How to Safeguard the Gospel (2 Timothy 4:1-7)

The Setting of Paul’s Final Letter and the Need to Safeguard the Gospel

We are going to worship God through the proclamation of his word. So I invite you to open your Bibles this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I began a study in 2 Timothy last week in our adult Sunday school time and worked through the first chapter of 2 Timothy a little bit looking at five commands that the Apostle Paul gave to Timothy as he sat on death row in the Mamertine prison.

And so I thought, well, it would only make sense to just continue on in chapter 2 this morning. And then in two weeks, we're going to be looking at chapter 4 and a message from chapter 4 in 2 Timothy.

So you might read ahead in 2 Timothy and prepare for that. But let's commit our time to our Lord now and ask his blessing on our time. Our Father, we know it is because of your grace that we are even able to gather here this morning and to spend time fellowshipping, worshipping, hearing your word taught and preached.

And it's all about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That grace you gave to us in him and in the amazing work that he accomplished for us on the cross. And so we acknowledge that, Father, and we pray that you would teach us from your word this morning, that you would accomplish every purpose that you have in it and that you may be glorified in it as well.

And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. When the Apostle Paul wrote this letter, 2 Timothy, to his young and beloved co-worker Timothy, from a human perspective, his situation was really grim. Here was a man, probably in his mid to late 60s, who had committed his life to serving his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be an Apostle to the Gentiles, to preach the gospel, to teach Christians, and to edify and build up churches.

And here he is on death row, condemned to die for his faith. He had come to Rome this second time because Rome was the center of Gentile power and influence in the world. And Paul, as Christ Apostle to the Gentiles, had a burning passion to take the gospel to the Gentile world.

And as we noted last week in Sunday School, as we looked at some of the background for this letter, Paul had been imprisoned in Rome five or six years prior to that in his first imprisonment. You remember he had been arrested back in Jerusalem.

He had had all these false charges made against him by the Jews. He endured even a plot to murder him that is recorded in the book of Acts. There were several defenses he made before various groups, before the Governor Felix, and then, of course, in front of the Jewish high priest, Ananias, where Jewish elders and other Jews came and lied about him and bore false witness.

And at that time, Paul was under a type of house arrest by the Governor Felix and had more meetings before him over a period of two years, recorded in Acts. Luke's account, as he records Acts in chapter 24, really tells us some of the motive of the Governor Felix.

It says Felix hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him. When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.

So money was a motivation, political power and influence was a motivation, and the Jews, of course, just flat-wanted Paul out of the way because he was preaching Jesus Christ as their Messiah, the one that they had murdered, by the way.

And Paul eventually comes before King Agrippa in that account in Acts. And King Agrippa would have set him free, he says so, except that Paul, as a Roman citizen, had the right to appeal his case before Caesar all the way in Rome.

Well, Paul was appointed by Christ Apostle to the Gentiles, and Paul wanted to go to Rome. Rome was the seat of Gentile power and influence all over the known world at that point in time. So he appealed his case to Caesar, and he had a free ride on a Roman grain ship all the way to Rome, all expenses paid.

And he was there, starting in about 60 AD, again, under a house arrest in that first imprisonment for about two years. And when the Jewish false witnesses didn't show up from Jerusalem to bear witness against him, why would they?

They got rid of him, he's out of town, he's all the way in Rome. The Romans had a law that they would release a prisoner after that period of time. So Paul was released, and he went back about his business, taking the gospel to the known world.

About five years later, he travels back to Rome and is arrested. Under the same emperor Nero, he's arrested this time, condemned to death, and he's put down in this hole in the ground. It's not really a prison, it's just a hole in the ground that is a holding tank for men condemned to die.

Nero, again, the Roman emperor during Paul's first imprisonment, but seven years later, things had changed. Nero had become progressively paranoid, there had been attempts to displace him from his office, all kinds of things were going on, and he would routinely have people arrested and executed, and he was getting more and more paranoid along the way.

