(2 Timothy 2: 8-15)
One of the things about practicing law that I enjoyed and was fairly good at was arguing points of law before the court. For me, it didn’t matter if the argument was before one of the local courts on a case I was handling or before an appellate court on an issue already decided by a lower court and now being challenged. I was actually being paid to argue and I was good at it, even if I didn’t always prevail. The trick was being able to correctly identify the issue and openminded enough to see both sides of the argument, the pros and cons. You have to be fully prepared and doing legal research is an endeavor fraught with rabbit trails that you can unwittingly be drawn down and, before you realize it, you are hopelessly lost and have wasted precious time. I was smart enough to know that if I found a case that supported my position I wasn’t finished until I thoroughly searched for all the cases that held an opposing view and which one was the definitive authority followed by the courts. I would also look for the cases that I thought opposing counsel would find attractive or use to support his or her position and how I could distinguish them from the facts of the case we were arguing. I took special delight in the lazy lawyer who would either find that one case that looked good on the surface and look no further or would find a case that kind of said what he or she hoped and would try to fit the square peg into the round hole. Judges and appellate courts don’t appreciate word games as they tend to distort the truth.
And playing word games and distorting the truth is what the Apostle Paul is talking about in our scripture reading for this morning. As a matter of background, Paul wrote this letter from his imprisonment in Rome, thrown in jail for telling an inconvenient truth that was in opposition to what other prominent religious leaders and authorities were espousing. This is the Apostle’s last letter to Timothy in which he endeavors to pass on some final instructions and encouragement to Timothy who was the pastor of the church at Ephesus. What concerned Paul was the existence of many active false teachers in Ephesus causing problems for the church. At the heart of these false teachings was an incorrect view of Christ. In Timothy’s day, many asserted that Christ was divine but not human, God but not man. And these days we often hear that Jesus was human, just a man, not divine, man but not God. Either view destroys the good news that Jesus Christ has taken our sins on himself and has reconciled us to God. But Paul says: Remember Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead and descended from David. This is my good news. Paul is firmly stating that Jesus is fully man, descended from David, and fully God, raised from the dead. And because of this, Paul says: This is the reason I’m suffering to the point that I’m in prison like a common criminal. But God’s word cannot be imprisoned. Defiant right up to the end. They thought that maybe they could break Paul’s will by putting him in prison way off in Rome where he would have few visitors and little correspondence, figuring he would soften his stance so he could get back out on the road for more missionary trips. Just confess, admit you were wrong, and we’ll release you with time served. Paul was in prison because of the gospel he preached, the truth about Jesus, which even today continues to make some people uncomfortable, even some who profess to be Christians. And Paul says: This is why I endure everything for the sake of those who are chosen by God so that they too may experience salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. He’s doing what he’s doing, enduring what he’s enduring for us, the elect, those of us who confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, and are saved. It’s more than just the principle of the matter, it’s the God’s honest truth and well worth the suffering. To back this up, Paul refers to a saying he says is reliable, probably an early Christian hymn sung by worshippers. He recites: If we have died together, we will also live together. If we endure, we will also rule together. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are disloyal, he stays faithful because he can’t be anything else than what he is. So much like the communal hymns we sing together every Sunday as a way of reaffirming whose we are and what we stand for as loving and loyal children of God.
Paul calls upon Timothy to: Remind them of these things and warn them in the sight of God not to engage in battles over words that aren’t helpful and only destroy those who hear them. As someone who made a good living waging legal battles using words this statement really resonated with me. Paul’s use of the phrase “battles over words” appears to invoke hair-splitting arguments and fruitless speculation essentially arguing for the sake of winning arguments. Paul is urging Timothy, and us, to eschew godless discussions, that is, debates that go nowhere, even supposedly theological debates, especially when pursuing them with the wrong motive only leads to less holiness and knowledge of God. We see these “battles over words” playing out today in the news and especially on social media where the pundits and self-proclaimed political experts mince words and split hairs to make their weak point and win the debate hoping to feed upon the angry and misguided passions of their base. It gets even worse when they drag religion into the debate to support their assertion that America is a Christian nation, founded by God for God’s people giving rise to the Christian dominionism movement which is the belief that God desires Christians to rise to power through civil systems so that His Word might then govern the nation. They do this by cherry-picking verses, usually from the Old Testament, that they can twist and misinterpret for their own purposes relying on the belief that their listeners won’t fact check them or that the fact checkers are lying. Apparently, this was a problem that John Wesley, founder of our denomination, identified in his struggles with the Church of England which was a proxy for the Crown. He advocated “duly explaining and applying the whole scripture, so as to give each hearer his due portion.” He was concerned that focusing too much on just one text or one kind of text would award comforts and promises to “unawakened, hardened, scoffing men” by giving only “one part of the gospel to all.” Wow! Look at that. John Wesley was “woke”. Merriam-Webster defines woke as: aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice. If John Wesley was nothing else, he was “woke”. He was aware of the plight of the common people of 18th century England whose deplorable living conditions and meager existence was being ignored both by the Church of England and the British Crown, and he became so actively attentive to these social ills that the Methodist Church was born as a result of a drive for social justice. It’s in our DNA. He was concerned that these unawakened, hardened, and scoffing men would focus too much on just one text or kinds of text that would justify their self-serving positions to the detriment of others. They would manipulate the scriptures to justify their stance contrary to what a complete and comprehensive understanding of the Scriptures would support. The clear and present danger is that certain unawakened, hardened, and scoffing men and women have taken over the evangelical church in an effort to cause strife and division by their meaningless quibbling over unimportant details labeling those of us who understand the true meaning of the two greatest commandments; love God and love others, as being “woke.” They are afraid of the truth and can’t handle the truth if they think it might cost them something like power, position, or prestige. To handle the work of truth correctly, we must study what the word of God says so we can truly and comprehensively understand what it means and apply it accordingly.
This is why Paul says: Make an effort to present yourself to God as a tried-and-true worker, who doesn’t need to be ashamed but is one who interprets the message of truth correctly. We do this because God will examine what kind of workers we have been for him, and we should build our lives on his Word and build his Word into our lives. It alone tells us how to live for him and serve him, so we won’t be drawn into an unproductive game of words and focus our efforts on what truly matters the most to the God we worship and serve in love and truth.
Let us pray.
Gracious and loving God, make us channels of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us bring your love. Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord, and where there’s doubt, true faith in you. Awaken us merciful Father so that we may see the injustices around us and have the strength to speak out and take action. Open our minds so that we may fully understand your holy word and speak boldly your truth where it needs to be spoken. Make us channels of your peace so that where there is despair, we may bring hope and where there is darkness let us bring the light of your love. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.