Paul's Valedictory Success

Text: 2 Timothy 4:7

2Ti 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Introduction

Finally, Paul now is making his final words to Timothy. Paul’s end time is nearing, and he is sensing that the hope that he has in his first imprisonment is now gone. But even he is aware that this is going to happen, he continued to preach the gospel as boldly as possible.

Paul fought the good fight

Just like a good soldier (2Tim 2:3), Paul fought the good fight. He went out and preached the gospel even to those people where in return might kill him. He suffered from tons of persecutions, suffered from several shipwrecks, and suffered from all kinds of ministerial difficulties. Yet, he did not despair, nor rested reaching more people for Christ.

Even in prison, he continuously fights for the advancement of the gospel. He used strategies in reaching more people. He became a tentmaker to support his own self when his support did not come. He undeniably pronounces the gospel even in the midst of his enemies that makes him a true soldier of Christ.

Paul’s spiritual battle ended up to the point of his physical death. The passage tells us the final scenes of Paul’s life in prison where he suffers a lot, not just from persecutions, but from the torment of inner pain of being deserted in the midst of his difficulties.

Chains did not stop Paul in preaching the gospel, not even the bars that delimits Paul’s physical activities. Paul continued his fight as a good soldier of Christ even when all others have fallen. He has shown his honorable quality of being a good soldier, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21).

What are the things that can stop us preaching the gospel and telling it to others? Was it our inner self? Was it when people will say that he does not want to hear the gospel that you brought to him? Or was it our bed and our comfortable houses? Was it our family?

Luk 14:26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.

To overcome all this, it is very important for us to wear the full armor of God (Eph. 6:13-18):

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.


Paul finished the race

The end of Paul’s life has been the mark of the end of his ministry. Just like a good athlete (1 Corinthians 9:24-27), Paul in his lifetime finished the race. He competed according to the rules, so that he will not be disqualified from finishing the race. In comparison to those who did not compete in accordance to the rules. In the passage, we can even see some of the professing Christians who were not able to compete well, and some of them even quit to the great spiritual race.

As Paul run the race, we can see in the Bible that he kept some of the important things that an athlete should know in winning the race:
1. A desire to finish - Act 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.
2. Strict discipline - 1Co 9:25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
3. With aim - 1Co 9:26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
4. Going beyond what he can - 1Co 9:27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
5. Take off everything that entangles -Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

The main point here is that, Paul finished the race. We have a saying that, “Quitter never wins.” This saying is true to Paul. He knows that if he stops, all the efforts that he did will be in vain. He knows that stopping in the ministry will give him no benefit. And instead of quitting, suffering from various hardships even in his early ministries, Paul continued to move on.

Paul guarded the faith.

Paul was not only a soldier of the faith and an athlete; he is also a guardian of the faith (2 Timothy 1:13-14). But how did the Paul guarded the faith?

Paul was a faith defender of the Jews originally, before he became a Christian. He is one of the main person who go after the Christians. His way of defending his former faith is persecuting, punishing, and even putting to death those who are found to be guilty of becoming a Christian.

Now that he becomes a Christian, he then becomes a guardian of the Christian faith. Christians are a little skeptic with Paul because of his background. But Paul continuously grow in the faith and he know who called him in the road to Damascus, thus he became one of the leaders of the Christian communities, a fervent missionary, and a defender of the Christian faith.

His ways of defending the faith has changed. Formerly, he is the one who persecuted Christians, but now he is the one being persecuted. Before, his answer to his opponents is violence, now he answers them with the truth found in the Scripture. He even opposed those who introduce false doctrines.

Paul continuously encourages his students to continue guarding the faith. Being on guard means being on the alert. Many Christians fail because they were easily deceived by false teachers. But what is Paul’s secret in his success of guarding the faith?
1. He commits everything to Christ - Phi 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
2Timothy 1:14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you--guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
2. He avoid things that might influence him to be off guard - 1Ti 6:20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge,

Conclusion

Paul can be considered to be successful in his Christian life. He was able to become a good soldier, a good athlete, and a guardian of the faith.

In our lives, how did these things reflects on us? Unlike Paul, we are still here and our time is still running. How are we going to fight the good fight? How are we going to finish the race? And how are we going to guard the faith?

