The Cost of Commitment
A group of twenty-two Christian leaders traveled half a day to secretly meet and learn from a pastor who came from another country. If caught, the pastor would be deported, and the others would spend three years in prison. Eighteen of the twenty-two had already been imprisoned for their faith in Jesus.
After the pastor handed out fifteen Bibles he’d brought with him, one woman gave hers to someone else. Like many others, she’d memorized chapters of Scripture so she would have its wisdom secured in her heart if she were to go to prison. She later asked the pastor to pray that their church would be free to gather just like his. Instead, marveling at how they sacrificed, suffered persecution, and risked imprisonment, he prayed that his church would be just like theirs.
Believers around the world are persecuted for their faith in Christ, some more severely than others. And all believers can be tempted to cower when the stakes of living for Christ are raised. But the Holy Spirit enables us to use our God-given gifts with “power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). God will help us share the gospel with boldness and compassion, wherever He leads. Because of all He did for us (vv. 9-10), we can embrace the sacrificial cost of commitment to Christ and preserve “sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus” (v. 13).
By Xochitl Dixon - Our Daily Bread Ministries
2 Timothy 1:6-14
Appeal for Loyalty to Paul and the Gospel
6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 8So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. 9He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
13What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
