Monday, September 14 –
Welcome to a new week. It’s Monday, and we are continuing our reading thru the New Testament and beginning a new letter, 2 Timothy. Today our reading is 2 Timothy 1:1 – 18. Please come back if you can, and we’ll walk through the chapter together.
Since we just finished the first letter Paul had written, we’ll take a brief look at the background and dive right into the text. Paul was in prison and near death (4:6). There is no pardon coming, and Paul knows that his days are numbered. People have read this letter in ways that express the emotions of final words spoken by a Father to his Son. There is so much to say and so little time to say it. Yet, when we read this letter, there is no bitterness in Paul’s words, and no regrets either. If anything, Paul is full of gratitude and joy, for the one thing that emerges throughout the letter is Paul’s affections for Timothy – His Son-in-the-Lord, who is receiving Paul’s baton.
Paul had appointed Timothy to Pastor the church in Ephesus, and the first letter from Paul had been filled with advice, commands, and encouragement. We don’t know the time between the first and second letters, and it might have been as little distance between them as one year. Most scholars place Paul’s death in 65-66 a.d. To Paul, Timothy was a Son – “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (1:1-2).
Paul’s connection to Timothy is deeply rooted in the past. Paul knew Timothy’s Mother and Grandmother. Timothy has been in Ephesus for several years now, but Paul still admonishes him as a Son to remember who he is, where he has come from, and what he is charged to do –
“I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (1:3-7).
Paul’s reason for writing this second letter is to remind Timothy that his office as Pastor and teacher was crucial to the life of the church. Ephesus had been assaulted by a new heresy, Gnosticism, that taught that Jesus was not a physical being, but only a spirit being. Not only did they not believe in the incarnation, but they also discounted the physical death of Jesus, and thus the resurrection of Jesus’ body. One more element of their teaching was they dismissed the Old Testament Scriptures, teaching that the Old Testament God is not the God of Jesus. Gnosticism was an early threat built upon both Jewish and Greek (Hellenist) heresies.
Some of the attacks against Paul were leveled by the false teachers claiming that if Paul were truly an appointed one (Apostle), he would not be in prison. Paul reminds Timothy that Jesus had said that those who proclaimed the Gospel could expect to suffer -
“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, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me” (1:8-12).
Never be ashamed to speak the truth, and stand in the cross-hairs if you must. Prison isn’t fun, but life in Christ is not about the immediate, but the ultimate. The Gospel is the story of God’s redemption – that we are saved not by our own efforts, our works, but by his sovereign will through grace. It is Jesus who died and brought life, immortality to those who put their trust in Him. It is the proclamation of the Gospel that has put Paul in prison, and he is not ashamed to be identified with the Gospel because he knows that his soon-coming execution is not the end but merely the beginning.
Paul is not a prisoner of Nero, but a prisoner of Jesus Christ – “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me” (1:12). Paul said to Timothy, “do not be ashamed,” and adds, “I am not ashamed,” and charges Timothy, therefore, to act as the man of God he was called to be -
“Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (1:13-14).
Paul cannot make any promises to Timothy except the two things in this charge. Timothy can trust in the “sound words” of Scripture, and he can trust in the “Holy Spirit who dwells within” him. These two things represent Timothy is given to “guard the deposit that is entrusted to you.”
Timothy is Paul’s son, far away from each other, and Paul now both admits that not all is going well, as well as reflects on the bad and good of different relationships – “You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes (1:15). Asia is where Timothy is in Ephesus. We don’t know anything more of who these two names are – it is only mentioned this one time in Scripture. We do know this, Timothy knew them, and perhaps they had been sent by Timothy to bring some needed supplies to Paul. With Paul in prison, some didn’t want to associate with him, believing that they might also be arrested. This, then, is not a complaint by Paul, but perhaps a warning to Timothy.
For Paul, the good side of relationships was the household of a loyal friend named Onesiphorus –
“May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus” (1:16-18).
Loyal friends who stand with you through the good and the bad are often in short supply. Yet, the good news was that Paul had some who “often refreshed him and were not ashamed of identifying with him.” To these precious people, Paul prays blessings to the Lord for them.
It is a short and mixed section we just read. Paul is facing a terminal ending, and he knows it. Timothy is the one he is passing to baton to, and he wants Timothy to remember that the word of God and the Holy Spirit are not just facts, but a treasure to guard and entrust his life to. Paul had invested his life in two things – People and the Gospel. Having friends is desirable, but not everyone who claims to be a friend will last, so we treasure those who have been loyal friends over time. Paul’s former so-called friends didn’t realize the sacrifice it sometimes takes to be committed as a friend. As for the Gospel, there is no other commitment that is even close to holding onto. The Gospel is life because the Gospel is Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us.
Peace
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