Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Tidbits. Today, we are in 2 Timothy 1 and verse number 18.
The Apostle Paul has been talking about Onesiphorus, someone from the town of Ephesus where Timothy was pastoring, who had come all the way to Rome.
He, as we learned yesterday, diligently searched for Paul, wanted to find the place where Paul was imprisoned. He found him. He cared for him.
As verse 16 says, he refreshed Paul, wasn't ashamed of him or the fact that he was imprisoned. And so now in verse 18, Paul says this, May the Lord grant that he find mercy from him on that day. You know very well how much he ministered at Ephesus.
So I want to break this. There's two sentences in this verse, and I want to look at one specific thing in verse number 18. So verse number 17, Paul says that when Onesiphorus was in Rome, he diligently searched for me and found me.
And then verse 18, he says, May the Lord grant that Onesiphorus find mercy from the Lord on that day. And I love this. He says, Just as the good that Onesiphorus did to me, I want him to experience that same kind of good over and above from the Lord.
Do you have a desire for other people to be blessed because of how they have blessed you?
Those that have been kind to you, those that have brought you meals, those that have texted you kind words or have said good things to you or have invested in your life. Do you have a desire for those people to be blessed and encouraged?
Do you pray for them? Do you seek to return good for the good that they have brought to you? In today's day and age, gratitude is something that we don't often express.
We can often have a very entitled attitude that says, well, I am deserving of all the good that people can bring to me, and so I don't have to express gratitude for that.
One of the ways that I've seen this online often is people will see someone express gratitude for how their spouse is helping out with something around the house or with the children, and in the comments, you'll have people that say, oh, well, don't
thank them for that. That's just the bare minimum, and you deserve so much more, so don't thank them for doing basic things. No, we aren't inherently deserving of anything.
Anything that we have is a gift, and so let us be grateful for the gifts that we receive, and let's give those gifts back to others. Let us love and care for others in a way that is noteworthy.
I do also want to mention this sentence, may the Lord grant that he find mercy from him on that day.
That day would certainly be that day of judgment, that day of the Lord, and the day when the books are opened and we receive according to what we have done on this earth for those of us that have accepted Christ, certainly for those that have not
accepted Christ, they will be judged by what they did with Jesus, and as a result of that will determine their eternity. But for those of us that know Christ, Paul says, I want God to give him like a special amount of that mercy, that compassion,
that goodness. I want God to extend those things to him when he is rewarding Onesiphorus on the day of judgment. I want him to give him everything that he is worthy of.
When you do good work, so when people do good works to you, think about it in light of that day, when we receive from the Lord either a well-done, you good and faithful servant, you've been faithful with few things, or you've been faithful with many
things, enter into the joy of your Lord, or will we hear something like, there was a squandering of everything that God gave us, that we were done good but we never gave good back to others, that we received the gospel but we never gave the gospel.
Let's think about our good works in light of the day of judgment and let's be faithful to use everything that God has given to us. And then the second verse, the second sentence in the verse, in verse number 18, he says, You know very well how much
he ministered at Ephesus. This would be the word diakoneo. This would be the word we'd get the word deacon from. He says, he served, he was at one's service, he performed obligations, he rendered assistance, he waited on people, he met needs.
And that should be the kind of person that we are. Often, we can get into a mindset that says, ah, well, I've put on my time, I'm done. Or, you know, I just really want to be served.
But the truth is this, that even Jesus didn't come to be served. And if the sinless Son of God, the eternal Savior, did not come to be served by other people, but to serve them, then certainly that ought to be how we interact with others.
So I want to walk away today with these two thoughts. Number one, will we live our lives with gratitude, thanking people for what they've done for us?
Are we going to live our life of good works in light of the coming day of judgment that we want to hear well done with what God has given us? And then secondly, are we going to live our lives in service for others?
Not looking to see how we can be blessed, but how we can bless others. Thanks for tuning in. See you tomorrow in chapter number two.
