Sign Language

A man who comes to the Conference Centre every year came twice this week. On Second occasion he brought his wife over. She is deaf and mentally retarded.  He pointed out the world map on our wall with the Logos hope and made a V shape with his hands and then little swimming motions.  I expect the V is the bow of the ship and the swimming motions are the ship sailing

2nd timoth 2

2nd Timothy chapter 2

I have always felt moved by Pauls letters to Timothy for I myself as a young man felt very similar to him.

It seems that Timothy was somewhat shy for Paul tells him not to let any man despise his youth and to stir up the gift within him.

Timothy in the first three verses, is being charged with the responsibility of teaching other men, and then theywould go on to teach. 

I presume that in this way the early church would multiply or certainly cultivate a good leadership team well able to teach.

Verses 3-7  Paul uses the imagery of a soldier , the athlete and the farmer.  The thing they have in common, it that they are single minded.  The soldier is not involved in the affairs of the world, the athlete endures difficulties to win and the farmer also endures to enjoy the benefits of the crop.

Think of andy murray. He got the best coach he could and trained in the best places in order to win.

So Paul is saying to Timothy that his life has to be like that. He needs to put in the effort to please the Lord. 

Paul gives to Timothy in versed 8-10 as an example of someone who is enduring.

If any one of us were trying to encourage someone in the faith as Paul was encouraging Timothy. Would we be able to give to them, our own lives as good examples to follow?  WE AUGHT TO BE ABLE TO.

Verses 11-13 the trust worthy saying

If we are FAITHLESS,  he is FAITHFULL.  That sounds very comforting, but in the context I am not so sure that it is.  I THINK IT IS A WARNING.

I think that in saying that he is faithful, and that he ( the lord) cannot deny himself, it is a warning to Timothy and to others that if we are not faithful then God is faithful to himself to carry out the punishment that he said he would. The context is in in verse 12

If we endure, we shall also reign with him; If we deny him, he also will deny us.

**Thus If we deny him, then God will indeed be faithful to himself by denying us.

Verse 14-19

It seems to me that none of the things Timothy was told to tell them would be new to the hearers for is told to REMIND  them and SOLOMLY charge them. In the presence of God not to wrangle about words.  Timothy was not telling them things they did not already know, he was reminding them.

Paul must have thought it necessary for them to be reminded.  We humans forget, or ignore lessons and we need reminding.

Verse 15, has always been of great value to me.   Tell the story of how I learned I could teach)

From this, verse, I realised that teaching was a solemn responsibility and that one day, I would be judged by God and have to give an account of what I teach. Therefore, I need to take care that on that day, I am not ashamed.  I have no idea how I may be influencing people for good or ill by the things I say and the things I write, but one day, God will show me.

For paul to bring this up must mean that this was going on.  You will recall that Paul had to rebuke those who said, “I am for Paul, I am for Christ, I am for whoever was their favourite speaker” and Paul says, Did Paul die for you? 

It is against this that Paul tells Timothy to be diligent in handling the word of God. 

Perhaps we have our favourite speaker, or our favourite author. People who have and are well used of the lord to win others and to influence them for good.  However, no matter how good they may be, they are not to take the place of what God has revealed.  Sometimes even the very best of authors and speakers get things wrong and it is up to us to make sure that our understanding of scripture is correct and not to accept something just because someone else says so..

I still find that there are things that I change my mind about.  We must be willing to be corrected.

A friend I have known for many years pointed out some areas of life where I have changed.  I said to him, well, there were reasons at the time for why I held to those views but when you are wrong then you need to be honest with yourself and admit you have been wrong and change accordingly to what the bible actually reveals and I hope that I go on doing that.

V 19. The lord knows who are his, ( we may not but god does)

Let all who name the lord abstain from wickedness. It is putting off wickedness that marks us out as belonging to the lord.

Paul uses the image of a large house where there are gold and silver vessels but also vessels of wood and earthenware. He is saying that we start as the vessels of wood and earthen ware.  Common and of no great value, but as we cast of sin then we become precious vessels for good work

Avoid worldly and empty chatter.  In this case, Paul is specific.  He names two people HYMENAEUS and PHILETUS.  He likened their talk to being like gangrene which spreads and is deadly.  These two people were going around saying that the resurrection had already happened, and by doing so they were destroying the faith of others.

We to need to be diligent in opposing false doctrine that could lead others astray.  The fact that people paid attention to these men, must mean that they were held in some esteem.

Paul is constantly warning Timothy to stay away from quarrelling.   He had to preach the truth

I have to conclude that as Paul emphasises avoiding quarrelling so much, this must have been going on in the church.  I can think of no other reason why Paul would say this to Timothy.

This is not to say that Christians never disagree ( because we do) but we should not quarrel to the detriment of others and ourselves. It is time consuming, foolish and leads to sin.

When someone opposes us, the gut instinct is to argue back.  Paul is saying to Timothy to stop and think and do the opposite. To be gentle in his reply so that perhaps his opponents may repent. We should not be involved in character assassination, and there are many matters that are only of secondary value.

His last devotion

Today, is a landmark day.  M led what is likely to be his final devotion before he retires.  For all my years in the church of scotland we had on the offering envelopes, "Where you treasure is, there will your heart be also".  This was his focus.  How do I cling to possessions?  He gave the image of the open and clenched hands and gave two examples. One is of man who made millions but gave most of it away we have benefited from the trust he set up and the other was CT Studd.  I first heard of him at university through a fellow student.