5th October 2025

Paul begins his second letter to Timothy by looking back at his past, ^‘I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did’ (2 Timothy 1:3). Paul was a Jew, and there was genuine continuity, he says, between his Old Testament forefathers and his own apostolic gospel. Paul then recalls Timothy’s roots and in our header scripture, gets much more personal. Timothy was not the first in his family to have a saving faith: it was evident in his grandmother and mother too.

In Acts 16 we learn that Timothy came from a home with a believing mother Eunice a Jewess, and a Greek father, who, it is assumed from the silence about him, was an unbeliever (v.1). And apparently, his grandmother, Lois, also became a Christian at some stage. Both Christian women undoubtedly shared their beliefs with the young Timothy as Paul reminds him, ‘But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures…’ (2 Timothy 3:14-15).

Timothy learned the faith first from those he could watch in close-up, day in, day out, at home. The influence of a family upbringing has a great impact upon a child. John Stott put it like this, ‘…every man is to a great extent the product of his inheritance. The most formative influence on each of us has been our parentage and our home. Hence good biographies never begin with their subject, but with his parents, and probably his grandparents. True, no man can inherit his parents’ faith in the way that he inherits facets of their personality. But a child can be led to faith by his parents’ teaching, example and prayers.’ ¹ 

And so, we must conclude that the influence of Christian parents and grandparents upon their young children is huge. The trouble is, raising a child in the Christian faith can seem to be an unglamorous ministry, after all it’s not preaching to thousands at a revival meeting, or being a missionary in an alien culture. Christians love to talk of conversion growth far more than biological growth; by that I mean the kind of church growth where someone was born into a church family and stayed in the church. An aggressive atheist turned around to Christ can be dramatic and grabs our attention, but the patient nurturing of a child in a Christian home seems almost too tame to catch our interest. Yet, in my experience, it’s rare to find a person come to faith in Jesus Christ where no one has been praying for them. And, very frequently, the one who has been praying is a parent, or a grandparent – thank the Lord for them. 

So, don’t despise the ministry of grandparents, parents, and other family members. It’s in a family where Christian belief and values are most effectively transmitted to young children – it is the most important mission field parents and grandparents have. 

¹  Stott, John, Guard the message of 2 Timothy, p 27.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead 
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA

Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm

Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:  
wordoflife@gracecom.church