2 Timothy 2:1-13 - Soldiers of Christ
Friends, it is great to be with you. In all honesty, Mike Sladen is my name. I’ve been here at The Well for eighteen years, and I was off all summer. The elders gave me an incredible gift of a sabbatical, and I spent the summer doing a whole lot of nothing, and it was wonderful. I am so grateful to be back and grateful to be here. I was counting up the days—I haven’t taught, at least here, since May 1st. So it’s a gift from you guys, and it’s good to be home with my people in the place that I call home. Thank you for the privilege it is to do that.
With that, we are going to get back into the book of 2 Timothy where Brad has been leading us. This is the second letter written to this young pastor by the apostle Paul, and we are going to pick up right where we left off last week in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 1 through 13. If you’ve got your Bible with you, I invite you to turn there.
A Fork in the Road
Now, I did do one slightly questionable thing on sabbatical—well, there were probably a number of them, but one I’ll tell you about: I went and taught. You might think, “Wait a second, aren’t you supposed to not teach and not work when you’re on sabbatical?” But I asked permission and said, “Hey, it’s life-giving, and I would love to go do this.” I got to go to Heartland Camp and teach a bunch of high school students the book of Romans. I thought, Man, that sounds awesome. I am in.
When I rolled into camp, they had the staff running things, and then they had two men they call “deans.” If you think of a ringer on a hockey team—the guy whose only job is to fight, who doesn’t need hockey skills because he’s just there to discipline the other team and keep order—that’s what the deans are. I met a guy by the name of Chris. He’s every bit of six-foot-five; he makes Brad look small. He was a prison guard for the better part of twenty years. He’s Pat Hill on steroids, with the handlebar mustache and everything. He’s one of those guys you look at and go, Boy, I hope I never meet you in a dark alley.
He had this commanding physical presence, which is great for keeping seventeen-year-old, testosterone-filled boys in line. But inside, as I got to know him, he was a big old teddy bear who loved the Lord and loved being there. In fact, he had taken the entire month of July off from work just to volunteer as a dean. He runs his own construction company, and he left it in the hands of someone else and said, “Run it, figure it out, don’t call me. If it blows up, you’ll figure it out.” He said, “This camp is where I want to be.”
We got to talking on the side between events, and I asked him, “Hey man, what got you here?”
He said, “I actually have a pretty crazy story. I did twenty years as a prison guard, and now I run my own construction company. While doing construction, I started getting these severe headaches. I didn’t know if it was because I was out in the sun too much or dehydrated, but these headaches were overwhelming and incapacitating. Finally, I told the doctors, ‘Run a full-court press. Do whatever you need to do to figure it out.’”
After a series of MRIs and brain scans, they found a grape-sized mass in his frontal lobe. The doctors told him, “Chris, we’ve got really bad news. You have terminal cancer. It’s in a place where we simply can’t operate. We could biopsy it, but it’s probably going to do more harm than good. You really just need to get your affairs in order. You probably have months at the most to live.”
Chris was faced with a major crossroads. At that point in his life, he was living for the wrong things. His marriage was out of whack. He knew the Lord, but he certainly wasn’t living for God. His relationship with his kids was a bit of a train wreck, and work dominated his entire world. In that moment, he realized, I can either continue on the path I’ve been on for decades, or I can make a change and begin living for the things I’ve stated are important.
At that fork in the road, that’s exactly what he did. He quit living for self and started making choices that centered on God. He took his faith seriously. He started walking with Jesus and living like there was no tomorrow. He told his wife and kids, “Listen, this is the road God has me on. Don’t be bitter at God, and don’t be angry at one another. We’re going to walk this thing out.” He made amends with his stepson. For twenty-five years, he had not heard his stepson say, “I love you.” During this season, for the first time in twenty-five years, his stepson spoke those words to him.
As he went back for regular checkups, a subsequent scan supposedly revealed that the tumor had grown significantly. He decided to get a second opinion and was sent to Stanford. The specialist there looked at his complete history of scans, including an MRI from twelve years earlier. The expert laid everything out and said, “Chris, I’ve got some crazy news for you: You do not have terminal brain cancer. There was a mistake in your diagnosis. That mass has probably been in your head since you were five years old. It’s been there for decades, and it’s not growing. What they thought was growth was just a shadow. You’re going to be fine.”
Chris got a new lease on life, but he was faced with another decision: Do I go back down the old path, or do I continue living for what truly matters?
He told me, “Mike, that tumor—which I thought was terminal—was the greatest gift of my life. It caused me to completely reorient all of my priorities. I’m here taking a month of vacation to hang out with sixteen-year-old boys because this is where I want to be. I want to influence lives for the sake of the gospel.” If it hadn’t been for that fork in the road, he never would have ended up there.
Our passage today is a fork-in-the-road moment. Paul is in prison, writing his final letter to his protégé of more than fifteen years. He has walked with Timothy, equipping him and discipling him on how to do ministry, how to pastor, and how to love people deeply. This letter is a fork in the road for young Timothy, calling him to live his life with radical commitment.
