2 Timothy 1:1 – One Promise. One Work.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life…
"Transformation," equates David McCants, "requires faith in action."
Just so, the spontaneity and certainty of the Lord's work in him is all over Paul's introductory business card in 2 Timothy 1:1. Apostleship is not something he wears as an onerous mantle, to be shed when grace is more manifest. The title, the role, intercessory, sometimes indeed heavy, is to Paul a manifestation of grace itself. His calling to this work is, he says, according to the promise of life.
Do we expect to be slathered in Christ's grace and remade by it AS we work, AS we minister? Or, are we like the fighter who expects today to be mostly bruising combat, separated from tomorrow's bruising combat only by a brief interval of renewal in the corner? I suspect that if we approach today according to the promise of life, as an extension of all that God has promised here and in the hereafter, we will see and experience what we expect to see and experience.
This, after all, has been the context of Paul's heart Timothy. Even charging him in his duties, Paul has been excitedly pointing Timothy to the reality that, according to 1 Timothy 4:6, as he instructs and remediates the brethren in the Gospel, he will be nourished in the faith and doctrine he teaches. Have we not found it so? Have we not, given by grace a moment's reflection amid the clamor of the day, heard His still, small voice just as intimately interested in us as on Sunday morning, or in the watches of the night? This is the expression, extension, expansion of the promises of life.
However much habit defines the outward motions of our roles in family, in work, in ministry, we are no longer slaves to the expectations of these roles. Herein, in the greatest and the goofiest details is the promise of life. He is present in our midst, and in the midst of us individually. Every victory, every obvious manifestation that we are moving from glory to glory, is an affirmation of His promise that we will be fruitful and multiply. Every check, every setback, is a reminder that He and His Word will accomplish what His sovereignty dictates, and we will inherit with Him rewards and authority Earthly vulnerability can impact.
The affirmations and instructions we partake of in this planet's seemingly ordinary circumstances are not other and secondary to the Gospel narrative's ultimate destination. Spurgeon insists in Morning and Evening, "The excellencies which we see in a believer are as much the work of God as the atonement itself." As we see His promises fulfilled, even here, in ourselves and others, shall we not say so? Shall we not savor His faithfulness to His Word, His own, and the continuity of His glorious revelation?
As the kingdoms of this world, so proclaims Revelation, will become the kingdoms of our God, so indeed much of our experience here, incremental or inconsequential as it may seem in the moment, translates by the transcendence of His grace to eternal meaning as part of the promise of life.
"Transformation," equates David McCants, "requires faith in action."
Just so, the spontaneity and certainty of the Lord's work in him is all over Paul's introductory business card in 2 Timothy 1:1. Apostleship is not something he wears as an onerous mantle, to be shed when grace is more manifest. The title, the role, intercessory, sometimes indeed heavy, is to Paul a manifestation of grace itself. His calling to this work is, he says, according to the promise of life.
Do we expect to be slathered in Christ's grace and remade by it AS we work, AS we minister? Or, are we like the fighter who expects today to be mostly bruising combat, separated from tomorrow's bruising combat only by a brief interval of renewal in the corner? I suspect that if we approach today according to the promise of life, as an extension of all that God has promised here and in the hereafter, we will see and experience what we expect to see and experience.
This, after all, has been the context of Paul's heart Timothy. Even charging him in his duties, Paul has been excitedly pointing Timothy to the reality that, according to 1 Timothy 4:6, as he instructs and remediates the brethren in the Gospel, he will be nourished in the faith and doctrine he teaches. Have we not found it so? Have we not, given by grace a moment's reflection amid the clamor of the day, heard His still, small voice just as intimately interested in us as on Sunday morning, or in the watches of the night? This is the expression, extension, expansion of the promises of life.
However much habit defines the outward motions of our roles in family, in work, in ministry, we are no longer slaves to the expectations of these roles. Herein, in the greatest and the goofiest details is the promise of life. He is present in our midst, and in the midst of us individually. Every victory, every obvious manifestation that we are moving from glory to glory, is an affirmation of His promise that we will be fruitful and multiply. Every check, every setback, is a reminder that He and His Word will accomplish what His sovereignty dictates, and we will inherit with Him rewards and authority Earthly vulnerability can impact.
The affirmations and instructions we partake of in this planet's seemingly ordinary circumstances are not other and secondary to the Gospel narrative's ultimate destination. Spurgeon insists in Morning and Evening, "The excellencies which we see in a believer are as much the work of God as the atonement itself." As we see His promises fulfilled, even here, in ourselves and others, shall we not say so? Shall we not savor His faithfulness to His Word, His own, and the continuity of His glorious revelation?
As the kingdoms of this world, so proclaims Revelation, will become the kingdoms of our God, so indeed much of our experience here, incremental or inconsequential as it may seem in the moment, translates by the transcendence of His grace to eternal meaning as part of the promise of life.
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