You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 3 Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.
5 Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. 7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.
8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.[1] 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 -13Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless (to him), he remains faithful (to himself/nature/all his promises), for he cannot disown himself.[2]
If I understand the text correctly, this is all part of “being strong in the grace.” If we give our lives and endure, we will live and reign with Jesus. If we deny Jesus and are faithless – and I think that’s probably two ways of saying the same thing – he will deny us (Matthew 10:32-33) and be faithful to what he said will happen to those who deny him, and we will not live and reign with him.
This sounds terribly daunting, and it is. It can make us become haunted with the question of whether or not we have denied him or been faithless. So, let’s look at a couple people in the Bible.
· Did Peter in a moment of weakness actually deny Jesus? Yes. Is that the kind of think that causes God to deny us? Clearly not.
· Did David and even Abraham have chapters in their lives of tragic disobedience – ‘faithlessness’ - and sin? Yes. And though there were consequences, God did not abandon them.
So it can’t simply be imperfection and failure, or even moments of what amounts to denying Christ out of fear (a situation that countless persecuted Christians have faced over the centuries) that would be the denial or faithlessness Paul is talking about here.
I think our faithful/faithless status has to do with the persistent commitment of our lives that endures until the end. It’s the True North to which we always return, the gravity that consistently grounds us. At least three key things are need for this.
1. Recognizing, acknowledging, and committing to Jesus as Savior and Lord.
“Without faith no one can please God because the one coming to God must believe He exists, and He rewards those who come seeking.” (Hebrews 11:6)
“So if you believe deep in your heart that God raised Jesus from the pit of death and if you voice your allegiance by confessing the truth that “Jesus is Lord,” then you will be saved!” (Romans 10:9)
No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”(1 John 2:22-23)
2. Making this commitment publicly known. Historically, the fundamental way of doing this has been through baptism, but this includes ongoing public acknowledgment of our commitment through our words and lifestyle.
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my father who is in Heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in Heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33)
“They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works.” (Titus 1:16)
3. Committing to a life of faith-aligned works. This is the fruits by which we are known (Matthew 7:20), the living faith that Jesus’ brother James reminded us requires an external expression of the internal reality we claim (James 2:14-26).
“Brothers and sisters, it doesn’t make any sense to say you have faith and act in a way that denies that faith. Mere talk never gets you very far, and a commitment to Jesus only in words will not save you. It would be like seeing a brother or sister without any clothes out in the cold and begging for food, and saying, “Shalom, friend, you should get inside where it’s warm and eat something,” but doing nothing about his needs—leaving him cold and alone on the street. What good would your words alone do? The same is true with faith. Without actions, faith is useless. By itself, it’s as good as dead.” (James 2:14-16)
Think of this as the ‘syncing’ of how we believe internally and speak and act externally. They both have spiritual grooves, and they need to fit together properly in order to function as God intended.
If we back up to the beginning of our passage today, I believe we see Paul showing Timothy what it looks like to commit fully to Jesus so that we can ‘sync’ our lives and experience the living and reigning God offers to His children. “Be strong in the grace” he says, and follows it up with what that looks like. Paul gives three illustrations of what faithful discipline will require: focus, discipline, and work.[3]
Soldier. Paul’s image of the soldier’s devotion was immediately recognizable. Soldiers served for 20 years in the Roman army, and they focused everything to be ready to serve the empire. They were not even supposed to marry during that period. The military image here has to do not with fighting like a soldier but with being as disciplined and obedient as a soldier. Single-minded. Having a life organized around their duty, so that they prioritized and weighted their life toward that True North. This meant they couldn’t get entangled in civilian life. As a spiritual analogy, this means we don’t let life in the Empire distract us from life in the Kingdom.
“Does a certain thing - some legitimate, or even praiseworthy occupation, or possession, the exercise of some taste or accomplishment, some recreation, some companionship-clog my feet when I ought to march; clip my wings when I ought to soar; dim my eyes when I ought to gaze on God? Then no matter what others may do about it, my plain duty is to give it up.
