Soldier, Athlete & Farmer

So we didn't quite finish last week. And we had started into, this is lesson six. We have started into slide five, and we had gone to 2 Timothy chapter two, verse five. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. Now last week Paul used the metaphor of a soldier and now this verse he switches over to athletes.

And so if you look at your questions, number 11 is how aggressive does Paul portray athletic contests to the Christian life? It's really interesting because he uses words like compete and strive for mastery. So it isn't The Christian life is not designed for sitting around and doing nothing. The Christian life is really a life that has a lot of challenges in it. And the believer who's growing is striving for mastery. What's he trying to master over? What are most believers trying to master over? More than likely, it's sin nature and the world system.

The other thing you need to know, this is the only place in the New Testament where the word athlete appears, although he'll reference to it other times. It's the verb form of Othello, which means to compete in public games. Now, if you know anything about the public game, It's not merely just a lap around the track, but it's an earnest effort to win the crown.

And when Vern was here, he used to love to talk about the Stephanos. Remember the Stephanos? The Stephanos was the crown you got for winning the event, and it was made out of grape leaves and something else. The thing about Greek competition is that sometimes if you lost, you lost your life in the process, especially if you were in a boxing match or something like that.

They didn't tolerate losers. What Paul is using this metaphor for is to tell Timothy that the Christian life is similar to athletic contests and you don't win the prize, so what prize would he be telling Timothy to shoot for? You don't know? That means that you guys are all Christians and you're all striving and you don't know why? What are you shooting for? Have you ever thought about that? Are you shooting for so everybody else will recognize you as a pretty cool Christian person? Do you think there's a connection to verse four?

So that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier? Yes. Yes. His good pleasure. So we're striving from an athletic standpoint to be pleasing to who? To our father, right? Now, positionally, because we're in Christ, he's always pleasing to the father. But there's a conformity process going on in which every one of us are being conformed to the image of Christ because Christ is the one who pleases the father.

See that? And you're king. That bad, huh? And you cannot, it's impossible to please the Father with your own efforts. You have to understand that we've been placed in Christ and dwelt by the Holy Spirit so that they can make you like Christ. And so you would be pleasing to the Father, okay?

You know, Mike, I was thinking it's an interesting thing how strong that is, especially in young men, anyway, to want to be pleasing to their father. I don't know, you just see it a lot. I can think of half a dozen different examples of it. And I think there is something in us as believers when we recognize the Lord as our Father, and all it is to us, there's this really deep-seated kind of a desire to want to be pleasing to Him. Sure. And of course the big question is how, but yeah.

Yeah, it's like if you have children and they want to be pleasing to their parents, well you can ratchet this up about a thousand. We're talking about the God of the universe who has decided that He is our Father and we are His sons, and He's going to make us pleasing to Him so that there is no chance of hiccup. Okay, so the last question was kind of an interesting question. How aggressive does Paul portray the athletic contest?

I told you that. And then, do you have to follow the rules? I left a W in there, it shouldn't have been there. Do you have to follow the rules? So I wrote down, the victor does not receive the crown unless he has striven lawfully, that is, unless he has obeyed the regulations governing the contest. So, and you're, yeah.

Is this salvation? I think it's more than salvation. It is, it includes salvation. Why? Because the prize is not to be, he's writing to people who are already believers. The issue is not trying to get them saved. The issue is to try to get them, as we would say, conformed. What if someone says, OK, I'm saved by grace, but now I've got rules and I've got stuff to do for my sanctification? Well, that's why it's a trick question. Yeah, how do you equate the word lawfully rules with the idea of grace? Because that's the idea.

And so when he says, unless she has obeyed the regulations governing contest, what are the regulations governing the contest? What are the regulations governing spiritual growth and conformity to Christ? What are the rules? The number one rule is faith. So you learn from God's word what he has already accomplished positionally for you and in you. Now, with this being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, he has the process of making your position and your condition line up. So that your condition, your everyday walking around experience lines up with what your position already is. So what are the rules?

The rules are faith, and the next rule I think is really important. The second rule is yield. To yield. To let him do it. Because you can't. And that's walking in the spirit, isn't it? Walking in the spirit, it is. And what's interesting, if you stay with the metaphor, I put some notes down about this, kind of interesting.

The Greek athlete was required to spend 10 months in preparatory training before the contest. During that time, he had to engage in the prescribed exercises and live a strictly separate life in regard to ordinary and lawful pursuits of life. And he was placed on a rigid diet.

So if that's, like his son-in-law Matt's in Hawaii training, what are they training for? They're gonna be deployed. So now they're getting, they're being prepared for what may be coming. We talked last week about the military, that when you get inducted into the military, The very first place you go is boot camp. What happens at boot camp? They prepare you to be a soldier and unprepare you to be from a civilian, so that you think different, your value system is different.

Well, when a person becomes a believer, the Lord Jesus, through the Spirit, begins to prepare that one for the glory that's coming. In the end of Romans 8, we talked about the glory that's waiting for us. But the process started the day we were saved. That's when it started.

And what's the goal? What's the prize? The prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is to be conformed to Christ. That's the goal, to be just like Him. And so the Lord is working. So from our perspective, what does that require of us? Well, first of all, We have to learn what God means. You have to read your Bible. You have to spend time with the Lord. You have to just sort of hang out. And like I said, as you begin to understand, we spent two years going through the Book of Romans. Almost four. Yeah, that's right. And I got to thinking the other day, we should have gone from Romans 8, you know, 38 to 12.1.

But that's, see, Christianity isn't just a, I got paid up fire insurance and when I die I'm not going to go to hell. That's not the Christian life. The Christian life is an athletic contest, It's a striving. It's like being in the military. You're not your own. You belong to somebody else. Yeah, I was just thinking about this.

Every contest, every game, if you will, you're talking about governing the contest. They have rules, right? So kids, they play football, they play baseball, they play hockey. There's governing rules that guide their behavior. You perform a CrossFit, whatever the case, there's rules.

So just to kind of back up, Those that compete are trying harder. They're working out harder. They're doing more and sometimes they don't win. Even though they strive and they perform and they're at their peak, they still don't win. This game that Paul is talking about is a different game.

Yes it is. And it's governed by a different set of rules. Yes it is. And those rules are governed by the overarching operating system of grace here. So, I think where this is really kind of divorced from the analogy of athletic performance is that the same striving is about who you are in Christ in the game of grace. Yeah. Can I say it that way? Is that fair?

No, that's a good point because in this game, everybody wins. Yeah, yeah, the crown is Christ himself. Yeah, I mean, if you just sit down for five minutes and think about what's at the end of the game, for you and the God of the universe, it's just astounding.

Well, I mean, you think about what Courtney and Ingrid are praying about with Matt. Yeah. I mean, Matt doesn't say, well, you know, the kids are really in a difficult spot, and I don't know if it's really going to work out. Yeah. They think about that, but Matt goes. That's right. He goes. Caroline says, freedom is not free. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Verse 4, 5, and 6 all go together.

You've got three different occupations or pursuits. The one is the soldier, the one is the athlete, and then we're coming up to the farmer. In each case, you've got a discipline, and a reward. You know, the soldier serves, the reward is the pleasure of the one who enlisted him. In verse 5, you've got the athlete who strives, and the reward is the crown. And then in verse 6, you've got the farmer who labors and is patient, and then there's a crown.

And so I think what Paul is doing, and like, He's talking very, this letter is very personal and intimate to Timothy. And he's giving instructions for serving and leading in the church. And he's saying, Timothy, you know, equate what you're doing to these different fields of service.

There is a reward to what you're doing, but it has to be done selflessly. It has to be done with, you know, with perseverance, according to the instruction that I'm laying out for you right now. You can't just go off and do it your own way. There's actual guidelines and rules for how this works.

What strikes me about all three of those is that when you become a Christian, you do not know what the rules are. When you go into the military service, You have no idea what military service is, what the mindset of a military person is. Same thing if you're not a competing athlete. You don't know about the training, how much, or anything. Same thing with a farmer.

So Timothy is going to be a trainer. And Paul is a trainer. And Paul is teaching Timothy about how to train for what purpose? the conformity to Christ. It's interesting because every one of these examples have hard and fast rules with consequences. They do. They do. And so the inclination here is to try harder and to do more and to perform for those that you report to or those that you need to supply for.

Timothy's role within the grace system is equally important, but also quite unique and separate from what an earthly game contest role looks like. But it's still conforming to what's laid before him. So it's different. You know, it doesn't apply to athletics and being in the military in the same way, but the principles are there. Is that fair to say? No, that's really good because I think that you have to learn. We don't, like Paul talks about, we have no idea how grace works until we become a believer. We have to be taught that. Trying to fix up the old man. Alright, we are in Lesson 7, which is 1 Timothy Chapter 2, verses 6 through 10.

And basically we're continuing on, basically starting with the third example, which is the farmer. But, since I'm going to go back on some of these things, I have a little different twist. with Mike's notes and some things like that, even what we've been discussing already. So I always like to look for context. So we always parse these things into tiny little chunks. So I want to put it into context. So I want to read 2 Timothy 2 verses 1 through 11. So I'll read through it real quick. And again, just for context. 2 Timothy 2 beginning in verse 1.

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.

Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to imprisonment as a criminal. But the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, and with it eternal glory.

So we've looked at the soldier and the athlete. Now we're going to bring up the third one, which is in verse 6. The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crop. So, excuse me, who is the person or category that Paul is now bringing up? It's a farmer. The hardworking farmer.

So which is kind of an interesting one. I list Chester McCauley on this one too. And Tim and Miles, I will butcher the words, georgios, which is a noun, g, which means ground or earth, land, and ergon, work or tiller of the soil. It was kind of funny. Justin McCauley says that when you put those together, you all know Greek.

George. George is a farmer. George. It's a farmer. So if you're George, your name means farmer or tiller of the land. So G-O-R-G-O. So the hardworking farmer is George, the farmer. So laborers, hardworking. And so it's another word, co-p-e-o, a-o. To grow weary, exhausted. To labor with wearisome effort and toil. So this isn't just somebody who's like me, a backyard gardener. This is somebody who is hardworking. He's a hard worker. He's not just making this a hobby. This is what he does. This is what he strives for. And he's the tiller of the land. It's interesting, the verb tense is present and the voice is active.

Meaning this is a farmer who does it all the time, all the time, and he's the one doing it. So it's a hard working farmer, that's the example. So I'll set it up by that, that's who he's talking about in this next analogy, which is the farmer. So question two, if one is a farmer, what is his compensation for the hard work? So it's the hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive the share of his crops. So what is the farmer working for? Potatoes. You didn't actually grow them, you just moved them. Lamb chops. Lamb chops, yes, yes.

And the interesting word in here is ought. we you know ought to like he should kinda maybe you know if he does well he's potatoes he should receive if he does well he's gonna receive whatever he tills the the greek word is interesting it's day day day i uh... which is must He must receive the crops or whatever he grows. It's necessary in the nature of the case.

The tiller of the soil must be the first to partake of the fruits. So it isn't like he ought to. If you are a tiller of the soil, you must receive the share of the crops. So when we get into the analogy what this means, so if you're a tiller of people or that, you're going to share in that crop. You must share in that crop. So, again, what is the crop? What is the crop in this analogy? Potatoes? Sorry. That's all people can think about now is potatoes.

So Vincenzo has his first right to the fruits of the labor in the gospel. That's the crop, sharing in the fruit of the gospel. That's what he gets out of this. His hard work in the analogy is that he shares in the gospel, the results of the gospel. A word that came to mind is just joy. You want to see a happy farmer, talk to him at the end of harvest time. If it's been a good harvest. Otherwise he's a very depressed farmer.

But I mean, you know, even biblically we know that, right? There's a lot of joy when you're bringing in the harvest. And I think, you know, even Jesus talks about that. Come share in the joy of your master. And I think that's part of what it is. We're sharing in the father's joy when we've carried out, we've been his laborers, laborers in the vineyard or whatever, right?

I kind of crack up because the wrong motive is what I, so I was in, for this project, I'm getting my subsurface thing. I met with the farmer out off the plat where I'm at. We drove him around and one of the other guys, one of the owners of who this project's gonna be for, I said, Matt Farmer, how are you doing?

Is it going to be a good year? Oh, it's going to be great this year. It is awesome. I said, really? It's a dry year. Oh, yeah. All the people around me got wiped out by hail. The price of my feed, my corn has gone up so much because of this. Wrong motive there.

So just a little different take on a farmer's, what is joy? You talk to farmers all through the growing season, and it's like a roller coaster. And it's only when the harvest is in the bin, once the crop's in the green bin, that's when you can be at peace about it. So there's joy in that. And we'll get into a little bit about how all three of these analogies link together, about what the character is of all these. So we talked a little bit about it.

So in my cabinet's notes, I think it was Jesse McCauley, this first carries the idea of remuneration reflects the truth of 1 Corinthians 9.7 that asks, who at any time serves a soldier at his own expense?

Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of the fruit of it? There's another possibility idea here. Taking the first share of the crops could be indicating that the farmer must be able to vouch for his produce, which I thought was kind of an interesting. He's got to vouch for his produce.

I guess, taking the analogy to a Christian, again, which I'll get back to, which is my little kind of weird take on this, is that it's his character. the quality of himself, the hard working, and the quality of his crop, which is the gospel, the word, and the results of that. I have a little different take.

It comes from verse 2 and 3 that state, The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ. We've kind of said differently about what this refers to and the analogy of each of these ones.

A soldier who is a good soldier doesn't entangle himself with the affairs of the world. The athlete is focused on this and how that is a quality of him about he strives for this and how that relates to the gospel and getting the gospel. And then the farmer now. The farmer is a good farmer, a hard-working farmer who tills the land. And the analogy is he's a good man who shares the gospel and has fruits from that. So I think this is a little different.

I think all three of these revolve back to the beginning of this, which is, he states, entrust these to faithful men. He's equating this, I think, back to who are faithful men like? Faithful men are like a good soldier who strives, who goes after it without getting entangled in the affairs of the world. The athlete is one who trains specifically and very diligently to compete. And then the farmer, who is a hard-working farmer, hard-working, and the hard-working is very emphatic. I think that results, or all of these focus back on entrust these to faithful men. He's giving the qualifications of who faithful men resemble. They resemble the good soldier. They resemble the athlete. They resemble the good farmer.

All of those qualities, I think, go back to entrust it to those type of men. That's the one you want to entrust them to. That's why I'm giving these examples. And then you'll be fruitful. And again, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So I think all of these qualities result back to that. Faithful men. This is the characteristic of who faithful men are. And they're able to teach.

If you have these qualities, which I'll get into a little bit of that too, Chester McCauley, I listened to him again, and states that each of the examples has the same principle. all three of these examples, the major thought that labor, discipline, striving is necessary to succeed in any enterprise. So I think the qualities of these three, of labor, discipline, and striving, are what the faithful men are, that he wants to entrust the gospel to. And that's why he gives these analogies. It's back to those, these are the qualities that I want you to, the man I want you to instill I Paul teachings to. Because they will strive, they will labor, they're disciplined, and they will strive to teach what I taught you.

So I think that's kind of what, you know, a little bit different take than some of this. I think this is really relating back to the faithful man. I think you're right, the characteristics. The question I have is the striving, the labor, the work. How does that, how does Paul communicate these things to Timothy for the fruitfulness of his ministry and keep the works of Timothy out of it? Because those all sound like work-based terms. Yeah, I think, again, I reference it back to quality. It's the content of their character that matters.

That's what you want to give the gospel to those men who have that quality. So I don't think it's as much work, and that's where I think I get away from what these all are about works. I think this is characteristics, giving characteristics of men you were to entrust the gospel to. How do I get those?

I think verse 1 speaks to that. He says, Timothy, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That headlines the whole section. Yeah, the grace is not works-based. But how do you get those qualities? No, he's looking for men who have those qualities.

In Christ. In Christ, yeah. I mean, well, we were talking to believers. Yeah, I'm not trying to trip us up as much as just say that these verses were used in FCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletics, a lot for me to align me with, you've got to have a character that is faithful to Christ in order to succeed in these things that you do. this is who you need to be, behave like this.

And so that's just the question I had was, what about these, you know, these folks that are reading this and say, okay, I gotta, I gotta get to work, man. I mean, I gotta be like a farmer, I gotta be like a soldier, I gotta be like an athlete. Again, that's why I'm trying to get away from the specifics of that occupation.

Again, it's the characteristic of that person. And as Bob Eckel would remind us, it's a life, right? Yes. Where does that kind of character come from? Right. It's not my character, you know? I mean, it's the life of the Lord Jesus. Well, again, I go back to entrust these to faithful men. That's the character. And now he's giving examples of what that looks like. And now he's saying, those are the characteristics of people who labor, labor with discipline and strive for the gospel. Those are the characteristics you look for. And entrust it to those men. Do you mind if I take another little rabbit trail? One thing that occurred to me here is because he's telling Timothy to trust these things to faithful men. And I realized all three of those careers, I think without exception, nobody who labors in those things does it without mentors.

I mean, the soldier has His general, whatever. The athlete has his coach, who is usually a retired athlete. The farmer, I've never seen a successful farmer who didn't have a father or a grandfather to train him in it. You always have to have someone who's gone before to learn it and know it and pass it on. It makes sense. Paul is the mentor. And Timothy now is the one receiving this instruction. And then he used to do the same to others. To do the same to others.

You passed this on. So again, mine was a little different. It wasn't as much focusing on all these different aspects of it and how it works in relationship to the gospel. It was just pointing out characteristics of men you want to look for, who you want to entrust the gospel to. Passing something.

Yeah. Well, and when you go over to Titus and he's telling Titus, you know, Yeah. Yeah. So this is a different type of list here. Well, and I like the fact that it makes it clear that these guys don't become a Christian on Friday and start teaching one another. Good point, yeah. There's a process. His life begins to demonstrate that. You can always tell with a man what's really important to him, what he does most of the time. Right. What he's mastered by. And I think that's also incumbent upon when in the qualifications for the elder, don't lay hands on anybody too soon. So these are well-established characteristics.

A good soldier doesn't, you know, the first day in boot camp, you're not a great soldier. You know, the first day you trained, that Ryland trained in CrossFit, he was not second in the United States. You know, and a farmer, you know, he passed on. He's not first time out of the gate having sheep for whatever.

There's mistakes that happened in there. So again, yeah, this isn't a fast thing. All right, I have to do this just because of what happened in the coffee room just a minute ago. We found Courtney's Bible. It's in the coffee room, if anyone needs it. Yeah.

So question three, what does the word consider mean? So from verse seven, consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. So what does consider mean? Oh, well, since you don't know, I looked at Webster's Dictionary, of which I was shown is my Bible, evidently, in the coffee room. So Webster's Dictionary, consider means, and it goes from first to second to third kind of meaning. I saw something on Webster's and how they actually align the definitions. It's like the first is most used or popular or whatever.

So Webster's Dictionary, consider, to think about carefully such as to think of especially with regard to taking some action or take into account. The second one is to regard or treat in an attentive or kindly way. Third is to gaze on steadily or reflectively. Or the last one is to come to judge or classify. So the Greek word consider is noeo. To perceive with the mind, to understand, to think upon, ponder, consider.

I like this one. Reflective rationally. So Expositors Translate grasps the meaning of these similes. So he's to consider these things. I don't know, we're going to... Well, the three kinds of people we just went over, that's what he's saying. Yep. Consider that all three of these characters or characteristics must be in the state of the man.

And the verb tense here is present tense, active voice, and indicative mood, meaning Timothy was actively continually to ponder, consider, and think upon, I say, what Paul had taught him and was telling him here. What he taught, entrusted these things from verse 2, these things that I taught you, and these similes that I've just told you about. Think about those. Consider, ponder, why did I tell you that? Why did I teach you these things? Consider with deep thought, reflective rationality. And so, Courtney, I think one of the things about because you can sit and think about things for a long time.

Yeah. But I think that this I just consider this word has the idea of think about it until it clicks. Yeah. Well, yeah. And I let it settle in your heart or your mind, like let it click and think about it until it clicks. Yeah, I think it's well, consider what I say.

So he's just to ponder, reflect all the time. It's a present tense. He's to continually think about this. Not just kind of, sort of, kind of, and think about what he said. This is continually and reflectively think about what I said. So it is, it is, you know, until it clicks.

Yeah. You know, it's you, you are continually thinking about what I taught. And we have to do that too, right? Oh yeah, I mean it's obvious. That's what we're doing this morning, right? And that's why, you know, you've been thinking about this since your FCA days and stuff. And I'm going to be talking about this in the message.

What does it take to understand these things? You've got these different streams of thought or truth in the scripture. And how do you, you know, here we've got instruction about laboring hard and so forth. How does that fit with grace? And we're trying to, you know, and we need to understand. So we've got to consider these things.

And again, one of the things Jess McCauley said, which I think is the back half of the verse, which we won't get to today. Jess McCauley says that we are continually, actively consider reflective rationally upon the things of God and what God will do his part by giving us knowledge of the things of God.

That's the back half of the verse. That's the click. That's the click. God is the one who is going to give you it. So, we are to ponder, consider, reflect that God's going to give you, through His Word and the Holy Spirit, He's going to give you the knowledge. He's the one. So we can strive, but He's ultimately the one who's going to give us that. So all right, we are way late, so I'm sorry. So I'm out next week, so Mike, I guess you'll start with question four. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for this time.

We thank you for this guidance and the characteristics of those that you want entrusted with your gospel, that those who labor and strive and are disciplined in studying the word that you have for us and delivering that word. And so, Father, we just pray as we have just learned. You're the one who gives us the knowledge. You're the one who gives us understanding through the Holy Spirit and your word, and we're thankful for that. And, Father, it's not upon our own reliance upon our own knowledge or our own abilities. It's you, as we reflectively consider, ponder these things, you are the one who bring the actual knowledge and understanding.

And we just rest in that fact. And Father, we just again, thank you for this time when we can open up your word and study it. We thank you for each time we can do that and each time we can fellowship together in your word. Father, we just thank you for all this in Jesus' name. Amen.