Friday, May 9, 2025

PT-2 "A Strong Example As Spiritual Mentor" (2 Tim. 3:10-13)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/9/2025 8:52 AM

 

My Worship Time                                     Focus:  PT-2 “A Strong Example As Spiritual Mentor”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  2 Timothy 3:10-13

 

            Message of the verses:  10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

 

            In the first verses of this 3rd chapter of 2 Timothy the theme false teachers, Timothy had observed closely the power of the truth.  Parakoloutheo (followed) literally means to accompany and was used metaphorically of conforming to something as a matter of conviction.  MacArthur writes “In ancient Greece, philosophers used the word to describe the close relationship between a teacher and his disciple, or student.  It meant ‘to study with at close quarters’ or ‘to take as an example to follow.’  William Barclay says of this term,

 

It means to follow a person physically; to stick by him through thick and thin, to be by his side in fair weather and in foul. It means to follow a person mentally, to attend diligently to his teaching, and fully to understand the meaning and the significance of what he says.  It means to follow a person spiritually, not only to understand what he says, but also to carry on his ideas, and to be the kind of person that he wishes us to be. (The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon [Philadelphia: Westminster 1957], 224)

 

            Now I want to move back to the first paragraph that goes along with this section and I will quote it from MacArthur’s commentary.  “Often more than we realize, we are influenced by t hose we have lived with, worked, with, and served with.  Sometimes the influence is for good, sometimes for bad.  Sometimes it is conscious and direct and sometimes unconscious and indirect.  For that reason it is of inestimable importance that, insofar as we are able to determine it for ourselves, we should take great care in choosing those we associate with, especially if they are in positions to influence us spiritually.”  I suppose that I have never thought of this in the way that MacArthur explains it in his commentary, but I can say that from the day that I became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusted Him for my salvation, that I have mostly associated with believers with the exception of one friend that I was very close with and still stay in contact and have prayed for him over 50 years.  Now it seems that since he will be turning 80 next month and that he has had some illnesses which put him in the hospital for 8 days, that perhaps at this time in his life that the Lord will uses these things to open his heart to at least listen to me about the salvation that the Lord gave to me by grace through faith.  It would mean a lot to me to see my friend come to Christ, and I know that it would mean a lot to him too, it is just that he does not understand it yet.  The same goes for his wife too.

 

Spiritual Meaning for My Life today:  I realize that what we are talking about is the relationship that Paul had with Timothy, as these verses make it clear.  I am to also follow those who are spiritually more mature than I am, and desire to do so.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to provide the right person or persons to deal with any remaining cancer that my wife has, so that it all could be removed from her body in a way that would please the Lord and be the best for her.

 

5/9/2025 9:18 AM

 

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