This is our pastor’s newsletter article for the October 2015 edition of our congregational newsletter.
In our midweek Bible class, we are studying the New Testament book of 2 Timothy. It’s a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to (you guessed it!) Pastor Timothy. Although it’s written for a pastor, it still contains many truths that also applies to all Christians.
2 Timothy was Paul’s second letter to Timothy (the name gives it away, doesn’t it?). In 1 Timothy, we learn that Paul appointed Timothy to be the pastor of the congregation at Ephesus, mainly to “clean house.” False teaching and practices had taken root there, and Timothy was going to be God’s fix-it man, placed there by the Apostle Paul.
Four to five years later, Paul writes another letter to Pastor Timothy. But the Ephesian congregation is largely unchanged. Church life in Ephesus was still going badly, with people still opposing Timothy (2 Timothy 1:4, 2:3, 3:8, and 4:3). Others had left the congregation (2 Timothy 1:15, 2:17-18, and 4:3-4).
And to make it worse, we find Timothy suffering from pastoral PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). His pastoral courage had left him, and people in the congregation had brought him to tears (2 Timothy 1:4). We even find Paul warning him about cowardice and shame (2 Timothy 1:6-8). Paul urges Timothy to suffer if need be (2 Timothy 1:8) and fulfill his ministry (2 Timothy 4:5).
Timothy was in Ephesus for the long haul, although we can easily see that he may have wanted to serve somewhere else or even stop being a pastor. It’s in this despondency that we find Paul pointing Timothy to a “saying” they both knew. This saying may have been part of a baptismal hymn used in the early Church.
The “saying,” in 2 Timothy 2:11-13, goes like this:
If we have died with Him [Jesus],
. True life we’ll gain;
If we endure with Him,
. In Him, we’ll reign
But those who disown Him,
. He will disclaim;
If our faith comes to naught
. His never wanes.
He is ever faithful–
. He doesn’t change!
What you’ve just read is your pastor adapting the text into something more akin to English-language poetry. He has tried to express the information in the “saying” and the “feel.”
This saying starts out, “If we have died with Him.” Paul wrote that to Timothy—who was still alive! And yet Paul was saying that Timothy was dead in Christ. How could Timothy be dead in Christ when he was still alive? That death took place in baptism (Romans 6:3).
Understanding that we have died with Christ in baptism makes these seemingly cryptic passages in Revelation understandable. “The victor [those in Christ] will not be harmed by the second death” (Revelation 2:11). “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord” (Revelation 14:13). “Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection [Christ’s resurrection through baptism]! The second death has no power over them” (Revelation 20:6). The dead are the baptized. And so, when a baptized child of God later dies, he then has a “second death.”
But God calls His baptized to remain in the faith, to endure in Him. Those who do so will reign with God after the resurrection of the body. But what happens if someone doesn’t endure? That’s what the baptismal hymn delves into next.
If someone denies or disowns Jesus, Jesus will do the same to him. Now, this isn’t revenge or payback. When a person denies Jesus, he is affirming that he’s good enough on his own—He doesn’t need or want what Jesus has to give him. He has walked away from Christ and His gifts of life and salvation. His righteousness is never good enough.
But, next comes the most beautiful passage in the hymn. What if life has ground you down into nothing? What if the fallen corruption of this world has left you battered and beaten like the Good Samaritan left for dead on the side of the road? You’re still saved by grace!
Jesus is faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. And so, even remaining in the faith is God’s doing; what the person does is disown God. That distinction may seem too cut and dry, but that’s how it is in Christ’s Church. God gives you the gift of faith and keeps you in it; it’s you who messes it up. He remains faithful.
So, don’t look to yourself, for the baptismal hymn credits us for disowning Christ. Instead, always look to Christ, for He remains faithful even when you have nothing to give to God. But thanks be to God that doesn’t describe our entire life here, just the worst moments. Indeed, “weeping may stay for the night, but joy arrives in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). Amen.
