Author: joemarino (Page 9 of 50)

Last week, I said that last week’s passage (4:6 – 8) was like the final action scene of a movie where everything finally comes to head and then dissolves. Everything that the apostle Paul has been saying in this letter, about finishing faithfully while guarding the gospel, is finally ending, and his death by execution is right around the corner.

I love a good story! Good stories keep your attention until the very end; they generally have a main character/hero, a villain or a bad guy, some supporting characters that are caught in between good and evil, an ultimate vision of freedom, the threat of doom, some kind of increasing action, the final scene where everything climaxes and dissolves, and then the credits. The text in front of us today is like the final scene in a good story, where the entire story climaxes and dissolves (next week is the credits).

I have been engaged in the work of preaching God’s Word for a little over twenty years now and this passage has often been on my heart and mind as I prepare to step into the pulpit, or as I walk into a leadership meeting, or as I sit down with a couple to navigate marriage and family issues, or as I meet with someone who is trying to work through some deep sin patterns in their life.

I think this section of 2^nd Timothy (3:10 – 17) is all about continuing in the faith or continuing to follow Jesus when the world around us seems to be headed for certain destruction.

The Christian life is not for the faint of heart. Despite the false notion that Christianity is all about attaining health, wealth, prosperity, or becoming a better version of the you that you want to be, Christianity is actually a very difficult and painful life to live.

Making disciples is no easy task. In verse 1 of our text, the apostle Paul warns young Timothy “that in the last days there will come times of difficulty”. Young Timothy is one of the pastors in the church at Ephesus; the church that the apostle Paul had planted many years earlier.