2 Timothy 2:1-7
Notes
Transcript
2 Timothy 2:1–7 (TCT)
“So you, my child, continue being empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you’ve heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, those things entrust to faithful people who will be competent to teach yet more people. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Nobody serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life, so that he might please his commanding officer.
And if anybody competes, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
To the toiling farmer should go the first share of the crops.
Keep thinking on what I’m saying. The Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
Pray.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you so much for joining with us as we continue in our series through the book of 2 Timothy. I’ve really enjoyed hearing from Hayden and Caleb over the past two weeks, and I have to say, I’m very excited about this week — this is one of those texts that I hoped I’d get to preach. Truth be told, my reasons are somewhat selfish. The first time I read this passage as a younger believer, Paul’s instructions to “keep thinking on what I’m saying” really struck me, and I thought about these instructions a lot, but never did quite understand what Paul was getting at.
And every time I’ve read it since, I’ve puzzled my puzzler harder and harder, and having had the opportunity to sit down this week and really study this text in preparation for today, I’m delighted to say that while I still don’t have understanding in everything, I am pretty happy with my understanding of this passage, and it’s only taken ten years. Of course, there’s always more to learn and more to unpack, so I’m under no delusion that I’ve exhausted these verses, but I do think that, by the Lord’s grace, I’m finally competent to teach them to you today in a way that I wouldn’t have been absent this opportunity.
As always, I’m going to dive straight in, so here’s our gameplan.
Our text divides into three sections, verses 1-3, verses 5-6, and then verse 7.
vv. 1-3: Three Imperatives
vv. 5-6: Three Illustrations
v. 7: Thinking for Insight
And as we move from section to section, we’re going to see one main idea develop: The grace of God in Jesus empowers and rewards disciplined, dogged, diligent obedience so that the gospel message continues advancing through time and space.
Let’s get going.
Section 1: Three Imperatives
So you, my child, continue being empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you’ve heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, those things entrust to faithful people who will be competent to teach yet more people. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
In this section, we see three imperatives, or commands:
continue being empowered
entrust
share in suffering
And you might notice that one of these is not like the others, namely that first imperative. It’s different in two ways: first, it’s in the passive voice — at least in my translation. Your translation may have “be strong”, and that doesn’t necessarily mean anything entirely different, but it does change the color, or the tone of what Paul is saying just a little bit.
Second, in my translation, I’ve added “continue” in order to bring out the fact that of the three imperatives, this one is in a different tense, and that serves the purpose of setting this one off as the main command in the section. The other two commands are byproducts or results of this first command and cannot be carried out apart from heeding this command very carefully.
And I’ve gone with “empowered” rather than some form of “strong” or “strengthened” quite deliberately — it’s from the same root we’ve already seen twice times in this letter, specifically in 2 Tim 1:7-8
7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,
Now, hopefully I’ve persuaded you of the complete superiority of my translation and you’re all ready to change the title of our sermon series to “Unashamed: Empowered to Serve through Suffering” — but that’s not alliterative, so it’s a hard no from me and that’s all we’re going to say about that.
But in all seriousness, let’s take a look at our other two imperatives briefly because Paul really is a master of his craft. These other two imperatives should ring a couple bells for us as well.
So you, my child, continue being empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you’ve heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, those things entrust to faithful people who will be competent to teach yet more people. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Just as Paul has already laid the groundwork for Timothy to understand what the empowerment of the Holy Spirit looks like, he’s done exactly the same thing for “entrust”, although your translation may have “commit.”
This imperative is from the same root we’ve seen already in 2 Tim 1:12
12 and that is why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.
and 2 Tim 1:14
14 Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Likewise, we’ve already seen our third imperative, “share in suffering” in 2 Timothy 1:8
8 So don’t be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, or of me his prisoner. Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.
So you, my child, continue being empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you’ve heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, those things entrust to faithful people who will be competent to teach yet more people. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
In other words, Paul isn’t really saying very much that’s entirely new at this point so much as he is shining the spotlight directly back on Timothy after he’s talked about Phygelus, Hermogenes, and Onesiphorus and the consequences of their actions — now it’s Timothy’s turn to consider the possibilities before him and the consequences of his actions.
