Structure in 2 Timothy 1 – Part 5

Looking again at 2 Timothy 1:6, the last structural marker is “through”.  This is the literary device instrumentation.  We saw this earlier in verse 1.

Here Paul is reminding Timothy how he received his gift, through, agency, the laying on of Paul’s hands.  From this one could conclude that Paul was able to impart gifts of God through laying on of hands.

That raises several questions:

• Was this an apostolic ability?
• Does this ability still exist today?
• What is the meaning of laying on of hands?
• What kinds of gifts were transmitted in this manner?
• Are there other examples of this in the New Testament?
• Why does Paul mention this to Timothy here?

These questions suggest a need for a topical study on laying on of hands.  Full disclosure here, this passage is problematic for me.  Why?  Because there are elements in the Church today who seem to abuse it.  So my inclination is to work to explain this away.

Frankly, that is the response most of us have when we run across a passage that does not fit what we believe.  Integrity in Bible study, in our walk with God requires that we do not do that.  We have to acknowledge our current beliefs and compare them to the Scripture.  To that end here is a list of all of the passages in the New Testament that reference laying on of hands.

I do not have time to work through these now, but I am setting this aside for a later study.  By the way this is a good way to deal with these types of things.  Make note of what you need to look at later and keep going.

Posts in this series:
The Influence of Structure
Structure in 2 Timothy 1
Structure in 2 Timothy 1 – Part 2
Structure in 2 Timothy 1 – Part 3
Structure in 2 Timothy 1 – Part 4