Staying True to the One Who’s Ever True

1 Timothy 1:15-2:7
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
October 12, 2025

Experience bears witness that often people don’t stay true to their promises and commitments.  But experience and the Bible bear witness that God always does.  In fact, some of us are staking our lives on the conviction that God will ever stay faithful to His word – and to us.

When the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, he was imprisoned and destined for execution. Shortly before this incarceration began, Paul had led a highly successful evangelistic mission in Ephesus, the capital of Asia – Asia being, not the continent some call the Far East, but a Roman province in what’s now called Turkey.

Paul’s efforts there over two years had been so successful that many had committed to follow Jesus and a growing church was born.  But, upon Paul’s arrest, a number of church members drifted away from Christ and turned their backs on the Apostle.  He named here two of the deserters, likely the defection’s ringleaders, but said no more about them – perhaps because he thought, “If you can’t say any anything good about someone, don’t say anything at all!”  Be that as it may, he could hardly say enough about Onesiphorus, a kind and caring brother who had with diligent dedication helped Paul in his hour of need.

Because there are few people like Onesiphorus on whom we can count, it is wise to count first and foremost on the One on whom we can always count, the God who remains faithful even if we grow unfaithful.

A primary and ultimate reliance on God is all the more crucial for those who wholeheartedly intend to serve Christ and His purposes.  For that commitment brings them, not only great reward, but also great costs in the form of sacrifice, hard work and rejection from some.

That’s why Paul immediately instructed Timothy here about how to handle all the toil and pain ahead of him.  Paul began by urging Timothy to “be strong” in defiance of his self-doubt and the disparaging remarks others made about him.  To stay true to the ever-true Jesus and to hold his ground against the landslide of defection and opposition, Timothy needed fortitude and tenacity.

Now, if Paul had left the timid Timothy with just the exhortation to be strong, it would have done nothing but shame him.  It’d have been like telling a snail to be quick or a pig to fly, as John Stott once quipped.  But Paul did not ask Timothy to be strong in himself, but rather to be strong “in the grace that is in Christ Jesus”.  Timothy could obtain power and courage from outside of himself, from beyond himself, from the unmerited and thus unlimited generosity of the good God whose grace is not only for salvation but also for service in His causes.  In other words, just as Timothy had before depended on Christ’s unearned kindness to put Him in a right relationship with the Supreme Being, Timothy could now depend on it to put into him the strength he needed to do right by the human beings entrusted to his care.

For Timothy’s particular challenge at that particular time, the most pertinent example of doing right for folks was embedding in “faithful people who will be able to teach others” the faith Paul had embedded in him.

Now, living out that embedded faith entails enduring suffering, sacrifice and strenuous labor.  Paul brought this idea home for Timothy by drawing three analogies – soldiers, athletes and farmers – by which to understand the hard demands in following Jesus.

First, Paul wrote, to follow Jesus is “to share in suffering like a good soldier”.  Good soldiers expect hardship and pain, and take any difficulty or injury that comes their way as a matter of course.  They maintain a resolute determination to do their duty and obey the orders of their commanding officer even when the orders to them make no sense.  Their attitude is, “Ours is not to reason why; ours is but to do or die!”

Christians are to have the same attitude toward God.  They’re to trust His mind more than their own, and obey His orders even if they make no sense.

Good soldiers also keep focused. They concentrate on fulfilling their promise of fidelity by refraining from getting “entangled with everyday affairs”.  They don’t slight their duties to family, their job or their community; but they ever attend to staying battle ready and vigilant to jump to when their Commander calls.

So too, followers of Jesus are to focus on their top priority and hold on to lower priorities with a looser grip.  These days our distracting, entangling preoccupations mostly come from our getting caught up in entertainments such as sports, binge TV watching, social media or TikTok videos.  It is fine to enjoy such things moderately, but we mustn’t let them use up so much of our time and energy as to put us out of shape for serving God when people need us.  We must keep the main thing, obedience to God, the main thing.

Second, Paul wrote, to follow Jesus is to imitate Olympic athletes driven to be “crowned” as the best in their sport, back when first-place winners didn’t receive a gold medal but an evergreen wreath to wear as a crown.  To obtain it, they had to compete “according to the rules” – that is, in strict conformity to what their particular contest demands, first in training and then in actual performance.  They had to be self-disciplined about their eating and practicing, deny themselves much ease, and strive for excellence with an all-out effort.

So too, Christians are to discipline themselves to practice the means of grace – such as corporate worship, personal prayer, Bible study, community service and supportive discipleship – that we might make something of the opportunities those activities give God to build us up to do our best in the contests required by our service to Christ.  We then are to deny ourselves many a self-indulgence and many a moment of freedom from duty.  While we must regularly rest, we are never to take our eyes off the prize of a heavenly crown and pursue it with every ounce of strength and endurance we’ve got.

Third, Paul wrote, to follow Jesus is to imitate hard-working farmers who faithfully toil as they plow their fields, feed their soil, sow their seeds, and the like, however repetitive and boring those tasks may be, however harsh the weather, however weed- or bug-infested the ground.

Yes, as Jesus said in a parable, “the earth produces of itself”; but a harvest only comes if farmers do their part: planting, fertilizing and fighting off vermin.

Hence, if we who follow Jesus hope to bring forth a harvest of righteousness and holiness in our character and a harvest of new and stronger disciples in our church, we have to faithfully do our small but crucial part, staying true to the One who’s ever true.  We must keep pace with Jesus as He leads us into devotion to God and outreach to neighbor.

But how can we, who wander so easily, stay true?  By hoping for the final consummation of God’s grace to us!  Just as a soldier hopes for victory, an athlete hopes for a crown, or a farmer hopes for a harvest, we are to hope, as Paul put it, that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion by the day of Christ Jesus!