Basic Training for the Christian (Part 1)- 2 Timothy 2:1–7

“Basic Combat Training, also known as ‘boot camp’; is required of all new enlisted Soldiers to create a strong foundation for their Army experience and future goals. Once it's over, your day-to-day will focus more on what’s required for your specific job, as well as pursuing your personal goals and interests.” (U.S. Army)

The men and women in our nation’s Army undergo 10 weeks of basic training. These weeks are divided into four phases, each phase focused on teaching and developing skills necessary for the defense of the country.

As members of the Army graduate basic training, they are then assigned different jobs for which they receive additional training that is more specific.

But for now, we are entering into bootcamp. Thankfully, this boot camp does not require any physical fitness or aptitude tests. However, it is far more significant and important than the national defense of the United States. It is spiritual, eternal boot camp.

We will only have two phases (or, parts if you prefer), the first of which is our focus today. In the first phase the soldiers learn the core values, the basic training, and the first-aid and Army programs.

If we to know God and make Him known through suffering and being steadfast, we must engage in basic training.

There are four core values (returning to our U.S. Army lingo) that we must have if we are to suffer and be steadfast.

I. Empowered by the Grace of Jesus- 2:1

The first core value we must remember and train until we live this truth out as easily as we do breathing is to be empowered by the grace of Jesus. Paul tells Timothy to be strengthened by the grace in Christ Jesus, or to be strong in the grace.

Paul is telling Timothy not to rely on himself, but to realize the infinite amount of grace in Jesus Christ. We will focus on the term strengthened before we discuss with what we are to be strengthened.

Paul uses this concept in many instances in his letters. In Ephesians 6:10 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” Romans 6:11–12 “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.”

These are passive commands, meaning it is not something we are doing ourselves as much as we are realizing something has been done for us.

An analogy may prove helpful. Let’s say we pull up to a construction site where the workers are attempting to move some debris. It would be similar to using a bulldozer to remove a large amount of debris. We would say, “Be strong in that bulldozer!” Imagine the absurdity to see construction workers attempting to move a pile of debris with their own strength.

Mentally, then, we can grasp Paul’s command, but in what are we to be strong, or empowered? The grace that is in Christ Jesus. Paul uses the word grace four times in this letter, once at the beginning and at the end, once to refer to the grace of Jesus in our salvation before time began, and here in 2:1.

Grace is defined as unmerited favor and includes God’s common grace to all humanity and His special grace for those in Christ. This special grace is a multifaceted grace, summed up in the term salvation which includes regeneration (new birth), justification (made righteous), sanctification (growing Christlikeness), and glorification (made perfect by God) (BF&M 2000 III)

It is a owned grace, though, not simply an amorphous idea in space. It is grace that is in Christ Jesus. This is such a profound aspect of this core value that we must unpack it.

God is infinite. And all that is in God is God. By that I mean love is not a part of God, God is love, and since God is infinite, His love is infinite, because all that is in God is God. God is a God of grace, and because God is infinite, God’s grace is infinite.

It is inexhaustible. It is impossible that God’s grace would ever be diminished slightly. We cannot think of God’s grace as being water in a bottle. Even if we poured it out and it automatically refilled, this is not how God’s grace is. If we could venture to a more appropriate analogy, it would be like God’s grace is the water, the bottle, the label, my hand, our church, the earth, the solar system, everything in existence, and even this analogy fails for our universe has an end and God’s grace does not.

Be strong, be empowered by the infinite grace of God! The second core value is entrusting the Gospel to others.

II. Entrust the Gospel to Others- 2:2

Paul tells Timothy to pass on, to entrust the Gospel to others who will also be able to entrust it to others. The Church is a body, a body which involves men and women throughout human history until God brings the world to its fitting end.

We will not dwell long on this, other than to mention that a failure to do this brings a great weakening to the Church. The failure to call and appoint God-qualified and called men to the ministry (1 Tim. 3:1–7), to have older women training and teaching younger women (Titus 2:1–6) brings about the struggles to the church which we will discuss in 2:14–19. Be thinking of others, pouring into their lives.

Empowered by the Grace of Jesus

Entrust the Gospel to Others

III. Endure the Suffering- 2:3–6

This is the second time that Paul tells Timothy to share in suffering. He will also tell Timothy to endure suffering in 4:5.

Suffering is, as we are learning, part and parcel with following Jesus Christ. It is not an option to avoid, but an aspect to endure. Paul uses three analogies to help us understand how to endure.

The first is a soldier, which Paul expands upon with the important factor of single-mindedness. The soldier does not get entangled in civilian pursuits, he is focused on pleasing his superior. Our eyes must remain on Jesus, always and forever, as we suffer and desire to be steadfast. The soldier is pleased if his master is pleased.

We must be like the athlete as well. Athletes have one goal: to win. Everything else fades into the background. Likewise, Christians must keep Christ as the focus of their lives. There are many things that pull our attention away from Christ. Look to Christ, and when your focus strays, return to Christ, stick to the rules!

The final analogy is the farmer. He patiently sows and works the ground. He waits as the rain comes, or hopes for the rain to come. He loses plants. He toils in the soil. He then reaps the fruits of his labor.

The connection between every analogy here is perseverance in this life produces rewards in the next life (eschatology). This is a point to which Paul will return later in this chapter and in the next. We live in this life, enjoying some of the benefits which Christ has purchased for us, laboring in the Gospel ministry, and we look forward to the glories of the world to come. To return to the doctrinal aspects of this letter, Paul is building upon what our BF&M calls “salvation in its broadest sense,” and begins with regeneration, then moves to justification, then sanctification, and finally to glorification. Perhaps a helpful verse will aid your memory of these remarkable truths,

“Justification- God declares us righteous Sanctification- we're being made into His likeness Glorification- that's what happens at the finish When God conforms believers perfectly to Christ's image!”—Shai Linne

First, we need to be empowered by the infinite grace of God! The second core value is entrusting the Gospel to others. Third, we endure the suffering, and finally we examine the Scriptures.

IV. Examine the Scriptures- 2:7

Paul gives timothy one more command in these seven verses of chapter 2. “Think over what I say.” Or “consider” what I say. Paul is commanding Timothy to give careful consideration to what he has just told him. We could use the term examine. When a scientist examines a new animal, she looks at every aspect of it. She spends time looking at the legs, noting how they function, what the uses of various hairs are, how the nerves help it escape from predators. She spends time observing the eating habits of the animal. She notes the relationship it has with others in its species.

Spend time working through what I have said Timothy. This applies to us as well. We should devote regular and consistent time thinking about God’s Word. What is the result?

Paul tells Timothy, “For the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” Just as we began this sermon in entire dependence upon God (“by strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus”) so, too, we find ourselves entirely dependent upon God for comprehension of His truth.

We can read a passage of Scripture over and over again, but if the Lord does not enlighten our minds, we will not “comprehend” what He wrote. Let us persevere in our study of the Scriptures as we seek to know Him and make Him known.

If we to know God and make Him known through suffering and being steadfast, we must engage in basic training, which involves being empowered by the grace of Jesus, entrusting the Gospel to faithful men and women, enduring the suffering of this life, and examining the Scriptures.

Are you ready for basic training?