Fanning the Flame

                                      2 Timothy 1: 1-14

 

 

          In the Boy Scouts, I learned how to build a fire. I learned that every fire needs three things: fuel, air and heat. Take away the fuel and there’s nothing to burn. Take away the oxygen and the fire can’t breathe. Take away the heat and the fire dies from lack of temperature. The same applies to keeping a fire going. You can always throw on another log and that adds fuel, but to keep the fire going all through the night and waking to some smoldering embers the next day, well, that takes practice.

The Spirit of God is a lot like a fire. You have to keep stoking it if you want it to keep burning. In the opening verses of the book of 2^nd Timothy, Paul talks to Timothy, his protégé, his pupil, his spiritual son, his brother in the faith. He is writing from prison. Paul knows his time is short. He is turning over the reins of his ministry to Timothy. He tells Timothy to fan the gift of God into flame. Paul is not talking about spiritual gifts that each of us is given. He does that elsewhere. Here, he is talking about the gift of God’s Spirit. He’s talking about the Holy Spirit, the part of God that lives within us and makes us good and whole and real—and human. And Paul says that God’s Spirit gives us power, love and self-control. Paul says that God’s Spirit first gives us power, power like the fuel it takes to feed a fire. Second, Paul says that God’s Spirit gives us love, love like the oxygen it takes to keep a fire going. Third, the gift of God’s Spirit gives us self-control, self-control like the temperature needed to maintain a fire.

In the same way that you can’t make a fire without the right environment, neither can you let the Holy Spirit dwell within you until you have faith. Paul talks about that in this letter to Timothy. He says that he is reminded of Timothy’s sincere faith, a faith that is now three generations deep, thanks to Timothy’s mother and grandmother. That resonates with Paul. He understands how important it is to be brought up in the Christian faith, how great a foundation that builds. It is an environment of Christian thought and practice that is crucial to spiritual development, and Timothy has enjoyed that from his youth. Paul says that he is sure that such a faith also resides in Timothy. This is a wonderful thing, and something to emulate in Christian homes today. If we are exposed to matters of Christian faith by our families, we can only benefit from such exposure.

And yet, as we read Paul’s words, we realize that while growing up in a Christian family is of great benefit to our development, it is neither a guarantee nor is it enough. There must be more. There must be something inside us that claims God’s promises and cultivates them in our own walk with God. Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. This theme of Christ indwelling us through the Holy Spirit is repeated throughout Paul’s letters. It is elemental to his theology. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. What good comes from us comes as a result of that indwelling. It is not us, but God in us, that makes us capable of reaching salvation, even of acting out our Christianity.

          And so, Paul exhorts Timothy, and us, those called to ministry to our brother and our neighbor, to fan into flame the gift of God, that is, to stoke the fires of faith in order to keep the gift of the Holy Spirit alive and well in us. And let’s be clear about ministry. If you’re a believer, then you are called to ministry. Ministry is what believers do, not who they hire.  

According to Paul in this passage, that Spirit, the Holy Spirit, has three characteristics. They are power, love and self-control. By power, I don’t think Paul is referring to power like the President or like some ruler, but rather the kind of power that shows itself in strength and perseverance. It is boldness. If fear enters the equation, it is overshadowed by this power to keep moving, to keep witnessing, to keep the faith. Theologian Philip Towner says that such power is “linked to witness and willingness to undergo suffering” for the sake of the gospel. In our analogy to fire, power is the fuel that generates heat, and that heat can keep a fire going forever if there is air to let it breathe.

The second mark of the Spirit is love. In verse 13, Paul tells Timothy to follow his words and to do so because they are grounded in the faith and love of Jesus Christ. So love as used here is an abiding, faithful action of self-sacrifice and generosity. In our fire analogy, love might be likened to the oxygen needed to keep a fire burning. If the fire can’t breathe, it goes out. No matter how great the heat or how plentiful the fuel, no fire can last without air. It has to breathe. Love is that breath of air that keeps the Holy Spirit able to burn within us. God breathed it in us from the beginning.

The third mark of the Spirit is self-control. I wish it were something else. Self-control is hard for me. Some call it self-discipline or prudence or even moderation. No matter what it’s called, it’s the hardest one for me. I just want to go full speed ahead, sort of like the Dale Earnhardt approach to racing. Those of you who follow racing know what I mean. Earnhardt never used his brakes. He won a lot of races, but he also blew a lot of engines. Maybe that’s what Paul means when he talks about self-control being part of the three aspects of the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. It’s that aspect of the Spirit that keeps us from blowing engines. In our fire analogy, self-control is the heat, enough to keep us warm, even glowing, but not enough to consume us. Small enough to be contained in the fire pit, but hot enough to keep us cooking.

Paul closes this section by calling on us to “guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” What is the good deposit? It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is that God made us, loves us, came for us, died for us, saves us, will come for us again. And Paul warns us to guard it with our lives.

Maybe the point of this challenge from Paul is simply this. The gospel is the end line. It is the story and the answer. Nothing is more important, and when you see that, it is because God has drawn you into an awakening that changes your life. That is the good deposit. Once you have it, you must treasure it and guard it. But in the language of God, to guard your faith is to share your faith.

So fan that flame of the Holy Spirit who lives in you. Not so hard that it consumes you, but tirelessly and consistently, so that it will never go out—and so all who see will want what God has given you.