Focus, Discipline, Work

2 TIMOTHY 2

Be strong.

Be unashamed of the truth.

OK, there you go, now have a great day. All right, maybe Paul was not so blunt to Timothy, and he certainly had more to share with this pastor friend of his. And instead of just telling him to maintain certain character traits, Paul uses a few examples of real people around at the time that he could learn from.

The soldier was to bring to mind the idea of focused strength, preparation, and loyalty, ready to serve.

An athlete would have had strict discipline in his life, paying attention to boundaries or rules, while maintaining a toughness and self-control. The ancient athlete had a very strict compliance regimen, that is, if he wanted to compete properly.

Farmers were known to be very hard workers. The result of such hard work would be a good crop, emblematic of a job well done.

Put these together and we see what we expect in the Christian (and especially a focus here is on the Christian man, even pastors specifically): Focused service, disciplined, and hard working.

Further along Paul challenges those who would call themselves Christian (“name the Lord”, v. 19), by challenging them to abstain from wickedness. Is it any different for the Christian today? That should be a rhetorical question.

Jump to verse 24. Be kind to all, be able to teach, be patient when wronged, gently correcting. Wow, wrap these up and you have the making of godliness. “Teaching” and “patience” can certainly get in each other’s way, and drop in a dose of correction of others and you start to see the delicate balance that must exist to do God’s work well. Inherent in each of these is also a strong implication of truth, discerning right and wrong, especially knowing that Paul had false teachers in the cross hairs here.

Further, repentance leading to knowledge of the truth is the goal, to enable those entrapped by Satan to escape, coming to their senses, as Paul puts it. People then, as now, are indeed held captive to the lies of this world. The lies of this world have even crept into the church today. Paul commends Timothy to stay strong in the truth. God expects the same from today’s Christian.

We are to be on the side of truth, God’s truth, and thus keep ourselves in a usable condition for the Lord.