Let’s unpack what it looks like for Timothy to obey Paul’s commands and, by proxy, what it looks like for us.
First, continue being empowered by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. At first glance, since this is in the passive voice, we might be tempted to think that Paul is commanding Timothy to sit around and wait for some feeling of strength and vigor, but that would be horribly inaccurate because, as anybody who has followed Jesus for some time knows, Jesus provides the strength to walk in obedience not before it’s needed, but as it’s needed. Grace is far less a tank that you fill up before going on a long trip and far more an electric wire whose length you cannot go beyond and which you disconnect at your own peril.
In other words, for Timothy to be empowered by grace, he has to engage in the tasks Paul is calling him to — tasks that are humanly impossible but entirely within God’s power to accomplish.
These two tasks can be summed up in this way: Timothy was to do his part to make sure the gospel message did not die out, and he was to persevere in his task until the day he died, no matter how bad it got.
This first task is basically Paul’s entire discipleship strategy summed up in one verse, so let’s follow the chain of thought, starting with his first use of the root of the verb.
12 and that is why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.
Step 1: God entrusted the gospel message to Paul, and God guarded that message.
14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
Step 2: Paul and his associates entrusted the gospel message to Timothy, and Timothy would guard the message by God’s power.
2 Timothy 2:2 (TCT)
And the things you’ve heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, those things entrust to faithful people who will be competent to teach yet more people.
Step 3: Timothy was to entrust the gospel message to others, who would presumably guard that message, also by God’s power, as they entrusted it to yet others.
And there are two major components to the task: the content, and the guardians of the content.
The content is pretty straightforward — it’s what Timothy has heard from Paul in his public teaching ministry, the gospel of Jesus Christ who, as we’ll see in the next section, rose from the dead and was David’s promised descendant in whose life, death, and resurrection all of God’s promises are fulfilled. It’s this teaching about what Jesus has done in bringing about those promises and how people ought to live their lives as his disciples — lives characterized by the love of God and others, holiness, joy, self-control, godliness, and all the other wonderful things that are a result of being brought from death to life and walking in the light of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. And that’s just scratching the surface, but Hayden will get to unpack that for us next week.
The guardians of the content are, shockingly, equally important. I say shockingly because I’m constantly reminded how God’s wisdom is foolishness to the world, and if I were God and I wanted to make sure my glorious gospel made it to the ends of the earth, I certainly wouldn’t entrust it to people like the young man presently preaching to you — yet, in his grace, that’s exactly what God has done.
He entrusted this message to his apostles, who entrusted it to others like Timothy, who entrusted yet others, who entrusted others… down to this present day. So, what does it take for the pure gospel message to endure for generation after generation, no matter who tries to stop it?
Answer: reliable, competent people indwelt and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit.
Timothy’s task was to find believers (that’s part of what faithful means here) who would show up day after day after day, no matter how bad things got, and train them in handling the message of the gospel so they would be competent to teach others, too.
And I’ve been deliberately gender-neutral in my translation here because I don’t personally think that Paul is only talking about men doing the teaching work inherent in pastoral ministry here, as some interpreters do. I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds, but Paul’s injunction against women teaching in 1 Timothy 2:12
12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
needs to be read in conversation with texts like Titus 2:3-4
3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
All right, that’s the first task. Onto the second: persevering until the end, no matter how bad it gets.
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
For Timothy, “share in suffering” would have hit a little differently than it hits for us. After all, Timothy was receiving yet another letter from Paul, whom trouble seemed to find at every corner. Like, when Caleb talked last week about a call from an old friend and you ask, “Oh man, what happened NOW?” I bet Timothy would have felt his stomach turn any time someone said, “Yo, did you hear what happened to Paul?”
Paul’s invitation to “share in suffering” here is not merely a “weep with those who weep” type of sharing in suffering. It’s an invitation to public slander, poverty, hunger, perpetual danger, prison, and, in all likelihood, a painful and humiliating death at the hands of the Roman government.
Yet, this is what good soldiers do. They straighten their backs, pick up their gear, and march forward, even to certain death if that’s what the order of the day is.
Now, we want to be good soldiers, too, so let’s turn these commands from Timothy to ourselves.
