2 Timothy 1:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Love comes from power and fearlessness. Usually nothing destroys love so much as fear and suspicion of betrayal. “For God has not given us,” he says, “a spirit of fear, but of power and love and chastity.”

By chastity he means either soundness of mind and soul, or that we should live chastely. He seeks to bring us to our senses and turn us away from incontinence, even if some misfortune should occur.

Therefore let us not grieve when we are subjected to misfortunes. This is chastity. “Do not be troubled,” the Wise One says, “in the time of visitation” (Sir 2:2).

Many have many domestic sorrows. Sorrows are common to us all, only their causes differ. One suffers grief from a wife, another from a son, another from a servant. One suffers from a friend, another from an enemy, one from a neighbor, another from losses.

There are many different causes of sorrow. In general, it is impossible to find a man free from griefs and sorrows. Everyone experiences sorrows, more or less.

Therefore let us not grow despondent or think that we alone suffer grief. There is no man who passes through this changeable life without grief. If not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then later griefs come.

As it is impossible for one sailing to be without anxieties, I mean one sailing on the great sea, so it is impossible for one living this life to be without sorrows, even if he is rich.

Precisely because he is rich, he has many occasions for distress. Consider even the king himself. He too depends on many things and does not do everything according to his own desire.

Often he does what pleases others against his own will. In general, he more often than anyone acts otherwise than he wishes. Why? Because there are many who want to obtain something that belongs to him.

Consider what great sorrow he feels when he wants to do something and cannot, whether from fear, suspicion, enemies, or friends. Often, even when he decides to fulfill one of his desires, all the pleasure of the deed is lost because many resist him and are displeased.

What then? Do you think those who spend life without labors are free from sorrows? No. As it is impossible for a man not to experience death, so it is impossible to live without sorrows.

How many vexations they must endure which cannot be expressed in words, but which only they themselves can experience. How often have those living amid wealth and luxury asked for death!

To live luxuriously by no means means to live without griefs. On the contrary, luxury itself gives birth to countless griefs, illnesses, and displeasures. Even if these are absent, the luxurious man often grieves without any reason.

Indeed, when the soul is in such a state, it can grieve even without cause. Physicians say that no small sorrows also arise from weakness of the stomach. Does this not happen to us also, when we grieve and do not know the cause of our sadness?

In general, it is impossible to find a man without sorrow. If the cause of sorrow in others is not so serious as ours, each of them nevertheless thinks the same way. Each feels his own grief more keenly than another’s.

Those whose body aches in some part think their suffering worse than their neighbor’s. If someone’s eye hurts, he supposes there is no pain like his. If someone’s stomach hurts, he counts his pain worse than every other pain.

Whatever each suffers, he considers that the most tormenting suffering. So it is with sorrows of the soul. Each calls the grief that has overtaken him the heaviest, because he judges it from his own experience.

For example, the childless man thinks there is nothing worse than childlessness. But the man who has many children in poverty complains of nothing so much as having a large family.

The man with one son thinks nothing is worse than having only one. Because of this, he says, the son is lazy, grieves his father, and accepts no admonition, while still remaining always the beloved son.

The man who has a beautiful wife says there is nothing worse than having a beautiful wife, because in that case there is much suspicion and many plots. The man who has an unattractive wife says nothing is worse than having an unattractive wife, because this is very unpleasant.

The private man says there is nothing more worthless and lower than such a life. The soldier asserts that nothing is harder and more dangerous than military rank, and that it is better to eat bread and water alone than to endure such hardships.

The one in authority says there is nothing heavier than satisfying the needs of others. The subordinate asserts that nothing is more humiliating than being subject to the authority of others.

The married man says there is nothing worse than having a wife and the cares joined to her. The unmarried man asserts that nothing is worse than being unmarried, since one has neither home nor rest.

The merchant calls the farmer blessed because of his quiet. The farmer calls the merchant blessed because of his wealth. In general, the human race is satisfied with nothing, always complaining and grieving.

When condemning all people, they say that man is nothing, and that the whole human race is a burden-bearing and miserable creature. How many glorify old age! How many count youth a blessedness!

Thus there are many griefs also from the ages of life. When we see that we are condemned for youth, we say, “Why are we not elders?” But when the head is covered with gray hair, we say, “Where is our youth?”

