Images of Endurance
Exhortations for Leaders
Today’s Scripture
1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
- II Timothy 2:1-2 ESV
“The world is filled with self-starters, but it is the unique person that is a good finisher.” This is what someone once told me when I shared with them that I had so many good ideas, and I just wanted a venue to share those ideas with someone who could implement them.
It is not the big visionary person who is unique. It is the person who can see the challenge, plan a scheme to meet the challenge and endure the bumps in the road until the challenge is completed.
The Bible is not silent on this issue. The Christian life is anything but a cakewalk, and it has its pitfalls, roadblocks and challenges. The political sphere is no cakewalk either. There are relationship challenges, policy challenges and constituent challenges. These are all things that can frustrate us and cause us to lose hope in the final outcome.
What we are going to be looking at today are some of the images Paul shares with Timothy to help him to endure this life and ministry in particular.
Brian Hanson
In 2 Timothy 2:1-13, Paul gives a number of metaphors for Christian ministry. His first topic in 2:1-13 is endurance, and provides three images to illustrate: “a good soldier,” “an athlete,” and a “hardworking farmer” (2:3-6). All convey the idea of work, discipline, endurance and even suffering. He tells Timothy in verse 12 as an expression for all the saints (“if we endure” emphasis added).
Challenge 1: Live in the Gospel
II Timothy 2:1
Paul begins his exhortation to Timothy by alluding to the previous examples of the defectors in Asia and of Onesiphorus' terrific exception. In light of these, Timothy is "therefore" to resist the trend of the former and instead follow the example of the latter.
He is calling Timothy to be a steward. The gospel is not something we get for ourselves to keep to ourselves. We are stewards of the spiritual treasure God has given us. It is our responsibility to guard the deposit and invest it in the lives of others. They, in turn, are to share the Word with the next generation of believers.
It is important to get our original treasure from the Word of God, and not from the ideas and philosophies of men. We do not test modern teachers by their popularity, education, or skill. We test them by the Word of God, and particularly the doctrines of grace as given by Paul. It is not we who examine Paul to see if he is right; it is Paul who examines us!
It takes strength to teach the Word of God. We must dig out of the rich mines of Scripture the "gold, silver, precious stones" that are hidden there (see Prov. 2:1-10; 3:13-15; 8:10-21; I Cor. 3:10-23). This strength can only come from God's grace. The secret of Paul's great ministry was the grace of God (I Cor. 15:10).
The ability to study, understand, and teach the Word of God is a gift of God's grace. "Apt to teach" is one of God's requirements for the pastor (I Tim. 3:2; II Tim. 2:24). "Apt to teach" implies apt to learn. So a steward must also be a diligent student of the Word of God.
If Timothy was going to endure, it would be because he was strengthened "in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2:1). Paul urges him to live in the gospel, that is, to abide day by day depending on the enabling grace that flows from our union with Jesus. Paul does not tell Timothy simply to "be strong" or "pull yourself up by your bootstraps." This is of no help. He tells him to be inwardly strengthened by the grace that is in Christ. The grace of Christ empowers all of the exhortations of chapter 2. We cannot live out these charges apart from His strength.
Thought:
If you find yourself desperate for strength, you are in a good place. You are a great candidate for grace. You are in the number of those faithful servants in Hebrews 11 who "gained strength after being weak" (Heb. 11:34). Perhaps you are dealing with wayward children, fatigue, discouragement, betrayal, or illness. My friend, remember that there is a fountain of grace in Jesus. Join the prayer of Jehoshaphat, who confessed, "For we are powerless before this vast number that comes to fight against us. We do not know what to do, but we look to You" (II Chr. 20:12). So, if you are looking for strength to endure in the midst of hardship and suffering, look in the right place and to the right person – Jesus.
Christians who make an eternal difference in this world are those who have learned to rely on God's strength, not their own. David Livingstone once commented on all the work Charles Spurgeon would do in a typical day (and Livingstone was no sluggard!). He asked the prince of preachers how he could do it all. Spurgeon said, "You have forgotten, there are two of us." God's presence in us supplies what we need to endure.
Challenge 2: Pass on the Gospel
II Timothy 2:2
Paul picks up the idea previously explained in 1:13-14, that is, guarding the gospel, only now it was taken to the next step of passing it on to others. Paul notes four stages of this gospel handoff.
First: Christ gave this message to Paul (1:12). Paul did not make up this message (Gal. 1:11-12); he was given this message. It was entrusted to him through divine revelation, not human invention.
Second: Paul passed on the good deposit to Timothy. He says that this message was "what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses." This was a basic message Paul taught publicly in churches everywhere.
Third: Timothy is to entrust the message to other men. The word "commit" is the same word Jesus used when He cried out from the cross, "Into Your hands I entrust [or commit] My spirit" (Lk. 23:46). Just as the Son knew His life was safe in the Father's hands, so Timothy was to put the gospel into safe hands. Such people possess two essential qualifications: They must be faithful and they must be able to teach.
Fourth: Timothy is to entrust the message to faithful men so that they could "teach others also." Paul's message went from a hole in the ground in Rome to where I am writing in Ohio, roughly two thousand years later! How did that happen? Simple – some faithful people practiced 2 Timothy 2:2. The did not let the gospel die with them.
Every Christian leader needs to be looking for some faithful believers who can do the same.
Why are many not practicing 2 Timothy 2:2? I am sure there are several reasons, but a few in particular come to my mind. Mentoring is about relationships. Therefore you may not pour into others because it requires time, vulnerability, and trust – and the acceptance of the fact that inevitably someone will hurt you.
Are you investing in anyone? To take it a step further, are you investing in anyone the greatest treasure ever found? The scriptures? What might be things that are keeping you from doing so?
“Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
WHY BELIEVERS SHOULD BE INVOLVED IN POLITICS
I. INTRODUCTION
The fact that believers should affect the world in which they live (versus isolate themselves from it) is evident from the Sermon on the Mount. Note Matthew 5:13-16:
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
When Jesus lights a lamp – when He brings a person to true saving faith in Himself (cf. Ephesians 2:8-9) – what results is a person who “gives light to all who are in the house.” It is not difficult to decipher what this passage means. The word house (v.15) is another way of expressing two previously used words in the passage. This simply means a believer will affect people on the earth (v. 13) and people in the world (v. 14). This passage teaches that it is normative for believers to affect the physical earth/world or “land” in the here and now.
But notice the progression of the whole chapter. Verses 13-16, as quoted above, come after verses 1-12, which are commonly known as Jesus’ Beatitudes. The Beatitudes teach concise virtues (listed in the opening portion of His Sermon on the Mount) that are emblematic of His mature followers; i.e., character qualities such as gentleness (Matthew 5:5), righteousness (5:6, 10), mercifulness (5:7), purity (5:8), etc. Per the progressive nature of them, one’s manifestations of salt and light (similitudes expressing the idea that believers are to be preservers and illuminators in the earth/world) will be in direct proportion to the degree these previously listed characteristics inhabit the believer.
Over the long run, one cannot affect his surroundings in a godly way unless he first possesses godly character. Who one is and how one affects his world are intrinsically intertwined.
Continue reading at: https://capmin.org/should-believers-be-involved-in-politics/
QUOTE
“It becomes a people publicly to acknowledge the over-ruling hand of Divine Providence and their dependence upon the Supreme Being as their Creator and Merciful Preserver ... and with becoming humility and sincere repentance to supplicate the pardon that we may obtain forgiveness through the merits and mediation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
– Samuel Huntington, signer of the Declaration of Independence; President of Congress; Judge; Governor of Connecticut
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