2 Timothy 1:8-18

Shame is an insidious poison, a worm in the apple, a horrible feeling. It occurs when we are exposed – we trip on the way up to the stage, we get a bad mark on an exam everyone else claimed was easy, we feel embarrassed at the way our parents dress. But more than that, it is our heart’s desires that get shown up: acclaim for the spotlight on the podium, a want to cover up our need for help on that subject, an acknowledgement that coolness is of the utmost importance. Shame tells me what my true beliefs are, that perhaps it is all these things and not God that are at the centre of my life. It acts as “pride’s cloak”, as the poet William Blake puts it.

Paul writes to tell us why we do not need to feel that shame! He has already given us a basis for why we should not be timid or restrained, that we have in us a spirit of "power and love and self-control". But more than that, he now boldly tells us that it is because of who God is and what he has done that he does not think to feel shame at ridicule or disapproval. "I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed..." (v.12). Paul puts his trust in the person of Jesus Christ. Why? Because of the gospel! The good news of the Jesus way is that God has "saved us...because of his own purpose and grace...which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which has now manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality."(v.9-10)

This is a succinct statement of the message of Christianity. God saves us via grace not because of anything we’ve done. Instead, he "called us to a holy calling" (v.9), that is, to be his disciple. He has saved us from the effects of sin – death. (Remember that Paul is staring at the reality of death while writing this.) What is interesting here is that this is not anything new, yet Paul obviously saw the importance of foregrounding the gospel in encouraging Timothy (He does this a lot in the pastoral epistles, apparently.) In a way, we never move beyond the basics – it is the gospel that keeps us going in this life.

Paul also reminds Timothy not to be ashamed of him, but “share in suffering”. Throughout 1:8-18, there seems to be some sort of link between the threat of suffering and the temptation to be ashamed, and evidently Timothy must have been struggling with this. (If you want to look it up, the same sort of dynamic seems to be going on in Mark 8:34-38). Perhaps Timothy was tempted to water down the gospel to escape imprisonment. After all, Paul "was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do." I don’t think there is any escaping the implication that to follow Jesus means to encounter suffering. This might mean re-evaluating our criteria for what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. That is why Paul needed to write v.9-10, so that Timothy, and us, will not follow the example of Phygelus and Hermogenus (v.15) but Onesiphorus instead (v.16-18).

Verses 12-14 constitute the difficult bit of this section. It isn’t immediately apparent until you read verse 12 in different translations. In the NIV, the second bit of v.12 is rendered "...and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." In the ESV, it is rendered "...I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me". That’s quite different, don't you think? I think it has to do with the way the sentence is originally constructed in Greek which makes it difficult to translate. What is it that’s being guarded? We’ll leave that behind first and move to v.13. Here is Stott on that verse:

'Sound' words are 'healthy' words, the Greek expression being used in the Gospels of whom Jesus healed. Previously they had been maimed or diseased,; now they were well or 'whole'. So the Christian faith is the 'sound teaching' (4:3), consisting of 'sound' words, because it is not maimed or diseased but ‘whole’.

Tim should therefore make sure that he does not modify his message but to preach the same gospel as the one he heard from Paul, in a manner consistent with followers of Jesus.

Again, Paul mentions the Holy Spirit, the Helper whom Jesus has left with us. It is through him that the Tim can guard the "good deposit", which seems to follow from v.13. So now, to return back to v.12, it seems as if it is the gospel that is being mentioned here. God will definitely be able to make sure the truth of the gospel is not contaminated, but entrusts it to Tim, and Christians, to live in light of it and proclaim it.

I don’t think we will be free of shame this side of heaven, because we will still sin, and when we are exposed it will still bite. But maybe my first paragraph was an overstatement. True shame helps us along the way of repentance, and that helps bring us back to the gospel, back to Jesus. “I know whom I have believed…” And if we really believe in Jesus and his gospel of redemption, his promise of the Holy Spirit, there is no need to be ashamed. For me, the problem lies in keeping my gaze on Jesus; it is always averted. So I feel more liable to being ashamed of Him, which in turn, ironically, makes me more vulnerable to shame itself.

Comments are open. Anyone wanting to tackle v.12-14 is especially welcome because I know I haven’t really thought it through yet. I should quickly state that although I think that it is the gospel that is being referred to here, not everyone agrees. For instance, some see the deposit as Paul’s life and work rather than the gospel. Feel free to ask questions too!


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