Again, Paul is preparing Timothy to carry on without him. This is more of a pep-talk than actual instruction in something Timothy might not understand clearly. There’s a lot of work to do to make Ephesus ready to absorb the exodus of believers from Jerusalem. As if things were not already challenging enough, the worst was yet to come.
If there is a doctrine for shepherding the body of Christ through tribulation, this is it. Grace is the foundation because divine election has a grand purpose. Hang onto the gospel message and share it, knowing that God will call up from your audience men who will join the mission of spreading that message. Be ready to teach and train them. That’s how Paul handled it.
He refers to soldiers. Roman troops were recruited by their own commanders; there was a strong personal bond. They took up the uniform knowing it was a radical departure from civilian life. We are no longer involved in the affairs of this world. We cannot afford to disappoint Christ by getting sidetracked. It was rather like athletic competition with its strict rules and hard training regimen.
The mention of farmers being first to eat their own crops is an old saw to remind government officials (tax consumers) to be patient, be slow to assert privileges over taxpayers. The farmer shouldn’t groan with dread at the sight of you. They’ll work harder if you don’t plunder them. It’s all part of the image of serving with honor and bearing with some deprivation. It’s a mark of divine favor when God asks you to carry the heaviest load; it means He trusts you. Don’t put Him in a position where He needs to hit you over the head with it.
What kind of burden must Jesus have borne, even though He was the heir of King David? Paul bore his own cross at that very moment. But no prison could hold the gospel. It’s the message that matters, not our comfort or our lives. Paul suffered gladly for the sake of the Elect, seeking to ensure they found the full inheritance of God. He quotes a bit of doctrinal poetry: Dying with Him is eternal life; enduring hardship for Him is reigning training. If we turn away from the calling, He will turn away from protecting us in this life. Even if we fail, He will not — that’s His nature.
One of Timothy’s biggest burdens would be believers who get hung up on the words of such teaching and miss the whole point. This is otherworldly truth and a spiritual commitment, not something requiring precise legal grammar. Paul referred to “cutting a straight path”. The famous Roman roads would never have gone anywhere if the workers hadn’t followed a carefully surveyed and well-engineered path. Just so, the gospel message had a long-term goal and it was necessary to keep an eye on the far destination. Picking over words was a very short-sighted distraction.
Paul mentions a couple of guys who were notorious for this kind of thing. At one point, they had insisted that some peculiar wording could be read to mean that the Resurrection had already come, and everyone missed it. What a nasty uproar that caused! Well, the answer is that the Lord knows His Elect (quoting Numbers 16:5), and the whole purpose of claiming His name is getting out of moral darkness, not groveling in legalism.
The talk about vessels is that human valuations of other people don’t matter; God is the one who decides how He will use His servants. We can’t afford to act like irresponsible juveniles but must endeavor to show ourselves mature and reliable. Juveniles are notorious for nitpicking and playing word games, looking for attention. This stuff is a major distraction, sidetracking the Body with senseless quarrels. Adults don’t do that; they step in when that kind of arguing erupts so that people can hear God.
Literalism is the Devil’s espionage, a snare to trap believers into serving his purpose.
