In 2 Timothy 1:8–18, Paul writes about suffering, faithfulness, and the confidence that comes from knowing Jesus Christ. How do we reconcile our belief in a good and all-powerful God with the reality of suffering? There are no easy answers, but the Christian faith points us toward a God who does not remain distant from our pain. In Jesus, God enters into our suffering, and through the resurrection, we discover that suffering and death do not have the final word. Reflecting on Paul’s words and the hymn “I Know Whom I Have Believed,” we are reminded that we may not understand every mystery, but we can place our trust in the One who holds us in grace and gives us hope.
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Good morning. Good to be with you on this Tuesday morning. I hope you’re doing well today as we begin another day in 2 Timothy. I hope your week is off to a wonderful start.
All is well here in Starkville. We’ve got a great week ahead, and we’re looking forward to a great Sunday.
This Sunday is especially exciting because First UMC is celebrating the 100th anniversary of our sanctuary. We’re going to recreate a service from that time period, celebrate 100 years of worship in this space, and then have a potluck afterward—because there’s nothing quite like dinner on the grounds!
We’re also encouraging folks to contribute $100 to our centennial fund as a way of celebrating the sanctuary’s 100th anniversary and helping us carry its legacy into the future. If you’re in Starkville, we’d love for you to celebrate with us. And if you can’t be here in person, we hope you’ll watch online and be part of what God is doing here.
Today, though, we’re going to look at the rest of 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verses 8 through 18.
Paul encourages Timothy not to be ashamed of the testimony about Jesus or of Paul, who is imprisoned for the gospel. Instead, he tells Timothy to join him in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.
Paul reminds Timothy that God has saved us and called us—not because of our works, but according to God’s own purpose and grace. He speaks of Christ Jesus, who has defeated death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Paul explains that he was appointed a herald, an apostle, and a teacher of this gospel, and that this is why he suffers as he does. But he is not ashamed, because he knows the One in whom he has placed his trust. He urges Timothy to hold on to the sound teaching he has received and to guard the good treasure entrusted to him through the Holy Spirit.
Paul also remembers those who have turned away from him and gives thanks for Onesiphorus, who was not ashamed of Paul’s imprisonment. Onesiphorus searched for Paul in Rome and found him, and Paul remembers the service he rendered in Ephesus.
So, we see Paul talking about suffering in this passage. We also see him talking about shame—about being ashamed of the gospel or being ashamed of the people who suffer because of it.
I was listening to something recently—I think it was a podcast—about suffering and how difficult it can be for us as Christians to understand it.
There’s a term in theology and philosophy called theodicy. It deals with a question that has challenged theologians and philosophers for centuries: How do we reconcile the existence of evil and suffering with our belief in a good and all-powerful God?
We believe God is good.
We believe God is all-powerful.
And we know that evil and suffering exist.
How do those things fit together?
If God is good and all-powerful, why does evil exist? If God is good but suffering continues, what does that mean? And if God is all-powerful, why doesn’t God simply put an end to it?
There’s a mystery here that we struggle with. And we can offer surface-level answers, but sometimes those answers don’t satisfy us. Sometimes they don’t even come close to addressing the pain someone is experiencing.
I think one of the hardest things about suffering is that we often want an explanation when what we really need is someone willing to sit with us in it.
We want to know why something happened. We want to know what purpose it serves. We want to know how a good God could allow it.
And those are fair questions. We shouldn’t be afraid to ask them.
But Scripture doesn’t deny the reality of suffering. The Bible is full of people who suffer, who cry out to God, who ask difficult questions, and who sometimes struggle to understand what God is doing.
Paul certainly knew something about suffering. He was imprisoned because of his faith. And yet he says he is not ashamed, because he knows the One in whom he has placed his trust.
I think that gets us to something important.
The Christian answer to suffering isn’t that suffering isn’t real. It isn’t that everything happens for an easily understood reason. And it certainly isn’t that we should tell people who are hurting to stop asking questions and simply have more faith.
The Christian claim is that we serve a God who does not run away from suffering.
In Jesus Christ, God enters into our suffering.
God comes among us. God experiences the pain and brokenness of this world. And Jesus is executed by the very people he came to save.
