Text: 2 Timothy 2:8-14
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my
gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a
criminal. But God's word is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for
the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ
Jesus, with eternal glory. 11 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him,
we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we
disown him, he will also disown us; 13 if we are faithless, he will remain
faithful, for he cannot disown himself. 14 Keep reminding them of these things.
Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only
ruins those who listen.
Introduction
In the book of 2Timothy, Paul gave so much emphasis to perseverance. In fact, he made it clear that it is very important to run the great race with perseverance. And such running was compared to those who run like a soldier, athlete and farmer.
But why is it that Paul posses this great perseverance. He suffered from all kinds of hardships, ridicules, mocking, escaping an angry mob, several shipwrecks, and now imprisonment for the second time.
In our time, there are only few Christians who can stand against persecution. Many Christians cannot even stand against ridicules. But here in Bible, we see that early Christians has this tremendous faith in them. They posses a faith that does not waver. Today, we will be discovering the secret of Paul’s unwavering faith.
Secret No. 1: Paul’s Message Is Clear (v.8)
Paul’s message was very clear to him. It is Jesus Christ descended from David, raised from the dead. Paul was deeply convinced that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. Having this extra ordinary experience with Jesus Christ in the road to Damascus, since then Paul committed his life to the Lord of lords and King of kings.
Paul started his religious life in persecuting Christians. This is why he said in the book of Ephesians that he is the least among God’s people. He did not only persecute Christians, he murdered many Christians having this extreme belief.
Now, after such extra ordinary experience, even though he knew that people will also persecute him as well, even he knew that this new faith may end his life, even he knew that he will suffer a lot, he also knew that standing by God’s authentic message to humanity and having an unwavering faith will greatly glorify God.
He was not afraid of anything that may happen to him. He is not afraid to work under Jesus’ banner even if he knew that suffering will not spare him. This is all because, the message of God is very clear to him.
Sometimes, I begin to ask myself if the message of the Lord is clear to Christians in our time. Many Christians waver in their belief after hearing God’s word and return to their old life. But this is not the picture of God’s message. Even until now, we continuously preach about perseverance. But still, Christians nowadays, all over the world, have a degraded moral and spiritual life.
Many Christians cannot suffer for Christ which is a sad fact in our time. Thousands perhaps, hundreds of Christians who go to church on Sunday morning, but do all evilness during the rest of the week.
Christians hate hypocrisy too much and nobody likes to be called hypocrite. But sometimes, our actions show that we are indeed hypocrites in front of the Lord. Perhaps, we have just forgotten what the Lord tells us through his words. Or maybe, the message of the Lord is just not clear, because if it is clear, we can not afford our faith to waver.
Secret No. 2: Paul’s Motivation Is Clear (v.9-10)
There are two motivating factors for Paul. The first is that the gospel cannot be chained. He may be in chain, but the gospel cannot be chained. This is why even that he is in prison, he is still able to send message of encouragement, testifying that the Lord Jesus Christ died from the cross, rose from the dead and went up to heaven.
For Paul, it is already a great encouragement that no one can chain the gospel. And because the gospel cannot be chained, he can still continue working and sharing the gospel of the Lord.
The second motivating factor was his compassion in reaching out the "elect". The chosen people of God, predestined for his Kingdom. Note here that the "elect" are not yet saved or else Paul will never extend his efforts to reach them in order to be saved.
Note also that the passage does not imply that Paul knew who are the elect. He is still to reach them so that they will obtain the salvation that is in them.
This passage is very clear that even though God chose us and predestined his chosen people, we who were saved first, should become an instrument to the elect, that they too may obtain
salvation in Christ Jesus.
This passage also teaches us that those denominations who teaches Christians that evangelism is not important, nor needed in our Christian lives, beware of them, they are definitely false teachers. These people are only interested in arguments of words, so that they may attract Christians to join them, and so that they may have offerings.
Those people who were attracted to these teachings are only those lazy Christians who never want to go out for the Lord, do not want to suffer for the sake of Christ, and never have a clear message inside them.
Paul here gave us a very good example to follow. Our motivations should be to reach the elect, so that they too will obtain salvation in Christ Jesus. At all cost, we will reach the lost.
Secret No. 3: Paul’s Motto Is Clear (v.11-13)
Motto is a favorite saying. If we try to look at the passage, we can see here that once again, Paul used this phrase, "here is a trustworthy saying". This saying speaks lots of truth in it.
Verse 11 tells us about dying with Christ. This refers to the spiritual participation of every believer with Christ’s death. This means that we are now dead to sin, but alive in Christ Jesus. However, the passage may also mean a physical martyrdom for Christ as what the context of the passage indicates.
Verse 12 tells us about enduring with Christ, for if we endure, we will also reign with Him. Endurance is one test of the genuineness of our faith. The denial that is being referred here is the permanent denial such as of an apostate. Apostasy will then face judgment before the Lord.
Peter denied the Lord Jesus Christ temporarily. But there we see that even temporary denials results to the deep spiritual humiliation. Peter knew that what he did is humiliating before the Lord. That upon realizing this, he confessed of this sin, and lives as one of the most fervent, industrious apostle, and remarkable Christian in the entire Christian church history.
Verse 13 tells us about God’s faithfulness despite of our infidelity. Christ remains faithful to his promises while we most of the time are infidels of the faith the we have given to Him.
Sometimes, we even doubt how Christ works in us especially in times that we face problems.
The main challenge of this faithful saying to us is our faithfulness to Christ. All kinds of trials exist to Christians. They are not extra ordinary trials because they already exist even before Jesus was born when Herod tried to exterminate the infants in Bethlehem. All we have to do is to remain in him.
As a student of Christian history, this is a reality that we have observed; it is more difficult for Christians to remain in the Lord when there is peace and prosperity. Those Christians that exists during the time of Paul are more zealous than those that we have now in free countries. Those Christians who lives where Christianity is prohibited are more zealous than those Christians who live in democratic countries.
In our days, NOMINALISM is one of the greatest enemies of Christianity. Nominalism means belonging to a certain group only by name, but not in works and in reality. Meaning we might be Christians by name and label, but we don’t really have anything in common with the true Christians because we live like non-believers. Nominalism gives birth to all kinds of compromising acts with evilness. On the other hand, Bible clearly speaks that compromising with evil is already an act of wickedness, because there is no fellowship that exists between the light and darkness (2Corinthians 6:14).
Conclusion
Paul’s has 3 secrets of his unwavering faith. He has a clear message, a clear motivation, and a clear motto.
Questions to Ponder
- Do we really understand the message of salvation?
- How are we going to apply the message of salvation in our lives?
- Are we just to keep it, or share the same message to others?
- Do we have the right motivation in coming to church?
- Are we concern to other’s salvation?
- Do we have a godly motto in life?
- Are we participants of Nominalism?
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