In general, we have countless occasions for sorrows. There is only one path that delivers from this incongruity, the path of virtue. It, of course, is not free from sorrows, but its sorrows are not vain. They bring good and profit.

One man has sinned and, being crushed with sorrow, washes away his sins. Another shows compassion to a fallen brother, and in this too finds no small reward. For compassion toward people in misfortune gives us great boldness before God.

Hear how wisely Holy Scripture speaks of Job. Hear what Paul says: “Weep with those who weep,” and again, “Associate with the lowly” (Rom 12:15-16).

Sharing in the griefs of others greatly lightens sorrows. As helping one who carries a burden alone lightens his load, so it is in everything else.

Yet now, when one of our neighbors dies, many surround him and many comfort those close to him. Often we even lift up a fallen donkey. But when the souls of our brothers fall, we pay no attention and think less of them than of a donkey.

When we see someone shamelessly enter a tavern, we do not restrain him. Whether he gets drunk or commits some other disorder, we not only fail to hinder him, but even take part in it ourselves.

Therefore Paul said, “They not only do them, but also approve those who practice them” (Rom 1:32). Many form societies for revelry and drunkenness.

Man, form societies in order to destroy the passion for drunkenness. Such societies are beneficial for prisoners and for those in sorrows. Paul prescribed something similar to the Corinthians when he said, “that there be no collections when I come” (1 Cor 16:2).

For drunkenness, feasting, and revelry we now do everything. We have a common bed, a common table, common wine, and common expenses. But no one thinks of arranging a common almsgiving.

In the times of the apostles there were such societies. Then they brought all their possessions to one place. I do not require everything, but some part.

“On the first day of the week,” Paul says, “let each of you lay something aside and store up, as he may prosper” (1 Cor 16:2). It is as though he brings a tribute for seven days, gathers it together, and thus gives alms, greater or smaller.

“And no one,” Scripture says, “shall appear before the Lord empty-handed” (Deut 16:16). If this was commanded to the Jews, how much more to us?

For this reason the poor stand at the doors, so that no one may enter empty-handed, but may enter with alms. You enter in order to receive mercy. Therefore first show mercy yourself.

Whoever comes later must give more, because once we have made a beginning, the next must lay down more. Make God your debtor, and then ask Him. Lend to Him, and then demand, so that you may receive with increase.

God wills this and does not reject it. If you ask Him with alms, He is well pleased with you. If you ask Him with alms, you lend to Him and will receive increase.

Thus I impress upon you that one can be heard not by raising hands. Stretch out your hands not to heaven, but to the hands of the poor. If you stretch out your hands to the hands of the poor, you will reach the very height of heaven.

For there sits the One who receives alms. But if you raise your hands without fruit, you will gain no benefit. Tell me, if a king in purple came to you and began to ask you, would you not gladly give him all your possessions?

But now it is not an earthly king, but the heavenly King, who asks you through the mouths of the poor. You stand without paying attention to Him, and you postpone your gift. What punishment do you deserve for this?

Truly, one can be heard not by raising hands and not by many words, but by deeds. Hear what the prophet says: “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you. Though you make many prayers, I will not hear” (Is 1:15).

He who lacks mercy ought to be silent and not lift up his eyes to heaven. Yet he even dares to multiply words. Meanwhile, what does the prophet say?

“Rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow,” and “learn to do good” (Is 1:17; Ps 9:39). Thus we can be heard even if we do not raise our hands, say nothing, and ask for nothing.

Let us therefore strive for this, so that we may be counted worthy of the good things promised to us.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and chastity” (2 Tim 1:7). Here he calls the gracious gift “spirit,” as also when he says, “You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph 1:13).

Or, that we may be prudent, with a sound mind and in a healthy condition. Or, that in our spirit we may think soberly, and if some trial comes upon us, we may accept it for guidance. Or, that we may make others chaste and teach them understanding.

In the books of Kings, however, this exact wording does not seem to occur. Chrysostom appears first to have applied this to the Apostle’s words, saying: “God gives many a spirit of fear, as happened during the wars mentioned in the books of Kings: ‘And a spirit of fear fell upon them,’ he says. That is, God put it into them.” But Chrysostom did not indicate where this is said. Oecumenius and Theophylact likewise passed over this in silence.

