Entrust the Word to the
Reliable
2Tim 2:1,2 You then, my son, be strong in
the
grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard
me say in
the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who
will also be
qualified to teach others.
While we all may seek to find strength from various things from
food to
relationships, what we need to learn is to gain strength from
the grace
of God.
"Do not be carried
away
by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts
to be
strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of
no value
to those who eat them." Heb
13:9
The most important ideas to propagate are those things of which
the
Bible speaks about abundantly, clearly and explicitly. For many
will
focus on things which may be unclear or not emphasized or to
read into
the Bible ideas which the Bible doesn't intend, in order to
inflate
such ideas so as to justify one's denominational or personal
beliefs as
being superior to others. You take, for example, the idea of
infant
baptism, of which the Bible never speaks, and yet was considered
so
important early in the Reformation that Christians would murder
fellow
Christians over that issue. But Paul never said such a thing in
the
presence of many witnesses.
A Gnostic view of scripture is to view it as containing hidden
meaning.
But that which may have been hidden has been revealed to all
through
the New Testament. It is very important to entrust the teaching
of the
Bible to those who will keep it public, emphasizing that which
the
Bible clearly states. There came a time when it was entrusted to
unreliable men and for over 1000 years the Bible was taken away
from
the public by those who replaced what it clearly said with their
own
ideas.
A person, though even having the spiritual gift of teaching, may
not be
qualified to teach unless they are found to be faithful to the
Word.
There is a maturing process to become such a candidate, but all
too
often there are those assigned to teach who are yet in the
process of
developing convictions about what they are assigned to teach. In
fact
"some have wandered
away from these (a
pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith), and
turned to
meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but
they do not
know what they are talking about or what they so confidently
affirm."
1Tim 1:5-7
Endure Hardship
2Tim 2:3,4 Endure hardship with us like a
good
soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets
involved in
civilian affairs— he wants to please his commanding officer.
As I commented previously in chapter 1, becoming a Christian is
free,
much like joining the US Marines is free. And though it is quite
different than the sense inherent in Militant Islamo-facism, we
Christians are analogous to soldiers. Though perhaps firemen
might be
the better analogy. In either case, Jesus is to be viewed as our
Lord.
Those who view him as merely Savior, but not Lord have entered
through
the window and not through the door. Since Jesus is Lord we make
it our
aim to comply with Him in all things. Jesus is our commanding
officer.
We are His "friends" in so much as we obey His commands.
John 15:14 "You are my friends if you do
what I
command."
But what would constitute "civilian affairs" to be avoided?
Perhaps
that is what Paul was alluding to when he said,
"From now on those who have
wives
should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they
did not;
those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy
something, as
if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the
world,
as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present
form is
passing away. I would like you to be free from concern. An
unmarried
man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs— how he can please
the Lord.
But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this
world— how he
can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An
unmarried woman
or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to
be
devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married
woman is
concerned about the affairs of this world— how she can please
her
husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict
you, but
that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the
Lord." 1Cor 7:29-35
In other words, there are things what are optional in life -
things
which are not bad in themselves, but may unnecessarily drain our
time,
energy and resources, making us unavailable for ministry. So
beware of
being engrossed in the temporal things of this life and missing
out on
affecting people's eternal destiny.
Devote Yourself to the
Ministry
2Tim 2:5-7 Similarly, if anyone competes
as an
athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he
competes
according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the
first to
receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for
the Lord
will give you insight into all this.
In chapter 4 Paul will again call upon this analogy of competing
in an
athleitic competition.
"I
have
fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept
the faith.
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which
the
Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day— and
not only
to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." 2Tim 4:7,8
Though there is the question as to whom we are competing
against,
seeing Paul desires to see all Christians win the race. You
don't get a
sense in his writings that he's competing against other
Christians. So
perhaps that's where the analogy breaks down. Rather it seems
here to
emphasize the idea firstly that there are rules to follow. This
is not
to say that we are under the regulations of the Law. But rather
that
there are general principles to Christian ministry, primary of
which is
to comply one's doctrine and practice to that which Paul
teaches. And
secondly he uses this analogy to communicate the concept of
devotion.
For as an athlete must devote himself to training, so must those
involved in ministry.
Likewise the hardworking farmer works laboriously, and must
follow the
rules of farming, sowing in season, watering, and reaping in
season.
But in addition Paul adds that such a farmer be the first to
receive a
share. This he mentions elsewhere, such as in
1Tim 5:17,18 "The elders who direct the
affairs of
the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those
whose work
is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, 'Do not muzzle the ox while it
is treading
out the grain,' and 'The
worker deserves his wages.'" And also this
passage:
1Cor
9:6-14
"Is it only I and
Barnabas who must work for a living? Who serves as a soldier
at his own
expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its
grapes? Who
tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? Do I say this
merely from
a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing?
For it is
written in the Law of Moses: "Do not muzzle an ox while it
is treading
out the grain." Is it about oxen that God is concerned?
