Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:1
My father in law Ed Cronin recently contacted me and my wife and asked us our opinion on the verse above. He told us he was asking several people he knew to share their understanding of the verse; both its meaning and how to functionally obey this scripture. This is my phrasing of his request so if I have phrased it incorrectly the blame is mine alone. my answer can be seen below.
ME: Ed
what an interesting question...as you can see from my response it got me thinking. I decided to use an email because it would take me a year to text this, also I did want to consider and pray before I answered as James warns all those who answer the call of teacher to do.
with most authors of bible books we have only definition of words and context to use for our understanding.
with your permission I would like to make this response a blog/post...if you so desire I can leave your name out of it.
we know that by definition grace means a gift.
and in context Paul is speaking of the futility of trusting in men, even those who are believers; so Paul's conclusion, despite the fact He is writing from prison, is the only thing which can be a solid support and strength for our living is a complete trust in the gift of God.
A clearer understanding of his statement can be had by an understanding of the thinking that goes along with the authors use of this word (Paul's personal definition of the word grace)
Imagine a person reading court transcripts one thousand years from now...if they were to read a witness saying my dog said he was going to kill that guy...without the understanding of how that witness calls his friends dog those in the future would interpret what he said very different.
we have a great privilege with Paul of having many different manuscripts by which to decipher his true meaning of the gift of God.
For Paul the word grace speaks of redemption...not salvation, forgiveness,mercy, or justification as the modern church interprets it. While these things are all related and part of the whole we see in Romans and Galatians that Paul uses this word to define the work by which God places our self generated life from inherited from Adam into His Son in whom that old man dies and a new creation is born where the life is no longer in the blood but in the Spirit.
For Paul grace is Gods life being made into our life as we become one...just as Adam was nothing more than formed earth until God breathed His own life into him making him a living soul.
Paul knows that just as Adam could be tempted and choose to become self reliant and self oriented so too a new creation in Christ can too. The result of doing such is a separation from the life of God and the beginning of a self generated life which God concludes and defines as death. Hence his strong warning in both Romans and Galatians that righteousness can only be obtained by trusting in the gift of life from God...and further when we see unrighteousness in our lives we should know we have frustrated the gift and placed trust in our self generation.
So considering this Paul is saying to Timothy that he must be vigilant to ever only put trust in the gift of Gods shared life in Him by which both he, Paul, and every other believer is made one with the Father the Son and their shared Spirit.
ED:I am reading it now again. Yes you can post it and with my name. I have asked many to tell me what or how to stay strong in Grace. This morning I noticed it is be strong. Though at this point mo one has said anything about it. I am looking at be vs stay strong as you texted me. Also, your reply is the longs yet. I plan to post each ones reply after all has done so. I giving all to Tuesday to replay. Is there a difference to how if the word be instead of stay. Thanks for replying. I am going to reread your answer again.In Jesus Name. Hey, in a few words how do we( be strong in the Grace ) of Him?
As I said I exchanged the word- be - with stay. Is there a difference in meaning? If so, would the how have a different how. Hope I said it so you understand what I am getting at. Thanks for input.