He is to be inspired in this by the lofty significance of the divine economy accomplished by the Savior, and guided by the example of the Apostle Paul himself, his teacher, and by the example of Onesiphorus, who was not ashamed of Paul’s chains, while all the Asian disciples abandoned him.

“The Cross, mockeries, slander, suffering, and death were preached. To unbelievers this seemed full of shame. ‘For the word of the Cross,’ says the Apostle, ‘is foolishness to those who are perishing’ (1 Cor 1:18). Therefore he also said of himself in the Epistle to the Romans: ‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes’ (Rom 1:16). Here too he counsels his disciple to preach this with boldness. God gave us the grace of the Holy Spirit not so that we should fear dangers for piety, but so that we should confess and proclaim without fear, being filled with divine power” (blessed Theodoret).

“So that we may not only be chaste and prudent ourselves, but may also make others chaste and teach them understanding, and so that they may not be shaken in remaining in love for neighbors” (blessed Theophylact).

“Chastity also is the giving of sound-mindedness, both always and especially at the necessary moment, concerning what to say and how to act, as the Lord promised: ‘For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak’ (Mt 10:19). Thus one may understand here the active prudence granted to pastors” (Bishop Theophan).

“One must not fear,” says Saint John Chrysostom. “If even then, when it lay before Him to save us, God saved us by grace, though we had been His enemies, will He not much more assist us when He sees our activity? Your task is to decide and show readiness; to ease and give rest is God’s work. Do not be ashamed of this, that I, who raise the dead, perform countless signs, and have gone throughout the whole world, am now bound. I am bound not as an evildoer, but for the sake of the Crucified. If my Lord was not ashamed of the Cross, neither shall I be ashamed of chains. If our Lord and Teacher endured the Cross, much more may we endure chains.”

“God allows His servants to be humbled by the unrighteous so that it may be clear to all that He prepares and distributes crowns to them not unjustly. The grace of God was hidden in mystery from eternity, but was openly revealed through the Incarnation and coming of Jesus Christ the Savior” (Ambrosiaster).

“From before the beginning and before the ages it was predetermined that this grace should be given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is no small thing for us that God was pleased concerning us before eternity. God does this from Himself, moved by His own goodness” (blessed Theophylact).

“None of us can show why he would deservedly be called to salvation, except perhaps the necessity that without it he would perish. This necessity draws the mercy of God, who does not endure that His creature should perish. This is God’s mercy, God’s good pleasure. This calling is called holy because it proceeds from the Holy God the Father, acts by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and leads to sanctification in the incarnate Son of God, who sanctifies all and makes them holy” (Bishop Theophan).

If you know what the fear of a slave before a king is, and what the fear of the accused and guilty before an impartial judge is, then by increasing the measure even to immeasurability, you can understand what man’s fear before God must be.

To prevent misunderstandings, it is necessary to distinguish the particular forms in which this fear appears, and the degrees by which it ascends or descends in different people, or in different inward states of one and the same person.

So that the distinction may not be arbitrary, let us borrow it from the apostolic word itself. “You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear.” Therefore there is a kind of fear which may be called servile, and opposed to it one may set filial fear.

Servile fear in the service of God is the inward disposition of a soul that fears God as the One who punishes sin, and therefore turns away from and flees sin and everything displeasing to God.

Filial fear is the inward disposition of a soul that reverently loves God as the all-good Father, and out of love fears to offend Him.

The highest degree of filial fear is pure fear, wholly penetrated by love and freed from servile dread. By contrast, the lowest degree of servile fear is the fear of the “wicked and slothful servant” (Mt 25:26).

This is such an inward state of man in which he fears not so much God as torment for sin. Therefore, although outwardly he serves God in part, inwardly he does not hate sin.

He does not struggle against it for the sake of virtue. He is ready to surrender to it as soon as he can represent it as not so grave that eternal punishment threatens for it.

After these distinctions, it is no longer difficult to determine and mutually reconcile the true meaning of the diverse sacred sayings concerning the fear of God in man.

