Renungan 01 November 2021, 2 Timothy 2:24

2 Timothy 2:24

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient”.

“sedangkan seorang hamba Tuhan tidak boleh bertengkar, tetapi harus ramah terhadap semua orang. Ia harus cakap mengajar, sabar”.

Beloved sisters in Christ,

Why do you want to study at STB HKBP? And for the fellow workers here, why do you agree to come and work here? It is a question that somehow answered as a calling from God, the will of God and to fulfill to be a good Lord’s servant. Do you really know what God’s servant is? Did you do that in your daily life or just do whatever you want without thinking what God’s will on you? Or might be question God when you face hard times?

This morning we are reminded what the Lord’ servant is, and how to be the Lord’s servant. As all of you students want to be the Lord’s servant or as church workers. I believe you came here with strong faith of you and family. To pursue the calling you must be strong enough to experience difficult times. In his letter, Paul recaps Timothy’s path to becoming a minister. He also reminds Timothy of how his family brought him up in the faith, and then how Timothy served faithfully with Paul in the past. Timothy’s background in the faith should give him the courage to stand fast against hard times. Timothy should use that courage to defend the truth of the gospel message.  Faith in Christ should be also the courage to all of us in defending the truth and stand fast against difficult times.

Paul understood that the ministry would only become more difficult for Timothy. As it’s told, Timothy was even imprisoned for his faith (Hebrews 13:23). Thus, though hardship would come, Paul wanted Timothy to continue in those thing he had learned, drawing on the rich heritage of faith that had been passed down to this young pastor, not just from Paul but also from his mother and grandmother. How if it happens to us nowadays? This passage reminds us on reality of death, sorrow, ill, and how we would react when we face it. God wants us to trusting Him when that time comes, say no to surrender, and keep in strong faith.

Beloved sisters in Christ, serve faithfully as a “servant of God”, a slave to the Lord, not quarreling in work. It means whatever happens, suffering happens, do not question God as you are a slave to God. Work faithfully and empty self’ will and depend on God’s will only. The Lord’s servant is the people who works for God, will is altogether depend on God’s will not self’s will and depend life on God. The humanly and worldly will is all erased.  Thus, if we are still on the stage of desire to please ourselves, it means we still need to learn, we are still on the process to be God’s servant. Paul reminds Timothy that gentleness and patience are key to be God’s servant. The characteristics of the Lord’s servant as Paul told Timothy to be, as follows:

1. As Lord’s servant you must not be quarrelsome, means do not debate if you now it is senseless. We must know with whom we are speaking and debate (v.23). Debating with others equally is fine, but don’t try debating with the stupid ones. Paul in this passage says: “have nothing to do”, do not have debate with stupid people, for this kind of people you need to act as apt teacher. So if you see uneducated or people who act as uneducated, do not debate with them. It says also have nothing to do with senseless controversies which means people who like to make controversies as such the unbelievers. The unbelievers need patient and kind from us believers so that they know Christ is kind.

If your motivation for arguing comes from your desire to be right, or to be exonerated, or to gain the esteem of those listening to you, you are acting selfishly, and God will not honor you. God is not interested in how right you are. He is interested in how obedient you are. God’s command is not that you win arguments, but that you are kind and forgiving when others mistreat you. You bring God no honor by winning a dispute in His name, but you reflect a Christ like character when you demonstrate patience to those who mistreat you or misunderstand your motives.

2. We are called to be kind to everyone. The Lord is kind (Luke 6:35) and expects the same from His servants. Love is “patient and kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4). Believers are to be “kind to one another” (Ephesians 4:32). Though kindness can be shown even by unbelievers (Acts 28:2), but is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23) that should be true of every servant of Christ. Kindness shows also when we can make people in true joy. We act as we are and make them feel joy. Greetings to others is a kind as well.
3. Lord’s servants must also be able to teach (1 Timothy 3:1–7; Titus 1:5–9). To teach means to rise up, to rise the knowledge of people. It means created a change and encourage others to transform. If the students or people we teach has no change at all, you are not an apt teacher, you are not able enough yet to teach. That’s why when we preach, lead the Bible discussions, teaching children, we must have a purpose to change their mind and act to be better. Rising up their knowledge, courage, motivation, and character to be up from down. Paul reminds us through Timothy that the good news that is Christ to be entrusted to the faithful people who will be able to teach others as well (v.2). Ones including us, to whom the good news of Christ entrusted should be able to teach. That’s the calling to all believers.

