The Mind of Christ…

*Billy Graham’s Daily Devotion*

2nd Timothy: 1
Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy
Paul wrote 2 Timothy in the 60s, a short time after 1 Timothy, and in the knowledge that he would soon be executed by Rome (4:6). As in other letters, Paul’s own attitude is a model for anyone undergoing persecution or even martyrdom—a situation not common in the West but well known to believers in many other countries. From this letter we learn that Timothy is a third-generation Jewish believer on his mother’s side (1:5; compare Acts 16:1, 3). As in the first letter to Timothy, Paul encourages him to use the gifting God has given him, not giving in to his natural timidity but being bold in the Lord (1:6-8). In the end, Paul focuses not on Timothy’s own gifts and personality, but on what God has done in the Messiah. “I know in whom I have trusted,” Paul says (1:12), Timothy is to guard the good entrusted to him (1:14) so that it can be passed along to others in a kind of chain of proclamation (2:2). Paul describes the life of a believer with powerful images: we are like soldiers who need to endure hardship and obey our superior (2:3-4); we are like athletes in a spiritual contest who need to follow the rules; we are like farmers who work hard to see a harvest of crops. In other words, the believing life takes work and endurance; it takes obedience to the Lord; it takes following the “rules”—by which Paul means not a list of things to do but the basic unshakeable reality of the Good News which alone can bring us to the “finish line” of life. Some of Paul’s admonitions repeat what he said in the first letter: avoid needless controversies (2:14, 23), false teaching (2:17) and ungodly behavior (2:22). But here in 2 Timothy is also found the well-known verses (3:16-17) concerning the Scriptures: “All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration, and for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to God may be capable, fully equipped for every good deed.” The believer’s life is one of fighting for what is right (4:7), enduring hardships (4:5) and suffering (1:8) in the face of continued ungodliness, but above all in looking to God and “the salvation that is in Messiah Yeshua with eternal glory” (2:10).
Greeting
1 Paul, an emissary of Messiah Yeshua through the will of God, according to the promise of life in Messiah Yeshua. 2 To Timothy my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and shalom from God the Father and Messiah Yeshua our Lord!
Stir up God’s Charisma in You
3 I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as my forefathers did, when I continually remember you in my prayers night and day. 4 I remember your tears, and I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I recall the genuine faithfulness within you, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure it is within you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and self-discipline.
Suffer with Me—for the Good News!
8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but share in suffering for the Good News according to the power of God. 9 He has saved us and called us with a holy calling—not because of our deeds but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Messiah Yeshua before time began, 10 but now has been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Messiah Yeshua. Indeed, He nullified the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News. 11 For this Good News I was appointed a herald and a emissary and a teacher. 12 For this reason I also am suffering these things—but I am not ashamed, for I know in whom I have trusted and I am convinced He is able to safeguard what I have entrusted to Him until that Day. 13 Keep the standard of sound words you have heard from me, in the faithfulness and love that are in Messiah Yeshua. 14 Guard the good that has been entrusted to you, through the Ruach ha-Kodesh who dwells in us. 15 You are aware that everyone in Asia has turned away from me—including Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my imprisonment. 17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome he zealously searched for me and found me. 18 May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord in that day! You know very well how much he served in Ephesus.

{Tree Of Life Bible~2nd Timothy 1:1-18}