“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.”
This Second Epistle to Timothy is of special interest and concern to us as witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ in a difficult crisis.
The apostle was writing to his young friend and convert to the faith, Timothy, a man probably of a retiring and somewhat timorous disposition, and his epistle is full of the mingled affection and wisdom that were peculiar to Paul in his service as an apostle. He writes to cheer and to encourage Timothy, fearing that his courage might fail because of the dangerous times that had arisen., The days were indeed difficult for Paul and also for Timothy, and in the face of these difficulties, the inquiry naturally was, What is to be done? And the apostle writes not with the object so much of communicating a fresh revelation of truth, but to give counsel to Timothy out of the full love of his heart; and more than that, out of the rich enjoyment of the grace of God in his own heart, and for the real encouragement of his young friend towards God. And so the Epistle makes a special appeal to us in that direct and practical way which such communications always will do. The naked formal truth may convince our minds, but it does not always carry our hearts with it, and in the things of God we want not only to be clear in our minds, but to be devoted in our hearts.
SUCCESS AND FAILURE
The apostle himself evidently felt deeply the trying difficulties of that time, and I think if we consider his position for a moment, we shall not wonder at his concern. A prisoner of the gospel as he then was at Rome, he looked back over about thirty years, and he could see the great spiritual transformation which had been brought on the face of the whole world in that short time. At the beginning of that period the gospel of God's grace through our Lord Jesus Christ was first declared to men in the power of the Holy Ghost, and what an immediate victory it everywhere wrought! It spread from city to city and from province to province, and across the seas, until it seemed as if the whole world would be subjugated to Christ.
Gentiles gave up their idols, Jews gave up the law of Moses; and they both met together in lowliness and meekness at the table of the Lord, and they felt within them the active power of the Holy Ghost. The selfish became beneficent towards others, and the fleshly lusts of human nature were overcome in the lives of men by the spirit of holiness.
In this great missionary enterprise Paul had played a personal part in every direction, hence all this and more was before the great heart of the imprisoned apostle of the Gentiles whose burning desire was to preach the gospel in every place. And in Rome in his confinement he looked around, and instead of seeing that the victory of the gospel was still spreading, he saw failure and defection. Men were giving up the things of Christ and turning away from His servant, and from every direction and from every place news reached him of the apostasy of the heart and spirit of men in the churches. Again, the time was when he longed above all things to preach the gospel in Rome as well as in other places, but here in the metropolis his hands were fettered. And while other tongues were telling the good news, he had to be silent.
NOT ASHAMED
With all these things pressing on his own heart, Paul had to write and encourage Timothy whose faith seemed failing him because of the general declension. Yet in view of all the disappointment and suffering that had come upon him, the beloved apostle wrote these words which still ring out so confidently, and carry such a note of encouragement to us amid trials of a similar nature— “Nevertheless I am not ashamed.” Weighing up all his sufferings as an apostle, and looking back on his career of service to Christ, he did not consider that his words and works had been spent in vain. He was not ashamed in the day of apparent failure; and why not? because he was following and serving One Whom he knew well and had fully proved. It would be good for us to take to our own hearts these words that Paul wrote to Timothy.
We find that the apostle definitely alludes in the twelfth verse to his suffering and to the shame and reproach that had come upon him and his labors as a servant of Christ. And I want you to think of his words of bold assurance in this connection. The fact that his work had to all outward appearances failed might seem to give ground for the suggestion of possible personal reproach. Was not the blame for the apparent failure resting upon his own shoulders?
Paul had given up a great many things for Christ. He had many advantages according to the flesh that people in the world boast about “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin” and so on—but he had given them all up for Christ, and he still counted the sacrifice but loss for the knowledge of Christ, as he told the Philippian believers.
But when his work seemed a failure, when the outward expression of the church seemed to be broken and ruined in men's eyes, did not such a result cast reproach upon him as a laborer? Did it not seem that he was the one to be ashamed of what had happened? But if he ever thought that within himself, as being a man of like passions with ourselves he well might, he was fully sustained in the depressing sorrow of disappointment that would come upon a heart of broad and deep sympathy like his, a heart that was wide enough to take in the whole world.
Forlorn and forsaken Paul turned for support to the Lord whom he knew. There was One who had Himself learned what in its bitterest sense shame was here in this world. We know that the word “shame” may be understood in more than one sense. Shame began in the garden of Eden, when our forefathers forfeited their position by disobeying their God. How could they lift up their eyes and meet their Creator as He walked in the garden in the cool of the day? They were ashamed because they had sinned; they blushed because of their disobedience; they were like the man in the temple who would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”
THE SHAME CHRIST SUFFERED.
Such was the attitude of the man who had sinned, but the shame that was brought out in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ was of a different nature. Reproach took a character that it had never had before to the same degree. Take the lives of the Old Testament saints, such as Job, Elijah, Isaiah, they all had their failures and their hours of shame in the eyes of others; but why was this? It was because they all failed. They had turned into the pathway of evil, and because of their backsliding, outward judgment came upon them. But when you take the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, you see there a perfect path of devotion to God. There we have the Witness who never failed in doing the will of Him that sent Him. There is the One who would allow nothing to stand in the way of perfect devotion to His Father.
