“Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” (2 Timothy 2:10 (ESV)
In 2 Timothy 2:8-13, the Apostle Paul wrote to his young protégé Timothy about the challenges of ministry. Ministry is difficult. Serving the Lord can be tough. What sustains the believer in Christ and the disciple of the Lord is the preeminence of Christ (2:8-9a) and the power of the Word of God (2:9b). Both of these biblical truths enable the servant of the Lord to endure.
Paul called Timothy to endure like a teacher, a soldier, and athlete, and a farmer (vs. 1-7). A teacher does not remain in the study or office but rather teaches in the classroom and from the pulpit. A soldier does not remain in the barracks but engages the enemy on the battlefield. An athlete does not compete sitting on the bleachers but rather on the field, track, diamond or court. A farmer does not remain in the farmhouse but spends his working hours in the field.
What does it mean to endure? What is endurance? Endurance is the capacity to withstand hardship or adversity, especially with faith and patience. Strength is need to endure, whether the work demands the physical strength of the body or the spiritual strength of the soul.
“Timothy has reached a low point, apparently, in his spiritual life and ministry. He is in danger of being ashamed of the Lord and ashamed of Paul. He is failing to use his gift as He ought to. He’s feeling the pressure of persecution from the elders of the church at Ephesus who have defected from the faith and whom he is trying to correct. He is also feeling some animosity and rejection from the congregation at the church at Ephesus because they’re living in ungodliness, and he must set them right,” explains Dr. John MacArthur.
“He definitely feels the heat of the Roman Empire as it moves to persecute Christians. Paul who writes him is in prison at the time of his writing and awaiting his own execution. And Timothy knows that could come to him. The ministry has not been easy. Timothy is young. He is naturally timid. He has his own sins to deal with. He tends to be a little bit weak in some areas of defending the faith against some high-powered philosophy. And so, he’s really struggling.”
“It would be a time in his life when he’s looking for sympathy, a time when he’s crawling into a corner and expecting somebody to come in the corner and soothe his brow, and give him a cold drink, and pat him a little bit, and endeavor to sort of raise his sense of worth. It’s a time in his life when he’s licking his wounds. There may be a little bit of a “poor me” mentality. Even self-pity may have sort of overwhelmed him because of the difficulty. In that situation, he is confronted by the apostle Paul, who doesn’t give him sympathy at all, but rather gives him strength. He says, in effect, “What you need, Timothy, is not sympathy for the difficulty of your situation, what you need is strength for the difficulty of your situation,” concludes Dr. MacArthur.
How is your endurance? Have your weeks been filled with difficult and long days. Do you go to sleep exhausted and wake up tired? Make sure you take a weekly sabbath day for rest, and guard it tenaciously. Learn to say no to good things when they interfere and conflict with the best thing. Make sure to delegate (Eph. 4:11-12). Also realize you cannot do everything, but you can endure by doing the one thing the Lord called you to do; preach and proclaim the glorious gospel.
Scottish preacher High Black understood the church has always endured while in the midst of suffering.
“Christ’s Church has survived through her power to endure. She was willing to give up anything to hold her ground, willing to pour out blood like water in order to take root. The mustard seed, planted with ears and watered with blood, stood the hazard of every storm, gripped tenaciously the soil, twining its roots around the rocks, reared its head a little higher and spread out its branches a little fuller, and when the tempest came, held on for very life. And then, never hastening, never resting, went on in the divine task of growing, and at last became the greatest of trees, giving shelter to the birds of the air in its wide-spreading branches. So is the kingdom of heaven,” says Black.
“It is a true parable of the Church. She conquered violence not by violence, but by virtue. She overcame force not by force, but by patience. Her sons were ready to die, to die daily. ‘It was given unto them not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for his sake,’ Philippians 1:29. They would not be stamped out. When their persecutors thought they were scattered like chaff, it turned out they were scattered like seed. The omnipotent power of Rome was impotent before such resolution. The battle, not the barracks is the place to make soldiers. The Church met the empire and broke it through the sheer power to endure. She was willing to suffer and to suffer and to suffer, and afterward to conquer,” concludes Black
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1–5 (ESV)
May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have an enduring day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
His Word Today 