The Faith Handed Down through Generations

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

For the last time in Holy Scriptures, we see the great apostle and his beloved assistant Timothy. Timothy is still in the Asian churches and supervising them as Paul’s representative. But Paul is in a Roman prison awaiting trial, certain that the verdict will be death. It seems he is writing immediately after his arrest and is begging Timothy to hurry to his side.

Paul’s first letter to Timothy is full of directions and instructions on the management of the churches. This second letter contains no such directions. It is Paul’s last will and testament for Timothy. Like a relay runner passing the baton, Paul lays the work into Timothy’s hands so that he might carry it forward as his worthy successor in the field where God shall place his beloved assistant.

This letter is personal throughout. Tender, yet with the tenderness of a strong, heroic heart. It is far from being sentimental. Timothy may have read and reread it with tears blurring his eyes, but every line braced him with power to make him valiant to contend in the noble contest, to receive at his own death the crown laid up also for him. Paul writes:

I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:3-7).

In prison, Paul had a lot of time to think. How easy it would have been to feel sorry for himself, how easy to begin to blame and complain. Rather, Paul thanks God. From his forefathers, he had learned to serve the one true God as revealed in the Old Testament. When the Lord Jesus came, He revealed Himself as the fulfillment of God’s promises and called Paul into His service. God had turned Paul from a persecutor into a courageous witness and effective missionary. Rome treated him as a criminal. Even many of his fellow Jews had sought his life. But Paul had “a clear conscience.” He was serving his Lord according to the Lord’s will and direction.

In prison, Paul also had ample time for prayer. “Night and day,” he remembered Timothy as he prayed. What an encouragement this was for his “dear son.” Are we too busy to pray? And to pray for another? Are pastors too busy to pray for their members? And members for their pastor? Sometimes, when we are ill or shut in or retired, the Lord “gives” us time to think and pray as never before. What looks like a time of uselessness can become a blessing to us and to those we remember in our prayers.

As Paul thinks of Timothy, he is reminded of Timothy’s sincere faith that first dwelt in his mother and grandmother. The root of the verb translated as “dwelt” means house. Timothy’s faith has a home, has a place to live. It first dwelt in Lois and Eunice and now lives in him. The transfer of faith to the next generation has not diminished the faith of the earlier giver. It is shared. They believed in the God who revealed Himself in the Old Testament and who had promised the Savior.

When Paul came to Lystra proclaiming Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah, they believed. The Holy Spirit had worked a “sincere” faith in their hearts, one that showed itself also in the way they instructed Timothy in the Old Testament Scriptures when he was still a child (2 Timothy 3:15). He, too, came to believe the Scriptures were fulfilled in Christ. So, Paul had no doubt at all about the sincerity of Timothy’s faith. We see how the godly examples of faithful parents and grandparents can bring eternal blessings to children and children’s children.

As I prepared for this sermon, I thought about the faithful women who had helped pass on the Christian faith to me and to the members of my family and the people of the congregations I have served.

I thought about my Mom, who taught me to pray and brought me to Sunday School. I recalled the dear lady who has led and taught Vacation Bible School for more than thirty years. Many of the children she had taught in the first years brought their own children back to VBS because they had such a meaningful experience there growing up. I was reminded of the Sunday School teacher who taught the kindergarten class for over fifty years and sent birthday cards to each of her students every year, from their kindergarten year through their senior year of high school. There was also the grandmother who made sure her grandchildren got to worship, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and Catechism Class regularly. Then there’s the ninety-year-old woman who could recite an appropriate response and explanation from Luther’s Small Catechism from memory when called upon in Bible study, because she had learned it as a child and kept speaking it in family devotions every day at their noon meal. And I think about the faithful women of the LWML, with their Mites for mission projects in the District and abroad, their service to the Lord and the people of His Church.

Because God had blessed Timothy in the past by working in him a sincere faith, Paul encourages him to “fan into flame the gift of God.” As Christians we do not rest secure in the knowledge of blessings received in the past, a faith we have because of God’s grace active in our lives in the past. We have the ever-present need for the Spirit-filled Word to fan the flame of faith to burn more brightly.