Strengthened by Grace
Notice the urgency and tone of Paul’s words right out of the gate in verse 1.
2 Timothy 2:1 (NASB)
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Four different times in the New Testament, Paul addresses Timothy as his son—his spiritual son. Paul is calling him to remain strong because of their deep relationship. But we need to pause here and understand what Paul is actually saying. If we read “be strong” at face value, it can sound very moralistic, like, “Buck up, Timothy! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! Get in the game! Stop being timid and afraid; suck it up and move forward.”
That is not at all what Paul is saying. The phrase “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” uses a Greek verb in the passive voice, not the active. Paul is not telling Timothy to manufacture strength from within himself. He is saying, “Be strengthened by the grace that has already been bestowed on you through the gospel.”
This isn’t self-righteous, self-sourced strength; it is strength that God provides through the Holy Spirit living inside of him. Paul is reminding Timothy to walk in humility and remember where his strength comes from. It is sourced in the Lord. This truth serves as the umbrella for the entire passage. You cannot do this on your own; you must find your strength in Christ.
John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, captured the difference between self-effort and grace so well when he wrote:
“Run and work, the law commands,
but gives me neither feet nor hands.
A better news the gospel brings:
It bids me fly and gives me wings.”
That is the beauty of the gospel. It enables you to be strong and to walk this out.
Entrusting to the Next Generation
This grace is the foundation of Paul’s life’s work, which brings us to verse 2.
2 Timothy 2:2 (NASB)
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Paul looks back at Timothy’s commissioning—when Paul and the elders laid hands on him in Ephesus—and the fifteen years of discipleship that followed. Paul says, “Take the gospel truths you have heard from me and entrust them to faithful men and women who will be able to teach others also.”
If you are an underliner in your Bible, notice the four generations listed here: Paul to Timothy, Timothy to faithful men and women, and those faithful people to others. As Paul stares death in the face, what matters most to him is knowing that the gospel is replicating itself.
Entrusting is what we do with our paychecks every week. Instead of shoving cash under a mattress, we entrust it to a bank, trusting them to safeguard our livelihood. That is the gravity of Paul’s charge. He is passing the most precious treasure—the gospel—into Timothy’s hands, knowing that within a couple of years, he will die under Emperor Nero.
Paul wants spiritual thoroughbreds, not mules. Mules are strong and useful, but they cannot reproduce. Thoroughbreds have a lineage of faithful reproduction.
I had a seminary professor who once told me, “Mike, do you want to know what your legacy will be like after you’re gone? Stick your arm in a bucket of water and pull it out. The hole that is left in that water is the hole that will be left in the lives of people around you if you do not invest your life in the things that matter. If you don’t invest in the souls of men and women and the Word of God, you will not be missed.” Paul is calling Timothy to invest in eternity.
Three Pictures of Endurance
To show Timothy what this kind of commitment looks like, Paul provides three common cultural illustrations: the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer. All three are committed to something bigger than themselves, willing to endure hardship for a greater goal.
2 Timothy 2:3-4 (NASB)
Suffer hardship with [me], as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
Paul repeats the call to suffer hardship: “Suffer hardship with me.” Paul has gone first; he is currently sitting in a dark prison cell. As Brad shared last week, if the gospel you were sold is absent of suffering, you were sold a false bill of goods. Difficulty is par for the course for anyone proclaiming the name of Christ. Ephesus was a difficult place to pastor, and standing counterculturally against the waves of society will always bring opposition.
To endure that, you need the single-minded focus of a soldier. In wartime, a soldier is devoted to one mission and one commanding officer. They cannot afford to get entangled in civilian affairs back home; that leads to mission drift.
My oldest daughter got married last year, and her husband, Connor, is in the Army. Right now, he is stationed in South Korea. He is there and she is here because those are his orders. If you asked him, “Connor, is that where you’d prefer to be during the second year of your marriage?” he would say, “Absolutely not.” But he is willing to do it because there is a higher calling on his life that demands that sacrifice. A good soldier keeps their eyes fixed on pleasing the one who enlisted them.
Next, Paul points to the athlete in verse 5.
2 Timothy 2:5 (NASB)
Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
Paul frequently used athletic imagery. Ancient stadiums dotted Greece and Asia Minor, and everyone understood the discipline required to win a prize. Athletes had to compete according to the rules of the event, but they also had to submit to strict training rules. Olympic competitors had to swear they had trained diligently for at least ten months prior, or they were disqualified.
Paul tells Timothy, “Run in such a way that you won’t be disqualified, so that you may receive the crown at the end.”
I have a buddy who is an incredibly gifted athlete. He decided he was going to set a record crossing from the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the western side on skis in the spring—a 45-mile journey with 12,000 feet of climbing in twenty continuous hours. For six months, that goal completely dominated his life. He was waking up hours before dawn to climb mountains in the dark with a headlamp. When he finished, I asked him how it went. He said, “It was physically exhausting, but even more so, it was mentally exhausting. It consumed my thought life. But that was the only mindset that could get me across the finish line.” That is the intentionality Paul is calling Timothy to embody.
