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Being a guy, I’m not very good at following instructions. Or at least, I feel free to disagree with them. I’ve torn the tags off of my mattresses. I’ve recorded ballgames without the express written consent of Major League Baseball. I’ve gone swimming less than half an hour after a meal. I’ve looked directly into the sun.
I will admit, however, that on occasion there have been instructions to which I should have paid more attention. Like that sticker on the second to top rung of the ladder that says “not a step.” That always seemed dumb to me – of course it’s a step. It’s on a ladder. What, did they skimp on material for the last two steps? I can handle it.
Which I said about 30 seconds before I nearly broke all the ribs on the left side of my body. Turns out that the last couple of steps on the ladder will hold your weight just fine; the trouble is that your center of gravity winds up out in space somewhere, and the slightest tilt brings the whole business crashing down, you included.
It’s important to have a solid footing, especially when you may have to lean way beyond what’s comfortable. That, as it happens, is pretty much the point of this reading from the third chapter of Second Timothy. Paul is writing here to Timothy, a young man who had been one of his closest companions as he traveled the world preaching the Gospel, but who was now out on his own, as pastor of a church in what today is Turkey. They were dangerous times; Paul himself was sitting in a dungeon in Rome, and he wanted Timothy to be prepared for what he might have to face, from everyday temptation to false teachers and government persecution.
At the beginning of chapter three, Paul warns Timothy that “in the last days there will come times of difficulty. Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless…” The list just keeps going. And Paul isn’t talking about the distant future here. When he talks about “the last days,” he’s using the phrase the same way Peter did at Pentecost, when he announced that “in the last days” God would pour out his Spirit on his people. In other words, Biblically speaking, these are the last days, everything from the resurrection of Jesus to his return in glory. This is what Jesus’ disciples – what we – have to deal with. Greed. Disobedience. False teaching. False prophets. You name it. Don’t be caught off guard, Paul says. Be ready.
“You, however,” Paul says in verse 10, “have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings… Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Don’t think this is going to be easy. Don’t think it’s going to be fair. Because it’s not – not in worldly terms, anyway.
“[All the] while evil people and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Scripture, Paul’s letters included, is really forthright about this. Very often, in human terms, the good suffer and the wicked prosper. It’s true. You’d like to think that the guy who just cut you off on the interstate will go home to find that his dog has run away and his kid burned the garage down. Karma, right? But the truth is, the world doesn’t often work that way. And the Word of God is very honest about it. That’s not to say that there’s no justice in the world – far from it. Every sin ever committed, whether against God or against another person, will be paid for in one of two ways: either by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, or by the sinner himself in hell. But in the short run, things can look… unfair.
That’s no reason, Paul says, to get all twisted up, or worse yet, to thrown in the towel. Followers of Jesus, he says, are expected to stand firm in the face of the world: “As for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed…”
Sometimes that’s easier said than done. So Paul goes on in the next few verses here to lay down a solid foundation, a firm footing for faith that’s as helpful to us as it was to Timothy.
First, he says, remember the example of your teachers: “Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed,” Paul says in verse 14, “knowing from whom you learned it…” Now, it’s easy to read that and imagine that Paul is talking about himself. And in all honesty, he’s not shy about reminding people of their debt to him. But in this case, I think Paul has somebody else in mind entirely: namely, Timothy’s mother and his grandmother.
Back in chapter one, Paul talked about Timothy’s faith, “a faith,” he said, in verse five, “that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.” You see, Timothy was a very rare specimen in the apostolic church: he had been raised as a Christian. Here Paul points him back to the example of these women who led him to Jesus.
That, as it happens, is a pretty solid starting place when you’re uncertain, a decent first step when you’re in need of guidance: turn to the people who taught you the Gospel in the first place. If they’re still here, great. Seek their counsel. If they’ve gone on to be with the Lord, remember their example. Personally I even get a lot of encouragement from people I’ve never actually met – from the stories of missionaries and martyrs and pastors and the like who have served Jesus faithfully. Likewise, when I start feeling sorry for myself I’m brought back to reality by brothers and sisters in Christ who are serving in much, much more difficult circumstances than I ever will. A little perspective goes a long way. Make sure you have a role model, or two, or a dozen. You’re at no loss – the twelfth chapter of Hebrews says that we’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, men and women who have followed Jesus in every age. Pay attention to their example, especially to the ones who have influenced you personally.
Second, Paul commands Timothy to remember what God has already done in his life. This is huge, too. Human beings have such short memories. Even Christians. We go from praising God one day to whining like a ten-year-old the next, demanding to know why he never does anything for me! “Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it,” Paul says, “and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” Are there going to be rough patches, where you don’t feel God’s presence at all, where the Bible seems dry as dust, where prayers feel like they’re just flung into space? Sure. Absolutely. Don’t be discouraged, Paul says. Remember what God has done. Remember those days when the Scriptures beat with life for you.
And finally, here in verses 16 and 17, Paul lays out the supreme foundation for an unshakable faith, a faith able to withstand any challenge: Rely, he says, on the unbreakable Word of God.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God…” The word translated there as “breathed out,” or in some versions, as “inspired,” is theopneustos. Literally it means “God-breathed,” but with the sense that it’s by the work of his Spirit. What it means for our purposes, as well as for Timothy’s, is that the Bible is the work of men guided by the Holy Spirit – not in the sense that they wrote in some kind of trance, but in the sense that the Holy Spirit ensured that every word written was what he wanted, where he wanted it, so that what we have in this book is, in a very real sense, the Word of God.
Now, I have to tell you, this is not a very popular idea at the moment. Having been fed a steady diet of nineteenth-century literary criticism, dubiously historical shows on the History Channel concerning the so-called lost books of the Bible, and so on, your average person regards the Bible as a nice book, a special book even, but not quite authoritative. They have this vague notion in their heads that there’s stuff in there that shouldn’t be believed – though they can’t give a good reason why – and feel free to pick and choose at their convenience what to believe.
You can do that if you want. But there are just two problems you’re going to encounter. The first is that you’re up against two thousand years of the the witness of the universal church, not to mention the disciplines of archaeology, epigraphy (that’s the study of writing) and history, all of which basically corroborate the Biblical record. In short, you’re going to look dumb. The second problem is that having discarded the authority of the Bible, you’re not going to have any basis to push back when things start moving faster than you want them to. This is the plague afflicting the mainline protestant churches, including our own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA). Having decided that the Bible is not, in fact, the infallible Word of God, you gain a little leeway for the moment. You can justify whatever it is that you want to do – not in God’s eyes, of course, but in the eyes of man. But sooner or later, along comes somebody who wants to push things farther. And you’ve got no grounds to say no.
Don’t be fooled. Life as a disciple of Jesus isn’t easy. He never promised it would be. Make sure that when the wind and waves of life kick up, you’ve got a solid place to stand. When you’re in need of some encouragement and strength, remember those who came before you, who led you to Jesus. Remember what the Lord has done in your life. And remain firmly rooted in his infallible Word. Amen.