Indeed, we have known so many things. We have undergone trainings, seminars, team buildings, and all things that can help us in our spiritual walk in Christ. But how do we work on things towards the goal?

If perhaps, our time is over now in this very moment, can we claim what Paul has claimed?

Today, God is giving us a choice whether or not to continue to learn and apply what we have learned in him, or to quit and stop in becoming a quality Christian. The choice is yours to make.

A Teaching About Preaching

Text: 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Introduction
This are the last words of Paul for Timothy. Timothy being one of his prodigy were given detailed instructions on how is to become a pastor of the Church. Here, we can see that becoming a pastor is not easy. In fact, Paul has already included in his final encouragement to Timothy a very brief picture of what ministry is like.

Verses 6-8 gave us a picture that people will try to persecute not only the ordinary Christians, but especially the Christian leaders. Some will be imprisoned because of preaching the gospel, while some will be judged without a valid reason. For Paul's example, he was imprisoned because of the gospel.

Then Paul gave us a picture deserters in verses 9-10 and 16-18. They were Christians who professed to be one yet loved the world more than God. Even so, Paul still pointed out that there will be people who will not leave the faith.

Finally, Paul gave a picture of some people who will try to defame the minister. But for this, we should stand our ground and be aware of those men who will try to do harm with God's ministers. We have to remember that God is with us and that He will be the one who will repay those who persecute us.

When to Preach
Be prepared in season or out of season for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Even at the dawn of Christianity, while the apostles are still alive, there already exists false teachers. This is why the apostles on the other hand always do their best in order to defend the gospel.

The time has come now that there are numerous religious groups that put up false doctrines. Even the biggest part of the Christian church was penetrated with false doctrines leading the people false hopes of salvation. The Bible is very clear in its teachings that salvation can only be achieved by grace through faith. But because of perversion of doctrines, instead people being lead to salvation, they have received damnation.

Through the words of apostle Paul, once more, he encourages us to be prepared in preaching the gospel in season or out of season. This tells us, that we have to be ready sharing the gospel in all occasion, in every opportunity as possible.

God did not only called us to preach during the times that we want to and during the times we feel like to, but He called us to preach in season or out of season.

What to Preach
Correct, rebuke and encourage for people will try to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

People was never satisfied with things in life. People by nature love pleasure. They were never satisfied with pleasures that they already have, they want more. Some of these people belong to the Christian communities. They say it is wrong to do this, and to do that, yet when it comes to pleasure, they can tell all the reasons to justify their lust for pleasures.

This is what exactly is happening in our world today. Homosexuals even gathered their own spiritual ministers to justify their lust for each other. People who like to go to bars even bring with them spiritual advisers to justify their cravings for pleasure. Some people are even trying to win ministers to win ministers to become pro divorce and pro abortion.

Just lately, there was a friend of mine who was asking me on how to defend the questions that is being raised up whether or not it is ok to go to music lounges to be with friends or not for the reason that they are going to create a relationship and that they will have a chance to witness them. They are doing their best in order to justify it. But as for you who have heard these word, may you be able to discern what is right and what is wrong.

The word of the Lord is used to correct, rebuke and encourage.

How to Preach
With great patience and careful instruction for they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

This passage teaches us another thing. We have to learn how to preach for these kinds of people. Are we to confront them and say all things against them? Here, it says “with great patience and careful instruction”. Even if these people will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths, we are still to restore them gently.

I always believe that there is a way to rebuke gently if we are to restore a sinning brother.

People are very hard to learn. This is why we have to patient in teaching them. Like a little child who is still learning to walk, we have to assist him by the hand, we have to feed him, and teach them patiently until he learns everything. And all these teachings, takes a great deal of time. This is the same in our spiritual lives. We really do not have to be impatient with our new brothers and sisters in Christ. Instead, we have to admonish them, teaching them first the elementary teachings until they reach into maturity.

Conclusion
5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Winning The End Of TImes

Title: Winning the End Of Times

Text: 2 Timothy 3:10-17

10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,

11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet Ps. 34:19 from them all the Lord rescued me.

