No Place for Cowards Text: 2 Timothy 1:6-7
Introduction: A Dangerous Ministry
We are reading here the last will and testament of the Apostle Paul. He is in a Roman prison, what he calls his "bonds," and he knows the executioner is coming for him. He is not writing to a synod, or a committee, or a focus group. He is writing to his beloved son in the faith, Timothy, a young man stationed in the difficult and contentious church at Ephesus. This is not a letter of abstract theological musings; it is a battlefield commission. It is a charge from a dying general to his young lieutenant who must now hold the line.
The modern church, particularly in the West, has a hard time understanding this kind of language. Our pulpits are often filled with men who are more concerned with being winsome than with being right, more skilled in marketing than in spiritual warfare. They are managers, therapists, and community organizers. But Paul is summoning Timothy to be a soldier. And the primary qualification for a soldier is that he not be a coward. The primary temptation for any minister of the gospel, when the cultural shrapnel starts to fly, is timidity. It is the fear of man, which brings a snare. It is the desire to be respectable in the eyes of a world that crucified the Lord of glory.
Paul is writing to remind Timothy, and by extension, to remind us, that the Christian ministry is a dangerous calling. It requires a rugged, masculine courage. But this courage is not something we gin up from within ourselves. It is not a matter of personality type or natural bravado. It is a fire that must be stoked, a gift that must be kindled, fueled by the very Spirit of God Himself. In our day, the church is caught between two equally unhelpful poles. On the one hand, we have a dead, bureaucratic institutionalism that has no fire at all, just a pile of cold ashes. On the other, we have a wild, charismatic emotionalism that mistakes strange fire for the fire of God. Paul, in these two verses, gives us the true middle ground: a divinely-gifted, Spirit-fueled, disciplined courage.
The Text
For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline.
(2 Timothy 1:6-7 LSB)
Stoke the Embers (v. 6)
We begin with Paul's direct charge to his protege.
"For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands." (2 Timothy 1:6)
First, notice the action: "kindle afresh." The Greek word here, anazopureo, means to stir up a fire, to fan the embers back into a full flame. This tells us something crucial. The gift was already there. Timothy was not being told to go get something he didn't have. He was being commanded to stoke what he had already been given. The spiritual life is not a state of passive reception; it is a state of active warfare and diligent labor. The fire of God in a man's soul does not keep itself burning. It must be tended. It must be fed with the fuel of obedience. It must be fanned by the exercise of the gift itself.
So what is this "gift of God?" Our charismatic friends will immediately assume this refers to some ecstatic utterance or miraculous sign. But that is to misread the entire context of the Pastoral Epistles. Paul is a cessationist, in that he understands that the sign gifts which authenticated the apostles have ceased with the closing of the canon. The gift here is not the gift of tongues, but the gift of the office. It is the divine grace, the spiritual enablement, to be a faithful minister of the gospel. It is the specific calling and equipping to preach the Word, to pastor the flock, to govern the church, and to suffer for the sake of Christ. This is the gift that was in Timothy.
And how did he receive it? "Through the laying on of my hands." This was not a magical act. Paul was not a shaman transferring mystical energy. This was the formal, ecclesiastical act of ordination. The laying on of hands was the church's public recognition and confirmation of the gift that God had already placed in Timothy. It was the moment he was officially set apart for the work. Paul is reminding Timothy of his ordination day. He is saying, "Remember who you are. Remember what you were set apart to do. God called you, the church confirmed it, and I laid my hands on you. Now act like it."
How do you kindle this gift? You don't do it by sitting in a prayer closet trying to feel spiritual. You do it by getting to work. You fan the flame of the preaching gift by preaching, especially when you don't feel like it. You fan the flame of pastoral courage by confronting the wolves, not by placating them. You fan the flame of faithfulness by enduring hardship, not by seeking comfort. The gift is a muscle; it grows stronger through use, and it atrophies through neglect and timidity.
The Spirit of a Soldier (v. 7)
Paul then grounds this command in a glorious theological reality. He tells Timothy why he can and must do this.
"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline." (2 Timothy 1:7 LSB)
The reason you must fan the flame is because of the nature of the Spirit you have been given. The Holy Spirit is not the author of cowardice. The word for timidity here is deilia, which means cowardice, craven fear. If you are a minister of the gospel and you find yourself trimming your sails to the prevailing cultural winds, if you are afraid to call sin by its name, if you are more concerned with the approval of the New York Times than the approval of God, you need to know that this disposition is not from God. That spirit of fear is from the enemy, or from your own fallen flesh, but it is not a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit God gives is entirely different. Paul defines it with a threefold description. First, He is a spirit of "power." This is the Greek dunamis. This is not the power of worldly influence or political coercion. It is resurrection power. It is the power that raised Jesus from the dead. It is the power of the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation. It is the power to endure persecution, to speak boldly in the face of opposition, and to see lives transformed by the proclamation of the truth. This is the power that enables a man to stand his post.
Second, He is a spirit of "love." This is agape. Again, we must banish all sentimentality. This is not a squishy, effeminate niceness. This is a rugged, covenantal, and fiercely loyal love. It is love for God, which makes a man jealous for His honor. It is love for the truth, which makes a man hate every false way. And it is love for the sheep, which makes a pastor willing to fight the wolves to the death. This love is what compels a man to speak hard truths, because true love warns of danger. A pastor who truly loves his people will tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
Third, He is a spirit of "self-discipline." The Greek word is sophronismos, which can be translated as a sound mind, sobriety, or self-control. This is the spirit of a well-ordered mind. It is the opposite of the frantic, hysterical, and emotionally-driven spirit of our age. The man of God is not to be panicked by headlines or swayed by mobs. He is to be sober, steady, and disciplined. He thinks biblically. He measures everything by the unchanging standard of God's Word. This sound mind is what keeps the man of power and love from becoming a reckless fanatic on the one hand, or a sentimental pushover on the other. It is the governor on the engine, the gyroscope that keeps the ship steady in the storm. Power without love is brutality. Love without power is impotence. And both, without a sound mind, become chaos.
Conclusion: No Room for Neutrals
So the charge to Timothy is a charge to every Christian, and particularly to every minister of the Word. The command of verse 6 is enabled by the reality of verse 7. You are commanded to fan the flame of your calling precisely because God has given you His Spirit, who is a Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.
This means we have no excuse for cowardice. We have no excuse for a cold hearth. We have been given everything we need for life and godliness. The gift of our calling, whatever it may be, is from God. The Spirit who empowers us is God Himself. Therefore, let us stop coddling our fears. Let us repent of our timidity. Let us stop making excuses for why we cannot be bold in our particular station.
Whether you are a pastor in the pulpit, a father in your home, a mother teaching your children, or a student in the classroom, you have a gift and a calling. God's command to you this day is to stir it up. Fan it into flame. Do the work. Speak the truth. Stand your ground. And do it all in the confidence that the Spirit within you is not a spirit of craven fear, but of resurrection power, covenantal love, and sober-minded discipline. In the Lord's army, there is no place for cowards.