After the incident known as 9/11, President Bush stood before congress and all the nation watching on television and outlined what was going to happen as a result of Bin Laden’s dastardly attack upon the United States. He said that he was declaring a war on terrorism in which all terrorists were under attack as well as anyone who harbored them. He was not unclear about the fact that these terrorists hiding in Afghanistan were about to realize a counter-attack from the United States.

As he began to speak in very bold terms of the process of what was going to happen, my mind (as well as many others’ minds, no doubt) began to think of what this was going to cost. However, before I could even ask the question, our commander-in-chief was verbalizing what I had not. He made clear the sacrifice. This was going to be a long war in which we might lose soldiers. The sacrifice might indeed be very great. Yet he quickly brought us back to the motivation by pulling out a badge from a New York City policeman who had been killed in the attack, reminding all of us that our attack would be so that such things might never happen again.

In short, our President’s speech that night could be broken up into a plan for how we were going to go about our task, the great sacrifice that would be needed to carry it out, and a reminder of why all of this was worth it, that we might be sustained as a nation over the long haul.

As Paul writes his last letter contained in the New Testament to his spiritual son, Timothy, he gives us much the same outline in the first half of this second chapter. He has challenged Timothy in the first chapter not to be a coward, to be willing to suffer, and to align himself with others who suffer. Now, he is going to share with him the great task/mission that will be necessary to take the gospel to the coming generations, the sacrifice that is going to be needed for that task, and what he needs to realize throughout his life to find strength and the drive to carry it out.

And, as we saw last week, we may clearly apply this exhortation to ourselves, because we are very much like Timothy. We have the same task, and if the Lord tarries, we too will be responsible for ensuring that the next generation is adequately equipped to take the gospel to all nations. Therefore, we may hear from this text, the task we are to be about, the sacrifice that will be required, and what we will need to sustain ourselves for the mission.

The great task, passing on the gospel to a faithful generation who will do the same (2:1-2)

Paul gives Timothy the task in the first two verses, writing, “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.”

He does more than tell Timothy, “Be strong,” for Timothy was no doubt timid (or at least tempted to be so). And in the words of John Stott, if he had just told Timothy to be strong, “he might as well have told a snail to be quick.”¹ But he tells him something more, he tells him to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That is he tells him to be strong by the strength of another – Jesus Christ. We, too, need to know that we are weak, and timid, and incompetent, but the Spirit of Christ who dwells within us is strong. He is able. So we pray and ask for his strength to do what we cannot. This is Paul’s command to Timothy. But for what? He tells him that it is that he might entrust the gospel to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Timothy’s task is to take what Christ has given to Paul and Paul has given to Timothy and pass it on to faithful men who will be able to teach others as well. This is our task as well. I even realized it more this week as I spoke with my cousin Charlie. Charlie lives in Pennsylvania and is probably the person in my family who most clearly knows the thoughts of the culture. Each thanksgiving I see him and talk to him so that I might speak truth into him. And as I spoke to Charlie this Thanksgiving he shared with me that he thinks all faiths lead to God and that God is the kind of creator who loves his creation so much that he surely would not make only one way to know him.

The more that kind of thought filters into our culture in West Tennessee, the more our children will need to know the truth of the gospel, the more crucial will our task be of clearly communicating the gospel to the next generation that they might be entrusted to take it to others also. So it is our task that we must diligently be about.

So what will this task of entrusting the gospel to others require of us? Paul gives us three things.

The sacrifice required by the mission in front of us (2:3-7)

1. It will require single-mindedness, despite great suffering (2:3-4)

Paul writes to Timothy, “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” (3-4).

We cannot get caught up in so many things that we lose our focus of pleasing the Lord. You will be tempted to be about so many other things because it will be easier, but you must be single-minded in your task. It is like a soldier; he cannot be about a number of things but simply that which is commanded by his leader, anything else would be foolish. Could you imagine a soldier on the battlefield thinking in the midst of intense battle about the need to change the oil in his car when he gets back home? That would be ridiculous; he needs to be single-minded.

The same is true in the Christian faith. Do not go anywhere or do anything without being aware of what you are ultimately to be about – pleasing your heavenly Father and carrying out the mission of taking and entrusting the gospel to others.

