Mothers Know Best - Eunice And Lois

2 Timothy 1:5

When they healed a lame man, Paul and Barnabas blew the circuits of the people of the backcountry town of Lystra. Who were these wonder workers? There was a local legend about two gods coming through in disguise, so when Paul and Barnabas displayed divine power, they were hailed as these gods. Paul had to be Hermes, the messenger, while Barnabas was assumed to be Zeus (see Acts 14:8-20).

When the apostles finally delivered their message about Jesus the Messiah, many received it in faith—including a Jewish woman named Eunice and her mother, Lois. When Paul came back to Lystra a few years later, he connected with Eunice’s son, Timothy, who was probably a teenager at this point. Paul eventually took Timothy with him as an assistant (see Acts 16:1-5).

Timothy’s father was a Gentile, and he doesn’t seem to be a factor in this story. Was Eunice, then, a single mom? Maybe, or maybe her husband just wanted nothing to do with her religion. In either case, it would have been a challenge—eased, no doubt, by Lois’s presence.

More than a decade later, Paul wrote two epistles to Timothy, by then a young pastor in Ephesus. The apostle commends Timothy’s faith, which “first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice” (2 Timothy 1:5). Later Paul notes that Timothy had “been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood” (2 Timothy 3:15). But there was more than just Bible knowledge here. The next verses discuss how Scripture helps and equips us. Elsewhere in the same letter, Paul urges his protégé to be the kind of Christian who “correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, NIV). It seems that Timothy wasn’t just drilled in the facts of Scripture; he was bathed in its truth.

Many parents make Bible education an important part of their children’s lives. That’s great. But we can learn something deeper from Timothy’s mother and grandmother. To begin with, they themselves were filled with the faith that they passed on to this boy. It was a reality in their lives, and it became a reality in Timothy’s life. That made the Scriptures more than words on a page; they were a passageway to a powerful relationship with Christ.

You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:15