Elizabeth Barnes
Newspaper Seminary
Eunice Barnes Mote was a Woman of God. Early in the fourth watch of the night on last Friday morning, God called her home to Him. Nearly 97, she had lived a life of consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ, and her daily life had witnessed to the grace of God, in her manner, speech, dress, and cross-bearing in discipleship.
Eunice organized her days around God and His purposed Plan and Will for her life. Her Bible was her most prized possession; her face and speech radiated her joy in the Lord, and her manner, her gentle strength. Eunice’s life embodied the indwelling Holy Spirit given to the redeemed follower of Christ Jesus, forgiven and made righteous by the “costly grace,” of Christ’s sacrificial and saving death on the cross.
Eunice and I were blessed to rejoice together in her home, in God’s supreme gift of amazing grace! Thank You, Lord, for our shared times of joyful witness and thanksgiving to You!
When I learned of Eunice’s death, I wept tears of loss and of missing her already, and I wept simultaneous tears of joy, in the blessing of her reunion now with loved ones and friends, and in gratitude to God for His holy, eternal Presence, into which Christ Jesus has now called her. All praise and glory to God!
This limited space requires that our attention be to our Lord’s written Word, given in inspiration to Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, his spiritual son in the faith, whose mother Eunice gave her name to our kinswoman. Their similar, faithful devotion was inspired and shaped by God’s Purpose and Presence in both their lives. I have knowing confidence that Eunice endeavored to follow in the footsteps of the biblical Eunice, in that same “unfeigned faith,” which God gave to both. Let us attend to the Word of God in Paul’s second letter to Timothy.
From II Timothy 1: 3-5:. “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;
When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and now, I am sure, dwells in you.”
E. Glenn Hinson, writes in commentary:. ” What seems probable is that Timothy’s mother was the first Christian in his family.” ( He bases that conclusion on Acts 16:1ff., for further reading.)
Eunice Barnes Mote was not the first Christian in her family, but no one present at her funeral yesterday, knew, or had heard of, any member of either the Barnes family, or the Mote family, whose faith had exceeded Eunice’s, in this generation, or beforehand. The dwelling of faith in her, I assert, and her walk with the Lord, were unsurpassed among all our kin, we can declare.
Hinson further writes: “The conception of faith dwelling in the believer belongs exclusively to Paul among New Testament writers.” This statement surprised and informed me. Like other Christians, I had grown so accustomed to Paul’s use of this image of the believer as the dwelling, the habitation, of faith, that I did not realize that only Paul uses it. Its profound Truth, though, permeates the writings of other New Testament authors, as well; its Truth forms the essence of our blessings of sanctification and calling.
Paul names both Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, as Timothy’s forerunners in faith. Eunice was a Jewish convert to Christianity, and Lois had lived a devout witness as a Jewish woman of faith. Hinson comments:. “They testify, as have many others, to the importance of parental example in the instruction of children. From childhood they had taught Timothy from the Scriptures (3:15). The emphasis, however, falls heaviest upon the authenticity of their faith.” That authenticity of faith is pivotal; “unfeigned faith.”
Here, Paul composes a hymn, borne of his own, inspired, unfeigned faith. Let us attend to a brief part of it:
“Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
” … guard the Truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit Who dwells within us.”
(1:6,7,14).
Eunice Barnes Mote guarded, in unfeigned faith, the Truth the Holy Spirit had entrusted to her. All glory to God!
Thanks be to God.
Elizabeth Barnes is a native of Bladen County and now lives in White Lake. She taught Christian theology at Southeaster Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. She is a member of Beard’s Chapel Baptist Church.