Faster, Higher, Stronger: What Will it Cost You?

This is the 7th of a series of Olympic-themed sermons. The title of the sermon series, "Faster, Higher, Stronger" is the English translation of the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius. After leader LoLo Jones hit the 9th hurdle in the 100-meter finals and faded from 1st to 7th in the final few meters, the TV announcer said (more or less), "Ordinarily you’d say, ‘Wait ‘til next year,’ but these are the Olympics, and her next chance is 4 years away. She’s 26 now, and you have to wonder if she’s up for training for another 4 years." Over the last four years, Jones worked at Home Depot, at a gym as a personal trainer, and at restaurants as a waitress in order to accommodate her training schedule. She scrimped to save money by leaving her air conditioner off during hot Louisiana summers. Another four years of training? Indeed!

Like Lolo Jones we can stumble—not in the Olympics, but in the testing of our faith. The determination to get up and undertake training (again!) until we achieve success can seem so hard, and the day of victory can seem so far away. What are we to do?

2 Timothy 2:1-7

Commentary

The context of Paul’s letter is key to understanding this passage. Paul is writing to Timothy from prison. Indeed, I believe this to be the last of the letters that Paul wrote that made it into the Bible. Throughout the letter, Paul is urging Timothy to "handle truth" correctly (2:15), to steer clear of contentious & quarrelsome teachers who distort the truth (2:23-3:5), to preach and to teach faithfully (4:1-5). This is the arena in which Timothy (and Paul) must persevere.

v2 The reliable transmission spiritual truths across four generations of Christians is in view here: Paul to Timothy; Timothy to reliable men; and reliable men to others.

v3 John Calvin says of this verse that Christians must learn a different form of spiritual combat. As "soldiers", Christians don’t throw down their spears, neither do they "contend fiercely and haughtily" with their foes; rather, they must "learn what it is to ‘possess their souls in patience’ (Luke 21:19)."

v4-6 These three verses are parallel constructions intended to give three perspectives on the same main point. The main character in each—soldier, athlete, or farmer—demonstrates delayed gratification. Hard work is endured for the sake of a later reward—praise, a crown, or a portion of the harvest.

For the soldier, the Roman code of Theodosius commanded, "We forbid men engaged on military service to engage in civilian occupations." Soldiers could neither marry, nor engage in agriculture, commerce, or industry. They were soldiers only—nothing more or less.

For the athlete, the rules to be obeyed were not merely the rules of competition, but also the rules for training. Athletes are routinely disqualified for failing to follow the rules of the contest, like USA’s Wallace Spearmon, who was DQ’d in the 200-meter race in the Olympics this week for stepping on a lane line. However, athletes can also get DQ’d by training outside of the rules—doping, for example.

For the farmer, things get a bit trickier. v6 can be translated, "The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops," or, "The farmer should first work hard [then] receive a share of the crops." Inasmuch as in the OT God was supposed to receive the first fruits of the harvest, and Jesus gives a parable of tenant farmers failing to turn over the harvest to the landowner (Matt 21:33-46), the second interpretation seems better, and it also fits with the delayed gratification illustrated by the soldier and the athlete.

Application

To appreciate what Paul is saying, we must learn to hear Paul with a fresh pair of ears. To us, Paul is the super-Christian, apostle to the Gentiles, preacher of a gospel of grace, the first missionary, and the founder of churches across half the Mediterranean. In hindsight, we see Paul as a great success story. However, consider the evidence at the time of Paul’s letter:

Paul was a prisoner, probably awaiting his execution. Certainly he saw himself nearing the end (4:6-8).

Paul had been deserted (4:16); some former disciples actively opposed him (4:14-15); some had wandered into heresies (2:14-18).

Around the Mediterranean many of the churches Paul had founded were struggling; most notably, the church in Corinth had spurned Paul in favor of other teachers (2 Cor. 11:1-15).

Even in Jerusalem, in the headquarters of the early church, Paul was accorded only grudging respect. The Christians in Jerusalem were still mostly Jewish Christians, following the Jewish law, worshipping at the temple. On Paul’s final trip to Jerusalem, they had countered Paul’s testimony of what he had done on his mission trips with reports of thousands of Jewish converts who were zealous for the law and who were offended by Paul’s gospel of "cheap grace" (Acts 21:17-36).

Paul was asking Timothy to take over his ministry … a ministry that appeared to be floundering.

Indeed, Paul was asking Timothy to preach of gospel of the grace of God, a future resurrection, and the imminent return of Christ, but what if Paul had gotten it wrong? (2:16-18)

Thus we see Paul having to fan the flames of Timothy’s faith (1:6) and to urge him to pass on the faith to reliable men! The temptation, of course, is to believe the lie: that all that work has been for naught; that one’s faith is empty, wrong, or misplaced; that other people have figured it out better; that God has passed on by; that our chance has come and gone. Don’t believe it!

To focus on the trials, the delayed gratification, and the desired prizes of the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer is to miss the force at work behind the scene. The soldier labors to please his commander, but one must assume that his commander is invested in the success of his soldiers. The athlete competes to win by the rules, but the officials are invested in preparing the arena, enabling the athletes to run, and validating the victors. The farmer labors to obtain a harvest, but the God of creation will produce the harvest. In all of our struggles, in the world, in church, and in life, God does not stand on the sidelines, waiting to see if we will succeed for fail; rather, God is in the trials with us, striving with us.

Lolo Jones has had to deal with failure before. After failing to qualify for the 2004 Olympics, she told her coach she wanted to retire from track. Her coach replied, "I'll see you at practice tomorrow." So it is for us in our faith. We can tell God, "I’m ready to pack it in, to give up, to believe the lie," and God says, "I’ll see you at practice tomorrow." I don’t know what Jones, a Christian, will decide about the 2012 Olympics, but I believe that God is ready to pick her up and continue to work in her. Likewise, God is going to show up today, tomorrow, and the next day in our lives, regardless of whether we see signs of success or not, for, "If we are faithless, he is faithful, for he cannot disown himself" (2 Tim. 2:13).

Points to Ponder

Could it be that Paul, in urging Timothy to pass on the faith to reliable men, is preaching to himself as well?

The rigors of Olympic training are hardly new. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said 1,900 years ago:

Would you be a victor in the Olympic games? So in good truth would I, for it is a glorious thing; but pray consider what must go before and what may follow, and so precede to the attempt. You must then live by rule, eat what will be disagreeable, refrain from delicacies; you must oblige yourself to constant exercise at the appointed hour, in heat and cold. You must abstain from wine and cold liquor; in a word, you must be as submissive to all the directions of your master as to those of a physician. (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, CIV)

The discipline required of an Olympian is matched by the discipline required of a Christian: Jesus said:

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'

Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:28-33)

How do Jesus’ words here fit with Paul’s illustrations of the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer? Just for fun, try rewriting Jesus parable using a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. Do you see that for all their hard work, they still need God to intervene? Why do we insist on trying to do it ourselves?