with Elder Elico Manenji
✝️The second letter to Timothy was written in Rome by Paul to his dearly beloved son shortly before his martyrdom. It contains the last words of the great Apostle which inspiration has preserved and is a personal walk and testimony of a true servant of Christ in days of apostasy and declension. As a good soldier of Jesus Christ wrote the letter to be read by all which were in Asia which were turned away from him. The Asian churches had not disbanded, nor ceased to call themselves Christian but they had turned away from the doctrines of grace revealed to them by the Apostle. In this chapter, the Apostle declares his affection for Timothy on account of his faith which had received from his grandmother Lois and natured by his mother Eunice. He exhorts him to stir up the gift of God that is in him an not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord.
He points out how God had saved them that believe even from oppressive regimes and how Christ has brings life and immortality to light by means of the Gospel. He exhorts Timothy to
hold fast the form of sound words, to preach it amidst persecution and its consequences until the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
*1️⃣2 Timothy 1:1- 12: Greetings, encouragement to continue in faith and patience in persecutions.*
⏹️The Apostolic calling should be by the divine will and purpose of God and not by the will of men. It is a calling in accordance with the great promise of eternal life through the Jesus Christ our Saviour by whom God has promised life eternal to mankind through faith in Him. Jesus said, *" Truly, truly, I say to you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life"(John 5:24).*
⏭️God also give grace, mercy and peace to all who love Him as believers need
grace to help them in the time of need, and mercy to pardon what is amiss and so they may have peace with God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord in the fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Peter says, *"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace, be multiplied"( 1Peter 1:2).*
⏹️The Apostle commends Timothy's unfeigned faith which was a result of his education and instruction given to him by Lois his grandmother and Eunice his mother. It is a true saying that instruction precedes conversion and conversion should follow after instruction as God gives to the truly converted the spirit of power and not of fear and spirit of love and of a sound mind. The Apostle says, *"For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind"(2 Timothy 1:7).*
⏭️No true Christian convert should be a coward to fear spreading the gospel but religious people are victorious through the death of Christ Jesus, they have a free conscience which rest beneath the cross where Christ the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. It is by His cross that pardon, virtue, self-denial, sacrifice, peace, hope, joy and love, these Christian virtues grow and blossom on no other tree but only on the Tree of Life. The Apostle says, *"You therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ"(2 Timothy 2:3).*
*2️⃣2 Timothy 1:13-18: Holding on to sound doctrine and testimony of the gospel.*
⏹️A true believer should have a systematic knowledge of the gospel and they should hold fast the form of sound words to escape error in doctrine which may lead to error in practice for when a person believes wrongly, they may act wrongly. The Apostle Jude says, *"To execute judgment on all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him"(Jude 1:15).*
⏭️God has committed to every person the sacred trust, the true charge of His truth, His Word which unfolds the true God and proclaims to believers life and salvation through the Redeemer as this truth brings life and immortality to light. The Apostle says, *"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them; and has committed to us the word of reconciliation"(2 Corinthians 5:19).*
⏹️The gospel is means to turn away resentment, revolts , declensions and disobedience as some hardening their hearts have given themselves to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. The Apostle says, *"Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things comes the wrath of God on the children of disobedience"(Ephesians 5:6).*
⏭️But through the power of the gospel, some like Onesiphorus will receive mercy and the kindness of God and
forgiveness of our sins. As the Lord passed by the presence of Moses, He proclaimed Himself saying, *"The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation"(Exodus 34:6-7).*
*🅰️Appeal*
As Christian believers we need and should desire to find mercy of the Lord in the day of His vengeance, for those who will have received no mercy will have judgment without mercy. The best Christians will want mercy in that day of His visitation, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Psalmist says, *"With the merciful you will show yourself merciful; with an upright man you will show yourself upright"(Psalm 18:25).* Amen!!!
Elico Manenji
(+263712952704).
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