Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ
Jesus our Lord,
It
was during the last years of his ministry that Paul wrote to Timothy. Paul had
a lot of experience and wanted to pass on his wisdom about life as a servant of
the gospel so that Timothy could carry on with the work that he was about to
leave behind. The two letters he wrote to Timothy give us an example of an
older Christian training a younger one and also a picture of one Christian
writing to a friend. Some of the details are quite down-to-earth. “When you
come,” Paul wrote near the end of the second letter, “bring the cloak I left
with Carpus..., also the books and above all the parchments.” We’re used to
seeing important documents expressed in official language without ordinary
feelings or homespun details. If private letters become public, they usually
have to do with scandal or tragedy. As a general rule, nobody cares about the
prime minister’s winter coat, but for 2000 years readers have known about
Paul’s cloak. The public side of our way of life is often cold and rushed and
unfeeling, while the genius of the Christian faith is partly our appreciation
for down-to-earth, ordinary, homespun things. Our Lord had the common touch. So
did Paul. As an apostle, he lived a public life, but he cherished everyday
contacts and close friendships. This love for the personal is part of the
church’s witness today. The Lord keeps us close to the earth, in touch with
basic things and relationships. Perhaps the cold world will get the message. “I
am reminded of your sincere faith,” Paul wrote to Timothy, “a faith that dwelt
first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure,
dwells in you.” Paul cared about the
private life of his student. Public life is built on the private. There
shouldn’t be a disconnect between them.
The
letters also bring out Timothy’s humanness. He had many fine qualities:
loyalty, a warm nature, stamina, and faith, but he had weaknesses, too. He was
timid and fearful at times and no stranger to youthful lusts, possibly
reluctant to take on important work. Paul admonished him, and the two letters
are filled with instructions. “O Timothy,” Paul wrote, “guard what has been
entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is
falsely called knowledge, for by possessing it, some have missed the mark as
regards the faith.” Timothy must have lived a busy life in the world, familiar
with many of its twists and turns. Paul needed to caution him about what to
stay away from.
Timothy’s
humanness is another hallmark of life in the church that goes along with our
Lord’s emphasis on the personal. The Spirit gathers the church from ordinary,
frail human nature. Secular society encourages the so-called best and
brightest; the Savior calls sinners into his kingdom. He washes us clean in His
blood; he declares us to be righteous and whole – just as if we had never
sinned; he gradually strengthens us and transforms us. He calls unlikely people
to be his servants, folks who are aware of their unworthiness. His love breaks
down the greatest barriers of timidity and shyness. He chooses as his servants
people whom the world would never pick. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Not in virtue
of our works, but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace that he gave us in
Christ Jesus ages ago.” God has his own way of doing things. His actions – like
the manger and the cross – astonish human ways of thinking. We rejoice that he
includes us in his kingdom, along with Paul and Timothy.
Now,
as we all know, once he saves us through our faith in Christ’s blood and brings
us into his kingdom, he teaches us. We are lifetime learners. Every teacher
will tell us that there are different kinds of learning. One kind of learning
takes place when we absorb new facts and information. Another kind is the
development of skills. Both kinds of learning – facts and skills – are
important. Our culture excels in passing knowledge and techniques on to us. But
in Timothy’s case, Paul was interested in still another kind of learning –the
shaping of his soul. Timothy had had experience working with the church; Paul
assumes that he knows the doctrines and how to express them. Now, he puts
Christian teaching to work to help the Spirit transform Timothy, slowly,
patiently, maybe even invisibly, into a new person, aiming not at externals but
things deep inside Timothy’s heart.
Now,
we’ll look at some of the highlights of Second Timothy to watch Paul, the
master teacher, at work, bringing the Christian best out of Timothy.
Another
of Paul’s letters reports that Timothy passed through a spell of disappointment
when he worked in Corinth. He may have wanted to lie low for a while to give
emotional scars a chance to heal. Paul urged him, however, to rekindle or stir
up the gift of God within him. “God did not give us a spirit of timidity,” Paul
wrote, “but of power and love and self-control.” Discouragement is part of
life, no question. Even young folks with fresh minds, unacquainted with life’s
severe rough spots, can be cast down in spirits. Paul tells Timothy to lift up
his heart.
