"The Farmer" (2 Timothy 2:6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/18/2025 10:41 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  “The Farmer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  2 Timothy 2:6

 

            Message of the verse:  “The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.”

 

            This morning we begin to look at the fourth and final familiar image that Paul uses to illustrate characteristics of a strong spiritual life and that is the farmer.  The farmer works to receive grain for himself as this verse speaks about, that is he is the first to receive his share of the crops, and this is how he makes his living.  MacArthur writes “In New Testament times, farm laborers often were paid with a portion of the crops they helped to plant, cultivate, and harvest.  The hard-working farmer received not only a greater share but also the first…share of the crops.  The teacher has reward in knowing he has enriched the lives of his students, the soldier has the reward of pleasing his commander in chief, the athlete has the reward of a trophy, and the farmer has the reward of the first and best share of the crops.

 

            “Hard-working is a participle form of the verb kopiao, which means to toil intensely, to sweat and strain to the point of exhaustion of necessary.  The industrious farmer starts his hard and demanding work early and quits late.  He endures the cold, the heat, the rain, and the drought.  He plows the soil whether it is hard or loose.  He does not wait for his convenience, because the seasons do not wait for him.  When the time comes to plant, he must plant’ when weeds appear, he must remove them; and when the crop is mature, he must harvest it.  What drives the man to such hard toil is the harvest.

 

            “The teacher often finds exhilaration in the aspiring minds of his students, the soldier often has the excitement of battle, and the athlete the thrill of competing.  But most of a farmer’s working hours are tedious, humdrum, and unexciting.  And, unlike the teacher, the soldier, and the athlete, a farmer often works alone.  He has no students to stimulate him, no fellow soldiers to fight with him, no teammates or crowd to cheer him.”

 

            Now the truth is that many Christians’ lives are like the farmer’s.  Although it is possible that there may be occasional times of excitement and perhaps special satisfaction, the daily routine is often, in itself, unattractive and unrewarding.  However whatever Christian’s day-to-day responsibilities may involve, all faithful believers are promised God’s blessings and reward.  Believers may be underpaid, may be treated unfairly by our boss or fellow employees, and fellow workers, and misunderstood or unappreciated by fellow Christians.  BUT Christ’s reward to His faithful disciples is never deficient, never unfair, never late, and never omitted.

 

            MacArthur concludes this rather short section by writing “Our good works have nothing to do with keeping our salvation, no more than they had anything to do with our receiving salvation.  But they have everything to do with working out our salvation (Phil. 2:12).  Not only are ‘we…[God’s] workmanship,’ Paul reminds us, but we are ‘created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand, that we should walk in them’ (Eph. 2:10).  When believers stand  before the Lord’s judgment seat, His bema, ‘each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.  If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward’ (1 Cor. 3:13-14).”

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I really like Ephesians 2:10 as it says to me that the Lord gave me a job to do, and that job was given to me to do before the foundation of the earth was laid, and that the Holy Spirit is the One who has showed me what to do from the Word of God and now with the work of the Holy Spirit in me I am to do what He has called me to do for the cause of Christ and for the glory of Christ my Savior and Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  It is my desire to do the things that the Lord has called me to do, so that when I am standing at the bema, judgment seat that I will receive the reward that I have coming to so that I will be able to lay it down in front of the Lord Jesus Christ who deserves all glory and honor because “Jesus Paid it All.”

 

1/18/2025 11:21 AM