7 Characteristics of a Faithful Servant — William Skates

The Call to Faithful Service

To many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man at war entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he might please him who had chosen him to be a soldier.

And if any man also strive for masteries or strive in the contests, athletic contests, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman or the farmer that labors must be first partaker of the fruits.

Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Now the Lord will bless to us the reading from his word. It's often been said that second epistles are indicative of conditions in last days.

Seven Characteristics of a Faithful Servant

In contrast to the first letter that he wrote to Timothy, where collective congregational conduct is emphasized, in second Timothy we have individual responsibility and behavior made prominent. So just cutting to the chase then in this chapter, we have seven characteristics of a faithful servant.

Seven characteristics of a faithful servant. A faithful servant will be a disciplining teacher, verses one and two, a discipling teacher. A faithful servant will be a single-minded soldier. And we get that in verses three to four.

Then we find a faithful servant will be a winning athlete in verse five. And our reading also included the fact that he will be an enduring farmer. And that would take you really from verse six to verse 13.

Just to fill out the outline for the chapter, he will be a diligent workman then in verses 14 to 19. And in verse 20 to 23, he's a sanctified vessel fit for the master's use. And not least, the end of the chapter, the faithful servant will be a gentle servant.

That takes you to verse 24 and 26. A discipling teacher. Thou therefore my son, my child really is the word. Timothy evidently was born again under Paul's ministry, his preaching on the first missionary journey when he got as far as Lystra.

A Discipling Teacher

He heard the gospel from the apostle, he trusted Christ, and now it is as though he is his child in the faith. And so he has been serving Paul, serving alongside of Paul rather, since Paul's second missionary journey.

And it's an interesting study to follow his movements in the book of Acts. So Paul has to say to such a one, his child in the faith, be strong, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That means to be a courageous Christian with all the strength and the fortitude which his grace provides.

The undeserved ability that comes to us through union with Christ and through the enjoyment of union with Christ. It's through the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So that's a spiritual strength, it's not a carnal strength.

All too often, particularly when we're younger, perhaps we are marked by zeal and it's not always a spiritual zeal. I was just remembering there as I was sitting, an incident I would rather forget. I was still in my teens at the time, saved for the grace of God in the assembly.

And my sister had a friend from school, a Christian friend, and she was from the denominations. So my sister, of course, would bring her home and there would be discussion that would follow and Isabel happened to have very short hair, really.

Hair that was very short. So I said to her and I thought I would tune her up with 1 Corinthians 11. And I went at it, hammer and tongs, and slew hip and thigh. And to crown it all off, I charged her with a seared conscience.

Oh my, the things we do. If only we could go back and redo things, eh? Full of zeal! But there wasn't much of the grace of Christ about it. Indeed, before you would end this chapter, verse 24, notice this.

The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. You know, all too often in zeal, sometimes we may take a little truth and we're gonna ram it down their throat and they're gonna bow to this, or else we don't even care if they leave the assembly.

Oh boy, I would suggest that is not the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now he says, the things which thou hast heard of me, among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

So here very simply is a responsibility of the faithful servant toward others. Paul himself has faithfully taught Timothy in divine truth and he had done it in the presence of many witnesses. It wasn't a little private deal, you know, just him and Timothy, but the truth that he had to proclaim was fit for public consumption.

And so Timothy was instructed in that way. We should point out that the verse does not, of course, support the notion of apostolic succession or ordination of ministers, but it does support the transmission of truth from one generation to another.

And so you have here in the verse, you have four generations, it's often pointed out. The apostle Paul, number one, he transmits truth to Timothy in the presence of many witnesses. And then he in turn is to pass that on to faithful, dependable men who in turn will instruct others also.

So there is the perpetuation of testimony that's involved here and others need to be taught that would presuppose, I take it, that there is a competency that God has given them to pass on truth and to teach.

So far as assemblies are concerned, I would take it that arrangements at the local level of developing a generation coming on will be essential. And Paul, we note, did not advise Timothy to simply perpetuate testimony by bringing in, as it were, full-time preachers.