12 Indeed, all who desire to Titus 2:12 live a godly life in Christ Jesus See Acts 14:22 will be persecuted,

13 while [Rev. 22:11] evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and Titus 3:3 being deceived.

14 But as for you, [1 Tim. 4:6] continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom 1 you learned it

15 and how [Eph. 6:4]; See ch. 1:5 from childhood you have been acquainted with [John 5:39] the sacred writings, Ps. 119:99 which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

16 Rom. 15:4; 2 Pet. 1:20, 21 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

17 that See 1 Tim. 6:11 the man of God 1 may be competent, [Luke 6:40] equipped See ch. 2:21 for every good work.

Introduction

Last week we discussed what kind of people will there be in the end of time. In our own personal perspective, these kind of people are sinful and ugly, but once we are in that the same specific situation, there we will begin to see all those sins to be attractive to do or else no one will be tempted.

But what are we to do then in order to win this great dilemma of our time? It is obvious, that we really cannot just sit down and wait for the bombardment of temptations to us. We have to do something.

In the passage, Paul did not only introduced us to what kind of people will there be in the end of times, but he also gave us instructions in winning these temptation.

How To Win Temptation

Obedience and continuation of what you have been taught

In other translations, the passage used the word “doctrine”, which means teaching. Paul is instructing Timothy to keep a hold of what he has received and heard from the teachings of Paul. It is obvious that this involves Godly teachings and doctrines which definitely affects to what Timothy believes.

Not only is the doctrinal stand of Paul that is involved here, but also his life style. Timothy is also to follow the how Paul lived as an example to him by life, by purpose, by faith, patience, love and endurance.

In addition to all these, living as a Christian was never easy. This is why Paul is very precise in instructing Timothy concerning his walk as Christian. Paul even made it clear that he suffered a lot as a Christian, and everybody must suffer the same. Of course in our time where democracy is very important, Christianity has been given the right to practice its beliefs.

But looking with the circumstances now in America, persecution to Christians is again emerging. Many American lawyers and human rights advocates are trying to pass laws to legalize moral issues like abortion, divorce, same sex marriage where all these are against to the practice and teaching of Christianity.

There were already some cases that some States are already forcing parents to teach their young children about “Same Sex Marriage” as a normal thing to do and that there is nothing wrong with it. There are already some Christians who were imprisoned by refusing to teach this immorality.

This is why if this happens to us, Paul urges us to suffer with him instead of giving in to sin. Another thing to note is that, God did not promise us deliverance from persecutions but deliverance through it. This means that we cannot escape persecutions from the non-believer, but we have to endure it and stand to what is right.

Continuity of what we have learned from our Bible teachers is very important. Perseverance is one of the measures of our maturity in Christ.

Following the good example

Timothy is a blessed man because even from his childhood, he was already exposed to the Christian teachings. And he grew up a godly man. Therefore, it is very important that we as parents needs to become a good example to our children. They are looking at us as role models. For them, what we are doing is right, and if not, at least tolerable.

Even if we do not instruct them a word, but they see our actions and what we do, I assure you that they learning from us. So here we see that in many ways, our actions affect the lives of our children.

Would we not try to become a good example to our children especially when it comes to godliness, morality, and life style?

On the other hand, we in younger generation should try our best in following good examples. It does not mean that our parents lived as bad examples, and then we have to live also as bad people. Sometimes, what we love to follow are the bad things about our parents and our family. But we can do more than that by following what is good and what is right.

Living by the book

There is nothing more reliable life book than the Bible. Historically speaking, there is no other book more reliable than the Bible. It was written by about 40 different authors who lived in different time, in different places for about 1500 years. Yet, all of them have only one central theme, the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

There have been several groups who started to take some other materials. Unfortunately, all these materials are not reliable compared to the Bible. But despite all these reliability issue, people chose to believe in those materials more than they believe on the Bible.

In addition, to the issue of reliability, the Bible said something about itself, which it is:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

People keep asking what is God’s will for them. Here we see that if only we live by the Book (the Bible) we will be seeing what God’s will for us is.

The Glimpse Of The End Of Times Part 2

Ungrateful – people are becoming so ungrateful with their parents and to other people. You give them gifts, they will give you bullets. You help them getting on their knees up, they will cripple you so that you will fall down. These are the ungrateful.

