2 Timothy 1:8–12 (NKJV)
According to Julie Iovine in the New York Times, in the 1990s many owners of small farms in America began to reduce their wholesale farming to a mere sideline and instead started using their property for another purpose: entertainment farming. Other terms for this new way to make a living on the farm are agritainment and agritourism. Entertainment farmers attract paying customers to their property with country bands, hay-bale mazes, petting corrals, and tricycle courses. City-dwelling families eager for a feel of life on the farm can pay $12 for admission, food, and amusements. It can cost a child $1 to frolic in a pile of straw or pick a flower. Some farms have mazes cut into their cornfields that can take a person forty-five minutes to navigate. Iovine reports that one farmer in Arizona makes up to $15,000 on a good weekend. In 1994 Alaska and Oklahoma introduced agritourism as official parts of their state tourism policies.
The catalyst for many of these farmers to take up agritainment was economic pressure. Sometimes a Christian, or a church, can resemble an entertainment farmer. For whatever reason, we are diverted from the central purpose of producing a crop. Fruitfulness is God’s will for every Christian and every church.(1)
Individually we lose our focus on just what our purpose is. We often attend church for all the wrong reasons. We go it’s the thing to do. We go because we want to be entertained for an hour. Worst yet we go out of obligation, we’re in attendance in body but not in mind or spirit. Or we go thinking we’ll throw God a bone and He will be grateful to us, and now would owe us something. We lose our focus. We often focus inward instead of outward. We have become a narcissistic society. It has become all about what I want, meeting my needs, what will make me happy. We forget our calling. Our call to be holy, our call to peace and unity, our call to do the will of God, our calling to be witnesses to the end of the earth. We forget. Rick Warren’s runaway bestseller, "The Purpose-Driven Life," begins with the terse sentence, “It’s not about you.”
2 Timothy 1:9a (NKJV) who has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
It is all about God and His purposes. He called us with a Holy Calling. It is not to be taken lightly, or at our convenience. It is all about the purposes of God. Paul is writing this heart felt letter to Timothy. As far as we know, this is the last thing Paul wrote before his death which was soon in coming. Paul is pouring his heart out to young Timothy telling him what is important. It is not about what we want. One thing is for sure, we certainly have not been called by God to fit in with the world.
2 Timothy 1:9 (NKJV) who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
It is not about our works, not about what I have done or going to do. The fact is my works will never be good enough for God. My past works does not matter. My purposes does not matter. It is all about God purposes, not ours.
Romans 8:28 (NKJV) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
We know this verse, but the key to understanding this verse is the last phrase, “who are the called according to His purpose.” And just what is the purpose of God? What is the goal we should be aiming for?
1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
It is laying hold of eternal life. And what is the purpose of Eternal life?
1 Corinthians 1:9 (NKJV) God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Eternal life is eternal fellowship with Jesus. And that eternal fellowship begins now. It is all about knowing Jesus.
John 17:3 (NKJV) And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Can you begin to see how all this fits together? It is all about knowing Jesus. It is about our fellowship with Him. We have not been called to a religion, we have been called to a relationship.
2 Timothy 1:9b (NKJV) but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
God had this plan from the very beginning. Before the earth was created God had this plan for us. Our calling itself is from eternity past. This holy calling is discussed in detail in the first 3 chapters of Ephesians. Let me summarized this Holy calling from God: We were chosen, predestined, to be adopted as sons, accepted as beloved, we were redeemed through the sacrificial blood of Christ, sealed with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit given to us as a down payment for our eternal inheritance to come. Considering all that God has done for us and lovingly given to us by His grace, how can we “willy nilly” disregard His call on our lives and do our own thing? God purposes will not be cancelled or annulled by anyone or anything:
Isaiah 14:27 (NKJV) For the LORD of hosts has purposed, And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, And who will turn it back?”
You see the purposes of God had been a mystery to world. But it has been revealed to us.
2 Timothy 1:10 (NKJV) but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
When Jesus came, one of His purposes was to reveal these very mysteries.
Mark 4:11 (NKJV) And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,
These mysteries of the Kingdom has been given to us, His people, to us, His church. Now God has purposed that these mysteries be shared to the world through us.