Now, there is a place for that. There is a place for teachers that have been raised up of God. But right here in the context, local gift needs to be supported. And it needs to be developed. We might get through one generation successfully, but one has said that success without succession is not bereft of failure.

Success without succession, without bringing on another generation is not without failure. Now, just in a more general application of these truths, every one of us as believers, we ought to be exercised in our souls to provide for the spiritual instruction and the spiritual strengthening of others.

We are responsible to transmit the truths that God has entrusted to us, truths that we have come into the good of, pass it on to others, only, not like me, in a gracious manner, in a gracious manner. Now then, the single-minded soldier, verse, that brings us to verse three and four.

A Single-Minded Soldier

He says, though therefore endure hardship or hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Paul will use a wealth of similes in the chapter to describe the faithful servant as we've already been noting.

But here, now it is as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And Paul is saying to Timothy, look, it's not always gonna be easy being a Christian. It's not gonna be easy being faithful to the Lord and being faithfully involved in his service.

And Paul knew what he was talking about, didn't he? He was a man and some, we read that, some looked upon him as being weak and even contemptible. And they didn't hold him in very high regard. But there was nothing weak about the apostle when it came to serving the Lord.

Listen to this from 2 Corinthians 11, verse 24. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes, less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Three times was I shipwrecked.

A night and a day I was adrift at sea. On frequent journeys and dangers from rivers and dangers from robbers, dangers from unknown people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren.

In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure and apart from other things, there was the daily pressure on me for anxiety care for all the churches.

There was a man who was a good soldier who endured hardship. In the ministry that God had entrusted to him, he endured hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And then Paul will note now in verse four that no man that was entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he might please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

So Paul has in view a soldier on active duty and he's in the thick of the combat and it's not like he's taking time off. The emphasis is on the fact of this entanglement where the ordinary things of life could become a distraction to him.

No, a good soldier will not be entangled. He will not allow himself to be distracted but rather there is his devotion to duty. I take it that the apostle doesn't have in view secular occupations per se because after all, Paul himself engaged in tent making.

So he's not against having a job. Indeed, he would encourage that. I will look down upon or in a negative way towards those that would be busybodies and lazy as we've been hearing. But what he means is this, that when it comes to service for Christ, it must have the priority in our life so that the ordinary things that might engage an individual, they're left to the one side if they are interfering with.

His devotion and his service to the master. Now a good soldier will stand ready for instruction from headquarters. He's devoted to his duty, he's listening for the command and his desire is to please the one who has enlisted him.

There are many heroes who have answered the call of duty by Uncle Sam. Good soldiers that have put their life on the line and our brethren were praying for them and obeying orders, their life is at risk and we're very grateful for their service.

But the believer, he has been enlisted now that God has saved him, he's been enlisted by the Lord. And as a result of the fact that he has saved us, he has loved us and saved us and now in return we love him and that should cause us to let the world be held loosely and it's not as important as once it was.

Spiritual Weapons and Dependence on God

And now our priority is to serve him faithfully. And just with the military metaphor, Paul would write to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and remind us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

When it comes to serving God, it is not strength of argument or it is not loudness of voice that wins the day or it's not the degree to which we'll be stubborn and we'll block out the other man's comments.

No, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're spiritual, it's the study of the word of God, it's praying it in, it's praying for others and it's dependence upon God in it all. And then we stand back and we let God do his own work, work that we can't do, dependent upon God in it all.

The greatest warrior of all who defeated hell and death in the grave is our Lord Jesus Christ and he delivered my soul from the battle that was against me, said the psalmist. And you remember what he said, you remember his attitude.

It was not my will, but thine be done. There is the faithful servant, there is the perfect and we do well to emulate him. Now, there's much more that could be said but let us encourage our hearts, brethren, in this matter of serving God.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians again in view of the fact that there was a day of reward ahead. He said, therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

The Lord bless this word to our hearts. We'll close in prayer.