Timidity is the chronic form of cowardice — not a single act of retreat but a settled disposition to retreat. Paul explicitly told Timothy that God "has not given us a spirit of fear [timidity], but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). The Greek deilia there is the spirit of timidity — and Paul says it is not from God. Christian timidity is not the same as humility, and it is not the same as reasonable caution. Humility knows its place under God; timidity hides its gifts under fear of man. Reasonable caution weighs risk and proceeds wisely; timidity refuses to act at all. The servant who buried his talent was a timid man: "I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours" (Matthew 25:25). He was called "wicked and lazy" — because timidity, when it refuses to act on what God has given, is disobedience dressed up as caution.