We
find encouragement ourselves in Paul’s admonition. For one thing, Paul offers
the hope that burned-out spirits can be revived. God’s Spirit gives new life to
tired souls. The point is to ask him for renewal, to stick with him, to seek
his help. The Savior promises through Isaiah to renew the spirits of God’s
people so that we soar like eagles. You see, while God likes fresh blood in his
kingdom, he also relies on experienced folks who know the gospel and who have
received God’s comfort so many times that it’s second nature to offer it to
others. Just when we think we can’t take another step, God zooms in and
refreshes us. This must be what Timothy felt when he read Paul’s letter –
uplifting from the hand of God for continued, even enlarged service. Because he
had passed through a dark valley, he knew what others go through. Because God
had revived him, he knew that help was available. He knew just what to say to
point them to God. What a fruitful servant the renewed Timothy must have been.
In
the second place, Paul advised Timothy not to be ashamed of testifying to our
Lord. Paul doesn’t mean that Timothy has actually ever been ashamed of the
Savior. He is simply encouraging him never to be so. He gives him the strongest
of reasons to speak up for the Lord, for Christ abolished death, he wrote, and
brought life and immortality to light. Timothy should concentrate on the main
point. He should trust that God will protect until the last day the truth about
Christ he has given to Timothy. Then he will never find a reason to be ashamed
of the Lord.
The
same is true for every other Christian. The world tempts us; we hear lots of
different opinions; human beings are by nature proud and love to do things on
our own. But one thing even the proudest person knows he can’t do is abolish
death and create everlasting life. Only God can do that, and because of his
grace and his love toward us, he put his power to work on our behalf. He shares
his immortality with us. He died so that we might live forever. When we keep
this in mind, the problem of being ashamed of the Lord doesn’t come up. Even
the most reticent of believers, equipped with the truth about Christ and the
hope of immortality can be an effective witness for the Lord.
Paul
then encourages Timothy to accept his share of suffering for the gospel like a
good sodier, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ. Christian living
brings challenges to the flesh. These challenges involve sacrifice and
sometimes public disfavor. Paul was in prison when he wrote his second letter
to Timothy. Nevertheless, he advised his assistant to persevere.
The
church has a lot of wisdom about suffering. We never enjoy the dark days that
come our way, but the Lord brings good out of them. He carries us through. He
sees to it that we derive benefits from stormy days. Accepting hardship for the
Lord chastens us; it refines our faith. Welcoming adversity for the sake of the
gospel allows us to experience a small portion of what our Lord passed through
for us. It weakens our hold on earthly
things and encourages us to look for the better life that is coming.
Paul
didn’t promise Timothy that his days would flow along smoothly without bumps,
but he did invite him to look ahead to receiving a reward from the Savior for
his faithful service. A successful athlete who competes according to the rules
wins a prize, Paul said. A farmer has the first share of his crops. A good
student gets good marks and the hope of advancing to another level. Part of our
reward for keeping faith with the Lord comes in the present life – inner
strength, increased understanding, the habit of hope and joy in all seasons. But
a greater reward is to come. The Lord broke the bonds of death and brought in
the hope of everlasting happiness for all believers, a kind of happiness we
can’t really understand right now, but that God encourages us to look ahead to.
Paul encouraged Timothy to hold onto God’s promise of blessedness in eternity
as the younger man prepared to take up where the apostle would leave off. The
same applies to us. It’s easy to let the troubles of each day obscure our
vision, but this is not what our Lord intends for us. He instructs us to hold
onto the big picture – the rewards of faith now and the great reward that is to
come.
Someone
summed up all of Paul’s admonitions to Timothy under one theme – endurance,
which is one of the great Christian qualities, the ability to persevere in
spite of hardships. God creates new people by giving frail humans a surprising
capacity to bear up. The point is this – endurance is not our own doing, but a
gift from God. For believers, it’s another word for faith. From time to time,
we all ask how we can possibly stand such and such a thing. God puts us into
situations where we know that on our own we would crumble. He teaches us to
rely on him. Without our knowing it, he is shaping our souls along good solid
lines so that we will be worthy of the reward on the great day to come. The
Lord answers our questions about endurance. Yes, we will be able to bear up, he
teaches us. We will survive and endure and give a strong testimony to him. We
will be good servants and faithful witnesses, because this is his will for us –
the direction in which he leads us. We will thrive in the faith now and sing
his praises on the last day. In His name we rejoice. AMEN.
The
peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the
knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment