“The Cost of His Commission” (2 Timothy 4:5b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/15/2025 9:15 AM

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  “The Cost of His Commission”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference: 2 Timothy 4:5b

            Message of the verse:  “endure hardship”

 

            I am sadden to write that John MacArthur has died last evening, but happy that he is with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I have learned so much from his ministry through listening to his sermons and reading his commentaries on the Word of God.  I know that many, many, people will miss him and his teaching, including myself, but I also know that he is happier than he has ever been because he is now with the Lord he loves and taught about for so many years.

            Today we will have a shorter SD on the words from 2 Timothy 4:5b and this is Paul’s seventh command to Timothy, which is “endure hardship.”  John MacArthur writes that “The verb kakopatheo (endure hardship) literally means to suffer evil and was used by Paul earlier in this letter to describe his own suffering for the Lord (2:9).  A few verses earlier, the apostle had used a closely related verb in asking Timothy to ‘suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus (3).  At the time he wrote these words, he was ‘already being poured out as a drink offering ‘(4:6).  For many years he had suffered countless hardships.  ‘I [was] beaten times without number, ‘he said,

often in danger of death.  Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.  I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false’ brethren; I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. (2 Cor. 11:23-27)

Not only that, but, ‘apart from such external things,’ he also suffered ‘the daily pressure upon [him] of concern for all the churches (v. 28).

            “There is no such thing as a faithful ministry that is not costly.  A painless ministry is a shallow and fruitless ministry.

            “Although Paul probably did not write to the Hebrews, the author of that epistle also knew and loved Timothy. He rejoiced ‘that our brother Timothy has been released [from prison], with whom, if he comes soon, I shall see you’ (Heb. 13:23).  Because Hebrews likely was written soon after 2 Timothy, this young pastor must have been arrested and jailed while he ministered in Ephesus, soon after he received the letter.  The time quickly came (see v. 3) for him to endure hardship in service of his Lord.”

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that all true believers go through hardships in their lives, but living in this country now too many go through the kind of hardships that Paul and Timothy and the other Apostles went through. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust the Lord to give my wife and me wisdom in order to beat the cancer that she has, that He will lead us to the right people in order to find the best help for her.

7/15/2025 9:46 AM