A massive fire broke out in 64 AD in Rome, and it destroyed much of Rome. Many of the neighborhoods that were not destroyed happened to be occupied by Christians. Well, the Roman citizenry tried to blame that fire on Nero, and Nero, in order to, you know, displace the blame onto somebody else, blamed the Christians.

And he started a massive persecution against the Christians of Rome, and, of course, that spread through all over the Roman Empire. Paul shows up in Rome at that point in time, and, of course, he's known to be one of the ringleaders, as they say, and he was very quickly arrested, put in prison, condemned to death, and that's his situation.

To get an idea of how things had gone downhill from his first imprisonment, in the first imprisonment, Paul had freedom in his house, and there's sort of a house arrest type situation. It says in Acts 28, he was in his own rented quarters.

In this last imprisonment, several years later, we're told in 2 Timothy 2 .9, he was in chains as a criminal. In that first imprisonment, he could entertain many visitors. Acts 28 records the fact that he had the Jewish leadership come in, and he argued with them, and he preached Christ to them, but in the second imprisonment, it was dangerous to visit him.

Many people had abandoned him. The Christians had sort of backed off of being his friend, because he's condemned to death, and they were worried about being persecuted as well. He even mentions a man in chapter 1, verse 17, who came to look for him.

He couldn't find him, but he searched earnestly and found me. Well, that's because Paul was down in this hole in the ground. In his second imprisonment here, he was completely alone. Everybody abandoned him.

Luke, it says, was with him only, and probably Luke left after a while, so Paul probably died alone. In his first imprisonment, he expected to be released. He records that in his letter from that imprisonment to the Philippian Christians, and also in that letter to Philemon he wrote.

In both of those, he talks about his anticipating being released. In this second imprisonment, he knows he's going to die. And in 2 Timothy 4, 6, he said, I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

We also saw in our study last week, how personal and emotional and even sad this letter is. Here's the great apostle Paul under the sentence of death, languishing down in this hole in the ground.

It's dark.

It's cold.

He's alone, abandoned by his friends and co-workers. But even in those horrific circumstances, Paul's focus is not on himself. In that first chapter, after he expresses his care and his concern and his thanksgiving for Timothy, he sets about to encourage Timothy in his ministry, because Timothy was still back in Ephesus, a very big city, an important city, and it was a very formidable ministry that he had.

And, of course, that persecution had spread all over the Roman Empire. So he might have been getting a little shaky in his commitment to Christ, maybe even vacillating a little bit in his faith. Paul knows his life is over.

He knows he's going to be leaving, and he wants to leave behind with Timothy his marching orders, the priorities that Paul has for ministry in general, but especially for Timothy now that he's going to be gone.

And he gives five commands in that first chapter. The first one is absolutely key to carrying out all the rest. It's foundational. In verse 6, Paul told Timothy, to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

And we saw that here Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Timothy's life that would give him the power and the strength and the encouragement that he needs to carry out his ministry.

It is only by the operation of the Holy Spirit that Timothy will be able to carry out the rest of those commands that he gives him. To not be ashamed of the gospel or of Paul, but to share in suffering for the gospel.

And the fourth one, to hold fast to apostolic doctrine or teaching that is under constant attack by false teachers and false preachers. And in verse 14 of chapter 1, the fifth command, and again, he comes back around to the power necessary to accomplish this.

He says, by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. And that last imperative sets up the next four that we're going to see this morning in chapter 2 verses 1 through 7.

Paul knows his departure from this life is close. It's essentially over for him. His ministry is done, his life is done, and he knows that Timothy has a very difficult and formidable ministry back in Ephesus.

And he knows Timothy cannot rely on his own strength to accomplish it, but by rekindling the gift of the Spirit, he'll have the energizing power and the motivation to accomplish everything God has for him to do.

And that last command in verse 14, to guard the good deposit is absolutely critical. The Legacy Standard Bible translates that word treasure because that's what the gospel is. It's a treasure. Same word Paul uses there in verse 12.