Unholy – These are the people who never think on something how they can please God. All they care about is what they will get in order to please their own flesh. Some of them even hate God. Looking the world today, more and more people are becoming more ungodly, flooded with immorality and drowned with disillusionment that they are great.

Even the holy people have become unholy disqualifying their own self from the gift of holiness by becoming self righteous condemning people.

Without love – People have already forgotten how to love. They started to sue their own brothers and sisters in Christ with a very small mistake that they did. They condemn those who sins among them instead of helping them see the light. They claim to be Christians yet cannot extend a hand to their brothers who need them.

Men can easily abuse women, so as the women can easily abuse men because there is no love. The world had turned up side down.

Unforgiving – People have forgotten what it means to forgive. They curse those who did wrong things against them despite of repentance. They have indeed forgotten that they themselves will answer to God himself for their doings.

Slanderous – One of the results of the lack of love is slander. People begin to manufacture stories against their fellow brothers in the Lord. They start thinking something bad against other people. And most of these are hatred.

Without Self-Control – With the passage of time and as the world gets smaller through technology, and to live in it easier due to science, people start to become undisciplined people. Not only in matters of spiritual degradation but also in terms of moral degradation. They did not only abuse other people, they also abused themselves.

Brutal – Violent people. They just don’t get easily angered; their anger is always accompanied with violence. They love to physically hurt people and to see them agonizing with pain.

Not lovers of the good – Having all these evilness, they are definitely not lovers of good but evil doers.

Treacherous – They love deceiving others even of their own kind.

Rash – They do not even ask for God’s guidance, continuously pursuing their own human desires. They make hasty decisions which in the long way deceived them as well. As a result, most decisions are wrong thus suffering from lots of consequences.

Conceited – People have become more and more conceited. They are overly proud of themselves. When it comes to faith, self-righteousness is one of its results. People started to give praises to their own selves; “this is me”. The central thought of these people is “ME”

Lovers of pleasures rather than of God – Generally speaking, pleasure is not bad, bad to become a lover of pleasure is bad. This is one of the great dilemmas’ of humanity in the century. Today, most people, young and old, love pleasure. Young generation spend their whole time watching television, or if not going to an internet café and playing online games whole day long.

These people find it boring to open their Bibles, but find it fun it wasting their time around. They find so hard going to a church and listening to the word of God and singing Christian songs. But they find it so fun when they listen to green jokes and emo music.

Having a form of godliness but denying of its power – More and more false teachers will emerge. People will start teaching things that departs from what the Bible really says. They will speak things and twist the truths in the Bible to fit what they believe and stands. They will continue to spread like gangrene and will make other people like them, denying the truth and twisting it in order to satisfy their own cravings.

Conclusion

As we are a part of the end of times, are we doing like the rest of the people?
Are we striving our best to be do what He commanded?
Are we still on the right track?

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A Glimpse Of the End Of Times

Title: A Glimpse of The End Times

Text: 2 Timothy 3:1-9

Introduction

Striving to be a noble man in the eyes of the Lord is indeed hard to achieve. This chapter will tell us how hard it is especially in the end times.

Paul gave a brief picture of what will it be in the end times. A picture of hard headed people who have turned their backs against the Lord of Hosts. He is warning Timothy of the great apostasy that is about to come. But as for him, Timothy should be following the ways of Paul and things that he learned from him.

The People In The End Times

Lovers of themselves – The Greek word used here “philautos” φίλαυτος literally means lovers of himself or evidently selfish. This is a picture of people who begin to think only for themselves. They are interested in enriching themselves without thinking of helping others. The central focus of these people is themselves. They do things to benefit themselves even at the expense of others.

The word itself does not identify a social status; it is either rich or poor. Some become rich in doing illegal things. Other rich people do not even have a time to neither look back nor help the poor. And sometimes when they help, they would like that their names would be recognized. They want their names to appear on public walls, bridges, roads, waiting sheds, and some even in the plastics that they use in packaging.

