Welcome to Tabernacle Tidbits. Today, we are in 2nd Timothy, Chapter 2 and verse number 4.
Paul told Timothy, as we learned yesterday, he told him, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Then in today's verse, he's continuing the thought of a soldier.
He says, here's one aspect of what it means for you to share in suffering as a soldier of Jesus. He says, no one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life. He seeks to please the commanding officer.
Here there is a difference that is placed between what it means to be a soldier of Christ Jesus and what it would mean to just be a civilian, someone who is not enlisted in the army of the Lord.
He says, no one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life. This word means to be involuntarily interlaced to the point of immobility. This is like a sheep whose wool is caught in the thorns.
It is to become involved in an activity to the point of interference with other activity or objective. That is, that the participation in this thing makes you not able to serve your purpose.
It makes you not able to complete your goal if you get so busy doing this particular thing.
And as it's related to sharing and suffering as a good soldier of Jesus, Paul is telling Timothy there are ways in which you can so entangle yourself with this life, with the simple cares of today that you do not accomplish Jesus' goal for your life.
But he says, if someone's serving as a soldier, they're not worried about what the civilians are doing. They're not worried about, if you will, making their house payment.
They're not worried about making sure that they make it to the next Olympic Games. They are not concerned about, you know, keeping one of their household servants in line. That's all civilian tasks.
What they need to be doing as a soldier is, okay, where am I marching to? When am I marching? What equipment do I need to carry with me?
What training do I need to do? And the focus is pulled from things that are good, but are not immediate. Things that will matter in the future for the soldier, but do not matter right now.
I think often as Christians, we get distracted from what God would call us to do, because we view, if you will, Jesus and good works and loving others as like a, okay, once I get done with all of the other things in my life, once I get done with my
stuff, if I have left over time, I'll do some of those things. If I, you know, don't have the ability to go camping this weekend, then I'll go to church.
Maybe if I have, you know, if I have $20 left over, I might, you know, give that to charity or to help out those that are less fortunate or to, you know, if I have enough time in my schedule, maybe I'll spend time with someone from church this week.
Instead, we ought to view Jesus' mission for our life, like his goals, the things that he values, let that be what determines what we do, not just what do you want to do, maybe what do your friends expect you to do, or what is even sometimes your
family expect you to do. We ought to say, what does God want me to do, and work from that basis. As Paul tells Timothy, the soldier seeks to please the commanding officer.
We have a commander, we have one that has given us the blueprint for our life in his word. And we ought to read his orders and see, OK, God, I know you want me to love and care for and provide for my family. So that's what I'm going to do.
God, I know that you want me to lead and be a model, an example for my family of what it means to love and to follow you and to love others. So I'm going to do that.
God, I know you want me to love your church and your people and to gather with them and to encourage each other. And so God, I'm going to set aside my Sunday morning for that.
I'm going to set aside some other time in the week where I can gather with God's people. Maybe that's just one person, maybe it's a couple of people in a small group, but I'm going to place importance on that.
God, I know that you say that I need to render to Caesar what is Caesar's and render to God what is God's. And so Lord, I'm going to pay my taxes. God, I'm going to give to your work.
Lord, I know that you want me to care for those that are needy. And so God, I'm going to set aside this amount of my money every single month or every single week or whatever so that I can care for those that are less fortunate.
God, I know that you want me to share my faith. And so God, I'm going to intentionally be around this friend who does not know the gospel. And God, I ask that you would please give me time to be able to share my faith with them.
That needs to be our mindset. God, you have what you have outlined for me in my life. Would you help me to listen to your orders?
Be my commanding officer. Hope that'd be an encouragement for you today. Next time, we will be in 2 Timothy 2, verse 5.
