2 Timothy 1:1 – Constituency of One
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ…
Somebody asked John Sununu, Chief of Staff to Pres. George HW Bush if he had a difficult job. Sununu negated the possibility. He explained that in a city of competing agendas, he had a constituency of one.
The apostle Paul must have known something of this assurance. He opens what comes down to us as 2 Timothy writing to a man whose progress means a great deal to him. Through the man for whom the letter is titled, Paul certainly hopes to influence Timothy's church at Ephesus which is not without its problems. Through and sometimes in spite of that church, Paul, called as the apostle to the Gentiles whom Christ said would testify for Him in Jerusalem and Rome, the search for market-testing phrasing and methods which would bolster all three could have been maddening.
It could have been, but Paul knew Whose hat, whose title, and Whose authority he wore. Paul was, he declares from the opening, Christ's apostle. All things, all roles, all goals, all relationships organizationally and individually, are integrated in Him. He spoke each into existence, and he will shepherd each to perfection, presenting His Church collectively and individually spotless before His Father.
Christian, shall we not root ourselves in this well before choosing our responses to the day's stimuli? If our sphere of responsibility seems small, more in keeping with minding the progress of Timothys one by one than we might have foreseen, the sovereignty of Christ is still present in every opportunity to guide, exhort, correct, and nurture. Each of the tasks and conversations we undertake by faith will demonstrate His intimate and overarching Presence. Each, no matter how easy to ignore on Earth, will be rewarded by Him before many witnesses in Heaven.
If our sphere of responsibility, on the other hand, seems larger than our sense of our current equipping, He takes ownership of that also. He is at work, truly, in the places He has used us to previously touch. He is at work in our current responsibilities in areas out of our immediate control or immediate line of sight. He is at work, in fact, in areas we haven't yet touched. What relish we have for tomorrow overwriting our sense of dread comes from the fact that He is already there and able to accomplish what He has started.
As all things come together in Christ and it is His brand rather than ours which is at stake before cosmic witnesses, will He not hear our prayers on the biggest and the smallest matters? Will He not intercede for Timothy's stomach, and for a change in the collective culture of our Ephesus? Today, as potentially distracting as it might seem, can, by grace, be a furthering and deepening of our intimacy with Him AS we go about His work.
We, like the beloved in Song of Solomon, get to know our Shepherd as we go with Him in caring for His sheep. The individual tasks vary in glory, but the company and transformation are transcendental.
Somebody asked John Sununu, Chief of Staff to Pres. George HW Bush if he had a difficult job. Sununu negated the possibility. He explained that in a city of competing agendas, he had a constituency of one.
The apostle Paul must have known something of this assurance. He opens what comes down to us as 2 Timothy writing to a man whose progress means a great deal to him. Through the man for whom the letter is titled, Paul certainly hopes to influence Timothy's church at Ephesus which is not without its problems. Through and sometimes in spite of that church, Paul, called as the apostle to the Gentiles whom Christ said would testify for Him in Jerusalem and Rome, the search for market-testing phrasing and methods which would bolster all three could have been maddening.
It could have been, but Paul knew Whose hat, whose title, and Whose authority he wore. Paul was, he declares from the opening, Christ's apostle. All things, all roles, all goals, all relationships organizationally and individually, are integrated in Him. He spoke each into existence, and he will shepherd each to perfection, presenting His Church collectively and individually spotless before His Father.
Christian, shall we not root ourselves in this well before choosing our responses to the day's stimuli? If our sphere of responsibility seems small, more in keeping with minding the progress of Timothys one by one than we might have foreseen, the sovereignty of Christ is still present in every opportunity to guide, exhort, correct, and nurture. Each of the tasks and conversations we undertake by faith will demonstrate His intimate and overarching Presence. Each, no matter how easy to ignore on Earth, will be rewarded by Him before many witnesses in Heaven.
If our sphere of responsibility, on the other hand, seems larger than our sense of our current equipping, He takes ownership of that also. He is at work, truly, in the places He has used us to previously touch. He is at work in our current responsibilities in areas out of our immediate control or immediate line of sight. He is at work, in fact, in areas we haven't yet touched. What relish we have for tomorrow overwriting our sense of dread comes from the fact that He is already there and able to accomplish what He has started.
As all things come together in Christ and it is His brand rather than ours which is at stake before cosmic witnesses, will He not hear our prayers on the biggest and the smallest matters? Will He not intercede for Timothy's stomach, and for a change in the collective culture of our Ephesus? Today, as potentially distracting as it might seem, can, by grace, be a furthering and deepening of our intimacy with Him AS we go about His work.
We, like the beloved in Song of Solomon, get to know our Shepherd as we go with Him in caring for His sheep. The individual tasks vary in glory, but the company and transformation are transcendental.
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