9 FEB 23 Wednesday: A Closer Walk Devotional
“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 others. So I am willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen. 2 Tim. 2:2, 10
Paul passes on to Timothy, his disciple, the mission and reality of being a disciple maker. Practitioners of the gospel will see multiplication, suffering, and endurance as regular parts of life. Paul stresses that Timothy has a pattern of generational multiplication as he invests in others. God will bear fruit of people that will bear more people that will bear more people that will bear more people. Paul is trusting God to do a work in and through Timothy that will last.
Technically we are the fruit of Timothy’s efforts two thousand years ago and it is continuing to bear more people. Paul also lets Timothy know that there will always be opposition to the efforts of those that sow the gospel seed and invest in others. Suffering and persecution is the fertilizer that will multiply the expansion of the kingdom of God more rapidly.
Those that have lived in peaceful societies don’t like to hear that. We are called to bring a sword of truth that will pierce through bone and marrow and to be light in the dark. Creatures that live in the dark don’t like the light. Paul says we must endure and we can do that with joy and energy because our work brings God’s chosen people into saving faith and eternal life. The good fight is worth the suffering and even death, knowing that God will be glorified and salvation secured for those that are the objects of God’s love.
Are you seeing multiplication and suffering as a Christian? Then are you really living it?
Reading Plan: Psalm 119:97-120; Isa. 59:15b-21; 2 Tim. 1:15-2:13; Mark 10:1-16
Daily Office Year 1
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