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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
2 Timothy 02: A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus
Ever wondered what it takes to stay unwavering in your faith amidst life's challenges? In our latest episode, "A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus," we explore Paul's final letter to Timothy, uncovering the profound metaphors of a soldier, athlete, and farmer. These powerful symbols illuminate the importance of focus, discipline, and savoring the journey in the Christian walk. We delve into Paul's call to endure suffering for the gospel, emphasizing the unrestrainable power of God's word. Through trustworthy sayings, we discuss the intertwined themes of dying and living with Christ, enduring hardships, and maintaining unity over core beliefs while sidestepping pointless disputes.
As we transition to "Spiritual Battle and Course Correction," we tackle the essential struggles over truth, Jesus' identity, and sin discernment. This segment challenges us to engage in love-fueled debates while recognizing when to avoid needless quarrels. Reflecting on our spiritual paths, we highlight the need to identify and cut out distractions to stay focused as Christ's soldiers. With insights from 2 Timothy 1:7, we draw strength to confront battles against worldly temptations, fleshly desires, and demonic influences. Join us in praying for wisdom and unity as we strive to fulfill our divine mission with power, love, and self-discipline.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, hello, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon, today. 2 Timothy, chapter 2, today's title is A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus. A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus. I love how Paul, as he is writing this final letter to Timothy, is looking at this as an athlete or as a soldier, and he's saying once you're in the service of the Lord man, you focus on the things of God. And I think that's a wonderful way to course correct our perspective on how we view the things of God in our life. I'll get into that in just a moment but, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. Let us know your questions. We want to be able to help you take those next steps and understand the evidences that we can believe and trust in who God says he is. And, as always, we all gather together at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook and man. The more we dig, the more we find, and there's so much in 2 Timothy. So I hope that you go there, you enjoy it and we just grow together.
Speaker 1:In Jesus' name, if you have your Bible and open up with me to 2 Timothy, chapter 2, just to kind of catch you up again, I want you to remember that this is the end of the apostle Paul's life. He's been arrested again, he's been put in a Roman prison again. Only this time he's not getting out to be set free, like physically. He's gonna get set free, you know, to go be in heaven pretty soon, and he's aware of it. He knows that the end is coming Somewhere. Peter has either already been killed or he's getting close, and so really persecution is coming down hard. We're about 62 to 65 AD at this point, and it is one of those days where Paul knows he's probably writing his last letter. And so in 1 Timothy chapter excuse me, 2 Timothy chapter 1, he writes about how, even though he's in this dire situation, man God has not given me a spirit of fear and intimidation, but of power and of love and of self-discipline. Well, now he's writing to Timothy and he talks about this idea of having a perspective, of staying focused so that you can fight that good fight. So if you have your Bibles with me, I want to open up to 2 Timothy, chapter 2.
Speaker 1:Let's read this, starting with verse 1. Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus. You have heard me teach these things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. End your suffering along with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1:Soldiers do not get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. The athletes cannot win a prize unless they follow the rules, and a hardworking farmer should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor. Think about what I'm saying. The Lord will help you understand all of these things. Always remember that Jesus Christ, a descendant of King David, was raised from the dead. This is the good news that I preach, and because I preach this good news, I am suffering and have been chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained, so I am willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory to Christ Jesus, to those God has chosen.
Speaker 1:I'll pause again Now. What he's saying is is he's saying remember what I taught you, now go and share it with others. And he's saying that, just like a soldier, when he is enlisted into the military and he's on a military campaign, he focuses on the campaign. Well then he switches metaphors and he says an athlete, they can focus, but they have to obey the rules. So in other words, there's boundaries, so we focus, there's boundaries. And then he said he switches metaphors again and he said but also, a farmer is the first one to enjoy the labor. So he said that we stay focused, we stay within our boundaries and we enjoy the goodness of the journey. And so he's just throwing all kinds of metaphors out there. And you know, but that's what he's trying to say.
Speaker 1:And then he also says this is the good news. He says the good news is that Jesus rose from. Because he rose from the dead I'm preaching. And he said it is because of the good news I am suffering and now have been chained like a criminal. Remember when we talked about this yesterday? And that is this we have to be sure that we push back against some of these unfair and ungodly teachings that say that if you're following Christ, you're never going to have a problem, that everything's going to go okay. Actually, I believe in Psalms it says many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God rescues them from them all. And I love how he says that I may be in here suffering because of the good news, but the word of God cannot be chained. So he says I am willing to endure anything if it brings salvation and eternal glory. I am willing to endure anything if it brings salvation and eternal glory. That's what he's teaching us to do is to fight the good fight and keep the faith. Verse 11 says this. This is a trustworthy saying. If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us, but if we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.
Speaker 1:Remind everyone about these things and command them, in God's presence, to stop fighting over words. Such arguments are useless and they can ruin those who hear them. So, in other words, he's saying keep the main thing, the main thing we say this all the time at our church that we're going to have unity over the essentials, we're going to have freedom over the non-essentials, but to show love in all things. And that's what he's saying. Remind everyone about what's important and command them to stop. Stop fighting over just mere words, things that don't matter, and here's why Verse 15, work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who works correctly and who correctly explains the word of truth.
