Welcome to the Bible Teaching Ministry of Truth for Life where today we begin a series that explores what it takes to follow Christ, even when we face temptation and suffering. Alistair Begg helps us understand why Christianity is not for the lazy or the faint of heart.
It demands devotion, discipline, and diligence. We're studying 2 Timothy chapter 2. Well, the verses to which we're going to draw our attention, both this morning and probably this evening, are verses 3–7 of chapter 2.
Let me begin in this way. If one were looking for an approach to the Christian life that is weak, careless, thoughtless, one would have to bypass the instruction of 2 Timothy. Because we have already seen that the Christianity that is described here by Paul is no encouragement to the softies, to the dummies, or to the lazies.
Now, I don't anticipate that any of you would fit under any one of those categories, so there's no reason for alarm. But if you look very carefully at the text, you will realize that he is calling for people to think—don't be dumb, think—he's calling for people to face up, to man up, if we might say, to the peculiar and stressful challenges of a biblical Christianity. And he is calling for his readers to make sure that they are actively, committedly, diligently engaged in pursuing Christ.
That's what makes it so compelling. It is a muscular Christianity. It is a thoughtful Christianity. It is a demanding Christianity. And here in this particular section, Timothy's being made aware of the fact, and his congregation along with him, that if this gospel—which he has summarized in some measure in verses 9, 10, and 11 of chapter 1—if this gospel is to be preserved for and proclaimed to the coming generations, it will only happen at significant cost.
It will only happen at significant cost. This will never take place in a church family, in the context of a nation, without facing up to the clear demands of Christian discipleship—the demands that Paul lays upon Timothy as the pastoral leader in Ephesus—but on all who are under his care, who are themselves disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this makes sense in light of the teaching of Jesus, doesn't it? Because Jesus didn't say, you know, if anybody's got something they would like to do, just go ahead and do it. It doesn't matter if you can squeeze me into your life, come when you can.
No, he said some striking things, didn't he? I need to go and conduct the burial of my father. Jesus said, Let the dead bury their dead. I married a wife, and I wanted to hang out with her. Forget it. I bought a field, and I wanted to go and look after it.
Come, follow me. Well, who does this person think he is? So what you discover when you read the Bible is that people who began to follow Jesus, instead of life getting easy for them, it often got much worse for them. It's very different from the way we present it to people in the community, don't we?
And that's why people look at us and say, I don't know where you're getting this stuff from. Because you're not getting it from the Bible. If they've read the Bible at all, they know for us to come and say to them, you know, wouldn't you like a nice life of ease, and wouldn't you like everything to fit in perfectly for you?
Wouldn't you like to be all these things? Well, then, of course, they said they would. But that's not what Jesus says. And Paul himself bore it out.
Listen to how his life was going. He gives us a little summary in 2 Corinthians 11. He says, if you want to know how good it's been since I became a follower of Jesus Christ, here you go. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes last one. So he got a beating to a bloody pulp five times. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from… And I can't even keep going.
You can read it for yourself in 2 Corinthians 11. It doesn't sound like floating to heaven on flowery beds of ease, does it? Now, let's just register this for a moment, especially those of you who are young people. The bailout on the part of young people on the part of teenagers is not because the gospel that is presented to them is so daunting. It is so apparently pathetic. It is so weak.
It is so useless. It is so undemanding. It is so inside of them, because they've never actually encountered what the story of the gospel really is—that it demands a wholesale turnaround, a spirit-endured encounter with God that shapes our lives and establishes our destiny. And when you read this here in 2 Timothy, he is saying to Timothy, I have experienced these challenges, and you should expect them too. If you're going to be serious, Timothy, in guarding the good deposit—and that is a reference to the gospel—he says, if you're going to guard the good deposit—incidentally, he's not saying if you can keep the philosophy, if you can proclaim a few bright ideas.
No. If you can guard the good deposit, the news that in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, if you're going to do that, then you'd better be ready to face the demands that come. Now, let's just be clear on this, shall we?
Because it's so vitally important. What are we talking about when we talk about the gospel? We're not talking about saying to people, Would you like to have Jesus in your life?
It's fine to talk in those terms. But that is not the gospel. That question conveys nothing of the gospel.
We're asking people to make a response to something without ever giving them the information necessary upon which to respond. Why would I ever need a Savior? Because the gospel says that you're messed up without him. I thought I was okay. No, the gospel tells you you're not okay. There was only one person who was okay, and that person was Jesus. And his okayness gets credited to your un-okayness in the power of the gospel. You mean I get in on account of him? That's right.
Why? I never thought about that before. No, the gospel is that Christ died for sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. It's always according to the Scriptures. That the confidence of heaven is in the Word of God. He spoke this Word into being.
We either believe that and take our stand on it, or we just fiddle with it to our own detriment. So Paul is urging Timothy to proclaim this story boldly and to suffer for it bravely. And in order to reinforce that, he provides three metaphors, three pictures.
You'll see them there in the text. In verses 3 and 4, a soldier. In verse 5, an athlete. In verse 6, a hardworking farmer.