He's to speak of what he himself has entrusted to God in that great statement. In other words, we are trusting God to safeguard our most valuable possession, our eternal souls, our eternal destiny, our eternal life.

And God is entrusting us with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what's going on here. So along with the commands God gives is the power to carry out those commands as well. Paul's concern for the safeguarding of the gospel is front and center in this letter, and it needs to be a priority for us as well.

So how do we safeguard the gospel? That's what we're going to see this morning. How to safeguard the gospel from 2 Timothy chapter 2. The first thing we're going to see in verse 1 of this chapter is we safeguard the gospel by standing strong.

Standing Strong by Grace in Christ Jesus

And here really he's just coming back to the strength that we have through the ministry of the Spirit to do this. Paul says to Timothy, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

In other words, Timothy is being commanded and this is an imperative verb. This is a command. There's 32 commands just in 2 Timothy alone. They make a great outline for studying the book if you can extract out those command verbs because that's the sort of the skeleton, the bones of the whole letter.

So I'm just using four of them here to do that. And the first one, be strengthened. It's a command, but it's interesting. It's also in the passive voice in the text. In other words, Timothy is being commanded by Paul to do something by means of a power that is not from himself, but from another.

And yet we know from what he said before that it's the Holy Spirit who is in us. And it's also in the present tense, Greek present tense tends to speak of action as continuous or habitual, ongoing. In other words, strengthening by the Spirit, standing strong is not something that you just do once.

It's not once you do it and then you've done forever. Oh, no, it has to be continuously done, all the time done. So another way to render that statement would be be continuously strengthened by means of the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And what you'll see throughout Scripture and Paul is very good at it. He'll talk about the Spirit in us, like he's done in this first chapter. He'll also talk about the Spirit of Christ in us. It's almost interchangeable.

And even in Colossians 127, Paul says to the Colossian Christians, Christ in you, the hope of glory. So if you want to arm wrestle about who's indwelling us, you can, somebody might take the sides of,.

Well, it's the Spirit.

Well, it's Christ, but it's Christ in us by the power of his Holy Spirit, Paul says. And that's how we safeguard the gospel, by standing strong in the strength of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

And by the way, it's very important. Christians don't need to get more of the Holy Spirit. Okay, that is a false teaching. The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit can be grieved. The Holy Spirit can be quenched.

We know from Acts chapter 5, the Holy Spirit can be lied to. That's what Ananias and Sapphira did, right? The Holy Spirit is a person. He can't be chopped up into bite-sized chunks. You don't get more of him.

He's either there or he's not there. And Paul deals with this very issue in Romans chapter 8. He says, and those who are in the flesh, that's a person who is unregenerate, a person who does not believe in Jesus Christ, who are dead in their sins, okay?

Those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. However, you, you Roman Christians, you Roman believers, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

What a great promise that is. The Spirit of God, we can rely on him all through our lives here on earth to strengthen us, encourage us, and all the wonderful ministries that the Spirit accomplishes. And ultimately that by the same power of that same Holy Spirit, we will be raised from the dead, just like the Spirit raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

So, spiritual strength only comes through the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit only indwells true believers in Jesus Christ, and it is only by means of the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So, by being strengthened by means of God's grace, we are to safeguard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That is so foundational to everything else Paul commands Timothy to do. And that brings us to our second imperative in this chapter. And point two, verse two, be strengthened by grace that is in Christ Jesus, he says in verse two, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Passing the Gospel Baton to Faithful Men

Second way we safeguard the gospel is by passing it on. We pass the gospel on to others. That's what Paul wants Timothy to do here. Timothy was being strongly tempted to defect from the faith, or at least maybe to abandon his ministry in Ephesus, maybe even sort of slack off on his evangelism and his teaching.