Colossians 1:26–27 (NKJV) the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We have the purpose of having a relationship with Jesus, and to be in fellowship with Him. This we are to spread to the world. And how does that work. Let’s back up to the beginning of our focal verses:
Look in your Bibles, the first word in verse 8 is “Therefore.” Since it is drawing a conclusion, let’s start with the preceding verse.
2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
We are not to fear. We are to be bold because we have the very Spirit of God which is power itself.
2 Timothy 1:8 (NKJV) Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God,
We are not to be ashamed of the Gospel. We have a ministry marked by the very power of God through His Holy Spirit, and with the Love of God flowing through us by the relationship we have with His Son Jesus Christ, we will stand against all opponents, and we will not be ashamed. Today we there are attacks against those who dare mention God in public places. You want to be really attacked? Just bring out the name of Jesus. You want to really offend someone? Say that Jesus is not a way to heaven and to God, He is the only way. Jesus called us to be His witnesses. We are not to be ashamed. What did Jesus say?
Matthew 10:32–33 (NKJV) “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
We need to tell the world about our relationship with Jesus, and not be ashamed.
"nor of me His prisoner"
Paul called himself a prisoner of Christ because Paul was in a Roman prison because of Christ. In Paul’s day, to identify with one in prison would implicate yourself. To visit one in prison my land yourself in prison because you may be implicated by association. What do we identify with? We are quickly approaching the day when identifying with Jesus Christ and those in His church (His true Church) will invite persecution upon themselves Paul goes on to say:
"but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God,"
Now here is a tough lesson. Identifying with Christ, being His witness, will result in persecution and suffering.
2 Timothy 3:12 (NKJV) Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
Yet that same persecution will increase our dependence on Jesus, bring us into closer fellowship with Him. Throughout Church history, the church grew stronger in times of persecution. And when we are persecuted, we give glory to God.
1 Peter 4:16 (NKJV) Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
Remember, we have been given the Spirit of power and love, and a sound mind. We know the word. We are not to fear the world. Jesus tells us:
Matthew 10:28 (NKJV) And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
The One we fear has conquered death itself. Go back to the end verse 10.
2 Timothy 1:10b (NKJV) but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
Why would we be ashamed, what is there to fear?
1 Corinthians 15:55 (NKJV) “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
And Paul reminds us that was his mission, which is what He was called to do:
2 Timothy 1:11 (NKJV) to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.
And that is why Paul had found trouble wherever he went. He was faithful to His calling.
2 Timothy 1:12 (NKJV) For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
Paul suffered but he was never ashamed.
"for I know whom I have believed"
The Geek verb for “have believed” is in the perfect and active tenses. It is a completed action that is still in effect. Paul trusted Jesus then, and he is trusting Him now, even in the face of death.
"And am persuaded"
Paul is absolutely convinced – there is no doubt in his mind that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him (NIV says the He is able to guard). Just what is it that Paul committed to Jesus? Put into context of this whole letter, Paul commits to Jesus: 1. His very Life, His soul and Spirit for Eternity. 2. Those converted through his preaching of the Gospel, and 3. The work that Paul began and is leaving to others.
"until that Day."
“That Day” is a favorite expression of Paul. “That Day” when Jesus will return. That day of Judgement, that Day of the Lord. Because Paul was not ashamed,
because Paul had a holy calling from God because Paul did not have spirit of fear, but spirit of power and love, and because He has committed Jesus to keep and guard his mind body and soul for all eternity, because He knows the plans of God from before time began will never be usurped by anyone or anything. Paul can live in confidence, which is based on the fellowship he has with His lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s life was one filled with trials so that he might know Him more.
God’s purpose for you is to have a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. Do you know Jesus, Do you have a relationship or a religion? Are you in fellowship with Him now? It is all about Jesus. Are we keeping our eyes on Jesus or ourselves? Has Jesus called you with a holy calling? His purpose for you and me is to know Him more, to have eternal fellowship and that fellowship begins here and now The way He leads us is to bring us closer to Him.
He calls for our obedience. What is He calling you for today?
(1) Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 187.
