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”

​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.

​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. [SOURCE: Connect Us]

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.