2 Timothy 2:8

‘REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST’

‘Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my Gospel.’

2 Timothy 2:8

A heavy burden had been laid upon the young disciple to whom St. Paul so wrote. Before he had reached middle life Timotheus had been placed as the Apostle’s delegate, with episcopal authority, over the Christian community in Ephesus; and it seems clear that he was still responsible for that great trust when this letter was sent to him. It is hard to realise the strain which at that time such an office must have put upon a man’s robustness of conviction and tenacity of purpose.

St. Paul may never see Timotheus, never write to him again; well then, he will leave dinted into his mind, by a few incisive words, one commanding and sustaining Image. For it is not, as it appears in our English version, an event of the past, however supreme in its importance, however abiding in its results, that St. Paul here fastens upon the memory of his disciple; it is not the abstract statement of a truth in history or theology, however central to the faith, however vast in its consequences.

I. It is a living Person, Whom St. Paul has seen, Whose form he would have Timotheus keep ever in his mind, distinct, beloved, unrivalled, sovereign—‘Bear in remembrance Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.’ When the hardship which Christ’s true soldier must expect is pressing heavily upon you; when the task of self-discipline seems tedious and discouraging; when the day’s work seems more than you can bear, and when night, it may be, brings but little rest; when you are sick at heart to see folly and wilfulness, conceit and treachery, ruining what years of labour and devotion hardly reared, then let that ever living Form stand out before you—‘Bear in remembrance Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.’ Bear Him in remembrance as He now is, enthroned in everlasting victory.

II. Two thoughts from the counsel St. Paul thus gives:—

(a) He is trying to lodge at the heart of Timotheus’s life and work that which has been the deepest and most effective force in his own.

(b) It is the Form which has made him what he is, for life or for death, that St. Paul would with his last words, it may be, leave clenched for ever on the mind and heart of his disciple. The vision of that Form may keep him true and steadfast when all is dark, confused, and terrible around him.

III. May not we do well to take the bidding to ourselves?—We know, perhaps, that our hearts are weak, and our wills unsteady; the time in which we should have stored up strength against the day of trial may not have been used as now we wish it had been. There are signs of trouble and confusion in the air, and some faint hearts begin to fail; and some of us, perhaps, ‘see not our tokens—so clearly as we did.’ But One we may see, as we lift our eyes; it is He Who liveth and was dead; and behold He is alive for evermore; He Who cannot fail His Church, or leave even the poorest and least worthy of His servants desolate and bewildered when the darkness gathers, and the cry of need goes up; He Who may be to any one of us what He was to His Apostle.

—Bishop F. Paget.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE TENDENCY TO FORGET

Remember Jesus Christ! ‘But,’ ask some, ‘is there any likelihood that we should forget Jesus Christ?’ Yes, there is, or this text would not have been written.

I. The tendency to forget arises from—

(a) The engrossment of things near and seen.

(b) The temptations of modern life.

II. Yet we cannot do without remembering Him.

(a) Remember Him Who forgives.

(b) Thoughts of Christ sanctify.

(c) To remember Him saves from discouragement.

(d) To remember Him keeps us up under the trials of life.

Illustration

‘As the Persian fable speaks of the rose giving its own fragrance to the senseless clod which it touches, so with things Divine. Some of our souls are like senseless clods. We must get our minds, the earthen vessels, filled with the treasure of thoughts about Christ.’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

WHEN AND HOW

‘Remember Jesus Christ’—when?

I. In days of health and gladness.—He can make bright things brighter, and sweet things sweeter, and if you come to Christ He will give you such joy and peace as human imagination has never dreamed of (1 Corinthians 2:9).

II. In days of sorrow.—‘In the midst of life we are in death.’ ‘The garden and the grave are not far apart.’ But ‘Remember Jesus Christ,’ and turn your tearful eyes to Him and He will teach you to ‘sing … the Psalm of life in the valley of the shadow of death.’

‘Remember Jesus Christ’—and how?

III. As ‘dead.’—Think of His atoning death. Think of His finished work. Put your whole trust in what He has done. ‘We preach Christ crucified.’

IV. As ‘Risen.’—Not an oriental Christ Who lived two thousand years ago and Who lies in His grave beneath the Syrian stars, but a Living Christ, ‘able to save to the uttermost.’ So think of Him as having died and of now being ‘alive for evermore.’

Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

‘One of the wonderful things about the Epistles is their scanty reference to Christ’s life and words. We are eager to dwell on that life of loveliness and grace. We are quick to cry, “Back to Christ: back to the Jesus of the gospel story.” We are amazed at the slight mention of that Jesus Who walked by the lake and fed the multitudes. But Paul and Peter and James and John have their hearts more set on the risen Christ, and His coming again. One event is the thing of imperishable memory. One event of the life overshadows all the rest. It is His death and resurrection. With the disciples, as with Christ, His death eclipses all else He said or did.’