The Influence of a Godly Grandmother and Mother on Timothy

“When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” –II Timothy 2:5-7 (NKJV). “But as for you, continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” –II Timothy 3:14-15 (NKJV).

Timothy’s mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois are mentioned by name only once in the Bible, in II Timothy 3:14. Luke, in writing the Acts of the Apostles, records the story of Timothy’s call and going with Paul and Silas when they were in Lystra. We read: “And behold, a certain disciple was there, name Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek” (Acts 16:1-3). Timothy and his mother and grandmother were likely converted to Christianity on Paul’s first missionary journey to Lystra. By the time Paul returned on his second missionary journey, Timothy was already an outstanding Christian there. Lois and Eunice were Jews by birth, but Timothy’s father (unnamed) was Greek. That is why Paul thought it best to circumcise Timothy so that no criticism would be forthcoming from Jewish Christians they might meet. Eunice and Lois’s influence on Timothy made such an impact that Paul felt it worthy of noting in the epistle to Timothy.

Family influence can be a strong factor in helping children to become a Christian and to develop in Christ-like graces. Paul commended Timothy that his faith had first lived in his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. They had prepared Timothy with a solid education in the Jewish Scriptures, had taught him responsibility and trained him in strong character traits. Paul called Timothy his “son in the gospel.” He could trust him to be sent on important missions and assigned him to hard places to assist struggling congregations with problems of doctrine and Christian discipline.

Paul wrote in I Timothy 6:11-12: “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godloiness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (NKJV)

What Paul was telling Timothy (and us) to flee was the love of money. He was to embrace instead the fruits of the Spirit which included godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness. Timothy had been taught these characteristics from his youth up, both by precept and example, by his mother and grandmother. “I’d rather see a sermon any day than to hear one” is an oft-quoted adage about Christian example. In the home, we learn by seeing a sermon lived out in the lives of godly elders. Timothy had that example. Let us pray that we ourselves can be more like Eunice and Lois.