2 Timothy 3:10-11 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings — what kind of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
People are more than what they say they are. Too many people these days can talk a good talk, but their lives don’t match their rhetoric. “I’m concerned for the poor,” but then they won’t fix the leaky roof in their mother’s house, even though they clearly have the means to do it. “I’m concerned for the environment,” but then they fly around in private jets to climate summits. “I’m concerned about government debt,” but then they sign onto legislation that disregards the peril of debt, and we vote for them!
And that is just the politicians and talking heads. We all know people whose life doesn’t match their words. Most of us can look in the mirror and find one! But what are we supposed to do?
Paul, the author of this letter to his younger protege, wants Timothy to remember his talk and his walk. For Paul, there was a corresponding walk that matched his talk. He believed in the message he was proclaiming so much, that even persecution didn’t dissuade him from continuing to teach.
In fact, Paul brings to Timothy’s mind his actual behavior as a model for Timothy to follow. Paul had the words and he had the actions to match. His life was consistent.
But what I find very instructive is the last sentence of this short section. Paul writes that he was rescued from the persecutions he experienced. I don’t know about you, but I think Paul has a different definition of rescue than we as modern, Western Christians do.
Our definition of rescue means that we would miss the persecution entirely, that it would be removed before we experienced the turmoil and torture. We want to be rescued from the wild fire. We want our house to be spared, the fire swooping around the property, not even leaving a hint of smoke smell. That is rescued.
But Paul went through the persecutions. He was beaten and stoned, left for dead. That doesn’t sound like rescue to me. He was driven out of town by an angry mob hurling insults at him. Rescue? He was lied about and pursued by his opponents to almost every town to which he went. Rescue?
We want clear sailing. We want opposition to melt away like butter at a picnic on a hot August day in Alabama. We even want the traces of butter to be absorbed by the Bounty paper towel! We want no traces to be found.
That is what we think of when we think rescue. But Paul had a very different picture of rescue. As long has he was able to continue teaching and living for Jesus, rescue had happened. How did he gain this perspective?
Paul had been rescued himself. He was on a path of destruction, eternal destruction, and Jesus had come to him and rescued him from himself. And from that moment on, Paul had wholeheartedly followed Jesus. Nothing seemed to stand in his way.
His definition of rescue reflected his own experience of rescue by Jesus. Maybe we have such a shallow view of rescue because we haven’t experienced Jesus’ rescue to the degree Paul had. Maybe we think we just needed a little help with life and eternity, instead of Paul’s view, that we were dead in our trespasses and sins.
Paul wanted God’s will at all costs. Are we willing to sign up for this kind of assignment today?
The Arnold Journey 