2 Timothy 2:20-26
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
November 2, 2025
Many churches today are struggling. Why?
First, there is widespread mistrust of institutions of every kind and churches are not exempt from that deep-seated suspicion. Second, the rise of the Internet has accelerated our culture’s trend away from the face-to-face interaction so central to church life. Third and more decisively, there’s this insight: “It’s not so much that the life of following Jesus has been tried and found wanting, as that it has been found to be trying and thus not wanted.”
Following Jesus is trying. It’s demanding and costly. It requires, Jesus said, self-denial, cross-bearing and sacrifice – that is, saying No to many a self-indulgence, dying to a much-liked status quo, and imitating the One who gave up His life for others.
Following Jesus is a high-price adventure! But it is also a high-payoff adventure. For it involves a trade. We give Jesus our everything, and He gives us His everything; and we’re way ahead in the deal because His everything is way bigger than ours. So what we receive from Jesus more than compensates what Jesus requires of us. It turns out our serving Him and His interests serves our self-interest to the utmost.
But we won’t experience the rewards if we don’t suffer the losses. We must take the essential pains to have the excellent gains.
Paul began this part of his letter to Timothy by comparing the church, God’s earthly home for His children, “to a large house” in which there’s all kinds of utensils: pots and pans, spoons and knives, rakes and brooms, etc. Some are made of impressive material such as “gold and silver”, and some of modest material such as “wood and clay”. Some are designed for “special use”; and some, for “ordinary”. But, Paul wrote, all who seek to be instruments in God’s service will “cleanse themselves of the things I have mentioned” in order to become “special utensils, dedicated and useful to the owner of the house, ready for every good work.” In other words, all of us – whatever we’re made of and made for – who purify ourselves by washing out of our lives the things Paul had just urged Timothy to wash out of his – such “wickedness” – will thereby become valuable tools in God’s hand.
All this is to say that, if we are serious about becoming God’s instruments “ready for every good work”, we must be serious about becoming our best for God. To pursue that goal involves our making the most of the opportunities life gives us: in our time as we commit to daily prayer and weekly worship to deepen our relationship with God; in our talents as we employ our skills and gifts to help neighbors, and in our treasure as we use our money to fund the work of the church. That’s how we “purify” and improve ourselves for serving God. The whole process requires us to take both negative action and positive action that moves us closer to the purity that gives us utility in God’s purposes.
One negative movement is to “shun youthful passions”. That does involve disciplining our sexual desire; but it also involves disciplining other desires to which we’re particularly prone in our youth but with which we must deal at every age. Let’s consider a couple of examples.
We must discipline our desire for immediacy – that is, wanting what we want in the moment we want it (whether it be, say, a sweet treat to eat or a break from work). If we don’t bear in mind the rewards of delayed gratification – that is, putting off an immediate pleasure so as to enjoy a greater, overall pleasure later – we become impatient with people and the frequently slow processes of life – particularly those that develop what matters most in life, such as good character and conduct. If we live only for now, we can’t build a better future.
We must also discipline our desire for certainty –that is, wanting to banish any possibility of doubt. We may want to know for sure ahead of time what tomorrow will bring, but then we’d be deprived of needed practice in the exercise of faith. Or we may want to know for sure we’re truly worth something; but that tempts us to look for validation, not from what God says, but from the admiration and recognition people give us – which only make us unprincipled chameleons devoid of integrity who change with whatever wins human approval.
Further, we must discipline our desire for novelty – that is, wanting what is different only because it is different, regardless of whether it is genuinely better. If we don’t bear in mind that often what’s old or familiar or common is what’s best and if we don’t appraise things from the big perspective that shows us long-term benefit or loss, we grow unfaithful to long-term relationships and truths confirmed over many years and by many trustworthy people.
So we become our best by taking negative action to distance ourselves from what holds us back.
Likewise, we become our best by taking positive action to pursue what advances our progress. We then not only shun desires that degrade us, but run in hot pursuit of those that upgrade us. With the support of allies who “call on the Lord from a pure heart”, we “pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace”. We seek to treat God and people right by giving each their proper due; to have such faith as to hold nothing back in replicating God’s generosity; to love others by investing our time, talent and treasure to help them; and to be at peace, in so far as it’s under our control, with others by being kind and gracious folks known for their open heart, open hand and, yes, open wallet.
In this work of becoming our best, we pursue ideals we can never fully reach; but, like the stars we can never reach, we can still navigate by their shining light. Moreover, while we never get close enough even to touch those shining ideals, we can, by narrowing the distance between them and us, soar higher than before and at least fly over the moon at times!
Flying over the moon may, as Paul reminded Timothy here, mean forthrightly speaking the hard truth in love to those who’ve fallen into wickedness, and are endangering their souls. They may not at first like hearing the truth we speak, but they might warm to considering it if we correct them while embodying the qualities Paul here urged upon Timothy, qualities such as “kindness”, “patience” and “gentleness”.
To be the family of Jesus and to approach closer to His qualities of character is to keep reminding each other of the shining stars which we can never reach but to which we should ever aspire. Bearing them in mind reminds us that we could always do better and that, to fly closer to our ideals, we need God’s help, typically coming to us through other people. Having this perspective will move us to rely on God and each other more than on ourselves, and will move God, as Paul here concluded, to grant us “escape from the snare of the devil”, authentic “repentance” and deep “knowledge of the truth”.
In the end, may we know the crucial truth that whose we are determines who we are – and that we become all God’s as we persevere in seeking to become our best for Him by imitating Jesus’ generosity with our time, talent and treasure. Let us pursue that high and holy goal with determination!
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