For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
Paul remembered Timothy constantly in prayer and even considered him a dear child. It was because of his love for Timothy that he reminded him not to neglect the gift he had received from Paul through the imposition of his hands. Paul wasn't making this recommendation primarily to ensure the optimal productivity of the Church or so that Timothy could be a useful functionary in a specific role. Rather, his first concern was Timothy himself. Paul was confidence that when the gift of God was fully alive and on fire Timothy would have a different experience of life and ministry than he would without that reality.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
There are at least two possible ways to read this further implication Paul mentions. One is that we ought not to fear putting the gifts of God to use because he himself has given us the power, love, and self-control necessary to do so. Another is that, to the degree that we don't fan the flames, we will actually tend toward fear and cowardice. For power, love, and self-control to predominate in our lives we need God's gift to be fully alive in us, which is something that requires some cooperation on our part, that of stirring or fanning the flames.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,
nor of me, a prisoner for his sake;
It would be humanly possible or even natural to give in to shame at the Gospel, which was not yet highly esteemed in the world, and in particular to shame at those suffering for it. We might well avoid association with them in order not to share their fate. Similarly, fear would be a natural response to seeing other believers suffer, knowing that that same suffering could be just around the corner for us. But conceding to the temptations to fear and shame of this sort can smother the flames of the Spirit. And yet God is more than able to give us all that we need to handle any situation. Are we willing to believe this? Or will we instead believe what the circumstances seem to indicate or predict? It is the case that we may and probably will have to bear our share of hardship for the Gospel. But this is not a cause for fear, if we fan the flames, because then we will do it "with the strength that comes from God".
Paul himself seemed to have every reason to give in to fear and despair. He was appointed preacher and Apostle and yet he still had to face suffering and persecution. Humanly speaking it might have seemed as though he were doing something wrong. Wouldn't the correct course of action yield immediate success? But Paul did not give in to such doubts. The reason he did not is instructive.
but I am not ashamed,
for I know him in whom I have believed
and am confident that he is able to guard
what has been entrusted to me until that day.
Paul was not ashamed because he knew him in whom he believed. Perhaps we are ashamed and afraid because we do not know Jesus in this same way or to this degree and we do not share Paul's confidence that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to us. So perhaps fanning to flames for us in our lives means seeking to know Jesus in this highly personal and experiential way that Paul knew him, until we come to share in his confidence. Knowing Jesus helps us to believe that even the cross is not the end. And we can know him in precisely the same way as Paul because his promise to be with his people always and unto the end of the age is to us as much as it was to him. The reason such a promise is possible is captured by the passage cited by Jesus in today's Gospel.
As for the dead being raised,
have you not read in the Book of Moses,
in the passage about the bush, how God told him,
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob?
He is not God of the dead but of the living.
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