Dartmouth Bible Notes Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church Series: Mother s Day Scripture: 2 nd Timothy 1: 3-14 Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. Date: May 14 th, 2017 EUNICE 2 nd Timothy 1: 3-14 (ESV) 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. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Introduction The second letter of Paul to Timothy is interesting to me for all the names that are mentioned. We read in our passage today about several people. By my count in the letter there are thirty names of ancient people mentioned, eight in the negative! Most Bible readers seem to gloss over names and say, Who cares? (For that reason the last chapter of the Letter to the Romans bores most readers.) But I have always been enchanted by these scant and very brief mentions of people. Peter does this too but only mentions a couple of people. John mentions no names and seems to use code in referring to anyone, even in general ( the elect lady for instance). But Paul seems to take people much more personally and it stimulates in me to wonder what these people who were real people--were like. What was their story and Paul gives a few details to Timothy. Which brings us to one name today: Eunice. I am thinking about mothers today, as I usually do on this day in May each year. I am thinking about my own mother whom I miss and this July will be 20 years since she died, Renée s Mom (who just passed away in November and whom I miss also), and Renée AS a Mom. I am grateful for each. I also think of my grandmothers Mary Ella and Meta Kirstine, and Renée s grandmothers Mildred and Violet. I am pondering, what does a child receive from Mom? And
there are many things of course, which we could categorize as lessons about how to live, examples of character, a model for how to treat a husband and in the Scripture before us today just one thing is there, really Renée was passionate that our daughters would learn to love to read. She cooked up all kinds of strategies to make it fun and to make learning fun. She was clever and resourceful in the matter of daily life-lessons, not the least of which was when our younger daughter was of potty-training age As well she was committed to our girls being in Sunday School, Awana Clubs, Vacation Bible School and summer camps. She was supportive of our older daughter embarking on a missions trip her senior year even when I was afraid to send her! Each daughter received Citation awards from Awana upon their high school graduation because Renée worked with them and helped them each memorize 600 Bible verses in their lives. Renée consciously took what good lessons she had received from her Mom and duplicated them with our daughters. And her Mom, Florence, inherited certain values and things to focus on that her Mom, Violet, had demonstrated in her upbringing. The mom, Eunice, in 2 nd Timothy, who received just a small notice from Paul at least is named. Her name Eunice (in Greek, Εὐνίκη, good victory ). The daughter of LOIS and mother of TIMOTHY (2 Tim. 1:5) found herself with a husband who was a Gentile (Acts 16:1). Eunice and Lois were Jewish. Timothy had not been circumcised undoubtedly because his father was a Gentile, but he was brought up by his mother and his grandmother in the Jewish faith. Paul wrote of Timothy that from a child his mother had taught him to know the holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:15). Eunice, her mother Lois, and Timothy were probably converted to Christianity during PAUL s first missionary journey at LYSTRA, where the apostle had been stoned and left for dead. On his second missionary journey, when he returned to Lystra, Paul was evidently so impressed with the fervency of Timothy s spirit that he decided to take him along. Paul said that Timothy witnessed his persecutions and afflictions at Lystra (2 Tim. 3:11). Without doubt the young missionary had a very remarkable mother. 1 From Paul s letter we have no recorded dialog between Eunice and her son. We have no incidents recorded but the one thing we can know and here is the point for today: Eunice came to believe in Christ, as did her Mom and as did her son. Somehow, she passed on the faith to her son Timothy who became the apostle Paul s faithful protégé and companion. An apocryphal 1 S. Barabas, 1 Moisés Silva and Merrill Chapin Tenney, The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, D-G (Grand Rapids, MI: The Zondervan Corporation, 2009), 449. 2
