Obey and teach the
Word
Key Verses: 2, 3, 8, 10, 15,
One of
the roles of leaders is not simply to pass on what they have learned, but to
train the next generation of leaders to pass on what they have learned. Christ
told Paul who passed it to Timothy and urges Timothy to pass it on to others
who will teach another generation of teachers. This is five generation
thinking. Jesus, Paul, Timothy, teachers, students. It is not enough for us to
serve Jesus and make it to heaven. We must be thinking about the next
generation of leaders and disciplers.
Paul uses
three illustrations of the need to persevere in suffering: soldiers, athletes
and farmers. All three require hard work today in order to meet the challenges
of the future struggles. Now is the time to prepare for the trials and
temptations of tomorrow. Now is the time to get grounded in Him and His Word.
When the suffering comes, it can be hard to stay afloat when you haven’t
learned the basics of swimming.
Paul
boils the gospel down into three short statements in verse eight. Jesus is the
promised Messiah, he rose from the dead and he fulfilled the prophecies. From
these three points anyone could unfold the meat of the Gospel. He is God in the
flesh, conquering sin and fully connected to God’s promises which started the
moment man fell from grace. This simple message can’t be stopped by
imprisonment. But it can easily get sidelined when we focus on other things, or
if we distort these simple realities for some other message.
There
must have been some infiltrators that were attempting to pull Timothy and the
church off center. Their message was just a bit off the mark. But we must guard
against subtle changes to the Gospel message. The three short statements direct
us to the heart of what must never change. The Gospel message is grounded in
God and His desire to be connected to His people, so much so that He came into
our world to fix the sin problem.
Most
changes to the Gospel message focus on either the nature of God or the nature
of man. God is either brought down or humans are brought up. Sin is redefined
to be something other than fatal. Jesus becomes someone other than fully God
and fully man. His miracles are dismissed. The Scriptures become a book we
can’t trust. It becomes about being good on our own, or maybe with a little pep
talk from an inspiring person.
These are
fatal errors. Don’t let anyone sidetrack you from Jesus and Him crucified. You
are a sinner. Rejoice! We have a Savior.