# 44 2019 Devotion, 2 Tim. 1. Discouragement! Read all of chapter 1. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw Gremar and I closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
2 Timothy 1:8 “So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God”.
Paul begins his 2nd. letter to Timothy with a blessing and a prayer of thanksgiving. Paul is writing Timothy while being imprisoned in Rome for the second time, now ruled by Nero. Persecution of followers of Jesus, Paul’s imprisonment and his desire to communicate with Timothy and with the people where Timothy was ministering are the reasons for his letter. This time Paul was not restricted to his rented house but he was in a dungeon. He is discouraged and has been rejected by those who supported him in the past.
Paul addresses Timothy as “my dear son, night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” Paul commends his faith that Paul also saw in Timothy’s mother and grand mother. “For this reason,” pointing to Timothy’s faith, “fan into flame the gift of God”. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” Besides the encouragement, Paul gives Timothy and us a description of salvation in Christ Jesus. We are “called to a Holy life”, salvation has nothing to do with what we have done, but only by “grace given us in Christ Jesus who “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
What does Paul say to us in our time? Paul’s world was broken and we live in a broken world as well. The difference of life style of believers and unbelievers could not be more extreme in that time and in our time. Followers of Jesus want to do good out of gratitude and by imitating Jesus. As a result, we are tempted to see ourselves in a more positive light. But Paul says no, what we do has nothing to do with salvation, it is a gift of God’s grace in Christ from before time. However, Paul reminds Timothy and us “to fan into flame the gift of God”. Paul is talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit displayed by the gift of faith. Christ is life and “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”. The Gospel is simple: see Jn.3:16-18.
Paul is discouraged; he is in jail, he is near to the end of his life, he has been rejected. He writes: “everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me.”
We are discouraged today, traditional churches are in decline, for the the most insignificant reasons people leave the places where God has placed them. There is a lack of excitement about the Gospel; the Gospel is in our heads but do we experience it in our lives as if the Gospel is in our hearts? We know that the church belongs to Jesus Christ and Paul encourages us as well: “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” Followers of Jesus, our work is not in vain! Praise be to God!
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