II Timothy 1- Haystack Bible Commentary

II Timothy 1

II Timothy 1:7:
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. NIV

God didn't give us a spirit that makes us weak and fearful. He gave us a spirit that gives us power and love. It helps us control ourselves. --New International Reader's Version

For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline. -American Standard Version

Timidity and fear is a sure sign that we are not “full of the Spirit.” It doesn’t necessarily mean that we do not have the Holy Spirit, but that we are not being filled, walking in and by him. Peter was full of the Spirit to preach at Pentecost (Acts 2), and when he stood up to the Jewish high council (Acts 4:8), but appeared to be more in his flesh when in fear he backed down from the Judaizers as told by Paul in Galatians 2. The Holy Spirit will embolden believers to stand against the culture.....Of ourselves, we can do nothing. We will be pushed around by our cravings and impulses. By the Holy Spirit, we can and should employ self-discipline for the sake of living a godly life and accomplishing all that God has set us apart to accomplish (Eph 2:10). -Connect Us

Simply put, if you have fear in your heart and mind, it didn’t come from God. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid” (2 Timothy 1:7, NIV). Don’t let timidity hold you back!
You may not be a bold person by nature, but that doesn’t matter. True boldness is not a personality trait or an act of will; it is a gift of grace we receive from God. You can have confidence in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Ask God for boldness, and then step out in faith to do the things He has called you to do. --Evan Jackson; The Gleaner

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear” means God will not give us what will destroy us. Fear is not of God but of the devil and it’s a destroyer. Rather, we have been given power and boldness by God to subdue the enemies or obstacles.
Fear is the most influential emotion in the world right now, we must beware of it. There is nothing in the devil and his agents to cause a believer to fright. Fear is out to challenge your trust and confidence in God.
The devil knows that he cannot destroy you until he has put fear in you. If he can succeed in putting fear in you, he will hinder you from doing great things for yourself and God.
Break off from the hold of fear in your life and determine to live fearlessly. Don’t allow fear to stop you from fulfilling God’s plan for your life. We need to know who we are in Christ and that we have not been given the spirit of timidity.
Although the scripture warns us of trials and tribulations we will suffer in the world but also admonished us that God has overcome them for us because He that is in us is greater than He that is in the world.
Acts 4:8-13, 29 illustrated the boldness of Peter and John when they testified about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus before the hateful Jewish council and the early church reacted against them by praying for God’s help to continue speaking the word “with all boldness” Peter and John were not afraid to speak about the risen Jesus even though they knew they could be killed. They dammed the consequences. -Christian Walls

"The phrase ‘fear not’ is used over 80 times in the Scriptures because fear decreases our hope when we face difficult trials. We need to calm our fears by resting in our faith in God and in the knowledge that our God is a loving God and he is in control. We might still feel afraid, but we can believe that God is with us. We may not be in control, but we can put our trust in the One who is. We may not know the future, but we can know the God who does....We need to calm our fears by resting in our faith in God and in the knowledge that our God is a loving God and he is in control. We might still feel afraid, but we can believe that God is with us. We may not be in control, but we can put our trust in the One who is. We may not know the future, but we can know the God who does.” -Elizabeth Galanti, a Catholic licensed mental health counselor in Buffalo, New York

In our Christian walk there are many instances where it calls us to be bold! Let me also say by boldness I don’t mean arrogance, dominating and harsh. In our culture, that’s what we refer to as being bold. Being bold is like Arnab Goswami is what we think in today’s culture. However, biblically being bold is about having strong convictions about the truths of the gospel but expressing it with gentleness and humility.
24 And the Lord’s servant[e] must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 2:24, 25) -The Gathering

God has given us a spirit of Power. We have the power to influence our immediate surroundings and we shouldn’t take this for granted. I remember talking to a friend of mine years ago about possibly sponsoring a child. I remember him saying, “there are so many kids in the world, we can’t possibly save all of them”. He was looking at the world as a whole and became unintentionally apathetic about the possibility of helping. I couldn’t save all the children but I did have the power to save one. We should not discount our worth or role in this life because of the immense problems the world faces. We can make a difference in our immediately circle, at our kids’ schools, and in our places of work and worship. We have power to help those around us.
Following power, God has given us a spirit of Love. It is certainly easy to have an “us” and “them” mentality, whomever “them” may be. But consider this: Jesus died for ALL mankind. We have the power to love those who disagree with us, who have it out for us, and who even hate us. I think of Jesus, upon being crucified, telling the Father, “Forgive them, for they not know what they do.” He had the power to forgive and love those who persecuted and killed him. This is an amazing power, and one that I would personally like to use more often. --Mauricio Paredes; Junior High Pastor; Koinonia Church

“And of a sound mind” means God has given us a self-controlled and self-disciplined spirit against every confusion and panic that comes in any fearful situation. He has given us control over every ugly situation or obstacle on our path that is hindering the gift of God in our life or for progress.
Sound mind or self-control is the work of the dwelling Spirit of God in us. The Spirit detests sin, strives to please God, thinks and acts with wisdom, and reorganizes our shattered lives.
Roman 8:9c says, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” If you do not have the Spirit of God in you, then you are far from having a sound mind or self-control characteristics.
I Corinthians 2:16 mentioned that “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” We see here that Apostle Paul confirmed that we have the mind of Christ. Without the mind of Christ, we can do nothing meaningful for ourselves. We will only be tossed around by our impulses and fleshy efforts. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, we will achieve all that God has set for us to accomplish. -Christian Walls

Instead of the words "sound mind" some translations use "self discipline" and "self-control" or "sound judgement" or "sobriety" or "Sound perspective" or "wise discretion." So we could say a sound mind is defined by the possession of:
-Self-discipline
-Self Control
-Sound Perspective
-Sobriety
-Wise discretion
but also: no fear.

