Courage and Action

THov therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. A.V

Thou therefore, child of mine, strengthen thyself in the grace which is in Christ Jesus; and the things which thou didst hear from me, aided by the presence (6:4) of many witnesses, those things hand thou on to the charge (apd@ov) of faithful men, such as shall be competent to teach others also.

IN several various forms the Apostle has put before his 2 Tim. ii. son, his ‘child,’ the call to courage and to effort. He 1; 2. has reminded him of a holy home and its examples; Re i he has pointed him to the revealed secrets of eternal grace; he has alluded to his own sufferings, and to the resources which he has found amidst them for his own soul’s strength. Incidentally under this head he has turned to speak of the universal defection of his Asian friends, and again, taking occasion from that thought, he has touched upon the peculiar case of Onesiphorus and his family. Excepting those last few sentences (i. 16-18), which seem to spring from a purely personal interest, all has led consistently up to the appeal before us here; ‘strengthen thyself in the grace which is in Christ Jesus.’

It was precisely Timothy’s need, as we have so Timothy’s often seen. Naturally anxious and sensitive, he had Nee¢.

2 Tim. ii. now a great grief, a tremendous bereavement, im-I, 2. pending over him. His inmost being was conscious of our mortal weakness, unspeakably aware of the fears that can fall upon the lonely soul. Well, just now, now ‘ therefore,’ he is to ‘strengthen himself.’ So we render the Greek verb, with its ‘middle voice.’ He is to deal with himself. His will is to turn inward; he is to say to his own troubled self, ‘ Why art thou disquieted?’ (Psal. xlii. 5); he is to ‘take himself in hand’ with a view to a victorious strength. Alas, how shall he do it? Will not such a reflexive action only discover all the more explicitly the inner weakness, the incapacity, the paralysis? Yes indeed it will be so, if the look inward is to be directed upon Timothy’s heart taken in itself. But it is to be far otherwise; he is so to look within as to remember ‘ Christ, dwelling in his heart by faith’ (Eph. iii. 17), and then by an active reliance to make use of the indwelling Lord, and so to find himself ‘more than conqueror.’ Grace and ‘In the grace which is in Christ Jesus’; such was Christ. the secret. He was to retreat within those concentric circles, Grace and Christ, two circles which yet are after all but one; for Grace is not a thing, separable from Christ, any more than love and will are things separable from the man who loves and wills. Grace as Christ in action and in presence. It is ‘in Him,’ just as our faculties are ‘in’ you, and ‘in’ me. It is after all HimseLr, as our Secret, our Refuge, our Resource. Timothy in Him, He in Timothy; this was to be the talisman. And St. Paul could recite his own experience for it, from twenty years and more before (2 Cor. xii. 8-10): — ‘My grace is

Courage and Action

sufficient for thee, for my strength gets its perfection 2 Tim. ii. in weakness. Gladly therefore will I rather exult in I, 2. my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may overshadow me. When I am weak then I am strong.’

‘Grace, ‘tis a charming sound.’ Now, as then, there is an infinite difference between an appeal to nature and an appeal to grace. For us, as for St. Paul and his dear son, the dark hours may come which will only develope into despair the sense of our own inability. But the recollection of our supernatural union with the tender omnipotence of our Head can precisely at such a time transfigure every trial into an occasion for a triumph as great as it is humble.

So Timothy is to ‘strengthen himself.’ And the A Practical

strength he shall find is to shew itself (ver. 2), ‘S¥& amongst other manifestations, in a noble practicality, instinct with hope. He is to restrain his lamentations, for the cause he loves is not a lost cause at all. He is to provide, like a statesman, like a general, for ts Suture, its immortal and ever developing permanence. He is to gather his own truest helpers and followers round him, (perhaps in his depression he had almost forgotten their existence,) and then to pass on to them articulately, fully, solemnly, for transmission by them to another generation, pure and unchanged, the Gospel of St. Paul; Christ sacrificed, Christ risen, Christ triumphant, Christ coming. So his strength should be nobly used. And so his strength should grow. For when the worker can lose himself in his blessed work he finds indeed an anodyne and a power.

2 Tim. ii.
3.

A revised
Reading.

‘ Take thy
Share.’