2 Timothy 2:1-7
1 You therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And 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. 3 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 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. 5 And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. 7 Understand what I say, for the Lord will give you insight in everything.
The passage is filled with metaphors and unusual phrases, and Paul appears to highlight at the end of the passage that there is more here than meets the eye. He is not speaking in a straightforward manner, and thus it requires spiritual discernment to have insight to understand Paul's purposes in this passage.
The most obvious through-line of the passage is that Timothy is being asked to make sure that he passes down his knowledge to the next generation, with a specific concern that the knowledge be passed down to a next generation after that. Paul is a brilliant theologian, but hardly anything he says is new, he is often simply making new application of teaching from the Old Testament, which makes sense because he is an Old Testament scholar.
Deuteronomy 8:1-7 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which Yahweh your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do it in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you shall listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
“Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one! You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
This is the passage of Deuteronomy which contains the Shema which is the most important catechism or prayer of the Jews. This, incidentally, is quoted as the most important commandment by Christ himself.
It is an all-encompassing command, you serve the Lord your God with, what? With everything.
There is also the generational aspect to this command. God commanded Moses to teach this to "you", so that you can teach your son, so that he can, by implication, teach your grandson "so that you and your son and your grandson might fear Yahweh your God".
This is the principle that Paul is invoking in this passage, and the same idea that he is articulating to Timothy. Though there is no direct invocation of this passage in 2 Timothy, it is clear that the same dynamics are at work and thus we can use it as source material to help guide our understanding of Paul's thinking.
We also know that Paul was about to die, and this is likely the last letter he wrote. Thus, it makes a lot of sense that he would base his last instructions on the words of Deuteronomy, since that was Moses' farewell address to the people of Israel. There are even parallels in their circumstances. Paul was about to die, to be beheaded, and he knew he would not really get to see the "promised land" just as Moses had not been allowed to see it. In both Deuteronomy and 2 Timothy, he is sending off his successor and the people with a last word.
It is as though he is saying "I will not go on, but I have one last thing to say to the people who will follow me".
Be Strong in Grace
Paul reminds Timothy to "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus". To understand this, we need to recognize that "grace" is not limited to forgiveness. Grace is the unearned favor of God, the kindness of God towards us in all its facets.
Deuteronomy 7:6-9 For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His own treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. “Yahweh did not set His affection on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because Yahweh loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. You shall know therefore that Yahweh your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments...
Truly the favor of God is always unearned. He chooses whom he will and not because of any inherent property in the person chosen. But he always chooses with purpose, such that his purposes are accomplished.
John 15:16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would abide, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
And in order to do so, we must "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus". We cannot accomplish anything on our own power. We are merely dust. What can we do to change the world, to win it for Christ? Like Israel, we were nothing, just a blip on the radar, until God chose us and radically transformed us to become those who possess his land.
The promises in Deuteronomy are always in context of going in to take possession of the land from the heathen that inhabit it now. Likewise, Paul knows that we are to go out and make all the nations into disciples of Christ, in the New Testament fulfillment of the land and dominion promises given to Abraham.
Romans 4:13 For the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he would be heir of the world
Paul knows this promise is coming to fruition, but also that he will not see it, but those who come after him may be the ones who do see it. In order to do so, they must be strong in the gifts and unearned favor of their King and Lord, God, Jesus Christ. It will not surprise you to find that this same exhortation was given by Moses to the people he was saying farewell to:
Deuteronomy 11:8-9 “You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it; so that you may prolong your days on the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey.
The command to be strong was understood as following the way of life that God had laid out before them. God cries out in frustration later in Psalm 81 that Israel simply will not live in the way he has called them to, though the given instruction was grace.
Psalm 81:13-14 Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! I would quickly subdue their enemies And I would turn My hand against their adversaries.
In the pattern of God, grace is always associated with command. It's not that the mere act of ritual washing and circumcision had some physical power to overwhelm the nations, but that the people's "faith" exercised in "faithfulness" to God's commands, would cause God to respond with something much greater than the sum of their parts, with overflowing grace and undeserved favor.
You must understand that God always frames his commands with grace. First there is the grace already given: "I rescued you from Egypt", then the command, then the grace to follow "and I will bless you". The pattern of the people of God is that they acknowledge the grace already given, answer it with obedience, and are promised even more grace to follow.
Thus, when Moses says to keep the commands, be strong and to go in to possess the land, this is the same idea that Paul is articulating to Timothy when he summarizes it by saying "be strong in grace". We go forward, practicing the way of life given to us in God’s word, trusting in his undeserved favor to carry us to victory.
