Speaking of Paul’s second letter to Timothy…<\/p>\n\n\n
Paul sure does circle around to the subject of suffering a lot, doesn’t he?<\/p>\n\n\n
Chapter 1, verse 8b: “Join with me in suffering<\/b> for the gospel, by the power of God.”<\/p>\n\n\n
Verses 11 and 12a: “Of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering <\/b>as I am.”<\/p>\n\n\n
He gives a specific example of his suffering in verse 15: “You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.” (And more examples in chapter 4.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
In chapter 2, verse 3, Paul invites Timothy for the second time: “Join with me in suffering<\/b>, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
In chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, Paul urges Timothy: “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering<\/b> even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Chapter 3, verses 10 and 11: “You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings<\/b> – what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
And then, Paul makes it clear that his suffering is not an exception to some sort of ideal victorious Christian life in Chapter 3, verse 12: “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Everyone?<\/p>\n\n\n
I must confess that the phrase “suffering servants” does not come to mind when I think of the American church. You?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaking of Paul’s second letter to Timothy… Paul sure does circle around to the subject of suffering a lot, doesn’t he? Chapter 1, verse 8b: “Join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.” Verses 11 and 12a: “Of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476\/revisions\/3477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}