Ordinarily, God changes people by means of His Word, prayer, and loving service. So, if we really want people to change, to trust Christ and become more like Him, we need to tell them the truth in love, pray for them, and serve them with sincerity and humility. When we do this, we need to remember that there’s no guarantee that others will ever change. God alone is Lord of the human heart. He changes people according to His sovereign pleasure, but if we want to be instruments of change in people’s lives, we have to trust God to work through His appointed means.

4. The lord’s servant is called to be patient enduring evil (2 Timothy 2:10, 12; 3:11; 4:3, 5). Patient ones must be able to bear evil, sorrow, ill, and suffering. Able to bear evil of hatred. Patient means strong, not weak. That’s why Paul said that in v.1 “be strong in Christ Jesus”. Patience is to give something that we want more of but can’t produce artificially. It’s the highest form of kindness since its nature is sacrificial. When we offer patience to others (and ourselves) we can never get the time we invested back. Patience, above all, has to do dealing with difficult people. We’ve all experienced this one form or the other, such as friends or colleague who won’t reply to your words, greetings, whatsApp, sms, etc. But to be sure, we are too, at times, the difficult one to others, let’s not forget that.

Beloved sisters in Christ, if we don’t have those things, we will easily produce quarrels. When we quarrel, we’re actually attempting to be God, rather than trusting God. We’re trying to rule over the minds, hearts, and behaviors of others, instead of relying on God to rule them. We’re attempting to leverage someone into change by fighting them with our words. But God calls us to remember that He is sovereign over the hearts and lives of others. We can never change a person from the inside out, but God can, and God does. If we believe His meticulous providence and His perfect loving care for us and others, then we can trust Him without trying to change others by quarreling. To the degree we do this, our anger and our fears will diminish as we rest in His kind providence.

We should think of disagreements as an opportunity to love and serve. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices at the truth. Love bears all thing, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:4-7). We should first listen carefully to those with whom we disagree, make sure we have understood what they’re saying, and we should only choose to voice a disagreement if we believe that it will serve them and God’s glory.

Beloved sisters, Christ had many opportunities to quarrel, but He never did. The Pharisees and Sadducees often attempted to lure Christ into quarrels, but Jesus always responded with perfectly wise speech. Christ’s disciples regularly misunderstood Him, and even contradicted Him, but Jesus never quarreled with them. Instead, He patiently corrected them and taught them, over and over. Christ spoke the truth in love to all. Matthew 12:19-20 says of Christ, “He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench.” And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all (v.25). Quiet and kind, not only to those belonging to the sister/brotherhood of Christ, but as is expressly mentioned, to all. Not only to troubled minds, and wounded consciences, by supplying them with the precious promises and truths of the Gospel; and to backsliders, by restoring them in a spirit of meekness; but even to those who contradict the truth, and themselves, by mild and kind instructions.

Gentleness means having a calm self, having good emotional skills, not using personal offensive words because thinking that we are more righteous than others. Jesus Christ is an example of gentleness. Jesus remained calm facing of the crucifixion, Jesus even comforting a broken heart. Jesus comforted His mother Mary, His brothers and disciples. Jesus never assaulted both physically and verbally until he was crucified. He forbade the attacking plan of his disciples. He was angry with Peter attacked the soldiers who captured him. Nor did he personally attack the rulers who prosecuted him, including Herod and Pilate. But in the end people got the real truth from all the processes they went through.

In terms of humanity and worldliness of course it is difficult and seems impossible to do. When someone or several people attack our comfort zone either directly or through social media, we are invited to remain calm and not attack back. Keep creating and building a sense of family as Jesus did. He reminded that family transcends blood relations, when He calms the hearts of His mother and disciples. For our lives have been set free by Christ and guided to live the law of Christ, which is love. Because only Love can melt hatred and sin. Only love is able to set free those who are still confined in mortal comfort. God may grant that they will repent and come to know the truth. Amen

Rev. Marudur Siahaan, M.Th