If the Apostle tells us Christians that “God has not given us a spirit of fear,” then without doubt he means here servile fear. In his own expression, this is “the spirit of bondage again to fear.” He does not mean filial fear.

Filial fear is not alien to the “Spirit of adoption” given to us, because it is one of the movements of that very Spirit.

In the same way, if another Apostle says that “perfect love casts out fear,” he too speaks of servile fear. Love has no need to cast out filial and pure fear, for love itself acts in it.

What is pure is not subject to rejection. Therefore Scripture says of “the fear of the Lord” that is “pure,” that it “endures unto the age of ages” (Ps 18:10).

To stop at the degree of fearing punishments alone would without doubt be low for a Christian. He must struggle to purify his fear and to ascend from servile fear to filial fear.

Yet, on the other hand, if someone were to say, “I want to be led by the Spirit of adoption and I do not care about fear,” or, “I give myself to perfect love and lay fear aside,” such a man would be near a fall through the bold exaltation of his thought.

God has given you the Spirit of adoption, but He did not say to you, “Have no more fear.” The beloved disciple of Christ, herald of perfect love, does not authorize you to cast fear out of your heart.

He only discloses to you the mystery of perfection. When perfect love comes, it itself casts out fear, without your effort, without your participation, and perhaps even without your knowledge. Perhaps this is not forever.

For while love casts out fear so that man may enjoy the triumph of grace, humility calls fear back again, so that the man made gracious may not forget his unworthiness.

If you remove fear from yourself, who then will bring you to love? As the Wise One says, “The fear of the Lord sets one upon the paths of love” (Sir 1:13).

Who brought divine adoption to earth and granted it to men? Was it not the only-begotten Son of God? For this He became incarnate, and by His blood wrote our release from the bondage of sin, burdened by the fear of death, into the freedom of the children of God.

What then? Did He also free us from the obligation of fear before God? On the contrary, He preached it more strongly and insistently than any of His disciples.

“Do not fear,” He says, “those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will show you whom to fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into the fiery abyss. Yes, I tell you, fear Him” (Lk 12:4-5).

Therefore let us no longer be surprised that Saint Paul, who both knew perfect love and preached adoption, nevertheless commanded us to serve God “with fear.” Let us be more concerned with fulfilling this commandment than with examining it.

Fulfillment, more than investigation, must show its dignity, power, and beneficence. If the fear of God leads you into the service of God in church, it will not delay in bringing you here as though on wings.

It will set you here truly before the face of God. It will open your mind to deep attention to the word of God, and your heart to receive the grace of the Mystery.

It will not allow your thoughts and glances to wander over the earth, when they ought to be directed toward heaven, whence help is asked and comes. It will not permit you to lose blessed converse with God for the sake of idle talk with man.

It will make your participation in divine service both pleasing to God and sweet and nourishing to your soul. If the fear of God accompanies you from church into domestic and public life, it will be for you a faithful guard against dangerous encounters.

It will be a firm wall against hostile arrows, and a modest mediator of exalted blessings. Do you fear the enchantment of sin? “The fear of the Lord drives away sins” (Sir 1:21).

Do you seek wisdom? “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord” (Prov 1:7). And not only the beginning, but also “the fullness of wisdom is to fear the Lord” (Sir 1:16).

Are you threatened by calamity or death? “He who fears the Lord will fear nothing, and will not be afraid, for He is his hope” (Sir 34:14). “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, causing one to turn aside from the snares of death” (Prov 14:27).

“Who is the man who fears the Lord?” asks the Prophet, as one seeks a man to whom he hurries to announce happy news. “Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way that he should choose.

His soul shall dwell among good things, and his seed shall inherit the earth. The mystery of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” (Ps 24:12-14).

Only with the fear of God is struggle lawful, hope sure, and joy safe. Therefore it is said, “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling” (Ps 2:11).

Even if you are saints, it is said to you as saints, “Fear the Lord, all His saints” (Ps 33:10). But if you do not dare to ascribe this dignity to yourselves, then all the more “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12), “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1). Amen.

To you, however, He has given a spirit of power” (Chrysostom).

“But of power.” “God gave us the grace of the Holy Spirit not so that we should fear dangers for piety, that is, for the faith of Christ.

He gave it so that we might confess and proclaim it without fear, being filled with divine power, in the sense of gracious power from God” (Theodoret).

