I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. 2 Timothy 1:5 NLT
Paul had spent his life declaring the mighty works of God to so many. He had planted churches all around the Mediterranean Rim. He was not only leading people to faith in Christ, but he was also finding and mentoring leaders to strengthen the movement of Jesus across the world through the churches. This was the second letter to Timothy we have in our Bibles. Timothy was a young man he discovered and mentored more than 15 years earlier. This is most likely the last of the New Testament letters Paul wrote remaining today. Paul wrote this very intense and personal letter to his “beloved son” in the faith, Timothy, sometime between A.D. 66-67. Paul was in his second Roman imprisonment. This final one was much more severe than his first stint in prison there. He was in bonds with few visitors, and he felt his death was imminent (4:6-8). Passing on the faith was of primary importance to him.
He urged Timothy to pass on the faith strategically to faithful people, and then he tenderly remembered how Timothy came to faith. Timothy was mentored and led to faith through his intimate and personal experience of the faith that “filled” his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. Timothy’s father is not mentioned in the letter except to say that he was a Greek Gentile. We know that Timothy had not been circumcised as a child, as he would have been if his father had been a convert then. Timothy was circumcised as an adult (Acts 16:3) to make his acceptance by Jews easier in spreading the gospel.
Why do we get only these simple details about Timothy’s upbringing and parents and his faith development? I don’t know why for certain, but I see some definite blessings that come from it. Timothy serves as a great example of faithfulness even when his father was not on board. It is a tremendous witness to the impact of any parent who must go it alone to raise a child in the faith.
Timothy’s grandmother Lois would have been a first-generation follower of Jesus, who then helped her daughter, Timothy’s mother Eunice, grow in faith. Maybe this information is included to reassure Christians not to be discouraged by anyone else’s rejection of the Gospel, but to remain true to what they have “learned and been assured of” (2 Timothy 3:14-15), then invest faithfully in others who also need the faith.
What a difference a grandmother and a mom made for Timothy and for generations and generations of believers! We can make a bigger difference than we dream too.
- Our opportunities to invest and share the faith are always greater than our obstacles. What must you stop allowing to hinder you?