The cross reminds us that God does not remain distant from human suffering. God enters into it with us.
And the resurrection reminds us that suffering and death do not get the final word.
Now, I want to be careful here. I don’t think suffering is something we need to romanticize. We don’t need to pretend that suffering is good or that pain is somehow easy to endure. There are things that happen in this world that are genuinely awful, and we shouldn’t try to explain them away.
But I do believe that God can meet us in our suffering. God can sustain us through it. And sometimes, even in the midst of pain, God can bring about healing, growth, compassion, and redemption.
Suffering can shape us, though that doesn’t mean we have to be grateful for the things that hurt us. It means that even the painful parts of our stories are not beyond the reach of God’s grace.
I think of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings. There’s something about the way he understands sorrow and suffering, about the way he can sit with the sadness of the world without giving up hope. He understands that the story is bigger than the pain of any one moment.
And I think that’s part of what faith calls us to do.
Sometimes we have to sit with our suffering. Sometimes we have to listen. Sometimes we have to grieve. Sometimes we have to admit that we don’t have the answers.
But we can do all of that while trusting that God is present with us.
There’s a quote from Henri Nouwen that captures this idea. He writes about not being an optimist or a pessimist, but about holding on to the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection. The point is that Christian hope isn’t pretending everything is fine. It’s trusting that the suffering of the cross is not the end of the story.
The cross is real.
The suffering is real.
But so is the resurrection.
And the cross and resurrection belong together at the very heart of our faith.
So, yes, we will suffer. We will experience pain. We will have days when we don’t understand what God is doing. We will ask questions that don’t have easy answers.
And God is with us even there.
Now, I didn’t necessarily intend to talk quite so much about suffering today. That wasn’t where I thought this reflection would go. But this passage has one of my favorite verses, and it’s one that has inspired one of my favorite hymns.
I’ve got my hymnal here with me.
In verse 12, Paul says that he knows the One in whom he has placed his trust and is convinced that God is able to guard what he has entrusted to him until that day.
Does that sound familiar?
Maybe not in the wording of the NRSV, but what if I put it in the language of an old hymn?
“I know whom I have believed.”
That’s United Methodist Hymnal number 714, I Know Whom I Have Believed.
I love that hymn. I love how often Scripture has inspired the hymns we sing and how those hymns have helped us carry the words of Scripture into our daily lives.
The hymn reflects on the things we don’t know. We don’t understand everything about God’s grace. We don’t understand everything about Christ’s saving work. We don’t understand all the ways the Spirit moves in our lives. We don’t know exactly when or how we will meet our Lord.
But the refrain keeps bringing us back to the same truth: we know whom we have believed, and we trust that he is able to keep what we have entrusted to him.
And, friends, that’s where I find hope in this passage.
I don’t know the answer to every question about suffering.
I don’t know all the answers to the mysteries of faith.
I don’t know why some things happen the way they do. I don’t know why some prayers seem to be answered in the way we hope and others don’t. I don’t know why some people endure things that seem almost impossible to bear.
I don’t know so many things, y’all.
But I know whom I believe in.
I know the One in whom I have placed my faith.
And I know that the faith we find in Jesus Christ is my hope, my joy, and my everything.
I am thankful for the salvation that has come to me through Jesus Christ. I am thankful for his grace, which gives me hope even in the midst of suffering. And I am thankful that suffering does not have to have the final word in any of our stories.
The cross is not the end.
The empty tomb is coming.
And our suffering, as real and painful as it may be, is not the whole story.
God can meet us there. God can sustain us there. And God can work through even the most difficult parts of our lives to bring us closer to himself and to help us become people who reflect his love.
So, I know whom I have believed.
That’s a great hymn, and I hope it’s one you know, too.
John Wesley encouraged Methodists to keep a few important things close at hand as they traveled and served: the Bible, a hymnal, and the Book of Discipline.
I hope you have access to all three of those in your life. The Bible to ground you in God’s Word, the hymnal to help you sing and remember the faith, and the Discipline to guide us in the life we share as United Methodists.
Those are good things to keep close.
But above all, may we keep close to the One in whom we have believed.
Thanks for being with us today. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and we’ll pick up with chapter 2 tomorrow morning.
Thanks. See you!