Surely he says
this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us,
because when the
plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so
in the
hope of sharing in the harvest. If we have sown spiritual
seed among
you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?
If others
have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it
all the more?
But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up
with anything
rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don’t you know that
those who
work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those
who In the
same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the
gospel
should receive their living from the gospel."
So reflect on that!
Unleash God's Word
2Tim 2:8,9 Remember Jesus Christ, raised
from the
dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am
suffering
even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s
word is
not chained.
Whenever the gospel is preached in the Bible the resurrection of
Christ
is mention as forensic evidence validating the propositions of
the
gospel. For faith in Christ is not blind faith or wishful
thinking. But
rather it's based upon the affidavit of eyewitnesses to the
miracles
and resurrection of Christ. Being descended from David is not
just a
statement if His humanity, but also refers to Him being the
Christ
prophecied in the Old Testament who was to come through the line
of
David.
Note how Paul starts his epistle to the Romans,
"Paul, a servant of Christ
Jesus,
called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—
the gospel
he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy
Scriptures
regarding his Son, who
as to
his human nature was a descendant of David, and who
through the
Spirit of holiness was
declared
with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the
dead: Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom 1:1-4
Paul's main concern, indeed the main concern we Christians
should all
have, is that he Word of God be unleashed upon the world. The
one thing
that has historically hindered Christianity is restricting
access to
the Word of God. Catholicism did the worse damage of all where
for over
1000 years it kept the Word of God in chains and kept
populations
illiterate, even speaking the Word in Latin - a dead language -
so that
no one would understand it. The most important thing in
Christian
ministry is to keep the Word of God accessible and in a
languages
people understand.
See to Others'
Salvation
2Tim 2:10 Therefore I endure everything
for the
sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that
is in
Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
The "elect" are those who will obtain salvation through faith in
Christ. Notice the elect are not presumed to be saved apart form
the
gospel. For salvation is contingent upon hearing and believing
the
gospel. Yet given God's foreknowlege of how people will respond
to the
gospel, it could be said that there are those who are elect,
though
presently unsaved, but only elect insomuch as they will
inevitably hear
and believe the gospel. That is they are
"elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father." 1Peter
1:2
But contrary to a fatalistic hyper-Calvinistic view whereby
when John Ryland heard William Carey talking about becoming a
missionary to India, and told him, "Sit down, young man. When God
decides to
save the heathen, He will do it without your help.",
Paul viewed
the situation much differently. Paul did not have a
dispassionate
fatalistic viewpoint concerning people's salvation. For God
doesn't
save people apart from hearing and believing the gospel.For
example in
1Thess 2:16
he speaks of Jews
"forbidding us to speak to the
Gentiles that they may be saved."
The only logical explanation for Paul's attitude is to assume
Paul was
speaking of election in terms of God's foreknowledge of those
who would
hear and believe the gospel. In other words there are people who
are
not elect, but who would have been elect, had the Christian
community
not been so lazy and irresponsible with regards to the ministry
of the
gospel. How many people have unnecessarily gone to hell because
you
were too busy with other things, too distracted, to be involved
in
saving others from hell?
A TrustWorthy Saying
2Tim 2:11-13 Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him, we
will also
live with him;
if we endure, we will also
reign
with him.
If we deny him, he will
also deny
us;
if we are faithless, he
will
remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
The first conditional clause is the doctrine of
Eternal Security. "Died" is
speaking of a past event, as Jesus said,
"whoever hears my word and believes
him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he
has
crossed over from death to life." Jn 5:24 And consequently
"if we died with Christ, we
believe
that we shall also live with Him." Rom 6:8
The second conditional clause is the doctrine of the
Perseverance of the Saints.
Which
speaks not of a condition for salvation, but rather diagnoses
whether a
person is saved. For while
"those
who
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
will
reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" Rom 5:17, it is also the
case that
"he who endures
to the end shall be
saved" Mt 24:13,
or as
Paul puts it,
"By this
gospel you
are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.
Otherwise,
you have believed in vain." 1Cor
15:2
The third conditional clause speaks not of singular event, such
as
Peter's denial of Christ, but of a lifestyle conviction denying
Christ,
seeing as the verb in the present rather than aorist, which in
Greek
has the sense of characteristic behavior. This is the converse
to the
perseverance of the saints, which is to say, "if and only if we
endure
in faith to the end".
For the fourth conditional clause, the Greek word for
"faithless" is
used seven times in the New Testament. Six of the seven times
it's
translated "not believed". And again given the usage of the
Greek
present tense here, which indicates lifestyle characteristic
versus a
mere singular event or uncharacteristic behavior, this should
more
accurately be translated
"If
we are
characteristically unbelievers"... If we are
unbelievers, He
will faithfully throw us into hell, being faithful to his New
Covenant
whereby
"Whoever believes
in the
Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see
life,
for God’s wrath remains on him." John 3:36 You can count
on that!