Generational Legacy
2 Timothy 2:2 And 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.
Just like Moses did, Paul stands on the principle of a generational legacy in order to set the pattern for how the Christian way of life is to be passed down. It is note-worthy that he uses the language of "child" to address Timothy, even though we know that he was not his literal child. I'd be curious if there was some sort of adoption at play, but whether that is true or not, we are definitely applying the logic of how a father teaches his son, so that he may teach the grandson.
Christ taught that the kingdom expands slowly as leaven leavens a loaf (Mt 13:33). Yeast quite literally does this by reproduction, and the same principle applies to how someone comes to know what it means to follow God.
More specifically, Paul is referring to providing for the succession of his ministry in Ephesus. Just as Moses called the men in his generation to teach their sons everything God had commanded them, Paul is referring back to the Great Commission, to teach his people to obey everything Christ had commanded. There is likely a connection here to the previous chapter in which Paul was lamenting that most of his guys had abandoned him. He therefore needs Timothy to take care and make sure that the ministry is being entrusted to those who will continue the good work.
Especially among Gentiles, the "father/son" link was being very deliberately broken. A first-generation Gentile believer doesn't have a father that we want him to emulate, though the command to honor is still present. The way of life of Christ is radically different from the pagan world. But whether we are teaching our literal children or merely someone whom we have in a sense "spiritually adopted" as our child, we wish to impart a legacy that is passed on to the next generation, so that they may pass it on to the next.
The failure of the American church can be largely placed at the feet of a failure to effectively disciple the children. Once upon a time everyone was born into a nominally "Christian" family. Now the loss rate is above 70%. Even among self-identified evangelicals, you get nearly 45% that say Jesus was not God and well over 50% that say Jesus was created by God. This is abysmal. These are not difficult theological points on which serious thinkers in the Christian realm disagree. These are defining boundary lines for whether or not we even consider a person to be Christian at all in their theology.
Of course, the majority of the failure has been entrusting their education to the public school system. Christians still have most of the kids and do most of the adoptions, so if we could simply not lose our children, we would quickly be Christianizing our nation. Since the nation is rapidly secularizing instead, we can see the fruit of our utter failure to teach the next generation effectively.
The reality is that according to Barna only about 4% of people come to Christ after the age of 30. Kids become Christians, adults rarely do. This is a major change from 2000 years ago, of course, and the numbers are very different in mission fields. But we do not live in a non-Christian culture. So obviously in our context, the most important application of the generational principle is to our literal children and the children of our fellow believers.
But there are other applications. We use this as a foundational verse for the idea of one-on-one non-familial discipleship. Certainly a new convert, or even a newly recovered apostate needs grounding and often cannot be taught by their father or their fathers' generation. Thus it will fall on us to do a sort of peer-discipleship. While this is not ideal, it's definitely the sort of thing that Paul and Timothy had to do and were doing.
Soldiers for Christ
2 Timothy 2:3 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 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.
In the context, Paul is about to be put to death as the persecution of Nero kicks into high gear. Of course, in the book of Acts the Romans are the protectors of the church, even Pilate had to be talked into putting Christ to death. Once Nero turns the corner into insanity, the Romans start persecuting Christians as well. We know Ephesus was already provoked by the teaching of Paul and now Timothy from the record of Acts.
Timothy would be suffering the same kinds of hardship that Paul was as the persecution increases. The temptation at these times is always to give in. Being hated by and even attacked by ones neighbors and family (the very people you hope to save) leads many to start compromising their faith. While the historical persecution is unlikely to recur at the same level it did in the first century, the principle still applies today. Are we going to be the second seed, that dries up under the heat of persecution and thus bears no fruit?
I would argue that many churches have already turned the corner on this one. While persecution in America has been limited to shame and false accusation, that's been plenty for many churches to start sticking up their BLM signs and rainbow flags to signal their capitulation to the world-system. Our church is right now going through accusations of cult-like behavior, and I see wobbling. The question of "how we will be perceived" has influenced choices we're making as a church in the aftermath of accusations.
But Paul reminds him that this is a spiritual war. We should not expect it to always be easy. Sometimes, like Paul and Timothy, you will be under serious attack and people will be tempted to defect to the enemy. How many people have we seen from the church that become allied with the enemy?
Everyday Life
He extends the analogy of the soldier to illustrate the principle that a soldier ought not to be entangled in "everyday life" but to remain focused on his service as a soldier.