But what to all outward appearances was the result of His fidelity and devotedness? Not success, but failure, not honor but shame. It was the Spirit of Christ who said through the Psalmist, “For thy sake I have borne reproach,” “Shame hath covered my face.” It was the suffering Messiah who was brought down into the dust of death. It was He who cried, “O my God, I trust in thee; let me not be ashamed, let none of mine enemies triumph over me"; but there was no answer of deliverance.
We know how the priests on Mount Carmel cried in vain to their god, Baal. They cried and cried, but there was none to hear. On the cross the devoted Servant of God cried, as the twenty-second Psalm foresaw, “Why art thou so far from helping me? Our fathers cried unto thee and were delivered, they trusted in thee and were not ashamed.” The elders of the Jews taunted the crucified Lord, saying, “He trusted in God that he would deliver him; let him deliver him now if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God.” But was He delivered? No, contrary to the experience of the pious and just in Israel, Christ was left in the place of ignominy and curse, till reproach broke His heart. According to the prophecy of Isaiah, Messiah said, “The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face as a flint, and I know I shall not be ashamed.” Nevertheless, He was brought down into the dust of death for the glory of God, where He was as ever true to His God.
In this pathway of suffering shame for the divine Name, Christ has left us an example that we should follow His steps. And so in this world, those who are on the side of truth and righteousness, those who are Christ's must expect to suffer shame for His name as Paul did.
BOLDNESS IN GOD
It must have seemed to many in those dark days at Rome as if they were trusting in a poor cause, as if God had forsaken His church, and they were left alone in a time of great peril with none to deliver, none to save, none to rescue. Beloved friends, I ask you whether you have not had similar feelings as you have seriously considered the difficult things about you to-day, not merely the obstacles in your personal pathway, but in those things that grievously affect the peace and concord of companies of Christians. When we look back over a period of thirty years or forty, as Paul did, what a saddening change we see. Some may say, Is it because God has hidden His face from us? Has He left us alone? Is He ashamed to call us brethren?
The apostle, however, does not give way to dejection, but goes on to say, “For this cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed.” What happened to Paul happened in a fuller degree to his Master; and should the servant expect to escape that which came upon his Master? If He cried and was not delivered, shall it not be perhaps that we in our extremity in church matters may cry for deliverance, and no deliverance will come? If it be our experience that no remedy is forthcoming, can each of us still say, “I am not ashamed; I am going on; I am continuing in the pathway"? Why? Not because of my own powers of endurance, of my own clearness of view, but for the same reason as the apostle Paul went forward in such assurance. Because said he, “I know whom I have believed.”
He thus threw the burden upon his Master. Paul had caught the spirit of the Servant of Jehovah as it is expressed in Isaiah, “I know that I shall not be ashamed.” In the apostle's stout confession is, I am bold to say, the secret of the whole business. His was the spirit of confidence and courage. It is not for me to explain what this short sentence fully means, but I may say that it is for us to prove it for ourselves.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
To know in whom we have believed is the prime characteristic of the children of God. We find in the writings of John that the whole divine family know the Father. It is the function of the eternal life given to the believer to know the Father and the Son. What does this knowledge imply? Think of it in connection with everyday life. To know a person how much it means. Day adds to day; knowledge adds to our knowledge; we progress, we know more, we know better. But what long and intimate intercourse there must be before we can pretend to know the nearest and dearest in earthly relationship to us. Much more do all of us need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; for it is the great key to soundness and security and stability in the Christian life to know in whom we believe.
It is summit of the attainment of the fathers in Christ to know Him that is from the beginning. We have many of us been in the way with Christ some time; years of journeyings have passed, and do we not now know something about Him? Assuredly so. Let it, however, be still the aim of our lives to follow on to know the Lord, to be so habitually face to face with Him that in the intimacy of communion we get to know Him sufficiently and to rely upon Him for all things.
I think perhaps we pray more with regard to our own private family matters than we do about the matters of the church. That it should be so is a result of our weakness. Our private affairs come before us so freely and readily, and they come to us so that we cannot seem to escape them, but in the things of the church of Christ, we often seek somehow, either consciously or unconsciously to evade our responsibility, and yet, must not the cares of the church be ever before Christ? and if we know Him and the secret of His presence, can it be that He will never say anything to us about the vicissitudes of His church? No. He that lives for His members and who gave Himself for the church He thinks not merely of the units, but of the unity of the church. Ought not we therefore to mourn over disunion, since we are heirs with Him in all the things of His glory? It must be so if we know Him in the communion of the Spirit of God.
If we do not know Him in the sense that Paul wrote here, we shall most surely give way to unseemly doubts. The disciples on the lake were struggling to overcome the threatening waves, and their Lord was with them in the boat, but asleep. They, however, did not know Him, for they came to Him and said, “Carest thou not that we perish?” What an insult! He who was about to give up His life for them, not to care that they were perishing! He cared for every hair of their head, but they did not know Him, and they had yet to learn the wonders of His love. And so they said what afterward must have been a shame to them to have said: “Carest thou not that we perish?”
(To be continued)