to recall also that Timothy had cause for similar thanksgiving, for his mother and his grandmother had been women of faith, the faith that Timothy himself now possessed (1:5). While we cannot trust to the merits of our predecessors in the faith, it is always good to recall them and to thank God for them.
The tears about which Paul writes (1:4) were evidently tears shed by Timothy when they parted. There were not the same inhibitions in those days about men weeping as in the modern western world. This is evidence not of weakness but of affection.