It is absolutely impossible to read this letter and miss Paul's emphasis on the link between gospel ministry and hardship. What he is saying is, Timothy, Jesus suffered, I have suffered, and you too will suffer. To serve Christ in this way, at certain points along the way, will inevitably mean suffering. In each of the pictures that he provides, there's an absolute commitment on the part of the individual involved or the idea involved—an absolute commitment to a valued goal. And he's pointing out—and this is the theme of this section—that without that kind of commitment, there will be no victory in battle, there will be no medal in athletics, and there will be no harvest at the end of the season. And the reason he does this is to say, no lesser commitment for you, Timothy, as a pastor or your congregation with you will then achieve the results that God has for you. Now, let me try and summarize it.
I wrote for myself, this is discipleship in 3D. I just came up with three words that begin with D. The first word is devotion. The devotion that is here identified in the soldier, in the soldier.
Share in suffering. Well, like what? Well, like a good soldier. There's no point in saying you're gonna be a soldier and then run away every time they start the war. You're not a soldier. You might have a uniform, but you're not a soldier. You're only a soldier in name. A good soldier. A faithful soldier. One who is enlisted and aims to please his commanding officer is the kind of individual that Paul is picturing in Christian discipleship—a soldier who's willing to take his share of suffering to remain focused on his or her objective.
I'm told, but I haven't verified it, that the dropout rate among army recruits is pretty high in the first three months. And apparently—and there's no condemnation in this observation, I think I'd be out earlier than most—but they've just underestimated the challenges and the commitment that is necessary in order to make it through. So Paul is not soft-selling this, is he? He says, I want you, Timothy, to share in suffering. I'm not inviting you to a good time. I'm inviting you, as he's done in verse 8, to play your part.
Well, how will that work out? Verse 4, well, you won't get involved. No soldier gets involved entangled—entangled in civilian pursuits. That verb is important. Entangled.
Tripped up by, diverted by, sidetracked by. We'd have to do some pretty intricate dance maneuvers to teach from this passage that Paul is urging upon Timothy and those who follow him some kind of monasticism, that he's saying that if you're a really devoted follower of Jesus Christ, you'll be like Francis Assisi, you know, you'll be living in a cave, and you'll never read any book other than the Bible, you'll never listen to any other music other than, you know, whatever it is, and that's the indication that you're a good soldier. That's not what he's saying at all.
Your sensible people figure it out. What he's saying is that if you are enlisted in an army, if there is a commanding officer, if you are an enlisted man or a woman, you come to that service with all kinds of desires, goals, opportunities, and interests. But all of those goals, desires, opportunities, and interests, as long as you are serving, must then be subservient to the overarching goal that is established in the warfare to which you've been called. And I just feel an increased burden to say to young people, hey, give up your small ambitions. Give up your small ambitions.
Invest your life, whatever it is, in whatever area of life it is, whether it is in commerce or in science or in arts or whatever it is, whether you get called into the world of pastoral engagement or missionary involvement. Whatever it is, remember that you're invited to share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and you're not supposed to get entangled. Don't get yourself tied up in stuff that will prevent you from pleasing him who is your commanding officer. Now, the issue here is not the offensive capacities of the soldier but the devotion of the soldier so that he may stand strong in the face of the onslaught of the enemy. Not a chocolate soldier who melts as soon as the heat is turned up, but a real soldier who stands true, a soldier who understands that everything's changed now since he enlisted.
That's, I think, the notion that's dawned on a number of us. You just sign up and then do what you want. No, you don't sign up and do what you want.
You sign up and do what he says. That's devotion. Devotion. What are you devoted to? If everybody took everything else away and left you with one thing, what are you sticking with?
What have you got? What are you devoted to? I'm hopelessly devoted to you. That's to your wife or your girlfriend or whatever else it is. Yeah, maybe. You can tell what a person is devoted to if you spend any time with them at all.
You can tell whether they like something or whether they're devoted to it. Do you remember Ray Davis? Do you remember the Kings? They seek him here, they seek him there, in Regent Street, in Leicester Square. Everywhere the Carnabethan army marches on, each one a dedicated follower of fashion. Oh, yes, he is. Oh, yes, he is. Oh, yes, he is.
Oh, yes, he is. His world is built round discotheques and parties. This pleasure-seeking individual always looks his best, because he's a dedicated follower of fashion.
Some days it's polka dots, some days it's stripes. But you can be absolutely sure this is his thing. Everyone who sees him around town says it's not that he just likes clothes.
He is devoted to this. It's interesting, but in 1 Corinthians 7, in the authorized version, the word that is used is not the form of this world but the fashions of this world. The fashions of this world. And one of the distinguishing features of the Christian is that we are no longer conformed to the fashions of this world.
That doesn't mean you wear different kinds of clothes. It means that the things that frame the natural man, which are circumscribed by time, which have no eternal dimension to them, these are no longer the things that marshal, that stir, that direct the life of the individual. Because now there's a whole new goal. There's a whole new eternal dimension to our interpersonal relationships, to our material possessions, to our temporal activities—all of them prioritized under Christ, because of our devotion to the commanding officer.
