2 Timothy 2:24 Every Christian is a servant of the Lord but there is no doubt that in this verse, Paul is particularly thinking of the responsibilities of church leaders. Clearly they cannot serve the Lord if they are prone to pick quarrels b...
2 Timothy 2:20-21 Here Paul is describing the Church. It is made up of very different people who have a wide variety of roles. Paul’s concern is that Timothy should live in a state of constant readiness for whatever the Lord might want him to...
2 Timothy 2:15-16 It’s always a pleasure to see someone who is a good worker. They may be an accountant, a cleaner, a lawyer or a shop-worker but, the moment you see them at work, you know that they are fully committed to the task. However, i...
2 Timothy 2:9-10 If it were possible to extinguish Christianity through violent persecution, it would have been snuffed out long ago. But it is a fact of the last 2,000 years that the persecution of the Church has simply accelerated its growt...
2 Timothy 2:6 Paul was well aware of what a hard job it was to be a Christian leader. When he wrote to the Corinthians, he told them he was “pressed on every side by troubles”. He knew what it was to be perplexed, hunted down and to live in c...
2 Timothy 2:5 I wonder if you remember that agonising moment in the 2022 Commonwealth Games when our amazing 4x400m women’s relay team was disqualified. It was all the more painful because they seemed to have won the race. They gave a confide...
2 Timothy 2:3-4 It’s not surprising that the apostle Paul often referred to soldiers in his letters. He had seen plenty of Roman soldiers in his time and, no doubt, had often reflected on the life that they lived. They provided him with a pow...
2 Timothy 2:2 Every sensible organisation needs to reflect on its succession planning. Leaders come and go and it’s important that careful thought is given to the way in which potential new leaders are identified, trained and appointed. This ...
2 Timothy 1:13 Living the Christian life doesn’t come naturally to any of us. We all need teaching to help us to live for Christ. However, there’s a problem with the word ‘teaching’ - it tends to make us think about classrooms and exams. We m...
2 Timothy 1:12 Security is a big issue in our society. Billions of pounds are spent each year in the attempt to keep things safe. Nothing could make it clearer that, sadly, we live with a massive level of insecurity. I’ve only once lived in a...
2 Timothy 1:9 When Jesus met Paul on the road to Damascus, everything changed. He moved from darkness to light. He experienced the forgiveness of his sins and entered into a new life with God which would never end. His whole life changed dire...
2 Timothy 1:8 This isn’t the first time that Paul had spoken about the issue of shame. In his letter to the church in Rome he declared boldly that he was “not ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16). There’s no doubt that he said this because he k...
2 Timothy 1:7 The apostle Paul wanted his young friend Timothy to be the best. There was no question that Timothy was going to face enormous challenges. He would continually confront opponents to the Christian faith, but he would also face issues...
2 Timothy 1:5-6 When I was a boy one of the great pleasures of Saturday afternoons was that I would light a bonfire with my dad. I came to love the smell of bonfires, probably because it reminded me of those happy moments. And the greatest pl...
2 Timothy 1:3 Paul’s second letter to his young friend Timothy is deeply moving. Paul knew that he was close to death and was keen to do everything he could to encourage, strengthen and direct Timothy in his ministry. He knew that it was abso...
