Amidst immense persecution and imprisonment in Rome, Paul addresses Timothy and his church as they experience increasing and impending suffering. Paul makes clear that the pathway of the Christian life is not the experience of one’s “best life now” — but the anchoring of one’s hopes in the glorious rule of Kingdom of God. Life in God’s kingdom now necessarily involves suffering, and Paul has encouraged Timothy to endure suffering (1.9; 2.3) and to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2.1).

In 2.3-13, Paul offers three metaphors to explain what a life of wholehearted devotion to Christ and His Kingdom require: the focus of a soldier, the dutifulness of an athlete and the hard work of a farmer.

In this sermon, Kevin invites us to look at the particular glory around which Paul oriented his life — and the way in which this glory directed and invigorated Paul’s joyful, single-minded, wholehearted devotion to Jesus— even in the midst of his own suffering. In short, the grit that Paul encourages via the soldier, athlete and farmer are created by devotion to particular glory.

Kevin also invites us to consider how a life of contemplation and meditation on God’s Word brings not only the promised understanding from the Lord (2.7) but also conscripts our emotions and imaginations into the ultimate reality of God’s Kingdom— giving rise to the kind of community that can bless the city.