Now, let me just take you into the next one, and then we'll stop. There is a clear line of command for the soldier, and there are rules for the athlete. There are rules for the athlete. So the second word is the word discipline.
And I think that is inherent in the verse, isn't it? An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Now, be careful on this, because Paul is not describing here self-imposed rules of discipline. He talks in other places about self-discipline. But he's identifying the fact that in the games of that time, whether it was the Isthmian games or whatever it was, there were actually rules that had to be adhered to both in the training program for being in the games and then for participating in the games themselves. And so he picks up that picture, and he says, An athlete could never be crowned unless he competes according to the rules. You know, the Bible has a lot to say about people who go off with a flying start but never finish, beginning well but not continuing, enthusiastic for a month or two or a week or two. Now, it's a long obedience in the one direction that is called for here. Paul has not only fought the fight, he's finished the race, and so he says to Timothy, I want you to make sure that you finish the race as well. And he says before him a picture of Olympic gold, if you like. You're not going to be up there standing on that podium unless you compete according to the rules. Now, some of us don't like the word rules.
Some of us like the word suggestions. But the Bible is full of rules—the rules that challenge our casual lawlessness. And there is an increased lawlessness amongst many who profess to be followers of Jesus. They think somehow or another that the Ten Commandments were sort of a bunch of suggestions, and you should try and get as many as you possibly can out of ten, but don't worry if you're only around the fifty percent mark. After all, they don't really matter. No, they matter tremendously. They were given purposefully. You say, Well, we don't get our salvation by rules, do we?
No, of course we don't. So that the law of God is not there as a mechanism of salvation, but the law of God is there in order to guide the conduct of the Christian. Let's go back to Moses for a moment.
God comes, intervenes, provides an angel who passes over their homes on the basis of the sacrifice of the Lamb. He redeems them with an outstretched hand. He frees them from the bondage of Egypt, and then he gives them the rules. He doesn't give them the rules as a mechanism for getting out. He gets them out, and then he gives them the rules. That's the way it works.
He provides for us a freedom in Jesus in order that the rules that he has provided for us might be a mechanism for us to know what to do and how to live. You say, Well, I don't buy that. I just operate it on the basis of how I feel, or that love constrains everything in me.
Really? It doesn't work. Thirty-nine years of pastoral ministry tells me it doesn't work. The traffic lights are not there as a good idea.
The white stakes on the golf course are not arbitrary. They are there in order to ensure that the game is played properly and that society is ordered correctly, and that marital life is enjoyed fully, and that honesty is engaged in routinely, and that covetousness—no matter how materialistic and acquisitive a society may be—that covetousness is condemned in the Bible and is out for the Christian. Therefore, you see, Christ redeems us, sends us to the law to frame our way of life. The law condemns us again because we don't keep it, sends us back to Christ always as our only solution. I wonder if you've thought this out. I wonder if you have thought out the intended and necessary discipline in living out the Christian life. The reason some of you, some of us, are fiddling around with things we shouldn't be fiddling around with is because we don't get this. And the reason we don't get it is because we don't want to get it. Listen to Dale Ralph Davis, and I'll stop with this, and we can come back to it this evening at our communion.
This is Dale Ralph Davis, who writes wonderfully well. He says, I know some Christians have allergic reactions when they are told they are subject to God's moral law. That's in Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments. This, they fear, is legalism and an effort at salvation by works.
But that fear misunderstands the function of the Ten Commandments. The law comes in the context of grace. Yahweh lays down the pattern in Exodus. He delivers his people, then he demands. He works his redemption before he sets down his requirements. He first sets Israel free and then tells them how that freedom is to be enjoyed and maintained. Glad obedience to God's moral law is simply our logical act of worship. Glad obedience to God's moral law is an act of worship.
Timothy, it's going to be very important for you and for your congregation to make sure that you're sharing suffering for the gospel. Well, what will that be like? Well, it'll be a wee bit like a soldier who is just prepared to step up to the plate and please his commanding officer, devoted. And it will also be a bit like an athlete who recognizes that it is impossible to wear the crown of victory unless he or she competes according to the rules.
Anything else? Well, yes, it's a bit like a farmer, but we'll have to come to that later. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life with a message titled Discipleship in 3-D. We'll hear more on this topic Monday. And Alistair returns in just a minute to close with prayer. Now next week we are marking 30 years of teaching the Bible through Truth for Life. And from the very beginning, our mission has been to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance so that unbelievers will be converted, believers will be established, and local churches will be strengthened.
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Now here is Alistair. Father, thank you that we have a Bible that we can read and that it calls us to think. Thank you that you've given it to us, not simply that we may have increased information with a few random points of application, but in order that we might be changed by you, the living God, through your word. Effect the changes that are necessary in each of our lives, we pray, so that we might be recreated in the image of your son. And may grace and mercy and peace from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be the abiding portion of all who believe today and forevermore. Amen. Thanks for listening this week. On Monday, find out why Christian freedom involves persistent obedience. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