It is entangling me. It is interfering with my warfare, and I must cut the cords. I can only do so by entire abstinence. Perhaps I may get stronger some day, and be able to use it as not abusing it; but I cannot venture on that at present. So go it must. I judge nobody else, but whoever may be able to retain that thing, whatever it be, without slackening hold on Christ, I cannot.
So, brethren, if you find that legitimate occupation and affairs are absorbing your interests, and interfering with your clear vision of God, and making you less inclined and less apt to high thoughts and noble purposes, to lowly service and to Christ-like life, your safety lies in at once shaking off the venomous beast that has fastened on you into the fire. Unless the occupation be a plain duty, a post where the Captain has set you as sentry, and which it would be fiat disobedience to forsake, leave it at any cost, if you would kept your Christian integrity.” (MacLaren’s Expositions)
Athlete – Paul writes other places about athletic competition[4] - he likes that image a lot. Rather than focusing on personal training and discipline in this analogy like he does in other passages, here he talks about keeping the rules – what he elsewhere calls “not disqualifying himself.”[5]
Athletic contests were extremely popular. Cities were proud of their arenas much like cities are today, and the winners of the games were highly honored. Athletes pledged to ten months of intense discipline preceding their participation. It was a huuuuuge deal.
‘Among the rules of the Olympic games were the following; competitors had to prove to the judges that they were freemen, of pure Hellenic blood, not disfranchised, or convicted of sacrilege, and that they had gone through the ten months’ preparatory training; they, their fathers, brothers, and trainers had to take oath that they would be guilty of no misconduct in the contests; and they had then a month’s preliminary exercises in the gymnasium at Elis under the superintendence of the judges. ‘The six statues of Jupiter at Olympia were made from the fines levied on athletes who had not contended lawfully.’”[6]
Vase paintings of boxing matches often depict a judge supervising the match with a switch in his hand to enforce his rulings. Paul notes that athletes must compete “according to the rules” if they want the crown, implying that Timothy must acquire his “crown of righteousness” (4:8) according to the rules governing those who follow Christ, and not disqualified (compromised in ministry) by carelessness or cheating.
I don’t believe this is meant to be read as earning our eternal reward through hard work. I think Paul’s point is that our faith happens within a framework, a rulebook if you will, of orthodoxy (what we believe) and orthopraxy (what we do). If our training and dedication is happening outside of that, whatever reward follows won’t be the reward offered in Christ. Every worldview, religious or irreligious, has a reward that follows from living in accordance with the framework of that worldview.
· If I want the reward a swimmer gets, and I train as a powerlifter, I am not going to get the swimmer’s reward.
· If I want the reward a really good carpenter gets, and I train as a teacher, I’m not going to get the carpenter’s reward.
· If I want apples and plant peach trees, I might get great peaches but I won’t get apples.
The soldier reminds us that discipline and focus matter. The athlete reminds us that discipline and focus in and of themselves aren’t enough. They must be properly directed. We will harvest what we plant.
Speaking of harvesting and planting, that brings us to the Farmer. The farmer reminds us that there is a harvest after the work. We will be rewarded with ‘firstfruits’ of their labor. Ancient farmers were often like medieval serfs – they farmed the land but didn’t own it. Typically city residents, temples, or a city itself owned most of the outlying farm lands. The temple of Artemis in Ephesus, for example, owned as much as 77,000 acres of rich farm lands. It was not unusual for farmers to put in the work and then have the owner mess with their reward.
The soldier and the athlete have already established that focused dedication within the proper framework is necessary. Here, farmers work hard[7] within the rules of agriculture[8] – they don't sow salt - before they can enjoy a harvest. But rather than wondering if the landowner will in fact pay them and let them enjoy the fruit of their labor, these farmers are guaranteed their reward.