book (probably from the 400s) called The Acts of Timothy has Timothy being killed in Ephesus in about the year 97 when he was said to be 80, attempting to stop a pagan orgy of killing which derived from the cult of Dionysus. We can assume that Timothy saw a long life of ministry and that he often thought back to the O.T. taught to him by his Mom, Eunice. I want to take from this the importance of a Mom teaching her children the Bible. We know nothing of Timothy s Dad, a Gentile as menioned. That does not mean that he never became a Christian nor that he had no hand in his son s learning about God, the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus or how to become a follower of Jesus Christ. It only means that Paul said nothing about the Dad. The Mom was known to Paul for having a deliberate and intentional role of teaching the scriptures to her son. There is an important thing to see in verse 6 of 2 nd Timothy 1: As the books of the Bible were written there were no verse divisions. In fact, in the earliest manuscripts that we have there are few markers as we have in our writing that divide sentences. So your Bible perhaps looks like this: 2 nd Timothy 1:5 7 (ESV) 5 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. 6 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, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Put together, it looks like: 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. In Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest and finest ancient manuscripts of 2 nd Timothy but even that is still three hundred years after Paul wrote it, (330-360 A.D.) 2 nd Timothy 1:5-7 look like this: 3
Read as Paul wrote it, verse 6 is connected to 5 and 7. It is all one thought. Paul exhorts Timothy to fan the flame of the gift of God, that somehow Timothy had received from Paul, and that was laid down in the early days of his life by Mom Eunice the product of that process would be spirit of power, love and self-control. You can pull any one verse out of its context here and enjoy each well enough. But you lose the full thing that Paul is telling Timothy. What you got from Mom and Grandma, and I saw in you, FIRE IT UP, Timothy. When I think of those kids and teens and young adults who have the Bible laid down in their minds and hearts from an early age, they are so better off. It doesn t immunize them in some magical way. It doesn t mean they will never make bad choices or be defeated by temptation. It doesn t replace a life of prayer and daily reliance on God for the benefits of His indwelling Spirit. But it sets the kid up for later when he will have great need of a deeply set understanding of which way to go, how God leads and how God speaks. Moms, you are not wasting time when you work with your child to learn the Scripture. Eunice taught Timothy Genesis. She taught him to go to the Psalms and the Proverbs. I am sure she gave him some acquaintance with the prophets and with the history writings. We don t know how much knowledge Eunice and Lois actually had, but we know that Paul could see the knowledge of the Word in Timothy. You will notice too that Paul mentions that in 3:14 and 15 Paul said to Timothy: But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have 4
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. Those scriptures that Timothy learned while a young man are the things Timothy would benefit from for his whole life Eunice was making a good investment! Salvation comes through gaining an understanding of the Word on some level. Again, the Bible is not magic. But as a young person learns to read the Bible, has it explained to him or her, it will often bear fruit. All the other resources and tools in the world are no replacement for the Word. It is the inspired words, strung together in sentences, and those sentences strung together in IDEAS about deep things, that brings a harvest in the soul. And if I may say this learning of the Scriptures isn t just some rote or mindless memorization of the text. It is also to learn how to skillfully and accurately interpret the Word, too. Even as one of the first Christians in ancient Lystra, Eunice understood this, apparently as did Grandma Lois too. So as we honor mothers and grandmothers today, know that the most valuable thing you can receive or GIVE to your child if you are one of those, is the Word of God. Soccer is fine. Band is fine. Dance is fine. But time given to the passing on of the faith, wrapped in a good understanding of the Word is the most valuable gift from Mom that there is. What about Dads? They too can contribute to this. Paul wasn t intending to limit Christian Education to Eunice or to Moms. But Paul had recognized that in the case of one special young man, it was his Mom who had made the difference, laid down something that Paul built upon, and gave Timothy a framework which would give him courage and wisdom right down to the end of his days for the Lord in Ephesus. How firm a foundation Ye saints of the Lord Is laid for your faith In His excellent Word What more can He say Than to you He hath said To you who for refuge To Jesus hath fled --Bob Keene, 1787 (Carter Lane Baptist Church, London, dating to 1650 and which in 1833 became the New Park Street Chapel, where also in 1854 a new 20 year old pastor came aboard, named Charles Haddon Spurgeon). 5