Day 208

Obey and teach the Word 

Key Verses: 2, 3, 8, 10, 15,

One of the roles of leaders is not simply to pass on what they have learned, but to train the next generation of leaders to pass on what they have learned. Christ told Paul who passed it to Timothy and urges Timothy to pass it on to others who will teach another generation of teachers. This is five generation thinking. Jesus, Paul, Timothy, teachers, students. It is not enough for us to serve Jesus and make it to heaven. We must be thinking about the next generation of leaders and disciplers.

Paul uses three illustrations of the need to persevere in suffering: soldiers, athletes and farmers. All three require hard work today in order to meet the challenges of the future struggles. Now is the time to prepare for the trials and temptations of tomorrow. Now is the time to get grounded in Him and His Word. When the suffering comes, it can be hard to stay afloat when you haven’t learned the basics of swimming.

Paul boils the gospel down into three short statements in verse eight. Jesus is the promised Messiah, he rose from the dead and he fulfilled the prophecies. From these three points anyone could unfold the meat of the Gospel. He is God in the flesh, conquering sin and fully connected to God’s promises which started the moment man fell from grace. This simple message can’t be stopped by imprisonment. But it can easily get sidelined when we focus on other things, or if we distort these simple realities for some other message.

There must have been some infiltrators that were attempting to pull Timothy and the church off center. Their message was just a bit off the mark. But we must guard against subtle changes to the Gospel message. The three short statements direct us to the heart of what must never change. The Gospel message is grounded in God and His desire to be connected to His people, so much so that He came into our world to fix the sin problem.

Most changes to the Gospel message focus on either the nature of God or the nature of man. God is either brought down or humans are brought up. Sin is redefined to be something other than fatal. Jesus becomes someone other than fully God and fully man. His miracles are dismissed. The Scriptures become a book we can’t trust. It becomes about being good on our own, or maybe with a little pep talk from an inspiring person.

These are fatal errors. Don’t let anyone sidetrack you from Jesus and Him crucified. You are a sinner. Rejoice! We have a Savior.