November 12, 2025 - 2 Timothy 2

Faithful witnesses and faithful men.  Soldiers willing to endure suffering in order to please those in command over him.  The hard working farmer.  The apostle bound in chains as a criminal and still faithful to preach the gospel.  Those willing to deny themselves.  A worker approved by God.  Holding to the truth.  Pure of heart.  Vessels of silver and gold.  Those displaying kindness and enduring evil while correcting their opponents with gentleness.  So many metaphors and descriptors!  Paul contrasts these with the faithless, the quarrelsome, the irreverent, the ungodly, those who lead others astray, gossips, those ensnared by Satan, and vessels of wood and clay.  What contrasts!  What is the secret to being found in the former group rather than the latter?  Paul tells us:  “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 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” (2:1-2).  Strengthened by God’s grace, taught by the Word; only then can we live as we ought.  But we must know that grace!  We must be in the Word!

Am I a soldier of the cross,

a foll’wer of the Lamb,

and shall I fear to own His cause,

or blush to speak His name?

Sure I must fight, if I would reign;

increase my courage, Lord!

I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,

supported by Thy word.

The saints in all this glorious war

shall conquer, though they die;

they see the triumph from afar

by faith’s discerning eye.   -- Isaac Watts (1724)