The challenge for Paul, Timothy and all believers in Jesus Christ is to be bold, unashamed, faithful followers of Him. Doing so will take hard, disciplined work with the promise of great reward.
Paul gave Timothy yet another command and used himself as an example of carrying it out. He told Timothy he had to keep Christ in mind. In other words, be continually remembering who He was and what He did. To endure the suffering that comes for being a believer in Jesus Christ, He had to be remembering Who it was that he had trusted in and had dedicated his life to following.
Paul knew that forgetting or losing focus on Christ hindered the ministry of the Gospel. Remembering Jesus Christ, then and now, keeps all of life in perspective and will have a direct influence on all the issues of life.
As he wrote, Paul was suffering hardship in prison, undeserving of being a criminal and of the difficulties imposed on him. Even so, he maintained that the Gospel was not “in prison,” it was not being hindered or thwarted. A testimony to us as well that wherever we are, we are there by God's design to proclaim the Gospel so that the chosen may hear and believe.
Suffering for the Gospel must be put in the perspective of the promised rewards of the glory to come.
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In the fall of 1969, Gil began a full-time teaching ministry as Senior Pastor of Indian Hills Community Church. He also earned his Ph.D. from the California Graduate School of Theology. The focus of Pastor Rugh’s ministry is systematic, verse-by-verse teaching of the Bible. As a...
