A Men’s Ministry Men Want to Know (Part 5) – A Passage for Getting There

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Previous posts in this series have been incorporated into Part 2 of my online article, “A Comprehensive Church-Based Ministry to Men.”

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We have seen how Isaiah 1:17-18 describes what our local church men’s ministry protocol should be, the protocol we are to follow in a dying and desperate culture: “plead the cause of the widow.”

But note that Isaiah 1:17-18 also tells us that our protocol does not come naturally. Instead, it must be learned: “Learn to do good.” But how do we learn to do this good? How do we learn it so well that it becomes natural and spontaneous for us? In short, when it comes to “pleading the cause of widows” and others with long term pressing needs, how do we men get there?

2 Timothy 3:12-17 – A passage for getting there

I believe 2 Timothy 3:12-17 is an excellent foundational passage for all local church men’s ministries. The reason is because it succinctly describes the process by which God takes a sinful man who is helplessly immersed in a decadent culture, and transforms him into a child of God and a citizen of heaven who is capable of doing immense good for everyone around him.

Here is the passage in its entirety:

“Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:12-17

Now let’s look at this passage phrase by phrase and observe how God helps us get to the point where we are “equipped for every good work.”

We get there by accepting the reality that we will be persecuted

“Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…”

When I was a young teen just starting out on my spiritual journey, I thought that if I could simply be a nice Christian guy and keep my head down, then I would sail through life.

Boy was I wrong.

In high school, I made the mistake of carrying my Bible on top of my text books. When my atheist physics teacher saw it, he reamed me out in front of the entire class. Then in college, someone spat on me and threw books at me when he saw me witnessing to fellow students. Also in college, a feminist professor who hated men, really hated Christian men, and really, really hated Christian men who were going into the ministry, verbally savaged me, again in front of my entire class.

In graduate school, I lived in a poor white neighborhood in order to afford housing and was threatened at gunpoint three different times by three different people.

While on a mission trip in Haiti, a rock-throwing mob attacked our group. One of their rocks hit me in the head.

And in one of my pastorates, someone in town became so unhinged at me because of my faith that I felt the need to take out additional life insurance.

All this to say that when Paul wrote “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” he meant it. Notice in this passage that Satan does not wait to attack us until we actually start living a godly life. He attacks us when we simply want to live a godly life. Becoming a godly man may cost us a friend, a life savings, a promotion, a home, a college degree, a reputation, even our life. We can’t tell in advance what the cost will be to follow our Lord, but it will always cost us something that we hold dear.

So know from the start that the process of becoming a godly man and doing the good God commands us to do is not an easy row to hoe and it can quickly lead to discouragement.

In my first pastorate, I invited one of my former seminary professors to come and preach in my church. After church, my wife and I took him out to lunch, during which I began complaining about all the problems I was running into.

As he listened to my lament droning on and on, he finally looked me straight in the eye and said, “Herb, no one said this would be easy.”

He was right. We cannot say that no one warned us. Following the Lord in this fallen world can be tough. There is a high price to pay.

But it is so worth it. And knowing that it is worth it makes it possible to endure whatever persecution comes our way. And it most certainly will.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:2)

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:6-9)

We get there by accepting the fact that the world is going to do what the world is going to do

“…while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

I want to make something clear. There never has been a “Christian nation.” And there never will be a “Christian nation” until Jesus Christ returns to earth and establishes his kingdom “in the regeneration” during the Millennium. At that time, we resurrected or raptured believers will rule with Jesus as he reigns.

“Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:27-29)

On the other hand, while there are no Christian nations today in the strict sense, there are many nations that have been influenced by Christians and by Christian thought to various degrees. America is one of those nations. One simple example of how Christianity has influenced America, and Western civilization as a whole, is our high concept of the individual as a person.

The emphasis that we place on personhood in our culture derives originally from the debate over the Trinity: “God in three persons.” The trinitarian debate centered on what makes a person a person, what are the characteristics of God, and whether Scripture’s descriptions of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit fulfill these criteria.

The councils of Nicea, Constantinople, and Ephesus concluded that a person is someone who has intellect, emotion, and will and since Scripture portrays the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as having all three of these qualities, therefore all three are persons. And since Scripture demonstrates that all three also have all of the characteristics of God (omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, accepting of worship, etc.), they are, therefore, coequally God: one God, three persons.

Concepts like this have permeated Western civilization for almost two millennia. The problem, however, is that Christianity is losing its influence – its saltiness – in our culture, resulting in a gradual, and sometimes not so gradual, rejection of the Christian worldview and the concomitant conclusions that go with it. As a result, we are witnessing an increasing coarsening of our culture; “evil doers and impostors” really are going from bad to worse.

The fading influence in our culture of one Christian concept in particular is playing an oversized role in our society’s decline: the loss of the fear of God.

In the Christian worldview, people are immortal souls who continue to exist forever after death. As such, we will all stand before a personal and holy God and give an account of what we have done in this world. Those who reject Jesus Christ, God’s provision for our sin, will face an eternity in hell.

But the ascendant secular view is quite different. In this view, all that exists is matter and energy. People are simply glorified animals. At death, we cease to exist. There is no God to whom we are accountable for our actions. Therefore, there is no need to fear God.

