2 Timothy 1:7

For God hath not given us Rather, gave us; i.e. both St Paul and Timothy, at the time of their -setting apart" for the ministry; this gift is of special grace for special work, more particularly the proper temper and character formed in them by the Holy Spirit; and this not a spirit of cowardice, -a spirit" being preferable to -the spirit" of A.V. as more plainly indicating this character, the spirit we are of in regard to ministerial work, than -the spirit," which though written with s, not S, is still liable to be mistaken by the listener or reader as though the Holy Spirit were meant. This indeed Bp Ellicott wishes, needlessly making two classes of passages, one like Ephesians 1:17, and this, where the reference to the gift from God is very near, and one like Galatians 6:1, where it is not. But all the passages in effect suppose the working of the Holy Spirit on our human spirit so that we have a certain spirit, temper, character, resulting.

Some mss. and Versions (and so Clement and Chrysostom) have confused this verse with Romans 8:15 and read instead of deilias, -cowardice," the word that is used there in the totally different connexion, douleias, -slavery." And similarly we have there the variant deilias, -cowardice." It is quite natural that the new phrases coined for the new needs should echo the very ring of the older at times, and at times be (as we have seen) fresh-minted altogether. The noun-cowardice" occurs only here in N.T.; the verb and adjective belonging to it occur only as used by our Lord Himself, John 14:27," let not your heart turn coward"; Matthew 8:26, -why are ye cowards, O ye of little faith" (so Mark 4:40); Revelation 21:8, -for the cowards and unbelieving … their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire." This striking usage emphasises the warning that follows not to be -ashamed of the testimony of our Lord."

but of power, of love, and of a sound mind - poweryes, for surely not in vain is spoken over us the consecrating word; not in vain do we go forth bearing authority from Christ … We "preach Christ crucified," "the power of God." -Bp How, Pastoral Work, c. vi; who also well describes the - love" as -a simple, self-forgetting, self-sacrificing love" that can lay itself out to win even -the uninteresting, the hard, cold, rude, ignorant, degraded"; but for - sound mind" gives a less convincing quotation from Keble's preface to the Christian Year, -a sober standard of feeling in matters of practical religion." The R.V. gives -discipline," and in the margin as the exact rendering of the Greek, -sobering," sôphronismosdiffering from sôphrosynê-soberness," as logismos, -reasoning," differs from logos, -reason." But as the word is the noun of the verb rendered Titus 2:4 -train in purity," and its root is the word sôphrônrendered 1 Timothy 3:2 and elsewhere in these epistles -pure" (see notes), -training in purity" would seem the exact force here. And though the verb (note on Titus 2:4) and therefore its noun seems in general usage to mean only -train," -discipline," yet here too, thinking of the keywords in these epistles, we shall believe that St Paul is raisingthe word back to its proper level of - moraldiscipline." So St Gregory treating of the life of the Pastor (Pastoral Charge, Pt. ii. c. 2) makes this the first qualification; -Rector semper cogitatione sit mundus quia necesse est ut esse munda debeat manus quae diluere sordes curat." Then we find, as we should expect, that these three brief notes of the ministerial character of Timothy are expanded through the next chapter: power, 2 Timothy 2:14-19, moral discipline, 2 Timothy 2:20-22, love, 2 Timothy 2:23-26.