"You therefore...be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus"
II Timothy 2:1
It seemed like I was one-too-many tables away from the marker board to fully understand what the classroom facilitator was trying to say. It must be the camp food. It must be my sin-bacteria heart. How does someone even do that?
I was barely eighteen, and terrified to go to college. No, I was terrified of who I would become at college. A baby Christian about to move 200 miles away from home, with a stomach-incinerating fear that I would entropically fail myself, my family, and my God.
And you know what? Even now I can remember the brand and size of the jeans I wore at camp, but not the name of the girl sitting across from me. She wasn't a kindred spirit anyways.
How disgusting. I was so caught up in cracking the code of Scripture that I missed the practicality of being present. I missed the mark to love.
I thought: If I don't have things figured out, I don't have any ability to teach anyone anything about the gospel, which is a bit of a problem. Because if responsibilities to the gospel were raindrops, 2 Timothy is pretty soaked.
The "therefore" in (2:1) draws conclusion from what came before. Paul wrote this last letter before execution in Rome, and sent it to Timothy, with many reminders and instructions regarding the gospel. The end of chapter 1 closes with contrasting examples:
"all who are in Asia turned away from me" (1:15)
vs.
"Onesiphorus...was not ashamed of [Paul's] chains" (1:16)
Paul described the many things this O dude, whose name means "bringing profit," did for him. Then Paul went straight into this instruction:
"You therefore...be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."
Maybe it's just me, but I read those things and am tempted to let my faith flee. Because ALL the dudes in Asia turned away, and only this one O guy didn't.
And that's when the Greek speaks to utter weakness, and silences the babble of that idol tower.
Because "be strong" here isn't just a pull-up-your-bootstraps cowboy verb. This verb is also passive, meaning: to receive strength, to be strengthened.
What exactly are we to be strong in?
That's where I breathe again: grace.
This life is hard. And the daily keeps coming when trials suffocate, and the Lord of all creation tells His bondservants to obey His voice. But this isn't malicious. It's gracious. Because persevering is one thing when it's will power, and another when its holy crutches, one clock-tick at a time.
Yet we are invited to Sabbath. Welcome to the start of grace week.
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