As always happens, you’ll want to listen to this as I don’t stick to the following as a “script.” Just listen.
Imagine for a moment that you know your end is near. You have a dear friend that you haven’t seen in a while, and sadly, this friend is far away. You don’t really know if you’ll get to see them again.
So you write a letter. There are so many things you’d like to say, most of which will never get said. But there’s one thing – that one thing – that you feel deep in your bosom, that one thing that has to get said. You decide to build your letter around that one thing.
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Ti 2:1, CSB
We don’t know if Paul’s second letter to his young protégé Timothy was the last thing he ever wrote, but it’s about the last thing we know of.
We know that these were tough times, some three decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul’s back in prison again, and if he was sensing that this might be where he’d spend his last days, history surmises that he was correct.
But it wasn’t just Paul facing tough times. Christians everywhere are being persecuted, and particularly the ones who haven’t fled for other lands. It won’t be long before Nero becomes the emperor of the Roman empire, and his brutality will make previous administrations look tame by comparison.
“Hey, Timothy, I just wanted to remind you – don’t forget to rekindle that flame inside you. God hasn’t given you a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.”
I imagine Timothy reading this. He’s come a long way since being born in Lystra – in what is now Turkey. He once worried about being too young. He’s sometimes been frowned upon because his Jewish mom married a Greek guy.
“So there are those, my dear Timothy, who talk out their ying-yangs, and they have something that looks like Godliness, but they deny it’s power. So you…don’t do that. Be strong…and how? In the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
Friends, that’s what I needed today. To look over Timothy’s shoulder as he’s reading this letter from Paul, not written to us, but preserved for us.
There is only one way to be strong. When the world rages on the outside, and your fears and failures rage on the inside, there is only one way. It’s not in appearances, it’s in preaching the gospel to yourself. Reminding yourself that there is one source of power, love, and discernment – the good news that it is Jesus’ work; his finished work on the cross and his continuing work through you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I want to wrap with a bit from Charles Spurgeon, a reflection based on this exhortation of Paul’s to Timothy. Here’s Spurgeon, including that Elizabethan language:
Christ has grace without measure in himself, but he hath not retained it for himself. As the reservoir empties itself into the pipes, so hath Christ emptied out his grace for his people.
“Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” He seems only to have in order to dispense to us. He stands like the fountain, always flowing, but only running in order to supply the empty pitchers and the thirsty lips which draw nigh unto it. Like a tree, he bears sweet fruit, not to hang on boughs, but to be gathered by those who need.
Grace, whether its work be to pardon, to cleanse, to preserve, to strengthen, to enlighten, to quicken, or to restore, is ever to be had from him freely and without price; nor is there one form of the work of grace which he has not bestowed upon his people.
As the blood of the body, though flowing from the heart, belongs equally to every member, so the influences of grace are the inheritance of every saint united to the Lamb; and herein there is a sweet communion between Christ and his Church, inasmuch as they both receive the same grace. Christ is the head upon which the oil is first poured; but the same oil runs to the very skirts of the garments, so that the meanest saint has an unction of the same costly moisture as that which fell upon the head. This is true communion when the sap of grace flows from the stem to the branch, and when it is perceived that the stem itself is sustained by the very nourishment which feeds the branch.
As we day by day receive grace from Jesus, and more constantly recognize it as coming from him, we shall behold him in communion with us, and enjoy the felicity of communion with him. Let us make daily use of our riches, and ever repair to him as to our own Lord in covenant, taking from him the supply of all we need with as much boldness as men take money from their own purse.[1]
No matter your failures, no matter your follies, preach the gospel to yourself.
Turn, again, from your junk and back to Jesus, and preach the gospel to yourself.
It is his covenant faithfulness, not ours, that is our confidence. It is his strength, not ours, by which we experience power, love, and self-control.
I know of no other source of true hope except in the one thing – the one person – who is perfectly trustworthy and capable. Its fruit – his fruit – is humility and boldness. Anything less, meaning in our own strength or righteousness, will leave us vulnerable and empty.
He loves you.
So do I.
Preach the gospel to yourself.
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
[1] C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).