When the Savior sent the Apostles to preach, He also said: “You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake, as a testimony to them.” They will persecute you as they persecuted Me: “Do not fear them” (Mt 10:18, 23, 26).

He also strengthened Saint Paul: “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not be silent” (Acts 18:9). In the sense of power from God, Paul confessed: “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).

In the same sense of power, every Christian, after receiving grace, goes out to his task: the work of life in Christ Jesus.

To the fearful question, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” he hears within himself the answer: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 7:24; Rom 8:2).

“And of love.” The outpouring of love in hearts is inseparable from the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit. The same Apostle testifies elsewhere: “The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us” (Rom 5:5).

“The love of God” first means love toward God. For the Spirit of grace, having regenerated us, implants the sense of sonship.

By this, the regenerated man confesses that God is his Father. With filial love he rises to Him, crying, “Abba, Father!” (Rom 8:15).

This love is so strong and deep that nothing in heaven or on earth can separate him from this “love of God” (Rom 8:39).

“The love of God” secondly means divine love, full and all-embracing, toward the brethren.

The Spirit of God, having regenerated, implants the sense of brotherhood with all the regenerated. By this they confess in the heart that all are sons and daughters of one God.

They compose one spiritual family of God. Therefore they regard one another as children of one womb, not by the tongue, but by the feeling of the heart.

They are ready for every sacrifice for one another’s good. In the Apostles and their successors this feeling receives a special breadth.

They sincerely recognize themselves as debtors not only to Jews, “but to barbarians and Greeks, to the wise and to the foolish” (Rom 1:14). They are always ready “to become all things to all men, that by all means they might save some” (1 Cor 9:22).

All our interpreters understand it this way. Theophylact briefly gathers all together: “Love, both toward Him, that is, God, and toward neighbors.

For from the Spirit we have both the ability to love God as Father, since He makes us cry, ‘Abba, Father!’

And the ability to remain unshaken in love for neighbors is also a gift proceeding from divine power.

On the contrary, to be scandalized by them, and disturbed by their unkind relations toward us, comes from timid fearfulness and faintheartedness.”

The last point not only bears witness to the absence of love, but also extinguishes it. Chrysostom explains: “Love comes from power and fearlessness.

For usually nothing destroys love so much as fearful apprehensions and suspicion of betrayal.”

“And of sobriety.” “By sobriety he means either health of mind and soul, or that we should live chastely. He strives to instruct us and turn us away from lack of self-control” (Chrysostom).

This means that not only should we ourselves be chaste and sound-minded, but we should also “bring others to sobriety and teach them understanding” (Theophylact).

Ordinarily, by sobriety is understood purity from every fleshly defilement. The Spirit of grace, when He comes and is received by the heart, detaches it from attachment to everything sensual and removes the taste for it.

If this is established in the heart, what place will fleshly desire find there? Those who have received the Spirit become pure in heart.

But the same Spirit is also the Spirit of understanding. When He comes, He teaches all things, both in knowledge and in life (Jn 14:26).

Therefore one may accept that this latter meaning is intended here. The Apostle has σωφρονισμου, that is, bringing to sobriety, the granting of sound-mindedness both always and especially when needed.

It gives what to say and how to act, as the Lord promised: “It will be given you in that hour what you should speak” (Mt 10:19).

At one hour it will be given what you should speak, and at another how you ought to act. Thus here one may understand practical prudence given to pastors.

This is what the gift of ordination gives to the ordained: the spirit of power, love, and wisdom. It makes him “strong, loving, and sound-minded” (Ambrosiaster).

In accordance with these parts of the gift of ordination, Saint Paul also gives instruction to the ordained Saint Timothy.

As one who has received the spirit of power, he commands him: preach concerning the Lord and Savior fearlessly and without shame, strictly holding what I handed down to you (1:8-18).

As one who has received the gift of love, he commands him: labor over the brethren like a soldier, like an athlete, and like a plowman, that they too may obtain salvation (2:1-13).

As one who has received the spirit of wisdom and sound-mindedness, he commands him not to become entangled in disputes with opponents of the truth.

Instead he must instruct them meekly, while not neglecting those who do not live rightly (2:14-3:9).