Man’s religion begins with outside changes attempting to change the inside eventually. Man’s religion majors in external “dos and don’ts” but is not capable of changing the heart of man.
However, God’s salvation is a divine process of inward change and outward godliness. God has made provision in grace for the whole person who truly believes. He granted not only love and power but also a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 – “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. “Sound mind” literally means the “saving of the mind.”
This is a tremendous thought that redemption is not only salvation of the soul but also the deliverance of the mind. -Olin Wilso n

A sound mind. Translations have quite a bit of variety here. A better word is “self-discipline” or “self-control”, another fruit of the Spirit. This is essential first of all so that we do not disqualify ourselves from the race God has called and prepared us to run (1 Corinthians 9:27). It’s what helps us live with gospel integrity. If you are a human being, you know that our own acts of self-discipline have a sketchy history. The promise is that the power of the Holy Spirit lies behind a supernatural strength we would never have on our own to stand firm in the faith.
However, there is more to it. According to Ellicott’s Commentary, “sound mind” is “properly, safe-minded, issuing in prudent ("sensible") behavior that "fits" a situation, i.e. aptly acting out God's will by doing what He calls sound reasoning (used only in 2 Tim 1:7).” [SOURCE: Church of the Living God]

The Spirit also works in us “love” and “self-control.” Because God has demonstrated his love for us by sending his own Son to die in our place and has poured out his love into our hearts through the Spirit, the church is marked by genuine, heartfelt love for one another (Rom. 5:5, 8; 12:9). Love is the supreme fruit of the Spirit’s transforming work in our lives (Gal. 5:22). Paul urges Timothy to pursue love and thereby set an example for other Christians to follow (1 Tim. 4:12; 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22). Philosophers of Paul’s day urged people to improve themselves by practicing self-restraint and controlling their desires for vice and excess. But the apostle explains that self-control or self-discipline flows from the work of God’s indwelling Spirit. The Spirit brings order to our scattered lives, awakens new desires to resist sin and to please God, and helps us to think and act with sobriety and wisdom.
Christians, remember that God has graciously given us his Holy Spirit, who makes us fearless in troubled times, works his power in our weakness, stirs in us genuine love for our neighbors and even our enemies, and gives us self-control to live as God’s holy people. The apostle’s words in 2 Timothy 1:7 make us want to sing: “The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth.”1 Therefore, “fan into flame the gift of God” because of the presence and power of God’s precious Spirit at work in our lives.[SOURCE: Crossway)

II Timothy 1:2:
To Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

The word "beloved" is one of the strongest words Paul could use to express his love for Timothy, for it is a form of the Greek verb agapao, which emphasizes a love so great that it loves even when there is no response. To emphasize this strong word for love, the King James translators rendered it "Dearly beloved."

II Timothy 1:7:
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Alongside love and godliness, self-control serves as a major summary term for Christian conduct in full flower (2 Timothy 1:7; Titus 2:6, 12; 1 Peter 4:7; 2 Peter 1:6). It is the climactic “fruit of the Spirit” in the apostle’s famous list (Galatians 5:22–23) and one of the first things that must be characteristic of leaders in the church (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8). Acts summarizes the apostle’s reasoning about the Christian gospel and worldview as “righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25). And Proverbs 25:28 likens “a man without self-control” to “a city broken into and left without walls.”

For starters, the idea of controlling one’s own self presumes at least two things: 1) the presence of something within us that needs to be bridled and 2) the possibility in us, or through us, for drawing on some source of power to restrain it. For the born-again, our hearts are new, but the poison of indwelling sin still courses through our veins. Not only are there evil desires to renounce altogether, but good desires to keep in check and indulge only in appropriate ways.
Christian self-control is multifaceted. It involves both “control over one’s behavior and the impulses and emotions beneath it” (Philip Towner, Letters to Timothy and Titus, 252). It includes our minds and our emotions — not just our outward actions, but our internal state.

Biblically, self-control, or lack thereof, goes to the deepest part of us: the heart. It begins with control of our emotions, and then includes our minds as well. Self-control is often paired with “sober-mindedness” (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; Titus 2:2; 1 Peter 4:7), and in several places the language of “self-control” applies especially to the mind. Mark 5:15 and Luke 8:35 characterize the healed demoniac as “clothed and in his right mind.” Paul uses similar language to speak of being in his right mind (2 Corinthians 5:13), as well as not being out of his mind (Acts 26:25). And Romans 12:3 exhorts every Christian “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,” but to exercise a form of self-control: thinking “with sober judgment.”

Self-control is bodily and external as well. The apostle disciplines his body to “keep it under control” (1 Corinthians 9:25–27). It can mean not being “slaves to much wine” (Titus 2:3–5). And in particular, the language of self-control often has sexual overtones. Paul instructs Christians to “abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust” (1 Thessalonians 4:3–5). In a charge to women in 1 Timothy 2:9, self-control relates to modesty. And 1 Corinthians 7 presumes some lack of self-control in married adults that might give Satan some foothold were they to unnecessarily deprive their spouse sexually for an extended time (1 Corinthians 7:5). God has given some the calling of singleness and with it, “having his desire under control” (1 Corinthians 7:37); others “burn with passion” and find it better to marry (1 Corinthians 7:9).
--David Mathis

II Timothy 1:8-9:
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

People will turn away from the truth, they will grow weary of the plain gospel of Christ, they will be greedy of fables, and take pleasure in them. People do so when they will not endure that preaching which is searching, plain, and to the purpose. Those who love souls must be ever watchful, must venture and bear all the painful effects of their faithfulness, and take all opportunities of making known the pure gospel. --Matthew Henry's Commentary

If we think of history in contrast to an eternal, philosophic other or in contrast to a static eternal, then history began before Genesis 1:1.