First, these commands are not just for pastors. I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time building my case for this because it’s pretty obviously clear from the rest of the New Testament, but we might be tempted to say that “teaching” is a decidedly pastor-ish thing to do. And yes, teaching does have a special place in the Christian faith, with strict qualifications for teachers, but the teaching ministry of a church simply cannot be confined to Sunday morning gatherings.
The depths of the riches of God in the gospel are unfathomable, and to think that sitting under a weekly sermon is sufficient to equip you to teach others is the height of folly, and, if you have no desire whatsoever to teach others, I can’t say this any other way than to say you are flat-out disobeying Jesus and not doing your part in ensuring the gospel message continues going forth from here.
Second, these commands are utterly impossible if we do not have God’s Spirit dwelling in us and we do not live our lives in His power.
This is pretty obvious for enduring suffering, as anybody who has suffered deeply and long enough can tell you, but it’s less obvious for entrusting the gospel message to other people.
After all, the content of the Bible is the same no matter who’s reading it, right? Anybody can learn Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, systematic theology, church history, and homiletics and teach others to do the same, Spirit-filled or not. But that’s to make a category mistake. The gospel message is not merely a proposition requiring intellectual assent. It’s a command requiring obedience. 1 Peter 4:17
17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
So, while your favorite pastor or systematic theologian or internet preacher may teach right doctrine, it’s worthless if their charge is anything less than 1 Timothy 1:5
1 Timothy 1:5 (ESV)
5 love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
No amount of personality, skill, or training will EVER make up for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in teaching others to follow Jesus — hear it from the guy preaching from his own translation of a Bible passage. Bible information without transformation is an irritation in God’s eyes.
This is abundantly clear as we move from Paul’s three imperatives to our next section, Three Illustrations.
vv. 1-3: Three Imperatives
vv. 5-6: Three Illustrations
v. 7: Thinking for Insight
Nobody serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life, so that he might please his commanding officer.
And if anybody competes, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
To the toiling farmer should go the first share of the crops.
At this time, I’m going to remind us of today’s main idea: The grace of God in Jesus empowers and rewards disciplined, dogged, diligent obedience so that the gospel continues advancing through time and space.
So far, we’ve discussed the empowerment and the advancing of the gospel, so let’s talk about the middle of this main idea — that God rewards disciplined, dogged, diligent obedience.
I’ve drawn each of these d-words from the metaphors Paul provides.
Soldier — disciplined, no distractions
Athlete — dogged, no shortcuts
Farmer — diligent, no vacations
Let’s examine each of these briefly.
First,
Nobody serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life, so that he might please his commanding officer.
The key here is the term “entangled”. It would be a mistake for us to understand Paul as saying that soldiers of Christ don’t engage at all in what we might consider civilian life; otherwise, we end up with the conclusion that we should all be single, unemployed evangelists or missionaries — except, of course, the pastors, who get paid for their work.
No, soldiers of Christ are still free to have things like families, regular jobs, houses, and hobbies. Where the trouble comes in is when those good things distract from the best thing — obedience to Christ. Let’s briefly consider four civilian concerns that we might be prone to get entangled in, in no particular order.
Politics
Building our own kingdoms
Comfort/leisure
Knowledge
These four are by no means exhaustive — these are simply four that I, as a shepherd of this flock, see as dangers to our specific congregation at this specific time. I want to repeat and emphasize that these four things are not bad. They are, in fact, good things that can entangle well-meaning Christians if we aren’t careful to keep our eyes on our commanding officer, Jesus.
First, politics.
The 2024 presidential race is right around the corner, and what I read in the news is an absolute circus. The two major parties’ frontrunners are each seen by roughly one half of the country as both incompetent and criminal and by the other half of the country as a savior, and I’m already feeling the pressure to have an opinion on something that, frankly, exhausts me to think about because of how depressing it is and how lazily the loudest people in the public square think about it.
Christians know what is best for people created in God’s image and know how government works best — when it restrains evil and promotes good, as God intended it to. So we do have something to say in this conversation. It’s one thing, though, to talk about politics in a Christian way, with an eye to sharing the gospel with a neighbor or conversation partner so that everybody in the conversation might take the next step in obedience.
