2 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV
“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
We are all called of God to make disciples of Christ of
people of all nations, teaching them to obey the commandments of God. We are
all called to teach and admonish one another (Christians) in Christ with all
his wisdom. We are all to be filled with God’s Spirit, addressing one another
with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And we are all to exhort (urge,
encourage, admonish, warn) one another so that none of us is hardened by sin’s
deceitfulness.
And we are all called of God to do our parts assigned us by
God within the body of Christ for the building up of the body of Christ to
maturity in Christ, speaking the truth in love to one another so that none of
us is tossed back and forth by various winds of doctrine, by human cunning, by
craftiness in deceitful schemes. For we are all necessary to the proper working
of the body of Christ so that we may all grow in our walks of faith in Christ.
So, this is not just the job of preachers to do this, to
share what we have learned from the Lord and from his word with the people of
the world, so that they can become disciples of Christ, and then to share his
word with those disciples who are now our fellow believers who are faithful to
the Lord and to his service, so that they can now teach and encourage others in
their walks of faith to maturity in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We are all to do
this.
[Matt 28:19-20; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Eph
5:17-21; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13]
2 Timothy 2:3-4 ESV
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”
We are all soldiers of Christ, which is spiritual, not
physical in nature. For we don’t fight our enemies with the weapons of this
world but with the armor of God, which is spiritual armor, which includes truth,
faith, salvation, the Word of God, the sharing of the gospel, prayer, and
righteousness (Eph 6:10-20). For our battle is spiritual, not physical, and it
is fought mainly against Satan.
And when we serve the Lord Jesus in his spiritual army, and
we are fighting against our enemy Satan, he and his many hordes are going to fight
back against us, and they fight dirty. And that is why we must remain armored
up daily. We cannot afford to slack off or to let down our armor, for that is
when we lose the battle against our enemy and we are defeated spiritually.
But because we are on the Lord’s side in this war against
Satan, and if we are truly following Jesus with our lives, and we are walking in
holiness and righteousness, and we are following our Lord in obedience, then we
are going to be hated, persecuted, falsely accused, rejected, ostracized,
criticized, abandoned, and fought against from many different fronts.
But we are not to fight as the world fights. We are not to
try to win this battle against Satan with the weapons of this world, which are
not all physical weapons, either, but some are through the means of political
parties and platforms and politicians and words spoken by worldly people who do
not have the mind of God in these matters.
We are not to turn to kings and princes and the people of
this world and their way of doing things to fight our battles for us. God forbids
this! We are not to look to humans to be our Saviors, but only to God and to
his wisdom. This is not saying that we remain silent and that we do nothing,
but that we do it God’s way under his leadership trusting him to win the battle
for us.
And we are also not to get caught up in the things of this
world and in the pleasures that this sinful world has to offer. Now, it is good
for us to be informed about what is going on so that we can pray and so that we
can hear from the Lord what he sees is going on so that we can warn others
against believing lies and following men in their deceitful schemes.
But we need to not get entangled in worldly affairs and get
caught up in doing things man’s ways and not God’s ways. Our aim should always
be to please God, to do what he says, and to focus on the things which are most
important to him. Too many Christians caught up in political battles and
neglecting the sharing of the gospel and ministry to the body of Christ.
2 Timothy 2:5-7 ESV
“An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
Many people today are teaching that once we believe in Jesus
Christ that we don’t have to follow any rules. They think that just because we
are not under the law the Jews of old were under, where they had to follow all
those ceremonial, liturgical, sacrificial, and purification laws, that it means
we are free of all laws and that now we can live however we want.
But the Scriptures don’t teach that. They teach that we must
obey God’s moral laws and any instructions he gives us to obey in the New
Testament, and they are many. For the books in the New Testament are filled
with instructions on what we are to put out of our lives, and what we are to be
doing and not doing, and what we are to put on in our lives, instead.
And the Scriptures are clear that we are not to be lawless.
We just don’t have to obey those old external laws the Jews had to obey. Now we
obey our Lord and whatever he commands us to do. For obedience is required as
part of our believing faith, as is repentance, which is the forsaking of our
lives of sin to follow our Lord Jesus wherever he leads us.
And it isn’t just the teachings in Scripture that we must
obey. We have been given the Holy Spirit within us to teach, counsel, comfort,
encourage, strengthen, equip, empower, and lead us in the way that we should
go. So, we need to be sensitized to his voice and to his leading so that we
follow him each day each step of the way in doing what he wants us to do.
For God’s love for us sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to the
cross to die for our sins, not just to forgive us our sins so we can go to
heaven when we die, but that we might die with him to sin and live to him and
to his righteousness, and that we might forsake our slavery to sin and now
become slaves of God and of his righteousness to the glory and praise of God.
[Lu
9:23-26;
Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas
1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6;
Gal 6:7-8;
Rom 2:6-8; Matt
7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Songwriters:
Geoff Moore / Steven Chapman
How do you explain,
how do you describe
A love that goes
from east to west
And runs as deep as
it is wide?
You know all our
hopes,
Lord, you know all
our fears.
And words cannot express
the love we feel,
But we long for You
to hear.
So listen to our
hearts.
Hear our spirit sing
A song of praise
that flows
From those you have
redeemed.
We will use the
words we know
To tell you what an
awesome God You are.
But words are not
enough
To tell you of our
love,
So listen to our
hearts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQLG_vAIow
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