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2 Timothy 1:7

提摩太后书 1:7

The Passage

For God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

In the other language

因为神赐给我们，不是胆怯的心，乃是刚强、仁爱、谨守的心。

Theme

Power and sound mind

Bring a question to this passage

Many readers arrive here from a real question. These are reflections for how this passage speaks to the questions people bring most often — not an answer about what will happen, but an invitation to sit with it slowly.

How do I face this season of pressure at work?

Paul names three things God does give — power, love, and self-control — in place of the fear that feels like a default setting. Self-control here is closer to a sound, settled mind than to willpower: the opposite of the spiralling a pressurised week produces. If fear has been doing your thinking for you, this verse offers a different spirit to think with. This verse does not resolve workplace pressures. When in your working day could you pause to make room for the power, love, and self-control God gives?

Carry thisNot a spirit of fear, but a sound mind.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 41:10 · 1 Corinthians 7:3-4

I want to learn to love better in this relationship.

Power, love, and self-control belong together in this verse. For you, learning to love better may mean noticing when fear takes over: fear of rejection, fear of conflict, fear of not being enough. Fear can make you grasp, withdraw, or speak before you have listened. The passage offers a different pattern, one in which strength is joined to care and restraint. Power need not mean winning an argument; self-control need not mean hiding what matters. You can pause long enough to speak honestly without making the other person smaller. In what way might love and self-control shape your response when fear rises in this relationship?

Carry thisStrength can be gentle, and love can be clear.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 41:10 · 1 Corinthians 7:3-4

What do I need to let go of in the coming weeks?

Fear can become so familiar that you mistake it for wisdom. This passage distinguishes a spirit of fear from the power, love, and self-control God gives. It does not identify a particular commitment you should drop, but it invites you to notice what is shaping your choices. Power is named alongside love and self-control, not domination or haste. You do not have to shame yourself for feeling afraid. You can acknowledge the feeling without granting it authority over every decision. As you consider what to release, look gently at the habits that let fear decide before love has a voice. In what way, while this passage does not identify a commitment you should release, might love and self-control help you reconsider a choice shaped by fear?

Carry thisFear can be present without having the final word.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 41:10 · 1 Corinthians 7:3-4

How can I find stillness in a busy life?

Stillness is not directly addressed here, but this passage offers a way to notice what moves you beneath the busyness. Fear may hurry you even when nothing urgent is happening. You do not need to scold yourself for feeling it. Instead, you can pause and bring that fear into God's presence. Power need not mean pushing harder; it can mean having strength to stop. Love can soften the demands you place on yourself. Self-control can help you give your attention to one thing rather than everything at once. Fear can make every task feel urgent; what might become quieter if you let love, rather than fear, shape your next small choice?

Carry thisFear's urgency is not the only pace available to me.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 41:10 · 1 Corinthians 7:3-4

Have a different question?

Write what you are actually carrying right now, and Lectio will answer it with this passage — 2 Timothy 1:7.

Or walk this passage through the five steps of Lectio →

2 Timothy 1 — in context

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus,

2to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

3I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day

4longing to see you, remembering your tears, that I may be filled with joy;

5having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you; which lived first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in you also.

6For this cause, I remind you that you should stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

7For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

8Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God,

9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,

10but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News.

11For this, I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

12For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

13Hold the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

Related topics

Strength and Courage

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