Free Bible Commentary
“2 Timothy 2:1-7”
Categories: 2 Timothy“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
---End of Scripture verses---
If Timothy was going to maintain the course and keep the faith, unlike Phygelus and Hermogenes, he needed to be “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (verse 1). It is God by His grace that sustains us through the rocky roads of life. When Paul was stricken with his “thorn in the flesh,” God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). God’s unmerited favor is prevalent in the lives of His faithful children in many ways, but it has its most powerful expression in His eternal, saving grace that is found only “in Christ Jesus”. If we can keep our minds focused and our hopes locked on “the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18) when the promise of heaven is realized, that comfort can carry us and keep us in faith through all of earth’s turbulence and tribulation.
As a “good soldier of Christ Jesus” we must endure the hardships that we are bound to incur in the spiritual warfare that is being waged against us (verse 2). God will certainly keep us by His grace, but we must be careful to avoid the “entanglements” that the enemy has placed in our path. This is going to require great vigilance and determination for the soldier of Christ because Satan’s snares come in the forms of “the affairs of everyday life” (verse 4). Most of the time it is not blatant immorality that trips us up, but actually the mundane issues of daily living. If we spend way too much time working, playing, travelling, sleeping, etc., we just won’t have enough time left in our day to focus on God and His word and will for us. Soldier beware of Satan’s traps! Take time to be holy! Speak oft with thy Lord! Beware of desensitization to the world and its evil ways!
Shifting metaphors, as we run the race of faith, we will not “win the prize unless” we compete “according to the rules” (verse 5). To be “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” requires vigorous training and intense spiritual exercise. God’s athlete must have his senses trained by heavy exposure to the Lord’s powerful word (Hebrews 5:14), and he must discipline himself for the purpose of godliness (1 Timothy 4:7). If he works hard at this, he will “be the first to receive” the fruits from his labors (verse 6), even as he is entrusting what he has learned “to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (verse 2). These charges were given primarily to a young preacher as exhortation to fulfill his duties faithfully and diligently, but their applications concern all of Christ’s soldiers, all of Christ’s runners, all of Christ’s sowers.
Please read 2 Timothy 2:8-13 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
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