Faithful Teachers
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many
witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
2 Timothy 2:2
As a young man, Timothy struggled to maintain personal holiness and moral purity. He was even showing tendencies to be ashamed of the gospel under the violent threats of Nero and others who opposed Christ. Life was hard. Resolve to stand firm in his faith was waning. While our circumstances may vary, none of us is a stranger to these battles. With Timothy, we all need to be reminded of the amazing promise Jesus gave to His frightened disciples in Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,” which came upon them at Pentecost. Suddenly, supernaturally, they were “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). And it is thrilling to know that this same power is available to every believer through our union with Christ, enabling us “to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, according to the power that works in [us]” (Eph. 3:20). But when we fail to access this power, the muscles of our faith will atrophy, our reverence for God and His Word will gradually disappear, other loves will replace our love for Christ, and we will become pleasers of men rather than of God.
Obviously, Paul did not want this to happen to Timothy. He wanted him to “be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like [a man, and] be strong” (1 Cor. 16:13)—a summary exhortation Paul gave to the Corinthians that can be paraphrased as follows:
Be watchful for spiritual adversaries;
Be firm in Bible doctrine;
Be courageously mature in character and conduct;
Be strengthened by the power of Christ.
So Paul exhorts Timothy, saying, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). Then he immediately instructs him concerning how he could do this. He wanted him to have a clear picture in his mind that would help him know how to avail himself of Christ’s all-sufficient grace that would strengthen him in the great battle for personal holiness and truth—a lesson applicable for all believers. However, his first instruction seems odd at first glance. But upon further inspection, it makes perfect sense. He begins by saying, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (v. 2).
He’s essentially saying, “If you want to find strength in weakness, if you want to tap into the abundant resources already within you because you are in Christ, then get serious about being a teacher of the Word of God.”
Because of the moral freefall in our culture, persecution is mounting, and many Christians are compromising morally and doctrinally. Many are seeking the approval of men rather than God (Gal. 1:10) and joining churches that are little more than carnivals of cultural acceptance rather than “the church of the living God the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Tim. 1:15). When this happens, a commitment to personal holiness will diminish and a love for the world will eclipse a love for the truth. Eventually, people will have no real love for Christ and no longing to experience His power and presence in their lives.
May we guard against this by being diligent teachers of the Word in our sphere of influence, that Christ might be exalted, and we might experience His power in our weakness.
© COPYRIGHT NOTICE 2023 BY DAVID HARRELL AND SHEPHERD’S FIRE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