The temptation though, will not simply be because single-mindedness is difficult, but also because being about the mission might bring great cost. Even as I saw Charlie on Thanksgiving Day and began a conversation with him that led him to respect my education, etc., I was tempted not to get into conversation about Christ because I wanted him to continue to respect me. And that’s someone that I only see once a year. How great will the temptation be when you and I are dealing with people we are going to encounter on a daily basis? I am not sure how Charlie now sees me, but I know that he has heard the gospel. We must be single-minded about our task, regardless of the suffering we might encounter.

2. It will require whole-hearted labor (2:5-6).

Paul tells Timothy, “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” (5-6).

After thinking of the soldier imagery that Paul gives Timothy, we might be tempted to think, “Now that’s a little extreme!” However, we must remember that we are not entitled to a life of ease and rest here. We are to labor toward his kingdom. This is something that Paul can say because he has said of himself, “His grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more than any of [the other apostles] (1 Cornithians 15:10).

Each day, decide to be single-minded about your task and be willing to involve yourself in great labor, not listening to our culture around us that tells us to relax, live for ourselves, and if we do labor, labor so that we might rest one day here.

3. It will require prayerful meditation on the word of God (2:7).

Paul writes to Timothy, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (7).

Our knowledge of the truth and continual understanding thereof comes from the Scripture. Therefore, we must be people who meditate prayerfully on the word of God, allowing it to do its work in our lives. Now Paul’s language here is crucial. He writes to “think over what I say” for then the Lord will give you understanding.

Getting understanding from the Lord in his word is not simply the mystical thing that so many want to make it. The Lord gives us understanding as we “think over” what is written therein. So, you need to be someone who continually takes the word and labors to break it apart and study and see what he’s saying, as you ask the Lord to help you understand. That is how the Lord is going to direct us and give us understanding needed for this task.

So we need to determine to be single-minded, determine to be intense in labor, and determine to be about prayerful study and meditation on the word that we might be able to entrust the gospel to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

But in the midst of our labors and struggles, how will we strengthen ourselves? How will we find motivation to carry on despite suffering, etc.? Paul gives us a few things that will provide us motivation to endure in the task.

Motivation for endurance in our mission (2:8-13)

1. Remember that Jesus is indeed the Christ (2:8-9a).

Paul writes in verses 8-9a, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal.”

He writes, “risen from the dead, the offspring of David” probably to remind them that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. Therefore, your labor is for that which is true. You suffering is for one who has suffered for us to bring us to God. So, in the midst of your struggles and suffering as you labor to spread the gospel to others who may do the same and equip the church, remember you the one for whom you labor is indeed the Christ, the Son of God.

2. Know your suffering is not in vain (2:9b-10).

Paul tells Timothy, “But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

No matter how difficult of a situation we are in, we may remember that God’s word is not, and will not, be bound. God indeed will call out his children to himself, even through our labors of spreading the gospel.

3. Realize your perseverance will show God’s saving work in your life (2:11-12).

In these verses, Paul writes, “The saying is trustworthy, for: ‘If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us.”

You are saved by grace, through faith, in Christ alone, but this does not mean that there will not be perseverance in your life. In fact, perseverance will be the manifestation that God truly has saved you.

Therefore, in this labor, if you think to yourself, “I’m not sure I want to be about the things of God anymore,” realize you might be walking in a area where you will show yourself never to have been born again.

4. Know God is faithful in your struggles and will be with you (2:13).

God does not command us to difficult tasks without the promise that he will be with us. Whether it is with Moses in Egypt, Joshua, Gideon, his church in Matthew 28:18-20, or his church in the difficult task of church discipline in Matthew 18:19-20, God tells us that he will be with us in difficult tasks. The same is true here in 2 Timothy, our task is hard and we may stumble, but God will be ever faithful to his children and will be with us.

We labor knowing our message is true, knowing our labor will bring forth results, and knowing that as we labor God will be with us. May we then be diligent about the task of entrusting the gospel to others. Amen.

¹John Stott, The Message of 2 Timothy (Downers Grove: IVP, 1973), 49.

SACRIFICE AND MOTIVATION AS WE ENTRUST THE GOSPEL TO OTHERS