2 Timothy 2:1-13 - Be Strong in Grace

2 Timothy 2:1-13

1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. 5 And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. 7 Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, 9 for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

11 This is a faithful saying:
For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.

12 If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.

If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.

13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.

We are called to be strong in God’s grace in Christ and not in ourselves and our own insufficient wisdom or power.  This means we rely completely on the work of Jesus to save us and not our own works to earn God’s favor because we always fall short (Romans 3:23) of the standard of perfection required to atone for our sin.  His grace is alone both effectual and sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9) to justify the ungodly (Romans 4:5-6, 7-8) and save us from sin’s penalty of God’s wrath on our disobedience and disbelief.  Since we also heard the gospel as Timothy and were taught as Matthew 28:20 tells us is part of making followers of Jesus Christ, we then are to likewise commit these teachings to other young believers whom we share the gospel with to help them grow in the grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18) of our Lord and Savior.  This pattern of discipleship is to continue to multiply and fill the earth as intended by the first command to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28 and repeated to Noah in Genesis 9:1 once the world had been delivered through the flood as a antitype of baptism into the Lord (1 Peter 3:18, 20-21).  We then continue to fulfill this command as intended by filling the earth with those baptized into Christ as disciples led to know Him through our witness and taught by our instruction of all things Jesus taught the original disciples, which is the discipleship portion of making disciples that is evangelism.  We therefore spend more time to teach faithful men who will carry on this mission to fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord (Habakkuk 2:14) as Timothy was told here.  To be a follower of Christ means to endure difficulties as a soldier who is set on the mission at hand without allowing other things to distract or misdirect and lose ground to the enemy.  To please our Commander we must remain focused on the affairs of God as our marching orders and not the world’s desires and pursuits (1 John 2:15-17) which hinder our work of the gospel.  We must remain unentangled from other distractions.  This is also likened to an athlete training for the race who must follow the rules to win the crown, an allusion to our faithfulness in holiness as we love for Christ and bear good witness (1 Peter 2:20-21, 3:15-16, 17) to Him in our words and actions, or we end up losing the crown offered us (1 Corinthians 9:24-25, 1 Peter 5:4), which would have been to His glory, honor, and praise (Revelation 4:10-11).  Lastly, the example of being like a farmer shows us we are to do hard labor in the fields to reap the crop of the souls of men and women as we tend the word of God.  These truths are confirmed by God’s Spirit working in us and testifying to the work in and through us in the gospel to fill the earth with the grace of forgiveness to salvation and reconciliation (Romans 5:11, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19) with our estranged Lord.  This call to be strong is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ as promised from the beginning of our fall from grace into sin and encourages us to persevere in the face of opposition and adversity.  We endure so that the chosen ones of God may hear, believe, and receive Jesus Christ for the eternal glory of their salvation.  This poem or song in verses 11 to 13 reminds us of these things and gives us strength by faith in His continuing work in and through us.  We die with Jesus to love eternally, endure suffering to reign with Him in the end, and remain faithful in trusting His plan in the face of adversity as we rest on the solid foundation of His faithfulness even when we fail.  These words encourage and challenge us to be strong in grace as we labor in the great commission of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are therefore to be strong in this grace by faith in Him and His word working all things for our good as Romans 8:28 tells us.