It’s another thing to sit in an echo chamber with people we already agree with anyways and agonize how the other party’s ruining our country and we need to save America by returning to God by voting the right way and putting the right people in power so everybody in the conversation feels a little more self-righteous.
If you don’t know how to have a conversation about politics without demonizing someone you disagree with or you find yourself trying to score points rather than have a genuine dialogue so you can talk about Jesus, you may be entangled and it’s time for you to be free.
Guys, Jesus is king, and the king has told us to make disciples, not save our country.
Politics
Building our own kingdoms
Comfort/leisure
Knowledge
Second, building our own kingdoms.
Broadly speaking, this looks like getting the right degree to get the right job, marrying the right person and raising the kids in the right way to live the life we think we should.
Again, all of these things are great. Wealthy Christians have great opportunity to be generous and show their neighbors love. Having a great marriage is deeply pleasing to God, and raising children in a godly way is part of what God created humans to do in the first place, all the way back to our first parents.
Where we get in trouble is when we emphasize what we think our life should look like — even when it looks like doing all of the right things in order to glorify God! The trouble with that is that all too often, we want to glorify God in a way that is convenient or natural to us and we want to do it in a way that we get to share in that glory because of what we’ve done or achieved.
It’s far too easy for us to get entangled in seeking the lives we dream of and glorifying God along the way instead of seeking God himself and receiving whatever life he will give us, knowing that the life he gives us is the truest life we will ever have.
Third, comfort and leisure.
This one ties in with building our own kingdoms, but I think it’s worth highlighting because of the nature of the “soldier” metaphor and the fact we’ve just done an entire series on lament, which is intrinsically related to comfort in the midst of affliction.
There’s nothing wrong with seeking to alleviate the suffering that comes from waging war. Soldiers have to take care of their bodies and recover from their injuries if they’re going to serve well. Likewise, there’s nothing wrong with resting as needed or seeking help for chronic suffering.
Where we might run into trouble here is when we adopt an excessive focus on self-care to the exclusion of self-denial. This requires a heavy dose of wisdom, but I’ll offer a diagnostic question — does your self-care help you love others better or is it a hindrance?
Fourth, knowledge.
Being near a seminary, our church has historically attracted people with a deep concern for understanding the Bible accurately and with a passion for teaching others the truth. Our church has a long history of preaching the Bible according to textual units, entire books at a time. But our church also has a long history of orthodoxy shining as clear as day from a flame that is smaller than it ought to be — and I’m speaking about myself here, too.
Hear me loud and clear on this. I’m not interested in playing the blame game. But I don’t think that we can deny the fact that a number of us, myself included, have known the battle strategy forward and back, yet we have not strapped on our boots and jumped into the line of fire as often as we could, or should have.
Friends, if our head-knowledge gets in the way of our knowing Jesus personally and following him wholeheartedly, it is worse than worthless — it’s dangerous.
All right, soldiers. Let’s put these distractions aside and keep our eyes on Jesus, our commanding officer, as we consider Paul’s second metaphor.
Soldier — disciplined, no distractions
Athlete — dogged, no shortcuts
Farmer — diligent, no vacations
And if anybody competes, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
This metaphor highlights the fact that the suffering of the Christian life is worth it — the athlete receives a crown for his victory — and that there’s no cheating.
Perhaps Timothy would have been familiar with Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
The phrase “according to the rules” in 2 Timothy primarily refers to exercising self-control — which would have been absolutely vital in dealing with the false teachers who wanted to cause Timothy pain as well as the sufferings Timothy was about to face. Yet, just as a marathoner must stay on the pre-defined course in order for their time to be valid, Timothy could not go around those obstacles nor take any shortcuts to make the race easier.
We may be tempted to take shortcuts ourselves. For teachers, we might be tempted to just rely on ourselves and our own knowledge rather than on the Holy Spirit. We might be tempted to lazily mischaracterize and demonize people we disagree with. We might be tempted to defend people we agree with whose character isn’t above reproach.
In our daily lives, we may make peace with some of our more stubborn sins instead of putting them completely to death. In our church, we might try playing the numbers game and coming up with questionable strategies to fill the pews.
Or, we might decide we’re done competing altogether and we’d rather just be spectators, so we hang up our shoes and quit the race entirely.
