Paul encourages Timothy, primarily, in two ways. First, he reminds Timothy that God has not given His ministers a spirit of timidity or cowardice (v. 7), but rather has furnished them with the potent and effective tools of power, love, and self-discipline. Timothy, therefore, should be unashamed of the “witness about our Lord,” or of being associated with those suffering for that witness, and join Paul in suffering for the gospel by the power of God (v. 8). Shunning cowardice and embracing hardship are key elements of faithful gospel ministry. Second, Paul points Timothy to the majesty and authority of King Jesus.

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of either the witness about our Lord or me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God… (2 Timothy 1:7–8, LSB)
The theme of Paul’s exhortation to Timothy in this passage is courage. As the apostle looks to the future and sees that “the time of my departure has come” (4:6), he recognizes the responsibility of faithful gospel ministry is passing from his shoulders to the next generation. He will soon be gone, but Timothy will remain. Consequently, Paul, now an older man, seeks to stir Timothy up in the faith and strengthen his resolve to stand firm in the face of sure and certain opposition — “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (3:12).
Paul encourages Timothy, primarily, in two ways. First, he reminds Timothy that God has not given His ministers a spirit of timidity or cowardice (v. 7), but rather has furnished them with the potent and effective tools of power, love, and self-discipline. Timothy, therefore, should be unashamed of the “witness about our Lord,” or of being associated with those suffering for that witness, and join Paul in suffering for the gospel by the power of God (v. 8). Shunning cowardice and embracing hardship are key elements of faithful gospel ministry.
Second, Paul points Timothy to the majesty and authority of King Jesus.
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If God says sound doctrine is good for us, then that’s the way it is. If He says meditating upon His law day and night is what makes a man prosper and mature (Ps. 1:3), then that’s simply what we’ve got to do. It matters very little if our flesh objects otherwise. God’s Word sets the standard. Our part is to believe and obey. So what does this look like practically? In short, it looks like giving ourselves wholeheartedly to the means God has supplied for the instruction and upbuilding of His church. 

…being nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. (1 Timothy 4:6, LSB)
If you were to ask the average Christian today how they are “nourished” in the faith — that is, how they are strengthened, fed, built up, or trained in spiritual maturity — what do you suppose they would say? Many might answer something along the lines of: community, fellowship with other believers, listening to worship songs, or putting on a good podcast, all of which of course are good and helpful things.
But if you were to ask the apostle Paul, it might surprise you to find he had quite a different answer to this question. According to him, the way we are trained in spiritual maturity is not primarily through any of these means, helpful as they are, but rather through the plain yet powerful instrument of words: “…being nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following” (v. 6).
Words. Teaching. Sound doctrine. These are the building blocks of spiritual maturity, according to the apostle. They are the means God has supplied for nourishing and strengthening His saints.
Now, this is a very helpful thing to point out, especially since, for us, none of these things seem at first to be very nourishing. In fact, few things might sound more drab to our modern ears than “sound doctrine.” And yet, there it is, right in the text.
What we have to remember, then, in order to not be at odds with Scripture, is that we are creatures of our age.
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Life, Isaiah says, is not found in vain self-exaltation. It isn’t found through subjecting the world to our arbitrary whims. It isn’t found by blotting out every remembrance of our fallenness or seeking to indulge every craven lust. Rather, life is found through acknowledging the crushing weight of our rebellion against God and turning to Him in humble faith.

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’ (Isaiah 57:15)
It’s hard to describe the degree to which the worship of self has become a foundational assumption of our age. It is, to borrow the old cliché, simply the “air we breathe.” And it’s a noxious fume at that.
But the kind of self-obsession I am thinking of goes deeper than any one example. It’s more than simply the general priority of self that has been endemic to every sinner throughout the ages. Rather, the kind of self-obsession I am referring to has more to do with our outlook on the world, with how we view the whole hierarchy of existence and our place within it.
Older breeds of self-interest, for instance, certainly preferred the interests of the individual over the interests of others, just as modern self-interest does. The difference, however, lay in the fact that those seeking to advance themselves in former times did so within an objectively established order. Their self-interest, in other words, was subordinated to the constraints of reality, like two ants fighting over the same leaf or two birds with a worm.
Modern self-interest, however, is different from this. It seeks to do away with hierarchy altogether and believes that the scope and priority of the self is unbounded. Thus, whereas previous generations recognized a world outside themselves to which their desires — even their selfish ones — were necessarily subjected, we recognize no such limitations.
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Set your mind on things above (Col. 3:2). Anchor your hope in that coming world where righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13). Keep fighting by faith for that crown that neither fades nor rusts (2 Tim. 4:8), and run for that inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading (1 Pet. 1:4). Christ has won for us an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17).