We know that Paul is not telling Timothy to refrain from “non-spiritual” activities. Paul had a job at times (Acts 18:3), and though he was not married, he certainly viewed apostleship and marriage as compatible. (1 Cor 9:5) Moreover, it would make little sense, given the Scripture’s huge amount of advice and instruction regarding the “normal things”, ie: work, friends, family, business, recreation. Rather it is the case that each Christian person has a mission. We all have general principles that we follow. But as the Spirit has seen fit to gift each of us, our particular contribution to the work of building the Kingdom will vary widely.
We are not Medieval Catholics, who thought that "real" servants of God were those who were celibate and became monks or nuns. One of the great victories of the Protestant revolution was to emphasize the care that God has for "vocations". The work we do in "normal life" is anything but irrelevant. Many of us will never be full-time pastors. Does that mean that we are merely "part-time Christians"? Is pastoral work the only work God cares about?
Of course not. The ministry we have in our homes, among our neighbors, in our job, even to the extent of building something in the external world like a business, can and should contribute to the glory of God.
Then if Paul is NOT saying that we should restrict our activities to so-called "spiritual things", then what is he warning against?
We can easily become entangled specifically by viewing areas of our life as somehow separate from our Christian principles. How you educate your kids is one that is relevant to this particular passage. There is no such thing as neutral ground. To send your kid to a public school is to send them to be educated by the Church of Satan. Our failure to understand the import of Paul's remarks here has led us to the error that we can have "neutral" education supplemented by Sunday School to give it Christian flavor, as though it were just a block of Ramen and the family supplies the flavor pack. No, the public schools teach a religion and it is not Christianity.
There are no areas of life that are neutral or that need not be brought under the rulership of Christ. As Abraham Kuyper put it: "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'"
Any area of your life that is not under Christ's lordship is an area in which you are under the devil's lordship. The teaching of authority in the Bible is as clear as crystal. There are two kingdoms, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of darkness. There are two masters, sin, and Christ. There is no middle ground.
Gordan Spykman quoting Herman Bavnick says:
Catholicity is the biblical answer to all dualist worldviews and life-styles. For, in the words of Bavinck, Christianity is not “a quantitative entity” which “hovers transcendentally” above our life in the world, but a religious power that “enters immanently” into it. It is opposed to nothing creaturely, but “banishes only what is impure.” The Christian religion proclaims “the joyful news of the renewal of all creatures.” For in it “the gospel comes fully into its own, comes to true catholicity.” “There is nothing that cannot and ought not to be evangelized. Not only the church, but also the home, school, society, and state are placed under the principles of Christianity…”
David Naugle continues:
The central biblical notion of the “kingdom of God” refers to God’s rule, authority, and power expressed in Christ to accomplish the redemption of the world by the power of the Holy Spirit both now and in the future. God’s original kingdom, which He established over the whole earth at creation, was attacked and taken over by the satanic regime, bringing rebellion, death, and destruction into the world. Immediately, as expressions of both judgment and grace, God launched a counteroffensive manifested in mighty deeds throughout redemptive history in order to defeat His enemies and restore all things back to Himself. This cosmic battle between these two rival kingdoms culminated at the first advent of Jesus Christ. In and through His person, words, and work, God exercised His redemptive rule and sovereign power against all the evil in the world (sin, death, Satan). He achieved a great victory, reclaimed His creation, and is in the process of renewing all things. Thus, the concept of the kingdom of God with its redemptive focus stands at the heart of the Christian faith, and should be central in the life and ministry of a church that is informed and guided by a biblical worldview...
Meanwhile, in the present form of the kingdom, Christ rules over the lives of believers and of the community of the church, affecting how they live individually and corporately in relation to God, each other, and the whole world. Corporately, a kingdom church ought to be a model of a truly human society which manifests what the will of God means for whole areas of society (e.g., education, arts, politics, work, etc.), and what life should be like when it is submitted to the God’s reign (righteous, orderly, reasonable, disciplined, holy, wise, etc). Individually, every aspect of a believer’s life ought to be submitted to the kingship of Christ, demonstrating what His righteous rule means in such personal areas as work, education, play, entertainment, family life, friendship, the arts and so on. The doctrine of the kingdom of God engenders a Christianity that is culturally engaged.
Truly, this kind of royal theology, at the heart of a worldview-driven church, implies that real, historical life is to be redeemed now as it is lived out by the people of God, resulting in the fulfillment of the great commission “as we go” into all the world.
