So maybe you’ve heard it said, ‘read your bible’ so you tried and failed. Our hope as leaders is that all of us will pick up God’s word and come to understand the true nature of God. After all, the bible is God’s Word curated over centuries detailing His nature, His will, the meaning of life and humanity’s historical interactions with Him. The Bible details the hidden keys to the Kingdom. Hence, the reason we are reviewing a new book each week.
This week we move to another couple of letters written by Paul from a jail. The first first is written around 5 years before the second. He is writing specifically to his protege Timothy. I like to think of the first letter as this scene from Karate Kid. Timothy knew Paul and all he was going through but might not have understood the process Paul was using to train him.
We shouldn’t be too surprised by this. The truth is good teachers rarely describe every aspect of the training. There are too many unknowns and everyone’s learning experience will be different. However, the failure to achieve one’s goals often comes down to a couple of basic fundamentals.
The Goal is not specific
They are doubtful
They don’t take action
The goal is not motivating or inspiring
They are not committed
We must begin our goal pursuits with as much realistic acknowledgment of the effort required as possible. Then, once we begin, we must focus and refocus on the reward and keep the effort in perspective.
Most people fail when the trap of pride rears its ugly face. We begin to think about ourselves and the personal cost. Pride is essentially self-worship. Anything we accomplish in this world is not possible were it not for God enabling and sustaining us. “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
Humility and willingness are cornerstones of lifelong learning. They are also the secret to achieving God’s goal for our lives - to do His will. It means thinking of yourself less while remaining willing to endure the uncomfortableness to achieve the goal. It’s having trust in the outcome.
Paul mentions this goal or outcome often. In his second letter, when the end was near, he reiterated his goal as well as his protege. Take a listen from 2 Timothy beginning in the 2:8
8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
The gospel is Jesus. God came to earth as the Messiah to save his creation(Ephesians 1:13). No one on earth could do what God did(Romans 1:16). He promised a future coming. He came. He died and rose again (Acts 3:19) so that everyone, through God’s grace and power, came to understand the significance of choosing to accept God’s offer to repent (amend) of our sin and call on the name of the Lord to save us (Romans 10:9-10, 13). A process we all are invited into, asked to keep in the forefront of our minds and invited to share with others.
Paul reiterates this understanding and goal, in the following verses
11 Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him, we will also live with him;
12 If we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we disown him, he will also disown us;
13 If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
Paul has been quite the example of living up to his commissioning, keeping the goal the priority and bringing others along. He has done what was asked of him and humbly asks others to join the cause. It’s probably the reason he seems so hard on those who wobble in their commitment. As a smart man and a born leader, he knew the temptation of position, power, prestige and resources should he recant and return to the establishment.
Any mature christian will tell you the world will keep calling. It’s subtle at first with doubt, later it comes in the exhaustion of planning and then even more when your efforts seem unfruitful.
In these two letters to Timothy, we see Timothy dealing with the infiltration of the culture. A successful leader in the world can be an asset but they can also be detrimental. They are an asset when they help navigate the world to achieve God’s mission. They can be a detriment when the pride of secular success dulls their sense of God’s direction and the need for short term results dictates direction instead of the Holy Spirit. The result of which becomes a church of division, strife and power struggles.
Christian leadership is different from other forms of leadership because it is focused on God's longer term goal over the immediate task at hand. God does not think in terms of day, months, years to accomplish a goal. Since he created the cosmos, our sun, moon, rotation of the earth and everything we measure time with, he is not bound by our constructs. He is actually beyond the constraints of time and space. Hence the reason Paul’s charge to timothy of what to do in the moment comes down to:
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
STRUGGLE, ENDURE AND KEEP FOCUSED ON GOD’s Goal as expressed by Jesus to his disciples in Matt 20:28: just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Creative: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/1-timothy/ or https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/2-timothy/
Karate Kid - wax on wax off - The Karate Kid: Wax On, Wax Off Training Scene (Pat Morita HD Clip)
References: Quest Bible Overviews p:1741-55, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wiersbe) Volume II, p. 11.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neuronarrative/202003/why-we-often-fail-reach-our-goals
https://www.gotquestions.org/pride-Bible.html
https://www.goalcast.com/top-10-reasons-people-fail-reach-goals/