But Paul wants Timothy to see himself as a necessary link in the gospel chain. Timothy heard the word of God from his mother and his grandmother. We're told that in the first part of chapter one. But Paul certainly had made an important contribution, maybe even led him to Christ.

Twice he calls him my child. So it's probably Paul's way of communicating to him. It's a term of endearment, speaking of someone he has led to Jesus Christ. And since that investment had been made in Timothy, Timothy was obligated to pass on to others what he had learned from Paul himself.

Paul uses this same verb here. It's translated entrust or commit, and its noun form has already been used twice by Paul to refer to the treasure that Paul had entrusted to God to safe keep back in chapter one, but also of that which Paul had entrusted to God to keep his eternal destiny.

And he says back in verse 13, basically the same thing. What is he talking about here? He says the sound words which you have heard from me and here in in chapter two,.

Verse two,.

He talks about what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. Paul's talking about the content of the gospel, not just the gospel, but the context in which the gospel is preached and taught, and that is the entire word of God.

He certainly had spent a lot of time with Timothy. Timothy accompanied him on mission trips, and essentially they lived together. Paul would have had a tremendous input into his life, both doctrinally and just by how he lived his life as a Christian man.

And now it's time for Timothy to pass that on to others. It's a little bit of a mystery what he means by when he says in the presence of many witnesses, but basically Paul taught everything he taught publicly.

He preached a lot. He cast a lot of seed as it were, and we are to do the same thing. We're to throw a lot of seed out there. And of course, we know from the Gospels, it's going to land on various kinds of soils, but that's not our issue.

Our issue is to cast a lot of seed, to spread the gospel, to get it out there. But Paul, in publicly preaching, it wasn't some kind of a secret set of truths that he kept to himself and passed on to a secret group of people.

This is public and it can be tested. It's probably also since Paul is a Jew and he's also a very skillful Old Testament scholar, he's a Pharisee, so he would have been well grounded in the Old Testament, probably a reference to the Old Testament requirement for witnesses.

How many witnesses do you have to have? Two or three. That's even repeated in the New Testament. So it's probably a reference to Paul's public teaching, but also the fact that everything that he taught was clearly witnessed by a lot of people.

But that kind of teaching does not propagate the gospel like Paul is talking about here. What he's doing here, he's wanting Timothy to teach and preach a lot, but he's also saying, there's something else I want you to do.

You need to narrow this down and have a little more of a target ministry here. What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

He's to find a few faithful men, and by faithful, they are men who are faithful with the Word of God, that's the context, and men that have the ability to teach and pass it on. Paul's really concerned about the propagation of the gospel to the next generation.

There are four spiritual runners on this race course, if you will use that metaphor, of a relay race. The Apostle Paul, and then Timothy, and then faithful men, and then others. And Paul is wanting Timothy to make sure he passes on what Paul has passed on to him.

But there's a fifth person who's not listed here. We know that the risen Christ personally commissioned Paul at his conversion, recorded in Acts chapter 9. And in Galatians 1, starting in verse 11, Paul said this to the Galatian Christians.

I make known to you brothers that the gospel which I am proclaiming as good news is not according to man for I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it. But I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

When God, who had set me apart from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might proclaim him as good news among the Gentiles. I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.

But I went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus. Then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him 15 days. The Apostle Paul was personally discipled by Jesus Christ for three years, the same as the original band of disciples were personally discipled by Jesus Christ for three years.

Paul was an absolute, fully credentialed apostle of Jesus Christ. And he is running the second leg of this relay race. And he wants Timothy to pass on, as it were, the spiritual baton of the gospel to the next generation.

And that's what we are to do as well. Somebody gave you the gospel of Jesus Christ at some point in time. In his providential working, God made sure of that, did he not? In time, space, history. And thinking about this, I think it's kind of fascinating.

We all have sort of a spiritual family tree, do we not? You may know who led you to Christ. I don't know who led me to Christ or when I first heard it. But I know there were faithful men down through the centuries who passed on the gospel baton from generation to generation to generation.

