Power of Faith

 Luke 17:5-6, II Timothy 1:1-14

The apostles in our Luke account ask the Lord to increase their faith. They see faith as something measurable that the more you have the more you can do. Jesus turns this concept of increasing faith around by saying if you have a mustard seed of faith you can move mountains. Jesus is talking about the strength, the intensity of one’s faith versus its size. They have what the writer of II Timothy says in today’s passage, “the cowardice of spirit.” We can’t be too hard on them however since this was well ahead of Pentecost when they finally received the power of the Holy Spirit.

I love this Timothy passage since it commends Timothy’s mother and grandmother for bringing him up in the faith. It even mentions them by name, which is something unheard of in ancient patriarchal literature. Note his father and grandfather are not mentioned.

Paul tells him to rekindle and ignite the faith they taught him telling him that God has given him a spirit of power. To go along with this is a spirit of love and self-discipline. He tells Timothy to join him in suffering for the gospel in the power of God. He explains God’s power as how God has saved us, the grace of abolishing death bringing life and immortality not only to Christ but to us now called to the holy calling of sharing the gospel.

Paul tells Timothy not to be ashamed of this testimony of the Lord. He states that he is not ashamed since he knows who he has put his trust in – the powerful faithful God. His faith gives him assurance that his life of living and sharing the gospel, even though he suffers in prison because of it, God will guard – keep that which he has committed to Christ until that day. The CEB translation puts it: “I’m convinced that God is powerful enough to protect that which he has placed in my trust until that day.”

Paul is encouraging Timothy to embrace this trust in the Lord – this intense faith that the apostles in Luke had no inkling of. May we thank God for the people who brought us to the faith and have this intense faith with help from the Holy Spirit giving us a spirit of power to move mountains along with the power of love and self-discipline. Amen

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