Friendship and Remembrance

  • Reid Monaghan
  • Jan 31, 2008
  • Series: Walk On - A Call to Endurance in 2 Timothy

Friendship

The tenderness and affection with which Paul addresses Timothy is contagiously evident in this passage. It is ripe with mentoring, fatherly language and masculine heterosexual man love. Paul has mentored, trained, co-labored with this man and you can tell he loves him and believes in God's calling upon his life. Paul sees God's work continuing after he has departed through the men that God has raised up for this purpose. Today we need to be about mentoring and calling up one another as well as those we know who are coming after us to follow in the Missio Dei.

 

Rememberance

In this passage Paul looks back to the past as he writes to his good friend Timothy in the present. It is not a dwelling upon the past but a fond remembering of shared life, shared faith and shared mission. The repetition is evident. Paul tells Timothy that he remembers him constantly in his prayers. He remembers Timothy's tears which flowed when they last saw one another as Paul headed towards arrest in Jerusalem. Additionally, Paul was reminded of Timothy's sincere faith, a faith which was imparted to him by a faithful lineage of godly women. Finally, Paul reminds Timothy of the gift of God which was imparted to him and encourages him to move forward in that gifting to fulfill the call of his ministry.

 

Calling Forward

Timothy was a man who struggled with passivity, fear and being sickly. Pastor and theologian John Stott described him as a man more likely to "lean than to lead." Yet what Paul saw in his friend was the call of God on his life. Paul saw that a Momma's boy could become a man. Paul strengthens his friend and calls him up towards God's future.