The HCOS WeeklyVol. 2 Edition 15

A Bible Study Excerpt By Deanna Burmatoff

2 Timothy 2:1-14 (NLT)

Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus. 2 You have heard me teach 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 oth-ers.

3Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 Sol-diers don't get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. 5 And athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules. 6 And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their la-bor. 7 Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you un-derstand all these things.

8Always remember that Jesus Christ, a descendant of King David, was raised from the dead. This is the Good News I preach. 9 And be-cause I preach this Good News, I am suffering and have been chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained. 10 So I am will-ing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in

Christ Jesus to those God has cho-sen.

11This is a trustworthy saying:

If we die with him, we will also live with him. 12 If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. 13 If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.

14Remind 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.

"Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus. 2 You have heard me teach 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 oth-ers."

In these verses, we see that Paul had taught Timothy many things about God, and he now wanted Timothy to teach those truths to other people who would be also able and trustworthy to pass on those same things to others. Paul had obviously trusted Timothy to

teach the truths to other people without adding or taking away from what Paul had taught him. And by instructing Timothy to teach others, Paul was ensuring that his teaching, which was most probably the Gospel, was spread around to all people. He made sure that only trustworthy people told others of the Gospel, because they would not change what Timothy had taught them, and what Paul had first taught Timothy. This way the people who heard the message would get the true meaning.

"3 Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 Soldiers don't get tied up in the af-fairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlist-ed them."

This is an analogy, comparing the work of Christ (spreading the Good News), to the work of a soldier. Paul made a quick but true com-parison of the two. What these verses speak to me is that we Christians are Jesus' soldiers. We are to do Christ's work here on earth. When Paul says, "soldiers don't get tied up in the affairs of civilian life," I immediately thought of the world. We live in the world, yes, but that doesn't mean we are of the world. When we get tied up with the things of the world, the worries of the world, the affairs of everyday civilian life, we lose our

A Good SoldierOf Jesus Christ

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focus on Christ. Once we lose our focus, we can no longer please the officer who enlisted us: Christ. If we take our eyes off our command-ing officer, we don't know what He wants us to do.

5And athletes cannot win the prize

unless they follow the rules. 6 And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor. 7 Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you understand all these things."

These are also true comparisons. Think about it: if an athlete cheats, or doesn't follow the rules, he is disqualified and cannot win the prize. The prize will instead go to someone who followed the rules properly and did his very best. This athlete deserves the prize. Farmers are always working, maintaining their crops, taking care of their ani-mals, fixing whatever needs fixing. (I am beginning to find out just how much work it takes to run a farm!) Farmers don't take a break until all their work is done, usually ater harvest or in the winter. By then, don't you think the farmer should deserve the very best of his crops? "Think about what I am say-ing. The Lord will help you under-stand all these things." Paul is say-ing that suffering for Christ's sake, doing the will of Jesus, is hard but it will have its reward. When we do it properly, according to the rules,

and to the very best of our ability, we will get our well-deserved re-ward.

"8 Always remember that Jesus Christ, a descendant of King David, was raised from the dead. This is the Good News I preach. 9 And be-cause I preach this Good News, I am suffering and have been chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained. 10 So I am will-ing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has cho-sen."

By reminding Timothy of Christ's resurrection, Paul comforts and encourages Timothy that Jesus is all-powerful, even over death. This means that Timothy will also be raised to be with Christ, so not to worry about death but to continue to do the will of Christ. Paul him-self was in prison for preaching the Good News as he was writing this letter to Timothy. He reminded Timothy that suffering anything and everything is worth it for the sake of "bringing salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen."

11This is a trustworthy saying:

If we die with him, we will also live with him.

(Resurrection, right?)

12 If we endure hardship, we will reign with him.

(In heaven!)

If we deny him, he will deny us.

(Sad, but true…)

13 If we are unfaithful,

he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.

Amen to that! Even when we are unfaithful to Him, Christ is always faithful to us. He will never let us go.

14Remind 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.

Paul is right. How many times have you witnessed or been a part of an argument about words? Maybe it was about the wording of a partic-ular passage, or the meaning of certain words. Whatever the rea-son, Paul says these arguments are useless. They only ruin those who hear them. People nearby over-hearing the argument, your oppo-nent, yourself. Your argument could hurt someone, or negatively change how they read or think about a certain passage in the Bible, or the entire Bible for that matter. It is not worth ruining an-other person, or their salvation, or their relationship with Christ over arguments like these. Avoid such arguments, and instead, pray. Pray for the other person, pray for your-self, and pray together. Pray that God will open your eyes and the other person's eyes to the truths and hidden meanings behind the words you are arguing over. Prayer is a much better solution than ar-guing.

So let's pray. Dear God, I thank You for Your word that was opened to us today. I pray that You would constantly remind us of these things. Comfort us and encourage us to endure the suffering here on this earth for Your sake. Help us to live for You, to do Your will instead

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of ours. Help us to focus on You, and not the things of the world. Help us to be more like You, Jesus. Strengthen us, and be with us ev-ery day. Thank You, Lord. I pray this in Your name, amen.

Photo taken by Deanna Burmatoff, Grade 11

Photo taken by Jazzannah Green, Grade 8

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Photo taken by Deanna Burmatoff, Grade 11

Photo taken by Jennica Wlodarczyk, Grade 11

Photo taken by Jennica Wlodarczyk, Grade 11

Photo taken by Deanna Burmatoff, Grade 11

Photo taken by Jennica Wlodarczyk, Grade 11 Photo taken by Deanna Burmatoff, Grade 11

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