2 Timothy 1:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see how the law began to be dissolved when such mixtures existed? See how many proofs he offered to persuade him that he did not despise Timothy. I serve God, he says. I have a pure conscience. You weep. And I desire to see you not for your tears only, but also for your faith, because you are a servant of the truth and there is no hypocrisy in you.

If you are worthy of being loved, as one who loves me strongly and as a true disciple of Christ, and if I am not among those alien to love, but among those zealous for the truth, then what could have prevented me from coming to you?

“I am persuaded that it is in you also.” From ancient times, he says, you have had this good thing. From your forefathers you received unfeigned faith. The virtues of ancestors belong also to us if we imitate them. If we do not imitate them, they have no force and even serve for our condemnation.

Therefore he added: “I am persuaded that it is in you also.” I do not conjecture, he says, but am persuaded and completely certain. If you did not receive it for any human reason, then nothing can shake you.

The virtues of ancestors glorify us if we too are such. If we are not, they serve rather for our condemnation. Therefore the Apostle says: I am persuaded that the faith of your ancestors is also in you. Thus you have unfeigned faith, established from your ancestors and incapable of being shaken.

By praiseworthy mention of his ancestors, the divine Apostle strengthens faith in his disciple, for nothing is so profitable as the example of one’s household. Since it also happens that some, though descended from the pious, do not emulate the piety of their ancestors, the Apostle necessarily adds: “And I am persuaded that it is in you also.” Then he lays this very thing as the foundation of his instruction.

“Which” means unfeigned, true faith. For his disciple was the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, that is, who believed from among the Jews. And if his mother was a Jewess, so was his grandmother, and both were believers. His father was a Greek (Acts 10:1).

In the introduction, after expressing his strong love for Timothy and his desire to see him, and after recalling the unfeigned faith of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, the holy Apostle Paul reminds Timothy “to stir up the gift of God which is in him through apostolic laying on of hands.”

“The Apostle shows here that he does this, that is, prays to see Timothy, not simply and not without cause, but because he remembers his tears. When he parted from Paul, he probably wept and sobbed more than a child taken from his nurse.”

And so, remembering this, the Apostle speaks to Timothy as though saying: “Your tears, which I recall, could soften me. But I desire to see you not for your tears only, but also for your faith, because you are a servant of the truth and there is no hypocrisy in you. You are from such a house as has long served Christ. You have had this good thing from ancient times. From your forefathers you received unfeigned faith” (Chrysostom).

“By a praiseworthy remembrance of his ancestors, he strengthens faith in his disciple. Nothing has such effect as the example of one’s household” (Theodoret).

“The Apostle mentioned his own forefathers above, and now he mentions the forefathers of Saint Timothy, in order to suggest: our root has been sanctified by faith. Therefore, receiving healthy sap from this root, we must blossom according to the nature of this sap” (Bishop Theophan).

“Not for your tears only do I desire to see you, but also for your faith, because you are a servant of the truth and there is no hypocrisy in you” (Saint Chrysostom). “And above all, the sincerity of your faith gladdens me” (blessed Theodoret).

The previous words enlivened in Saint Timothy’s soul the feelings and dispositions usual among those who have long lived together and become akin. The reminder of faith gives them another tone and transfers them to another realm, detached and sober. Praise of his faith, as sincere and unfeigned, could not fail to awaken zeal for the faith, from the desire to prove himself precisely as he had been praised.

To bring this zeal to still greater intensity, the Apostle also reminds him of the faith of Timothy’s family. In you, he says, lives the faith “which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice.” “You,” he says, “are from such a house as has long served Christ. You have had this good thing from ancient times. From your forefathers you received unfeigned faith” (Saint Chrysostom).

A reminder of the spirit and character of one’s family naturally disposes relatives to uphold that spirit and character. This is what the Apostle had in view when he spoke so. “By a praiseworthy reminder of his ancestors, he strengthens faith in his disciple” (blessed Theodoret).

Since “the virtues of ancestors belong also to us if we imitate them, but if we do not imitate them, they have no force and even serve for our condemnation” (Saint Chrysostom), the fear of falling away from his family and being put to shame naturally stirred zeal in Saint Timothy for its virtue, that is, for faith. This was especially so when such persons are set before him as his grandmother and mother, whose very names, when heard, warm the heart.

If in general “nothing is so effective as the example of one’s household” (blessed Theodoret), then the example of grandmother and mother acts all the more powerfully because it draws more tenderly.

“And I am persuaded that it is in you also.” You have not fallen away from them, and faith has long since dwelt in you also. “I am persuaded,” πεπεισμαι, means “I do not conjecture, but am persuaded and completely certain” (Saint Chrysostom).

This is a new motive to be zealous for the faith. For it followed that, if after this you weaken in this zeal, you will be going against yourself and betraying yourself. The Apostle mentioned his own forefathers above, and now he mentions the forefathers of Saint Timothy, in order to suggest: our root has been sanctified by faith. Therefore, receiving healthy sap from this root, we must blossom according to the nature of this sap. Or perhaps his words have the same force as such speech in the mouths of soldiers: you and I are old campaigners.