Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:6-14
Back in the 90’s there
was a certain brand of t-shirts that were extremely popular, especially if you
were a sporty type of person. The brand of the shirts was called No Fear, and
each shirt has some sort of either sarcastic or inspirational saying that
emphasized that notion of no fear. For example some of the lines on the shirts
included, “You must always push the limits, because if you never fail, you
never succeed. The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed on game day.
There’s only one thing worse than losing, it’s quitting.” And of course the
classic, “Losers quit when their tired, Winners quit when they’ve won.” These
shirts and the sayings on the shirt were meant to be motivational messages for
sports players to never give up, to always play your hardest, and to never
accept anything less than the best. The shirts were however also a way of
boasting about your own athletic prowess, they were a way of saying I know I am
good, and I have No fear in this upcoming game.
No Fear. Paul and Timothy may not have had motivational
t-shirts back in the day but this message of no fear is at the center of our passage
for today. Now of course message of No
fear differs drastically from the message of the shirts, Paul is not telling
Timothy to try to crush his competition, he is not telling him that failure is
not an option, there is no if you’re not first you’re last mentality, and he is
not telling Timothy to boast or trash talk, yet there are still so common
threads between the shirts and Paul’s message for Timothy. In Paul’s letter to
Timothy there is this theme of perseverance, of no fear of whatever may come your
way, and also though Paul is not telling Timothy to boast or trash talk, but
Paul is telling Timothy to speak up, to never cower from testifying about the
way God has worked in his life, and to hold fast to the truth of the Gospel.
Paul says, “7for
God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of
love and of self-discipline.
8 Do not be
ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join
with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God,9who
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but
according to his own purpose and grace.”
We find out in 1 Timothy that Timothy is a rather young
apostle, who has been working with Paul in spreading the Gospel. In chapter 4
of 1 Timothy Paul has to remind Timothy to not let anyone look down upon him
because he is young, but rather to set an example in his speech, his conduct,
his love, his faith and his purity. This shows us that there was already some
doubt or timidity in the mind and actions of Timothy. This is further
compounded by the fact that there were many false teachers that started to
emerge at the time, probably speaking messages that were more enticing, that
did not require much commitment from the people or on the other side relegating
truth and knowledge to a select few.
This is why Paul tells Timothy, “Hold to the
standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love
that are in Christ Jesus.14Guard the good treasure entrusted to you,
with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.” Timothy finds himself in
a situation where he has to fight for respect because of his age, and at the
same time must hold true to the Word of God while others in the world have
distorted the message. Many of us probably feel the same as Timothy, we see
something in our lives that makes us feel as if we have to fight for respect
whether it is our age, gender, economic status, level of education, whatever it
may be many of us feel that same pressure. And then we look at the world around
us and see the message distorted in so many ways. We see churches who have so
many rules and are so judgmental, that view themselves as having all the
answers and everyone else as being lesser. On the other side there is an idea
of Christianity that requires no commitment, no change in one’s life, no true
relationship with God We see all these
things and feel all of this pressure to do things that seem so big when we seem so little, but still
Paul tells Timothy and tells us as well, to have no fear.
At first this may sound like an assurance that nothing
bad will happen to us, that we will be saved like Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego in the furnace, or like Daniel in the lion’s den, but this not what
Paul is saying. In fact the opposite is true, Paul is telling us that when we
stand true to our testimony hardships are likely to come our way. Paul tells
about how he himself is imprisoned, in other letters Paul talks about the thorn
in his side. In fact Paul says, “Do not be ashamed,
then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me
in suffering for the gospel.” Paul invites us to join in suffering with him.
Why? Why should we
suffer because of our testimony? We suffer because of the gift that Jesus
Christ has given us through his own suffering. We suffer because God did not
give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of love, of power, and of
self-discipline. It is not that God wants us to suffer, but that God trusts us
as disciples of Christ, to help in changing the world by declaring the good
news of forgiveness of sins, the good news of the Resurrection, the good news
of eternal life, and the good news of the Kingom of God. It is because of this
good news that we risk suffering. We have come to accept Jesus in our lives
through someone else’s testimony in our lives, it may not have necessarily been
a verbal testimony, but they were a witness through the way they spoke and
lived their life. Now we have the great honor and great responsibility of being
that person in someone else’s life. We risk the suffering because the stakes
are so high, we risk the suffering because the message of Jesus Christ far
outweighs whatever may happen to us.
Throughout the passage
Paul also gives us hints at the most important reason that we are able to give
our witness with no fear. He says, “For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is
within you” “relying on the power of God,9who saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own
purpose and grace” Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of
the Holy Spirit living in us.” Did you hear it? The gift of God
that is within you, relying on the power of God, with the help of the Holy
Spirit living in us. Throughout the passage Paul reminds us that God is with
us. When we speak with no fear, we do not do it out of our own strength but are
able to do because God is with us. The Holy Spirit is able to work through and
in us share the word of God with others, to tell of the ways in which Christ
has changed our lives. So instead of me standing up here continuing to preach,
let us stop and take time to listen the witness of Christ in someone else’s
life. May the testimony speak to our hearts as well as kindle the fire within
our souls making us bold enough to be a witness for God.
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