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man…’ (Revelation 21:1–3)
Without a doubt, the closing chapters of the book of Revelation are among the most beautiful and enchanting ever penned. Here every hope of the human soul is brought finally to fulfilment: every ache for restoration satisfied, every desire for redemption accomplished, every hope of reconciliation achieved, and every voracious longing for love brought finally to rest. Here, at the culmination of history, the warring, devouring, and backbiting of humanity has become a trinket of a bygone age and unity at last prevails over fragmentation, reconciliation triumphs over estrangement.
This panorama of wonder is so foreign to our present experience it feels almost dreamlike; yet the reason for this paradisal state is made plain in the text: the Lamb was slain for sinners and the presence of God now dwells with man again (cf. Rev. 4:9–10).
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There is a place for tears, dust, and ashes. But we should remember that even in those times God’s design is that we rely not on ourselves but on Him who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:9). Even then His purpose is to break us out of our self-preoccupation and stewing and cast our wandering devotion back upon Himself.

You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will increase my greatness and comfort me again. (Psalm 71:20–21)
Few things have the potential to cloud the heart more than troubles and calamities. When disaster strikes, when hopes are deferred, when pain continues unabated, or distress weighs upon the soul, it’s easy to become blind to the rest of the world. Duties toward God and neighbour can quickly be consumed by the pressures of the moment. In the furnace of affliction, our whole world, if we’re not careful, can become reduced to our own private interior pain. In such times, we need the glorious light of Scripture to illumine our darkness.
The psalmist here is no stranger to suffering. As he says openly in verse 20, the Lord has caused him to see “many troubles and calamities” throughout the course of his life. Earlier he spoke of enemies that were presently harassing him from every side, cruel and unjust men who “seek my hurt” (v. 13).
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As Christians, we need to learn to identify cultural idols when we see them, and unequivocally refuse to bend the knee. We must refuse the temptation to use them as occasions to polish our reputations or to appear respectable in the eyes of our families and peers. Instead, we should remember that Babylon is a place brimming with idols — some of them sixty cubits tall (Dan. 3:1) — and that though they are exalted among men, in the eyes of God they are worthless abominations.

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.’ (Luke 16:14–15)
A very real danger faced by sinners in every age is that of seeking to be man-righteous rather than God-righteous — that is, of being tempted to curate a persona that will gain the approval of men, but not the approval of God. For the Pharisees, this looked like tithing mint and cumin while at the same time craving money like a pack of half-starved coyotes. It looked like straining gnats and swallowing camels, carefully washing the outside of the cup and leaving the inside untouched.
The Pharisees, in other words, were masters at putting their fingers in the air to determine which way the winds of cultural approval were blowing, and then tailoring their words and deeds in such a way as to win the admiration of all who might be watching.
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In the eyes of God, there are simply more important concerns than petty exactitude and getting our pound of flesh. If we really want to be righteous, if we really want to act justly, we need to look beyond the horizon of our own immediate concerns and see the needs of our neighbour. We need to loosen the stranglehold we have on his neck for a moment and look at his face and see the imago Dei. 

If ever you take your neighbour’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. (Exodus 22:26–27)
When one man owes a debt to another, a very natural instinct is to take something from him as a pledge or security. If I borrow money from the bank, for instance, the bank naturally wants to know that I have something of equal worth they could seize in return should I prove unfaithful to our agreement. The hundred dollar word we apply to this sort of arrangement is “collateral.” Under certain circumstances, however, God calls it injustice: “If ever you take your neighbour’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate” (Ex. 22:26–27).
There are several things to note about this passage, but the first is that we are never in so much danger of committing injustice against our neighbour as when we feel we are owed by them.
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God was faithful to His Word and He will continue to be so forevermore. Thus, no matter how bleak things may look for a time, these realities stand true and indisputable: Christ came, Christ died, Christ rose, and Christ conquered. And He now reigns as the uncontested Lord of heaven and earth. 

