Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Timothy 1-4.

Paul begins this letter to Timothy by encouraging him(and us) to not be ashamed of the gospel nor of his fellow believers who were imprisoned and/or otherwise suffering for the gospel, because Christ has saved us and called us to a holy life.  Christ did this for His own purposes, not because of anything we have done (Paul includes himself along with us among those who did nothing to obtain salvation).  Paul goes on to warn us against quarrelling and godless chatter.  He tells us that we should not be quarrelsome, instead we must be kind to everyone and not resentful.  We must gently instruct those who disagree with us, hoping that God will grant them repentance and lead them to understanding the truth.  Otherwise, they will remain captive to the devil to do his will (instead of God’s).

I was not originally going to go here, but in the middle of that Paul mentioned that a large house has articles made of gold and silver, and other articles made of wood and clay.  The former being made used for special purposes and the latter being used for common purposes.  This resembles what he wrote in  1 Corinthians 3, where he wrote that if we built on the foundation of Jesus using good materials what we built would last, but if we used poor materials what we built would be burned up.  In either case, we would be saved.  Here he seems to suggest that those who fully follow his instructions abut living a holy life will be given glory in God’s kingdom, while those who do not will serve in more menial roles, but both will still spend eternity in God’s House (as long as they built on the foundation of Jesus, to mix his metaphors).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.