In the providential working at God, it came to each one of us who knows Christ. And that's what Paul wants to make sure happens with Timothy. You may not be called to be a preacher or a teacher, but every single Christian is called to take part in the disciple making process, are we not?

There's always some part you can play in doing this. Our task is to pass the truth down to the next generation. We are to stay in our lane, play by the rules. You know, the runner can't, he can't jump the gun.

He's got to stay in his lane and he's got to pass the gospel baton on to the next runner who is to stay in his lane and do the very same thing. And it has to be two faithful men in this particular instance.

It doesn't do you any good to run a world-class blazing fast leg in your part of the race if you hand the baton off to somebody who doesn't know what to do with it,.

You know?

How's that going to work? Or if he drops the baton or if he gets out of his lane and doesn't know what to do. This is what Paul wants to do. Timothy was a faithful man, Paul was a faithful man, and this is what Paul wants Timothy to keep doing and thereby safeguard the gospel.

If there, by the way, there's something else we need to say here. In the church, there's no such thing as apostolic succession,.

Okay?

It does not exist in scripture or in the true church. We are not to pass on an office or a mantle passed on in some way to Apostles. There aren't any more Apostles with the death of the Apostle John. We are to pass on the truth and this is our apostolic doctrine that we are to pass on to the next generation and the next and the next.

If there was a continuation of the office of Apostle, this passage right here would have been the very place to talk about it,.

Right?

But Paul does not refer to Timothy as an apostle or that he's passing on an office. What he wants to him to pass on is the things you have heard from me. He's talking about the Word of God, the truth.

Suffering for the Gospel Like a Soldier, Athlete, and Farmer

So we safeguard the gospel of Jesus Christ by standing strong in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then we're equipped and energized and enabled by his gifting to do all the rest. Safeguard the gospel by passing it on to others and third we are to safeguard the gospel by suffering for it.

Now this might sound a little bit counterintuitive, but this is what's going on here. This is a major theme in the first chapter because Paul is suffering for his faith in Jesus Christ and the people that are not willing to suffer with him have bugged out.

They're gone. And so this is a necessary part of the gospel. Paul even says in his letter to the Philippians that it has been appointed unto you not only to believe in Christ but to suffer for his sake also.

Some people are real big on election, right? Talk about election and they talk about being God electing people to salvation. Well, that's good. But bear in mind if he elects you to salvation in that passage he also elects you to suffering.

You got your choice. You either suffer for the gospel of Jesus Christ in some way shape or form and it may not be exactly like the Apostle Paul or you will be ashamed of the gospel. Those are the two options that Paul is presenting here.

We safeguard the gospel by suffering for it. Back in 1 .8, that's part of his initial commands. Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord nor of me his prisoner but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

Again, it's still by the power of the Holy Spirit. And what Paul does here, he chooses three metaphors to illustrate what he means by sharing in suffering. Okay, a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. They're all right here.

And one little word of warning. We got to be a little bit careful now when you interpret these because what's happened oftentimes throughout history is people see these metaphors and they want to take every part of the metaphor, every part of being a soldier or an athlete or a farmer and you can't do that, okay?

We're going to see that Paul's very carefully selects just one aspect for each one of these. And in other words, you can't say, well, God calls us to be a soldier. So we need to go out and slaughter the enemy.

No, no, just take a deep breath there, General Patton. That's not what we're talking about. Paul very carefully selects out what he wants us to imitate and be like. We can't read into it more than what Paul is indicating here.

So what does he say here? The first metaphor is like a soldier, verses 3 and 4. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. And then he tells you what he means by that, okay? So he narrows it down to what aspect of being a soldier is he talking about?

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. He's talking about the single-minded focus, the mission focus of a soldier that is going to not get him entangled in all other manner of life's endeavors.

In 1 Timothy, and Paul really likes the idea of the soldier metaphor, 1 Timothy had told Timothy to wage the good warfare, okay? He actually uses both the verb and the noun form there. He says, war the good war, is what he says in 1 Timothy 1.

