The Effective Servant

The first sentence in this coming Sunday’s text is, “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace” (2 Timothy 2:22). If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is. A few weeks ago, we heard about the “man of God” who flees from certain things and pursues nearly identical godly characteristics (1 Timothy 6:11). Since a “man of God” is one who truly seeks God’s will in his life, a “man of God” is a servant of Jesus Christ. Since we are servants of Jesus Christ, Paul’s guidance to Timothy is applicable to each of us. 

In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he equates an effective servant with a soldier who lives to please his Divine Commanding Officer, an athlete who trains vigorously to run a race, and a hardworking farmer who does not toil for an immediate reward, but for one in the distant future. Paul also says that an effective servant avoids godless chatter and correctly handles the word of truth, and clings to the truth, which is rooted in the gospel. 

In this Sunday’s text, Paul continues giving instructions on being an effective servant of Jesus Christ, which includes how we deal with those who are opponents to the gospel in a manner that they may “come to their senses” so that they may escape the snare from which they were entrapped.