Week of June 28

“Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you” (Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering). Paul’s testimony here provides us with a clear example of the cause-effect nature of his ministry. His primary call to share the Good News led directly to the suffering he experienced. There is a key element to his testimony that we must not overlook, or we will misunderstand his ability (and ours!) to bear up under such incredible stress. Paul holds such confidence in the Gospel because of his close relationship with the “central figure” in the Good News, Jesus Christ (Handbook). We never see Paul separated from Christ throughout his entire ministry! This critical relationship enabled him to withstand the pressures he encountered. Let’s learn about the fullness of his Christian life that enabled him to remain true to Christ in the most desperate of circumstances.

Paul pens this letter to Timothy, his beloved son in the ministry, while waiting for what would likely be his death (cf. 4:6-8; NAC). Despite these circumstances, he seeks to strengthen Timothy for the ministry he would face and to encourage him to remain steadfast. Our focal passage is embedded within a wider section where Paul presents the qualities needed for effectiveness in ministry (1:6-18). He follows this section with some “images for assessing” whether a minister is effective (2:1-7). Then, he presents several truths that will promote an effective ministry (2:8-13). We may understand the power in Paul’s words once we have this background in mind (NAC).

Stay committed to Christ and the Gospel. The Apostle, in writing to Timothy, has stated three important loyalties for Timothy: to Christ (and His Gospel), to Paul, and to his own ministry (Fee, as quoted in NAC). Notice that there is no mention made of quantitative tools of measurement, such as size of church, size of budget, and numbers in attendance. All of Paul’s loyalties involve God, fellow believers, and the God-given opportunities for service (1:8). The truth is, the Gospel works because God had issued a call for people to share in His kingdom outwardly through the preaching of the Gospel and inwardly by the working of the Holy Spirit through the word (1:9). Each believer, as a result, has been enabled to produce a life of obedience and holiness to God. 

The certainty of the life to come. None of this was by human merit. Those who were saved experienced a new quality of life, holiness, and enjoyed fellowship with God and other believers. There is one further reality that makes the “package” complete. There had always been hope of immortality in the world prior to Christ’s coming, but the resurrection had converted it into a certainty (1:10). Christ obliterated death and the grave, and Paul knew this for a fact! So?

Attach your finite life to an eternal cause. Paul was not the least bit ashamed of his imprisonment and suffering; indeed, his present travail was part and parcel, as we say, of his role as a messenger of the Gospel. He knew what he had believed, and he was entirely confident that God was able to keep a life or ministry committed to Him in a perfect position of safety (cf. NAC). He was imprisoned, but the Gospel was not chained! It is from this red-hot confidence in the abiding truth of the Gospel, and the flame of the Holy Spirit that indwelt his life, that he writes to stir up the embers of courage into a burning blaze in the life of Timothy (1:12). It should stir us, as well, to deeper commitment to the Good News.

I can think of a lot of sports I might take up and enjoy at my age, but bull riding is not one of them. I watched a television news story about a man who was diagnosed six years ago with terminal cancer. His doctor told him that he had five years to live. He beat the diagnosis in a most unusual way, by riding in rodeos. Specifically, despite the cancer and being in his 60s, he rides bulls in rodeos for senior adults. The pain from his disease keeps him in bed for most of the day, but he rises to the occasion when it is time to mount up on the back of a bull. The goal for riders his age is seven seconds. He does not always last that long, but the ride and the family atmosphere of rodeo participants keeps his mind off the cancer. Furthermore, his faith has provided him with perspective even amid his sufferings.

Here is a point of application. The Christian life and its struggles have been likened to many things that are intended to provide us with a challenge to endure faithfully. Books like Pilgrim’s Progress come to my mind. Paul offers us today the practical example of such pilgrim strength for any and every trial—the life that transcends suffering! He had it, and so do we, because Jesus has us in His care. 

As Timothy Keller writes: “Jesus lost all his glory so that we could be clothed in it. He was shut out so we could get access. He was bound, nailed, so that we could be free. He was cast out so we could approach. And Jesus took away the only kind of suffering that can really destroy you: that is, being cast away from God. What suffering remains now will only make you great. A lump of coal under pressure becomes a diamond. And the suffering of a person in Christ only turns you into somebody gorgeous” [italics mine].

1. None of us, I dare say, have suffered like Paul suffered for the cause of Christ. All of us, however, may live daily with the same depth of commitment to Christ. Use Paul’s sufferings for Christ as your inspiration to live entirely given to the Lord.

2. For Families: Loyalty is a mighty fine character trait, and one we hope our kids develop, right? This devotional is a great one for opening a conversation about what loyalty is and means as Christians.

Ask your kids at the supper table to name the top three things they are loyal to. Loyalty is being faithful to someone or something to which one is bound by pledge, duty, or love. It means allegiance (which they cite each morning at school when they say the “Pledge of Allegiance” to the nation’s flag). 

When they have had a chance to think through and share their “loyalty list,” let them know about what Paul says here. If we are loyal to Jesus Christ, we have nothing to fear. We can even suffer for being His followers with deep joy. Talk together about what this might look like in their lives, and pray that God will keep us faithful to Him.

May your paths be straight,
Larry C. Ashlock