November 3, 2023 - 2 Timothy 2

Paul encourages Timothy to follow the examples of good soldiers who focus intensely upon their responsibilities and the farmer who works hard and is entitled to have the first share of the crops. Furthermore, Paul points to his own example and how, even bound with chains as a criminal, he endures in the work knowing that the word of Gode is not bound.

Of course, not all who profess Christ genuinely live for him. There are those like Hymenaeus and Philetus “who have swerved from the truth” (2:18). Here’s the thing, though, “The Lord knows those who are his” (2:17-19). What’s that DirectTV commercial with a good Rob Lowe, who is responsible and who has DirectTV, and a bad Rob Lowe, who has cable? We are encouraged to be like the good Rob Lowe, not the the bad Rob Lowe. That is, ditch the cable TV and get DirectTV! Application? Don’t be like Hymenaeus and Philetus, be like the good soldier and farmer. We are able to do this only “strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2:1). Thanks be to God for Christ and the strength and grace this is ours in him! There’s an old hymn, which we used to sing often, the final verse being:

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,

the strife will not be long;

this day the noise of battle,

the next, the victor’s song.

To him that overcometh

a crown of life shall be;

he with the King of glory

shall reign eternally. --George Duffield (1858)