It’s Relationships, Not Programs
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 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. —2 Timothy 2:1-2
Though it is not the last of Paul’s letters in our Bibles, 2 Timothy is the last letter the apostle wrote. He wrote it during his second incarceration in Rome, knowing that this incarceration would end with his execution.
Timothy was a young pastor in the church in Ephesus. He was a protégé of Paul, a spiritual son. We could say that they had a mentor-mentee relationship. In this letter we have Paul’s final thoughts to a young man who was especially important to him.
In the second chapter of the letter Paul points Timothy to the source of strength for his life. He does not tell Timothy to look within himself. He does not tell Timothy what so many people say, something like, “We all have a source of strength deep within us. Reach down and tap into it. You will find it. Then you will have the strength to get you through.” Rather, Paul points Timothy outside of himself to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (verse 1).
When we try to live life by looking inside ourselves for strength, we are setting ourselves up for a fall. We don’t have what it takes. Paul says, Timothy, look to Jesus and his grace for your strength. It is in relationship with Jesus, and in dependence on him, that we grow strong. First and foremost, seek Jesus. Use all the means that he provides—prayer, the word, sacraments, fellowship with other believers—to encourage your growth with Jesus. Know that strength must come from him.
Next, he encourages Timothy to invest in other people. In the same way that Paul invested in him Timothy needed to invest in others. “What you have heard from me, Timothy, entrust those things to faithful men,” (verse 2).
MINTS Seminary-in-Prison and Metanoia Prison Ministries are good programs. They are valued by prison officials. I met with a prison chaplain yesterday who told stories yesterday of men in these programs who are being transformed. But it’s not the program that changes lives. It’s person man investing the gospel and his life into another person that brings about lasting change.
In his book The Second Mountain, David Brooks quoted a friend who said, “I’ve never seen a program turn around lives. Only relationships turn around lives.”
Also, yesterday I was privileged to spend some time with a man who has spent the last seven years as a student in Seminary-in-Prison and in the Metanoia Correspondence Ministry. He is currently in a work release facility in South Florida and will be released from prison in November.
He entered prison as a drug addicted criminal who thought his only escape from of the mess he’d made of his life was to die. He will leave prison a redeemed child of God, clean and sober, educated and equipped for ministry. He plans on a post-prison career in a Christ-centered recovery program. He told me he wants to give to others what was given to him. And what was that that he was given?
The Gospel of Christ from people who held on to him and refused, even when he was at his lowest, to let him go.
That is a real life, in the flesh, example of the way 2 Timothy 2:2 is supposed to work.
Being strengthened by the gospel of Christ, and entrusted with biblical teaching, to now sharing those thing s with others.
That’s powerful. That changes lives and families and communities. That’s what happened when we invest time, talent, and treasure in ministries like MINTS Seminary-in-Prison and Metanoia Prison Ministries.
Much love, Barry
I’d love to know what you think.