A Spirit of Power, Love, and Self-Control

(2 Timothy 1:6-7 – A Spirit of Power, Love, and Self-Control)

There are many fantasies, myths, and mysteries about the Holy Spirit. We have this supernatural being who is referred to throughout the Bible, and yet he is referred to only in descriptive terms. That is, we know him only as “The Holy Spirit” and he doesn’t have a name.

But even though the Holy Spirit doesn’t have a name, we know many things about the nature of the Holy Spirit. It is because we see the effects of his work in both scripture and in our lives that we know who he is.

The verses I am looking at today give us some great insights into the nature and purpose of the Holy Spirit for we are told he is a Spirit of power, love, and self-control.

A Spirit of POWER, love and self-control

Let’s take a look at the verse today, which says:

6 Hence I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:6-7

The gift that Timothy had through the laying on of Paul’s hands is most likely the gift of the Holy Spirit. We see in many places throughout the Book of Acts that it was by the laying on of hands that the Holy Spirit can be received. Even Paul himself received the Holy Spirit by having Ananias lay hands on him.

The Holy Spirit is a gift from God to those who ask and have hands laid upon them. The work of the Holy Spirit in us is a work of transformation. His work is to transform us from people born in the sinful image of Adam, and change us into the holy image of Jesus Christ. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

So, let’s look at the attributes of the Holy Spirit. He may not have a name that we know, but we can know a little about him for he is a spirit of power, love, and self-control.

Power

All of the miracles that have been performed were done by the power of the Holy Spirit. This includes all of the miraculous works of Jesus and the Apostles that are written about in the Bible.

There is therefore no doubt that the Holy Spirit is a spirit of great power.

But there is even a greater power than the power to do miracles. I alluded to this power in the previous section. It is the power of transformation to change us into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

All of the miraculous gifts like healing, walking on water, and so on, will all fade away. They are things that are important in this temporary world we live in. But when the kingdom of God is established on earth, there will no longer be any need for those things.

However, the power of transformation is eternal as it leads us to where we can live with God. Consider this scripture:

12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)

The power to become the children of God was given by Jesus. But it is the working of the Holy Spirit in us that transforms us into His image.

This is the true and lasting power of the Holy Spirit. This is the power that matters because it is this power that will make us ready for God’s kingdom.

Love

God is love. We see this written in many places. All of the words and works of God and Jesus Christ are works of love. Even the Old Covenant law is based upon love and the two commandments that Jesus said summed up the law are commandments of love.

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

So, if we are to be transformed into the image of Jesus God, who is the image of God the Father, we are to learn love. And the Spirit is also the Spirit of love, and is described that way in this verse and other places.

…hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

One of the other things we see is that one of the fruits of the Spirit as we are transformed, is love.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

These fruits of the Spirit are produced by the Spirit in us as he works the transformation in our lives. As we are changed into the image of Jesus Christ, these attributes are formed in us so that we become like Jesus.

Self-control

It is important to note that amongst the fruits of the Spirit mentioned above, one of them is self-control. Paul also made this point to Timothy in the verse under review saying we have received a spirit of power, love, and self-control.

It is important to note that it is SELF-control, not Spirit control. The Holy Spirit does not take us over as slaves to do his will. We choose to use the power of the Spirit to overcome the passions, lusts and desires of the flesh by walking in the Spirit. But it is we who are ALWAYS in control. As the scripture says:

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. (Romans 8:15)

The Holy Spirit does not enslave us to do His will. But we are able to use the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the flesh.

…for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. (Romans 8:13)

And finally we see that the Spirit is subject to the person in whom the Spirit dwells. The Spirit does not take over causing people to do things they would not ordinarily do.

”…the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.” (1 Corinthians 14:32)

Knowing this then shows that all of those churches who practiced such things as barking in the Spirit, laughing in the Spirit, and so on, are not doing these things by the power of the Spirit.

The Spirit gives us the power of self-control. Anyone who does any of these strange and diverse things is not doing it by the Spirit. They are being led by their own passions and desires.

When we speak of self-control, it is the ability to be in control of the passions of the flesh.

Every person sins when they are tempted by the passions of the flesh and succumb to them. The passions rise up and the person loses their self-control, succumbs to the passion, and thereby they sin. Even things that are not defined as sin, but are definitely not good for us can be controlled.

Think about the urge to smoke, drink, gamble, and so on. These are not specifically stated to be sins, although excessive drinking is debauchery, but they are certainly all damaging to people.

However, through walking in the Spirit and by the power of the Spirit, these urges can be crushed before they rise up and lead to sin. This is the power of self-control that the Spirit gives us to overcome and have victory over the flesh.

So, we have a spirit of power, love, and self-control given to us by God to do this work of transformation in us. It is his work and the will of God that we be transformed to make us ready to live in God’s eternal kingdom with Him and Jesus Christ.

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