Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (CL)

2 Timothy 3:10-17

¹⁰ You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, ¹¹ my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

-       Timothy has been following St Paul's teaching. He has modeled his life after St Paul. He has seen the faith and devotion of St Paul. He has also seen St Paul in all his times of distress.

-       He watched as Paul suffered during his travels. But he knew that God was with him. Timothy and Paul both understood what it meant to be rescued by God.

-       It is not about removing pain, suffering, or persecution, but about enduring with God and hoping in eternal life.

¹² Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³ while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it ¹⁵ and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

-       Why do bad things happen to Good people? Godly people will be persecuted!

-       Why do good things happen to Bad people? Evil people will go on from bad to worse. Evil people will prosper, and become more evil.

-       St Paul encourages us to remain firm in the faith. We need to hold on to what we have been taught. We need to continue it what we have learned. Earlier St Paul talked about faith given from Lois and Eunice, how Timothy was acquainted with scripture from childhood.

-       He learned from scripture and learned from St Paul all giving him wisdom for salvation in Christ Jesus

-       Scriptures make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus – listen to the word of God, God teaches wisdom, God bring faith, God delivers Salvation.

¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

-       θεόπνευστος combination of God-spirit as an adjective. You could identify all scriptures as being the spirit of God. The Holy Spirit spoke by the prophets. God breathed can even be connected with Jesus breathing on the disciples and saying, recieve the Holy Spirit.

-       All of Scriptures are profitable for teaching. This meanings there is always something to be learned. There is no part of scripture that is void of learning.

-       Likewise the continuation: reproof, correction, training; All of Scripture can help us correct and call out sin, for what it actually is. Scripture is to be used for correction, which indicates that if you are doing something sinful, this activity needs to be corrected, or changed

-       All the laws and regulations in scripture are supposed to equip us for doing good works and leading a godly life. Thus, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Scripture teaches us how to deal with persecution.