The poor always look at themselves as poor, having “over” self-pity. How many times that the poor depended on help instead of working hard to improve their lives? Many of them have been narrow minded accepting a lie that they are poor and they can do nothing. But looking around, how many people who are poor yet because of tears, sweat, hardships, faith, and striving was able to reap a good harvest?

Lovers of money – In connection to lovers of themselves, most often people will be lovers of money. All they see is that they should earn money so that they can buy things that they want and desires. While others dream that they can buy of something they need, they continuously dream to add something to what they want.

Some businessman tries to enrich themselves at the expense of others. Many will desire easy money. Women try to break the moral code to satisfy them with thing that they want. So as to young men who are willing to sell themselves to homosexuals just to have a new “Nokia” or “Sony Ericson”, or “Laptop”.

All that they desire is to earn more and more money. While forgetting to enjoy God’s gifts.

Boastful – These are the people who claim to themselves what they do not possess. This is in connection with pride and conceit. Many of these people fall on claiming to be a relative of someone who is high in the government. Others claim that they have done something but the truth is that they cannot do anything without the help of others.

Proud – Is also well known as “Pride”. It is unreasonable conceit. A person may be boastful of his talent, beauty, wealth etc. Some people even see pride as one the essentialities of their inner beings.

Some famous people died early because of “pride”. God destroys and punishes who desires to be more like Him and much more than Him.

Abusive – These are the person who takes advantage of things that they do not own at the expense of others. These people are brutal and always want more than what they have and what they can.

Some of these abusive people are violent some are not. But beware of them, for they will really tear you into pieces.

Disobedient to their parents – These are the people usually composed of younger generations. Many of them are rebellious to their parents, while they also have a broken and dysfunctional family. Here we can see that it is really important that we up bring our children in Christian way.

Looking at our world, cases of broken families and dysfunctional families is continuously rising. I would say that most of the violence and abuse to children are the result of family disintegration.

This scene does not end there, it results further to children being so hard headed because of the trauma that they are experiencing with their parents plus bad influences from other children who has the same problem.

...To Be Continued

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How to Be A Man With A Noble Purpose

Title: How To Be A Man With A Noble Purpose
Text: 2Timothy 2:20-26

2Ti 2:20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble.
2Ti 2:21 If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
2Ti 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2Ti 2:23 Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.
2Ti 2:24 And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
2Ti 2:25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,
2Ti 2:26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

Introduction

Continuously admonish Paul about the perseverance that he must have. Thus, the pursuance of the faith was never easy. It is easier to fall away than to be faithful to the Lord. It is even more attractive to be worldly and to be doing all we want without limitations.

However, doing all we want will never lead us to godliness but to things that are detestable in the eyes of the Lord. This is why Paul is sending Timothy a message to continue what he has started plus he is to do his additional instructions. And this part is continuous instruction in becoming a man with a noble purpose.


In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. How then are we to become a man with a noble purpose? How are we to become God’s instrument for his purpose?

Pursue Righteousness (v. 22)

The very first thing that Paul mentioned is to pursue righteousness by fleeing from the youthful evil desires. In other translations, they used the word youthful lust. Lust as a noun refers to “sexual desires”. There are lots of forms of sexual desires. Here are just some of the examples;
Homosexuality Premarital Sex Live In
Pornography Fornication Sex Orgies

While on the other hand, lust as a verb connotes “great desire” for something, cravings, and strong appetite for something. For example for the politicians who lust for power.

In the passage, both things are being addressed by Paul because any form of lust is definitely a sin and the word itself is always attributed to sinful acts.

Paul used the word “flee”. This signifies that these lustful desires are always present and continuously roaming around like a lion. He is also like a beautiful woman who tries to seduce a man where in this situation, it is very difficult to fight for what is right and it is indeed a very strong force that most Christians both men and women failed to stand.

Paul here is actually teaching us on how to work with this problem. Paul said, we have to “flee” from it. As I try to analyze the passage, I wonder why Paul did not say “fight” evil youthful desires, but instead he said “flee from” youthful desires. Here we see that fighting lust is a difficult, tedious, and most probably fighting it is like exposing ourselves to ruin.

We are to flee, which means to go to an opposite direction, to run away. This is what a Christian should do whenever he face temptations of lust, may it be in a noun form or in verb form.