Finally, Paul points to the farmer in verse 6.
2 Timothy 2:6 (NASB)
The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
The diligent farmer who labors hard should be the first to enjoy the harvest. I grew up as a suburban kid in Dallas, so farming is new to me. When I first moved to Fresno and saw a vineyard, I asked Brad, “What is that?” He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Mike, those are grapes!”
So I asked two of our local farmers, Pete Holmes and Jerry DiBuduo, to help me understand this passage. They told me, “Long before the harvest comes, there is soil prep, irrigation, canopy management, insect control, and disease management. If those things aren’t done diligently and at the right time, you get no crop.” Farming isn’t a nine-to-five job where you punch a clock; it’s constantly on your mind. And on top of that, so much—like the weather—is entirely out of your control. You don’t meet many atheist farmers for a reason. You work hard, but you ultimately trust a power greater than yourself.
In all three pictures, hardship and sacrifice are inherent to the calling. The soldier pleases his commander, the athlete wins the prize, and the hardworking farmer enjoys the harvest. Paul isn’t asking Timothy to become a literal soldier, athlete, or farmer; he is saying, “You need this same dogged perseverance to entrust the gospel to the next generation.”
Consider and Remember
Paul shifts from illustration to application, giving Timothy two specific charges: a truth to consider and a reality to live out.
2 Timothy 2:7 (NASB)
Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
To “consider” means to ponder, reflect on, and weigh carefully over time. Unlike the passive verb in verse 1, this is an active command: “Timothy, think about these things, and the Lord will give you understanding.” He is praying for Timothy to experience that lightbulb moment where truth turns into deep comprehension.
Then comes the reality to live out in verses 8 through 10.
2 Timothy 2:8-10 (NASB)
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus [and] with [it] eternal glory.
Paul says, “Remember Jesus Christ.” In the biblical sense—like the Shema in Deuteronomy 6—remembering is never passive. To remember is to respond in obedience.
Paul points Timothy back to the foundation: Jesus is the risen Davidic King on the throne. Paul is suffering in chains like a common criminal for this message, but he boldly proclaims, “The Word of God is not imprisoned!” You can lock up the messenger, but you cannot chain the message.
Paul endures everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may obtain salvation. This is no mediocre task; Paul isn’t selling widgets. Eternal souls hang in the balance. That is why he endures, looking to Jesus who went before him.
Hebrews 12:2-3 (NASB)
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Paul then quotes what was likely an early Christian confession in verses 11 through 13.
2 Timothy 2:11-13 (NASB)
It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
If we have died with Christ, we will live with Him. If we endure, we will reign with Him. When Paul writes, “If we deny Him, He will also deny us,” he is referring to apostates who give lip service to Jesus but abandon Him when hardship comes. But notice verse 13: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” Even when we stumble, struggle, and waver, God’s covenant promises rest on His character, not our performance. His faithfulness never fails.
Our Fork in the Road
Paul’s message was not just for Timothy; it is for us today. We are faced with the radical call of discipleship.
Luke 9:23-24 (NASB)
And He was saying to [them] all, ’If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. ’For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
Galatians 2:20 (NASB)
’I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
We all face forks in the road. Most of us aren’t facing a terminal medical diagnosis like Chris was, but the gospel presents us with a life-altering choice every single day. Are we going to keep living down the road of self-gratification, living for comfort and temporary pursuits? Or will we embrace the higher calling of the gospel, reorienting our lives like the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer?
If you are here and you have never trusted in Jesus Christ, that is where life begins. God sent His Son to die on the cross in your place for your sins and rise again, offering you the free gift of eternal life.
For those of us who know Christ, this truth demands application. There are people all around you—in your neighborhoods, workplaces, and families—who need you to invest in them. You don’t need a seminary degree or brilliant theological training. You simply need to be a faithful follower of Jesus who says, “God has changed my life, and I am going to share what He has entrusted to me with others.”
We see this lived out in our church family all the time. Earlier, we saw the video of Chelsea, who, as a single woman, decided to step into our youth ministry and invest in a fifth-grade girl. Years later, she is a spiritual hero in that family’s life. Chelsea could have spent her Wednesday nights on the couch with her feet up, but she chose to make a sacrifice, show up consistently, and walk alongside students. There are faithful men and women across our church doing the exact same thing.
Would we be a church that refuses to get entangled in the things of this world? Let’s be a people who fix our eyes on the high call of the gospel, enduring through the hard seasons and faithfully investing in the souls of men and women.
Let’s pray together.
Father, thank You for this high calling. Thank You that Paul did not flinch in declaring what following Jesus truly means. Even as he sat in prison, the gospel was his life’s work. Lord, help us hear the urgency in his voice. Give us the grace to entrust what You have given us to faithful men and women who will teach others also. May our legacy be one of investing in Your Word and in the souls of people. Strengthen us by Your grace to walk this out in community. We love You, and we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.