By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.

He was unworthy to be a preacher of God’s word, because he had been a persecutor; but the grace of God had made him all that he was, a new man in Christ (1 Cor. 15:10).

It also made him Christ’s servant in the proclamation of his gospel, and in the particular work that he had of ministering it to the Gentiles. But mercy was not enough. He was also a minister … by the working of his power. The task to which he was called needed no mere human strength and patience and power of endurance. It needed the power of God and, as in 1:19, Paul shows that that power is given, and not just as an abstract thing, or as a force applied from afar, but as energizing strength (energeia) operative in his life by the Spirit’s indwelling. In Colossians 1:29 he expresses this more fully when he says of his preaching work, ‘I toil, striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me’. By the grace of God he was called and received as a servant of the gospel, and by the power of God he did all that was effective in that service.

The “gift” to which Paul referred was Timothy’s gift for ministry. Timothy had to function in an environment of fear, heresy, and challenges to his leadership. His gift related to administration and organization rather than evangelism. The list of duties mentioned in 4:2–5 sounds more administrative and pastoral, although Paul did urge him to “do the work of an evangelist.”