Brothers and sisters, this must not be so! Let’s keep ourselves hydrated in the living Water and sweat through our clothes all the way to the finish line, veering neither to the right nor to the left from the path the Lord has set for us.
Finally, Paul’s third metaphor, that of the farmer.
Soldier — disciplined, no distractions
Athlete — dogged, no shortcuts
Farmer — diligent, no vacations
To the toiling farmer should go the first share of the crops.
Now, I know my translation here isn’t great modern English, but that’s because I wanted to emphasize what Paul’s emphasizing — specifically, the farmer, and most especially, what type of farmer he is.
Now, you may not know this, but farming is unbelievably hard work. Now, I’m a carpenter by trade so I know a thing or two about hard work, but I at least have the advantage of setting my schedule and taking days off here and there to physically recover or focus on pastoral ministry.
My neighbor, Carvel, a sheep farmer, does not. He has a relatively small flock that he manages almost entirely on his own, being nearly 80, but when it’s lambing season, he is awake well before the sun is up and goes to bed well after the sun is down, seven days a week.
He does not get to decide when sheep give birth, nor when they get sick, nor when coyotes or buzzards attack, nor when curious two and a half year olds want to visit his farm and disturb him while he’s working (which he’s incredibly kind about, by the way). If Carvel were to decide to put his feet up and rest, his flock would suffer and his farm would rapidly go out of business. An idle farmer will very quickly be either not idle or else not a farmer.
But the farmer who puts in those long hours has the right to that first share of the crops, and the Lord is eager to reward his people for their labors. Idleness, apart from being sin, is simply foolish — why would you kick your feet up and take a break now when there’s a harvest just down the road, after which there is a rest you can’t imagine in your wildest dreams?
Now that we’ve considered these three metaphors, let’s move to our third section.
vv. 1-3: Three Imperatives
vv. 5-6: Three Illustrations
v. 7: Thinking for Insight
Keep thinking on what I’m saying. The Lord will give you understanding in everything.
If we’re right about understanding Timothy as on the reluctant, timid, or anxious side, Timothy’s first thoughts may have been, “Well, Paul, being a soldier, athlete, or toiling farmer doesn’t really sound all that pleasant, and I’m already kind of fed up with this church at Ephesus, and hurrying to Rome to face more suffering also sounds not great, either.” — at least, those are my initial thoughts.
But his second thoughts may well have been more edifying.
“Well, Paul, on the other side of fighting in a war, there’s either death or victory — and if I’m a soldier of Jesus, there’s not really much difference between the two. And on the other side of a really long race, a crown of honor and all the praise that comes with it? Okay, that might make the suffering worthwhile. And my toil will result in my being rewarded according to what I’ve done by a God whom I know to be unfathomably rich in mercy and kindness? Sure, I can jive with that.”
But what if he had third thoughts? What if I told you there’s an even greater motivation than pleasing Jesus and being rewarded for our obedience?
One of the most beautiful glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that he does not ask us to do anything that he has not himself already accomplished or that he does not himself guarantee the strength to accomplish.
Consider Jesus the soldier, who, instead of getting entangled in the human concerns of self-glorification and self-preservation, humiliated himself by obeying his commanding officer, even to the point of death on a cross.
Consider Jesus the athlete who, when given the opportunity to cheat his way to ruling over all the earth by the devil in the wilderness, instead competed according to the rules by worshipping the Lord his God and serving Him only. This same Jesus was crowned with glory and honor at his ascension and has received the name which is above every name, at which every knee will bow and tongue confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the father.
Consider Jesus the farmer who, instead of giving in to exhaustion or letting his angel armies do his dirty work for him, healed the sick, fed thousands upon thousands, proclaimed the gospel and completed every one of its righteous requirements in three short decades, and who, as the firstfruits of the dead, guarantees an innumerable harvest of resurrected, re-created humans who will dwell with him forever in a new heaven and new earth in glory as his treasured possession and the rewards of his toil.
Brothers and sisters, our commanding officer is SO worth pleasing. Words fail to describe the glory that awaits us if we continue soldiering on, running the race, and toiling away in the fields where the Lord has set us. Keep thinking about these things, and let us continue being empowered by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.