Paul again reminds Timothy of the special gift of God he received when, with the laying on of hands, he was ordained into his pastoral office. Exactly what this gift was in Timothy’s case, we are not told. We can conclude that when the Lord invests us with special duties in His kingdom, He also gives gifts to fulfill them. How often we see that a Christian pastor or teacher grows with the new responsibilities placed on him as he conscientiously devotes himself to his teaching and preaching. Thus, he fans into flame the gift of God.

Paul describes the kind of spirit God gave “us,” that is, him and Timothy and the rest of his coworkers. It is not “a spirit of timidity,” or cowardice, or fear. Timothy appears to be somewhat fearful by nature, timid because of his youth (see 1 Corinthians 16:10; 1 Timothy 4:12). He needs this encouragement against timidity, and we all often need it in the face of a hostile world.

The spirit given by the Holy Spirit is one of “power, of love, and of self-discipline.” The Word of God is powerful and empowers Christians (Hebrews 4:12). The Christian then sees in Jesus’ love the perfect inspiration and pattern of love, and this power and love are used with self-discipline and prudence. What a marvelous spirit God gives us as we are called on to serve Him and His holy people! While a young pastor will guard against false self-confidence, he need not labor with timidity and fear when he presents the truth revealed by God.

Both the faith Timothy has been entrusted with and the powerful spiritual gift he is encouraged to fan into flame (2 Timothy 1:6) are treasures he is now somehow the container for (see 1 Timothy 6:19-20). And when Paul talks like that, I cannot help but think of how he describes it in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us… always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

This is the theology of the cross. It is a treasure in jars of clay, surpassing power, and faith in folks like Timothy and Paul and in faithful women like Eunice and Lois.

This Christian faith confesses the Christ who is strong in our weakness, powerful in our impotence, vibrant in our dullness, and our life while we are dying. This is the Christ who saves and brings life and immortality to life (2 Timothy 1:9-10). And the way He saves is in weakness, exalting the low and taking down the proud, filling the hungry and sending the rich empty away. That reversal language is theology of the cross talk. It is embodied in weak, broken vessels like Paul, unlikely heroes of the faith like Timothy, and unassuming women like Eunice, Lois, and all the faithful women I mentioned earlier. When I am weak, then I am strong. For even the Lord Jesus showed His greatest strength in His weakness, His submission, His death for the world, His death for them, and His death for you (Philippians 2:5-11).

This relationship Timothy has with his matriarchs will come up again in a couple of weeks in the assigned epistle at 2 Timothy 3:14-15:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

The heritage, the deposit laid up for Timothy and guarded by him, is not something simply cute or sentimental. It is the stuff that saves, no more nor less than the Word of God in Christ, the God-breathed counsel of the Law and Gospel, profitable for reproof, correction, training, and making wise to salvation. Timothy’s teachers were the mouthpieces of God Himself. That some of them happened to be faithful women is incidental to the fact. Thanks be to God that He continues to use His mouthpieces to raise up ministers of the Gospel and to encourage, correct, train, and comfort the Church of Christ.

As we reflect on the legacy of faith handed down through generations, let us remember that each of us is called to nurture and strengthen the faith that dwells within us. Whether we are parents, grandparents, teachers, or friends, our words and actions can leave a lasting impact on those around us. Like Lois and Eunice and the other faithful women, we are invited to be living examples of sincere faith, trusting that God will use our witness to bless others in ways we may never fully see.

Let us also take to heart Paul’s encouragement to “fan into flame the gift of God.” The Spirit empowers us not with fear, but with power, love, and self-discipline. In times of weakness or uncertainty, we can rely on Christ’s strength, knowing that His power is made perfect in our weakness. The treasure of faith we carry may be in fragile vessels, but it is God’s surpassing power that sustains and equips us for every good work.

Finally, may we give thanks for all those who have been God’s mouthpieces in our lives—those who have taught, encouraged, corrected, and comforted us in the Christian faith. As we go forth, let us continue to guard the good deposit entrusted to us, sharing the saving Word of Christ with boldness and love. May God grant this to us all. Amen