The main problem with many Christians is that, instead of running away, they tried fighting against it, exposing themselves to strong temptations that caused them to fall away.

I still remember the story of a minister who tried to win women prostitutes from a prostitute den of a particular country claiming that he was called to minister them. His goal is to redeem them from the worldly lust. However, instead of winning them, he end up going with them and having sexual contact with them, thus destroying his ministry, his reputation, and his family.

The Bible is clear in its instruction, we are not to indulge ourselves into it and fight it, but we are to flee. This is not a show of being afraid against sins, but a show of strategic way in facing it.

Pursue Faith (v. 23)

Again, we are not to debate, instead we are to hold the faith that we first received from the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of focusing on debate, we are to pursue the faithfulness in the Lord. We are to see ourselves as people who obey the Lord in doing godliness and righteousness and sharing it to others who need it.

We are to work hard in our obedience to our Lord. We are to watch ourselves to become a good soldier, athlete and farmer. We are to share the gospel to others as the Bible gave a strong emphasis in evangelism and reaching the Lost.

Faith is a very huge topic to discuss, but in this particular context, we can see that the emphasis is against false teachings. Again, false teachings can cause division in the church to which we need to be more vigilant against “seems to be” right doctrine.

Just like what the message told us last Sunday, we need to be avoid negligence on our part. As workers, as God’s people, we need to be studying God’s words all the time. Meditating the Bible night and day as what it says. By doing this, we will be able to know and identify the right and false teachings. In this way, there is no reason why we cannot pursue faith.

Pursue Love (v. 24)

As I stare at the passage, Paul is mentioning 3 general topics, righteousness, love and peace. Though in this case, Paul made mentioned about loving as being kind to everyone. One of the things that we can in first place is to avoid godless chatter, because we know that this produces quarrels among the believers.

We are to be kind to everyone instead of quarreling. We are to teach them instead of making walls so that they cannot reach us out. Even if they tried to teach wrong, we are to rebuke them with love, with the purpose to restore them. We are still to love those who do not love us.

We are not to be resentful, showing our bitterness against them. Instead, we are to show our love and forgiveness to them. This means that if they believed a false teaching, we are to correct them in a way that is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Why do we need to practice love? First, we need to practice love because love is the reason why God gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16). Secondly, love is the greatest gift of God (1 Corinthians 13:13). Lastly, it is Jesus Christ’s command to love one another and that by this, we will be known to be his disciples (John 13:34-35).

Pursue Peace (v. 25)

One of the main products of love is peace. It also forms part with Christ’s gift to humanity. John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

We are to have peace in Jesus Christ, even if we will have trouble with the world. To make it clear, we are to have peace with fellow men especially to our fellow brethrens. But we are to wage war against the schemes of the world, the spiritual battle within.

Ephesians 6:16, we are to wear the boots of peace so that we can maneuver freely in our ministry. Without a good relationship with our fellow men, it will be very difficult for us to share the gospel of Christ. This is why it is wise to share the word of the Lord to those people whom we have a good relationship.
As we can see here in the passage, even to the false teachers, we are to correct them gently and still in a loving way making sure that we are doing this with love. We are still to maintain a good relationship with. We should have nothing to do with godless chatter while maintaining a good relationship with them.

Pursue Fellowship (v. 25-26)

As far as we are looking at the passage, we can see here that Paul is instructing Timothy to maintain fellowship with his fellow believer as much as possible. Those who sinned must be restored gently, aiming for the goal that he will come back to the Lord.

Such love, peace and fellowship among the brotherhood of Christians, the sinning brother may come into his own senses and realize that he was imprisoned by the deadly schemes of the enemy.

Our fellowship with the fellow believers is very important. Here we can see that fellowship helps us grow in the Lord. By seeing our own mistakes, through the fellowship, we will be corrected against the things that we are doing.

God called us to be in the fellowship of the believers with a purpose. The fellowship of the believers helps us especially in times of needs.

Conclusion:

Are we still walking in righteousness?
Are we still walking with faith?
Are we still walking in love with each other?
Are we still walking with in peace with each other?
Are we excited to come to church to have fellowship with each other?