And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed. The nations shall no longer flow to him; the wall of Babylon has fallen. (Jeremiah 51:44)
When the prophets looked out on the world, the sight that met their eyes was a bleak and depressing one. Oppression sat in the place of justice, evil in the place of righteousness, lies in the place of truth, and idolatry in the place of true worship. A heavy and indeed demonic darkness blanketed the earth as whole nations were swept up in crushing servitude to false and cruel gods. As Jeremiah here tells us, the nations were “swallowed” up in service to pagan deities, “flowing” like a torrent to give tribute and worship to vain and worthless idols. The apostle Paul described the situation in similar terms, adding that the Gentiles were then “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). A bleak picture indeed.
Into this world, however, the prophetic Word was uttered — a shoot from the stump of Jesse (Isa. 11:1), a righteous Branch (Jer. 23:5), Light for those dwelling in darkness (Isa. 9:2), restoration of the fallen Davidic house (Amos 9:11). Little by little, hints and shadows were given that looked forward to a day when Yahweh would again show mercy to His wayward bride and establish a new and everlasting covenant with her (Jer. 31:34).
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The sum of our complaints is neatly captured in God’s challenge to Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Here then is what all our murmuring amounts to: not justified expressions of displeasure, but rank rebellion against the King of heaven; clay daring to find fault with the Potter. 

And the LORD said to Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.’”Job 40:1-2
One antidote against a bitter, complaining spirit is to remember the very obvious truth that you are not God.
What you are is a creature made in the image of God. But He is the eternal Creator and sovereign ruler of all things in heaven and earth. To put things in focus, before you ever existed—before matter arranged itself by divine decree into an embryonic conglomerate of cells and tissues joined to an eternal soul—God was speaking worlds into existence. He was commanding the rise and fall of empires. He was fashioning such creatures as the hippo and crocodile, the common house fly and the Japanese murder hornet. He was setting the bounds of created reality, speaking stars and galaxies into existence that no human eye would ever see, and delighting in the divine joke that would one day be the ostrich.
All these God created and upholds by the power of His Word. But we’re upset that the light turned red. Or that the toothpaste is empty again. Or that the gas light is on and we’re already running late. To put not too fine a point on it, each day a veritable tsunami of blessing goes forth from the throne of the triune God, and each day a near ceaseless drone of nitpicking ascends in return. Like Israel grumbling in the wilderness, shockingly blind to God’s goodness and provision, so are we on a normal Tuesday afternoon. We really are stunningly audacious creatures.
The sum of our complaints, however, is neatly captured in God’s challenge to Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Here then is what all our murmuring amounts to: not justified expressions of displeasure, but rank rebellion against the King of heaven; clay daring to find fault with the Potter.
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In a culture that is currently engaged in a futile effort to push God to the periphery of public consciousness, it’s important for Christians to recover a sense of biblical reality. Despite what our unbelieving world would tell us, neutrality is a myth. Every human action — from making love to drawing up the building specs of an oatmeal factory — is done in service to something. Either it is done for the glory of God or for the glory of self.

I keep your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before you. (Psalm 119:168)
One of the noteworthy characteristics of the wicked in Scripture is that they regard the living God as a distant and negligible reality. If the grand stage of human life is a play, God, for them, is a mere background character. A silhouette. A barely discernible figure tucked away on stage right, who, if He has any part to play in this theatre of existence, probably only exists to highlight the main actors. That God could be anything more — like, say…the transcendent Creator-King to whom all worship, obedience, love, and devotion is owed — never comes into their minds. They are too preoccupied with themselves: plotting trouble on their beds and enjoying the hollow pleasures of self-flattery (Ps. 36:1–4).
The righteous, by contrast, take an entirely different approach to reality. For them, the old hymn “This is My Father’s World” plays on repeat. And as they use those remarkable beauty receptacles otherwise known as “eyes” to look out upon “rocks and trees and skies and seas,” the righteous don’t simply see an endless landscape to be manipulated for their pleasure. Rather, they see the manifold wonders their Father’s hands have wrought and are moved to love and obedience: “I keep your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before you” (Ps. 119:168).
This, then, is the crucial distinction between the righteous and the wicked.
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