2 Corinthians 12:9 is a verse in which “grace” refers to God's helping us to live a strong Christian life. It takes us a step beyond merely standing for God against such things as ridicule, hardship, and corruption in the church. Those things are difficult, but they are all nevertheless external. That is, they are in the world about us and attack us from there rather than being deep within ourselves. 2 Corinthians 12:9 takes us within ourselves to individual deficiencies, personal handicaps, and humiliating limitations, telling us that God's grace is sufficient for us even in these areas.
But there is something about this that is even more frightening than the vices Paul has listed, and that is what he says in 2 Timothy 3:5. For having described this evil future culture by the words “ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited” and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” Paul adds what is surely the most shocking of all these statements, namely, “having a form of godliness but denying its power.”
Yesterday we looked at the first three metaphors of encouragement. We now need to look at the other three.
A workman (v. 15). A good workman knows his materials and can cut, fashion, or mold them to make the object he wants or has been told to make. In Timothy's case, the material to be used is the Word of God, the Bible, and the work is to teach it clearly. The Greek text of verse 15 (“to cut straight”) means a bit more than any of the translations seems to convey, since the true meaning is probably to be measured against the errors of Hymenaeus and Philetus, whom Paul mentions. They had “wandered away from the truth” (v. 18). That is, their teaching was off the straight track. It was faulty. Consequently, anyone who followed it would go astray and miss the right destination. The Bible teacher who is “approved” by God does not deviate from the straight path of Bible teaching and therefore does not lead his listeners astray.
The first of these pressure-points was ridicule. Paul discusses it in chapter 1, where he urges Timothy not to be ashamed either of the Lord, the gospel or himself.
What a powerful weapon of Satan shame is! A disciple of Jesus Christ may be strong in many ways, able perhaps to stand against the worst kinds of physical threats. We may tell Jesus, as Peter did, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you” (Mark 14:31). But if even a little servant girl makes fun of us, saying, “You also were with that Nazarene,” a moment or two later we can be found denying we ever knew Jesus or professed the gospel. Peter said, “I don't know what you're talking about” (Mark 14:68, 71). In Asia everyone else had deserted Paul. It would have been easy for Timothy to go with the flow and so dissociate himself from Paul and the gospel he had fully and fearlessly taught.
Paul was concerned for the preservation of the gospel. This note runs throughout the letter like a leitmotif, and in the first letter too: “Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care,” says Paul at the end of the first letter (1 Tim 6:20). In the second letter he tells him: “Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2Tim. 1:14); “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it” (2Tim. 3:14, 15); and “I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Tim. 4:1, 2). The text I am focusing on says, “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim. 2:1, 2). Paul had preserved the wholeness and purity of the gospel in his lifetime. He was about to be martyred. So he commits his charge to Timothy, who is instructed to guard the gospel too.
