2 Timothy 1:1 – Situational Awareness
"Paul, an apostle…" 2 Timothy 1:1, New King James Version
Historian Joseph Ellis wrote in Founding Brothers that one of the unusual aspects of the writing of the founding fathers was that they seemed to write, even to each other, with a conscious awareness that history would witness their dialogue.
Paul gives something of that sense as well as he opens what comes down to us as 2 Timothy. Yes, he is writing to the same son in the faith he intimately counseled at the close of 1 Timothy to guard his own potential drift. Yes, he is writing to the same young disciple whose connection to his mother's and grandmother's faith he understands. He prophesied about the plans God has for Timothy in particular. He once circumcised Timothy before taking him on a mission, which gives a new, literal level to the bond between them.
Yet Paul is one man. He is a mentor to one, conversation by conversation, and apostle to the Gentiles at the same time. His larger impact, he knows, consists of an expert mosaic fashioned by God's grace from such shining pieces. Every encounter he has, whether recorded in sacred Scripture or not, has an impact more profound than his eyes can immediately see, or his years could immediately hear if he were to use these interchanges to vent or manipulate. Either way, he is an apostle inching those he influences to love what, or Who, he loves most.
Would our lives stand such scrutiny? No, we aren't often called directly by Christ, as Paul was, with the certainty that we will stand in the culture's capital and give account for Him. Ours is a scale and scope of impact we will find out about afterward. Those idle words we uttered, they make disciples. That steadfastness of faith we maintained a difficult moment, someone was watching as we priced Christ more than mediate comfort. Under the multiplication of sovereign grace, disciples made disciples.
By God's grace, and God's Word, we know which love will go viral to a greater extent. We know every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord. Still, we will give account for every idle word. Like the repentant Levites after the golden calf, we, though redeemed, may see the ways in which our sin made compromise easier for others who were watching for our cue.
Would that intimacy would not equal casualness! Would that, because we know those closest to us are most likely to pick up the habits of our actual devotion, we would repent with them and for them – often. Like Job, true humility would be to go before the Father often in case they have sinned, and in our case because we know we may have led them in that direction.
Historian Joseph Ellis wrote in Founding Brothers that one of the unusual aspects of the writing of the founding fathers was that they seemed to write, even to each other, with a conscious awareness that history would witness their dialogue.
Paul gives something of that sense as well as he opens what comes down to us as 2 Timothy. Yes, he is writing to the same son in the faith he intimately counseled at the close of 1 Timothy to guard his own potential drift. Yes, he is writing to the same young disciple whose connection to his mother's and grandmother's faith he understands. He prophesied about the plans God has for Timothy in particular. He once circumcised Timothy before taking him on a mission, which gives a new, literal level to the bond between them.
Yet Paul is one man. He is a mentor to one, conversation by conversation, and apostle to the Gentiles at the same time. His larger impact, he knows, consists of an expert mosaic fashioned by God's grace from such shining pieces. Every encounter he has, whether recorded in sacred Scripture or not, has an impact more profound than his eyes can immediately see, or his years could immediately hear if he were to use these interchanges to vent or manipulate. Either way, he is an apostle inching those he influences to love what, or Who, he loves most.
Would our lives stand such scrutiny? No, we aren't often called directly by Christ, as Paul was, with the certainty that we will stand in the culture's capital and give account for Him. Ours is a scale and scope of impact we will find out about afterward. Those idle words we uttered, they make disciples. That steadfastness of faith we maintained a difficult moment, someone was watching as we priced Christ more than mediate comfort. Under the multiplication of sovereign grace, disciples made disciples.
By God's grace, and God's Word, we know which love will go viral to a greater extent. We know every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord. Still, we will give account for every idle word. Like the repentant Levites after the golden calf, we, though redeemed, may see the ways in which our sin made compromise easier for others who were watching for our cue.
Would that intimacy would not equal casualness! Would that, because we know those closest to us are most likely to pick up the habits of our actual devotion, we would repent with them and for them – often. Like Job, true humility would be to go before the Father often in case they have sinned, and in our case because we know we may have led them in that direction.
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