We are not here to teach people how to be evangelists and pastors solely. We are engaged in the work of teaching people how to be "Christian fathers", "Christian friends", Christian bosses", "Christian employees", "Christian teachers", even “Christian vacationers”. The way of life to which Christ calls us is total and this is the work to which discipleship calls us. Not to some slimmed down "teach them how to do ministry" shadow, but to the full reality of "all of Christ for all of life".
The reduction of discipleship to so-called "spiritual" things is dangerous and unbiblical. It may be the most serious threat that "Bible-believing" churches face in their discipleship. The world-system is not "flashy cars" and "fancy houses" but the attitudes and worldview that view certain areas of life as "separate" from Christ's rulership.
According to the Rules
2 Timothy 2:5 And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
For the antinomian culture that is so common in American evangelicalism, this may be the hardest verse to make sense of. But Scripture is comfortable with athletic analogies.
Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Heb 12:1 ...laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...
1 Corinthians 9:26-27 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
Paul has no problem reminding us that great effort and "competing according to the rules" is absolutely necessary to obtain "the crown" and to "not be disqualified". For the average easy-believism Christian, it's hard to swallow anything that would appear to require effort on our part, but there is a reality here to which Paul is alluding.
The Christian life is anything but easy and it would be easy to compromise on it. Would you succumb to the temptation to manipulate someone into "receiving Christ" just so you "won a person to Christ"? I saw that every week in the college ministry. I did it myself. Do you think your sin is somehow irrelevant because you are "doing the work of God"? Do you think the fact that you reached out to your buddy at work somehow means that your people-pleasing is cancelled out? Do you do math to try and figure out whether the Christian work you do cancels out the sins you committed? Do you consider your sins to be unimportant as long as they don't affect your "ministry"?
If so, that is not God's way. The person who "wins" is the person who "competes according to the rules". We do things God's way as defined in his word, only. We do not solely use secular psychology to figure out how our mothers mistreated us and that's why we're anxious, we remember that Paul said "Do not be anxious." That is our lodestone, not some fancy theory that the wise of this world came up with to try and explain away spiritual realities.
This is not to become harsh with yourself. While "grace" should never be defined as "forgiveness", it does include forgiveness. God knows that we are but dust (Ps 103:14) and does not always deal with us as our iniquities deserve. But the error that because God is gracious should never cause us to presume upon the mercies of God (Rom 2:3-4). The man who thinks that sin is no big deal because "God forgives it" is exactly who Paul points out as the enemy of God.
First Share
2 Timothy 2:6 The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
Finally Paul uses an analogy to the farmer. The farmer is the man who receives his share of the crops.
There's a clear application from 1 Corinthians 9 about the pastors of the gospel being able to receive a share of the crop. A pastor should be a paid position. We all have our roles to play, but God requires that the person who is vocationally oriented toward sharing the gospel to be paid for that work unless they deny such payment voluntarily.
But there is more going on here than simply an application to Christian ministry. The fruits of following Christ are such that we will enjoy them.
Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, except one who will receive one hundred times as much now in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
There is no doubt that a large chunk of the reward for faithful service to Christ is in this life, and not reserved for the life to come. Houses, children, lands, are all promised as rewards for serving Christ, in the here and now. It is our pietism that leads us to relegate the rewards for following Christ to the next life. Certainly eternal rewards are as real as anything, but are not the thing in focus. The farmer is the first to eat of his crop.
For those of you who have been involved in ministry to share God's word, you know this as well as anyone. The fruit of my own teaching ministry has mostly been to myself. I have benefited ten or a hundred times as much as anyone I have taught. In tandem I have received great physical blessing from devoting my time and life to Christ.
Conclusion
The last word is that of reminder that this is not easy to understand. Paul is speaking in metaphor, not in direct imperatives. We must carefully consider what he is saying to make the best use of it, and as we have seen, the obvious interpretations might well be the wrong ones.
We must commit ourselves to the Christian way of life. It is a way of life that should influence our choices of entertainment, our choice of job, and the way we raise our kids. Obviously evangelism is a part of this, but it is wrong and demonic to try and reduce the "Christian" parts of life to the parts that are clearly "spiritual". This was a major error of the medieval Catholic church and a serious error of modern pietists. All of life is critical to Christ and everything you do is evangelistic. When all of life is brought to kneel before our king we will see the reversal of the loss of life that modern evangelicalism has presided over.
The church has been a major failure over the last seventy years. There is no era that has been as catastrophic in terms of loss of the children and the people following God. Our fundamental presuppositions are wrong and must be overturned and rejected in order to reverse the damage. Christ please bless us in our efforts. We can do nothing without you. Let us submit ourselves to your rule in every part of our lives so that life may reign again.