Speaker 1:Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior. This kind of talk spreads like cancer, and in the case of Hymenaeus and Philistius, they have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred, and in this way, they have turned some people away from the faith. But God's truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription the Lord knows, those who are his and all who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil. I'll pause again, and one of the things that Paul is talking about is he is saying that, as we are standing on the truth, we have to make sure we're standing on the truth, not standing on predictions. That was one of the things that he was saying. That these two preachers were doing is they were trying to say things that God's word didn't say. They were talking about predictions and possibilities and the resurrection had already happened, things they couldn't prove things that were fun to hear but not true. And we have to be so very careful that we don't build our faith on anything that's not in God's word, because all that stuff sounds fun and all that stuff can be interesting to study, but he said God's truth stands firm like a foundation stone. That talks about knowing those who are his and turning away from evil. And so there's so much inside God's word that we don't have enough time left to focus on predictions and silliness, and that's what Paul is encouraging this young pastor, timothy, to do, and that is fight the good faith of keeping the important things important. Verse 20 says this In a wealthy home, some utensils are made of gold and silver and some are made of wood and clay.
Speaker 1:The expensive utensils are used for special occasions and the cheap ones for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil of honorable use, your life will be clean and you'll be ready for the master to use you for every good work. I heard someone say one time pause again that they said I stopped praying for promotion and I started praying to be promotable. How many times does God not use us because we're not clean? You know it's like the idea of in my house we have different chores and I've got one of my daughters who her chore is to do the dishes and she doesn't like doing the dishes. So she will let the dishes pile up until she's told to do the dishes, or until whatever dish she wants to use is dirty, because it doesn't matter if it's dirty until you want to use it, and then if it's dirty, then Well, you can't use it, so you got to go wash it.
Speaker 1:How many times is it that God has not used us? And we're sitting there, we're begging and we're pleading God, use me. God, I want to be effective in your kingdom and I wonder how many times God is going. I'd love to, but there's so much sin and so much addiction in your life that I can't use you the way I want to. And that's what Paul is saying Keep yourself clean and God will use you when the time comes for every good work Verse 22,. Run away from anything that stimulates youthful lust. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.
Speaker 1:Again, I say don't get involved with foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be kind to everyone, be able to teach and patient with difficult people. Praise the Lord All right, verse 25. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people's hearts and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap, for they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you that last section is one of the reasons why I don't talk about some things he said. Don't get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of God must not quarrel, but be kind to everyone, able to teach and patient with difficult people. Right? So when I was younger in my ministry, I loved to debate things that don't matter. You know what I mean. Like I would debate on whether or not there were dinosaurs on the ark. Was it a seven day of creation or seven epochs of time? An important one, but is it essential to salvation? People would ask which of the four gospels was written first. I want to die on one of those hills, and here's one, and this is maybe where I upset some of you, but you need to know because of just the thing I don't enjoy talking about what the word is eschatology, last times doctrine. And you know why? Because I have studied it relentlessly and what I have noticed about every systematic doctrine on the end times, everybody has at least one verse that they have got to find a way to squeeze in, but it don't work because it doesn't fit their doctrine. And so it's an endless debate. And here's the thing we don't know. It hasn't happened yet. So we can all have great guesses, we can all have wonderful ideas and praise the Lord it is so much fun to talk about. But I learned from a young age or not from a young age I was much older than I'd like to admit before I learned this that I wasn't going to get involved with foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. And the reason why I call it foolish and ignorant is because it's foolish to fight over it and it's ignorant because we don't know. We can have wonderful guesses and there's so many things that are important, but is it that important? And so we're going to end this today with me asking you those questions.
Speaker 1:Paul lays down so many challenging things. That talks about being a good soldier of Christ Jesus. He says that when you're a good soldier of Christ Jesus. You are focused on the goal. You're not going to get focused on all this other stuff. You're not going to get distracted. Why? Because this is where the battle is. I'm going to stay focused. And so he talks about don't pray for promotion, pray to be promotable. Run away from sin so you don't disqualify yourselves. Don't get involved in foolish stuff that don't make any difference. Instead, focus on the truth, because there are some battles to fight.
Speaker 1:I think there's battles to fight over the nature of truth, the nature of Jesus as the Son of God. The nature of this is a sin. This is not a sin. Those battles need to be fought, and I think we we got to be careful, because if we're not careful, we go too far the other way and we just say you know, I just want to love everybody, I don't want to fight over everything. Well, there's some things that, because I love you, I will engage in debate with you, but there's other things that's got nothing to do with our salvation. It's just not worth it. So here's my question for you end, it's just not worth it. So here's my question for you Is there anything, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, that you've allowed yourself to get sidetracked over.
Speaker 1:That you need to let go of, because the battle is all around you, the battle for truth. At any given time, we have three different enemies. We have the world, the flesh and the devil, and so we have to figure out what are those battles. And is there anything that you have done, anything that you are struggling with right now? Or maybe you're not struggling and you should be struggling with right now, or maybe you've gotten involved in conspiracy theories everywhere.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is for you. I want to let the Holy Spirit bring it to your attention, but is there anything in your life that is distracting you from being a focused soldier of Christ Jesus? If so, it's time for course correction, because we're in a spiritual battle Now. We've already won the victory through Christ. When Jesus rose from the dead. He won the victory, but now we're taking ground for the gospel. Are you able to take ground or are you busy being distracted? Let's course correct and let's get in the fight so we can fight the good fight and take everything that God has for us. Let's pray, god. Thank you so much. Thank you, god, that you are with us and you're for us in every way. I pray you'll give us wisdom to take every next step. In Jesus' name. We pray, amen. And what God's word says in 2 Timothy, 1, verse 7, god has not given us a spirit of fear and intimidation, but of power of love and of self-discipline. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for 2 Timothy, chapter 3.