“The teaching of St. Paul in this triple picture is—not every soldier wins its commander’s applause, but only the veteran who devotes himself heart and soul to his profession; not every athlete wins the crown or prize, but only he who trains with anxious, painful care; not every tiller of the ground gathers the earth’s fruits, but only the patient toiler. So must it be in religious life. It is not enough to say we are Christians, or even to wish to be of the brotherhood of Christ. Men must really live the life they say they love.” (Ellicott’s Commentary For English Readers)
So, be strong in the grace – focused, disciplined and working – in the life that God in his grace has given to us. I like Ellicott’s summary – life the life we say we love. Model our life after the life of the one we say we love. Walk within and rest within the boundaries we say we love.
If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.
THREE QUESTIONS
Of the three analogies Paul uses, which one resonates with you the most, and why?
What do you think of “persistent commitment of our lives that endures until the end” as a definition for faithfulness?
“Be strong in the grace” is a phrase with some tension: grace is an unmerited gift; being strong is something we do, How do we rest confidently in God’s faithfulness and grace while still working to be strong in it?
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[1] A similar gospel summary is found in the writings of Ignatius (108): “Be deaf therefore when anyone speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of the family of David, and of Mary, who was truly born, both ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth; who also was truly raised from the dead, when his Father raised him up.”
[2] “Though Paul was clearly encouraging Timothy with these poetic words, it’s difficult to know what theological implications Paul intended. This passage seems to suggest that some Christians remain “in Christ” and are at the same time “unfaithful.” Is it possible that the faithfulness of Jesus is greater than one’s unbelief or unfaithfulness? Alternatively, some have suggested that the “faithfulness” of Jesus is really judgment for such unbelief.” (NIV First Century Bible)
“As faithful as Jesus is to save those who believe in Him (John 3:16), He is equally faithful to judge those who do not (John 3:18). To act any other way would be inconsistent with His holy, unchangeable nature. Cf. Heb. 10:23.” (MacArthur Study Bible)
“If we are faithless, he remains faithful. This is a wonderful affirmation of assurance that although we are called to endure and be faithful, salvation does not rest ultimately on our faithfulness, but upon that of Christ (v. 19).” (Reformation Study Bible)
“Although it is true that Christ remains faithful to His promises, here the statement refers to His faithfulness in carrying out the warning that He will disown us in the presence of the Father “if we [willfully and knowledgeably] deny Him” (v. 12) in the midst of peril or scorn. See Matt. 10:33. (New Spirit-filled Life Bible)
Van Oosterzee writes that “He is just as faithful in His threatenings as in His promises.”
“If we believe not - Should we deny the faith and apostatize, he is the same, as true to his threatenings as to his promises; he cannot deny - act contrary to, himself.” (Adam Clarke)
“Then comes the other side of the matter: "If we deny him, he too will deny us." That is what Jesus Himself said: "So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32-33). Jesus Christ cannot vouch in eternity for a man who has refused to have anything to do with Him in time; but He is for ever true to the man who, however much he has failed, has tried to be true to Him.” (William Barclay)
Marvin Vincent explains that "faithful" means “True to his own nature, righteous character, and requirements, according to which he cannot accept as faithful one who has proved untrue to him. To do this would be to deny himself. (2 Timothy 2: Greek Word Studies).”
Hendriksen concludes that “Divine faithfulness is a wonderful comfort for those who are loyal (I Thess. 5:24; II Thess. 3:3; cf. I Cor. 1:9; 10:13; II Cor. 1:18; Phil. 1:6; Heb. 10:23). It is a very earnest warning for those who might be inclined to become disloyal. (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J., New Testament commentary)
[3] Thanks to NKJV Study Bible, NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Orthodox Study Bible, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds for a lot of the ideas in the following section. These are made easily available at biblegateway.com.
[5] 1 Corinthians 9:27
[6] Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges
[7] “It is a great law that the husbandman must work before be receives a harvest. This sense will accord with the purpose of the apostle. It was to remind Timothy that labor must precede reward; that if a man would reap, he must sow; that he could hope for no fruits, unless he toiled for them.” (Barne’s Notes On The Bible)
[8] “The husbandman must first till his ground before he can expect a crop; and he must till it according to the proper rules of agriculture, else he cannot have a crop.” (Adam Clarke)