2 Timothy 2:8-9-Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. NASB
In my previous post, I looked at Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to endure hardship as a good soldier. Those are words of encouragement we can all receive! As Paul continued in his letter to Timothy, Paul told Timothy to “remember Jesus”! For Paul, this was the best reason he could provide for Timothy to endure hardships!
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel
2 Timothy 2:8 NASB
When Paul is telling Timothy to remember Jesus, the Christ, he isn’t necessarily telling Timothy to take some time to remember the life of Jesus. More probably, Paul is telling Timothy to remember the sufferings of Jesus and although Jesus died, yet He lives! Had the Messiah not suffered for our sins, we would yet be in our sins, lost, and on our way to a Christless eternity! But He lives! Paul was reminding Timothy that suffering isn’t the end of the story!
But for the sake of argument, let’s take some time and remember what Jesus did for us! In 2 Corinthians Paul had this to say about Jesus:
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:9 NASB
Heaven is a wonderful place, filled with His glory and grace, and yet Jesus left His throne in glory to come to earth as a human being. Paul said that Jesus was already rich! After all, His streets are paved with gold! But Jesus was rich in more than what we think of as material riches! As God, He existed without needs or wants. Everything was subject to Him and His will, and He had only experienced eternity! Death, pain, and sorrow was unknown to Him. But as a man, He left all of that behind and became poor! Remember Jesus!
Many think that Jesus lived an earthly life of poverty. If that is so, Joseph was a poor steward of the gifts that he had received from the wise men. As a reader, I infer that no one would travel as far as the wise men did to give Jesus a paltry gift. They didn’t give a bar of gold, a pack of frankincense, and a jar of myrrh to the King. That would not be a gift fit for royalty! Nor would it be worth the travel and trouble they endured to find Him. (Remember the gifts the Queen of Sheba took to Solomon)? I’m not saying Joseph and Mary received gifts that large, but I am sure they weren’t trivial either! My point is that no matter how well-situated He could have been on Earth, it was still incomparable to His heavenly home!
While Jesus lived and proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom, He was hated by many of the Jews, people who wanted Him dead!
After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.
John 7:1 NASB
What things had He finished? The feeding of the five thousand with two fish and a loaf of bread, walking on water, and teaching the people about the kingdom of God. Which of these things are worthy of a death sentence?
The religious leaders were no better. As a matter of fact they were probably the reason that so many Jewish people had a problem with Jesus! Jesus infuriated them, and their response to him was a greater hatred than the people had. Remember Jesus!
They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, carrying His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called, Golgotha. There they crucified Him…
John 19:17-18a
This was after Jesus had forgiven the woman caught in adultery, healed the man born blind and raised Lazarus from the dead! They had become selfish, jealous, and even fearful instead of grateful and open to the Messiah!
Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council meeting, and they were saying, “What are we doing in regard to the fact that this man is performing many signs? If we let Him go on like this, all the people will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take over both our place and our nation.”
John 11:47-48 NASB
What a shame! But that’s not the end of the story!
I remember watching the movie “The Passion of the Christ” in 2004. Having a visual of the brutality that the Savior could have endured tore me up inside. I cried not only during the movie, but for the next several days as I remembered how He suffered for my sins. He endured that punishment because no one else could redeem us and reconcile us back to the Father! This is worth remembering!
Not only did He die a brutal death for our sins, but He rose from the grave and triumphed over the enemy! Hallelujah!
Paul was saying, it is for the exact same reason that Jesus suffered that I am suffering. This is what Timothy and each of us must remember!
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned.
2 Timothy 2:8-9 NASB
Paul reminded Timothy that while he was imprisoned because of the word of God, the word of God itself could not be and was not imprisoned! It was from jail that Paul wrote most of the New Testament! Although he was imprisoned he took advantage of his “time off” from evangelizing to write the letters that encompass the New Testament. The word of God flourished while he endured the hardship of prison life. And Paul wanted Timothy to remember that as Jesus endured the sufferings and paid for it with His life, that he had also endured the sufferings and was about to pay for it with his life. And one day, Timothy might end up in a similar place, but he was confident that Timothy could do it by remembering Jesus!
Nobody likes to suffer! Everyone wants to live a happy, blessed, and trouble free life! Unfortunately, that not real life! So, whether we are facing challenges and difficulties for the cause of Christ, or as a part of living, we just need to remember Jesus!
Jesus has already won the victory for us! He is our example of how to persevere through the storms of life. He has taught us through His own life, that there is victory on the other side of hardship! Rembering all that He has done for us, leaving glory, taking on humanity, enduring the rejection of His people, and the crucifixion has a way of helping us to gain a better perspective on the things that we endure.
If you are in the middle of heartaches, challenges, or disappointments, then like Paul, I encourage you to remember Jesus! He’s been where you are at and understands what you are going through. Not only that, He promises you will get the victory if you will trust Him through it! Suffering wasn’t the end of Jesus’ story, nor the end of Paul’s, and it doesn’t have to be the end of our story! Wonderful Jesus!
Wonderful Jesus! 