In his letter to Philemon, there was a man named Archippus who apparently was hosting a congregation in his own home. Paul calls him a fellow soldier. He did the same thing with Epaphroditus in his letter to the Philippian church.

He said he's a fellow soldier. And Paul elsewhere defines the warfare that we are to engage in. It's very important that we understand this. One passage, 2 Corinthians 10. He says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for our weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful.

There's another reference to the Holy Spirit, right? Divine power. Divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds. As we tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Even though Paul uses the the enemy's fortress as a stronghold, and you might very well visualize a great big stone castle. What he's talking about there is not a stone castle or any kind of a physical fortress.

He's talking about ideas, concepts, what we might call worldview. Because the weapons are powerful to tear that down. Speculations, every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Our warfare is fought with weapons of words, are they not? And our main weapon, of course, is the word of God. Again, in Ephesians chapter 6. We heard part of that in Sunday school class, but Paul here at the end of his letter to the Ephesians is talking about weapons, but he's also talking about defensive armor.

He says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of his strength. OK, again, a reference to being strong, being strengthened. That's only done through the power of the Holy Spirit. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm, stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you are able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

There's our offensive weapon, praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the spirit and to this end, being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, as well as on my behalf, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains so that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

This is a man writing this from prison, from in his first imprisonment. What does he ask? Get me out of here? No, I just want boldness to preach the word of God. That's what Paul prayed for. It all has to do with the the offensive weapon of the gospel.

Paul's main concern is not that he would get out of prison soon, but that he would be able to boldly proclaim the word of God. And what reward comes with this? With the soldier who is obedient to this command, that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

There's the characteristic of a soldier. Single-mindedness, not distracted, not entangled by the issues of the world, and looking forward to the reward he gets by pleasing the one who enlisted him. Every believer in Jesus Christ has been enlisted by Christ to serve in a spiritual war and to keep a single-minded focus on our spiritual duties and a single-minded focus on pleasing our Savior.

Second metaphor he uses is that of the athlete. Verse 5. He says an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Pretty simple, really. According to historians, to compete in the ancient Olympic Games, all athletes had to complete a 10-month training program.

And then they had to sign and swear to that they actually completed that program before they were allowed to compete in the Games. And they had to compete in the Games according to the rules. The relay runner has to stay in his lane.

He can't jump the gun. He's got to play by the rules. And it's true of any sport you participate in. And this is how Paul is using this. It's not every aspect about being an athlete. You don't want to go there.

Ancient athletes competed in these Games in the nude, okay? So he's not trying to apply everything there. That might get the ratings up, but that's not what we're about. So again, it's a pretty simple illustration.

Play by the rules and win the prize. And the prize for that ancient athlete was a laurel wreath. A laurel wreath that was placed on his head. Brought him glory for a short period of time. But as we know elsewhere from Scripture, those laurel wreaths that they gave they faded, they wilted.

And before long, they were worthless. But the crown that we get is an eternal crown. Our rewards that we're told in Scripture are not rewards that fade away or they're subject to corruption. They will be with us in eternity.

So, this second metaphor is an athlete. An athlete who competes according to the rules and looks forward to being crowned. And the third metaphor he uses, the farmer in verse 6. Or the husbandman. Often in Scripture, it's called the husbandman.

And by the way, a husband, that's where the word husband comes for. A husband is supposed to be somebody who cultivates spiritual things within his family. That's why he's called a husband because he's supposed to be a husbandman.

That's where that comes from. But he says in verse 6, it is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Farming is tough work. It's tough work now and it was really tough work back there in the first century when Paul wrote this.

And he just simply focuses in on this single aspect of farming and the main requirement of the farmer is to be a hard worker. Again, pretty simple. Not a whole lot to it. Work hard at the spiritual life and the ministry that God has given you and the reward is there as well.