But there is one problem with having no fear of God, a problem that our culture cannot seem to solve: the rise of mass shootings. If one is despondent and concludes that life has no meaning, why not go out with a literal bang? Why not try to kill as many innocent people as possible before you kill yourself? You will cease to exist, but at least your name will live on in ignominy as it is broadcast throughout the country on countless media outlets. And so we have mass shooting after mass shooting after mass shooting.

What, then, are we Christians to do? How are we to respond when things in our culture go “from bad to worse?” Should we call for a dictator to impose Christian values on our culture by force, as has happened in Russia? Should we form a Christian militia and fight for our values, as has happened in Syria? Should we try to legislate our morality and use every means possible, even illegal means, to get our way?

The Bible says no, we should not do any of these things. In fact, doing so would be contrary to the Great Commission. Instead, we are to do something much more subversive and much more effective: we are to simply carry on as believers and put into practice the things we know to be true.

In others words, we are to regain our saltiness.

We get there by not being distracted by what the world is doing, and instead accelerating on through with full conviction

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of…”

My wife’s high school football coach was also her driving instructor. She and her fellow driver training students had a tendency to slow down too much at intersections. When that happened, the coach would say, “Accelerate on through.” So now, when one of us drives too slowly, the other says, “Accelerate on through!”

It is so easy for us believers to get distracted by the “culture wars” raging in America and to allow ourselves to be coopted by someone who has an agenda that doesn’t square with God’s word and God’s will for our lives. Often that agenda flows out of whatever TV programming we are watching.

It takes conscious effort to measure everything we hear on the radio, see on TV, and read online by what we have “learned and become convinced of” in the Word of God. That is, to “accelerate on through” all of the cultural static and recapture the truth in God’s Word.

The phrase “become convinced of” is significant. Timothy had direct access to eyewitnesses of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the writer of this letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul himself, was a personal witness of the resurrected Christ. Timothy had no reason to doubt, and every reason to believe, that the events recorded in the Gospels and in Acts actually happened.

When I graduated from high school, my applications were accepted by both a Christian college and by a secular university. Since I had been relatively well trained in my faith and in the Bible as I grew up in church, I felt ready to go to a secular university. I believed I should be able to defend my faith in the secular marketplace of ideas.

It was a good decision. Those four years at UCLA were some of the most spiritually rewarding years of my life. I’ll never forget one conversation I had with my professor in a class on ancient Near Eastern history. He was a captivating lecturer, a Rhodes scholar, and a graduate of Cambridge and Harvard. We got onto the subject of the resurrection of Jesus Christ one day and he made this comment: “You know, Herb, the evidence for the resurrection is actually pretty good.”

I almost fell off my chair when he said that.

Timothy could look at the evidence for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and come to an affirmative decision on his own. We can do the same and base our life on it without fear or failure. With that kind of conviction, we can “accelerate on through” all of the cultural distractions around us and accomplish the good work God saved us to do.

We get there by following the examples of our mentors who have taught us the Word and who have practiced the Word

“…because you know those from whom you learned it…”

We believers stand on the shoulders of spiritual giants. The writer to the Hebrews listed many of these spiritual giants in chapter 11, and then in chapter 12, he concluded:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1,2)

We are in a relay race and we are not running this relay race alone. We are running it along with millions and millions of fellow believers. Each one of us have had the baton of truth passed on to us by our  parents, fellow believers, pastors, missionaries, mentors, teachers, professors, whoever it was that taught us this truth. All of us who run this race are doing so because millions of believers before us have faithfully run their race.

Because we have seen our “influencers” successfully run their race, we know we can successfully run ours too, as we shed the things that hinder us and focus our attention on Jesus.

We get there by knowing the Word, which is holy

“ …and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures…”

Here is a simple truth: we cannot do the good God saved us to do if we do not know the Word of God.

The Bible begins by repeating this phrase over and over again: “And God said… And it was so. And God saw that it was good.” God is a God who speaks. Then he does what he says, and the result of what he does is good. Thus, God’s self-revelation and God’s goodness go hand in hand. In the same way, a man of God is a man who, like God himself, does what he says. And what he does is good too.

The fact that God has spoken in creation and that knowing it reveals God’s goodness offers us another example of how Christianity has influenced Western civilization. It was this conviction that the universe has been created by a rational God who spoke it into existence by his word that formed the foundation for modern Western science, which describes the world around us in terms of layers upon layers of intricate, rational information that can be understood by the human mind.

It is normal and natural, then, for Christians to believe that this God who speaks to us in creation can and has spoken verbally to us in human history through his prophets and apostles in what we now have as the Bible, and that this book shows us the way to do good. No other book in the world is like it because it is holy and good and it self-attests to these facts as we read it.

Therefore, if we are to do the good God has saved us to do, we must know the Word of God well.

We get there by knowing the Word because it tells us how to be saved

“…which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus…”

Let’s be clear. Everyone at some time in their life attempts to do good works. In fact, most all religions emphasize good works. But the kind of good works God has prepared for us to do are unique to God himself and require us to be reconciled to him through faith in Christ Jesus. These good works require us to have a new heart, that is, to be “born again.” They require us to walk in the fulness of the Spirit. They require us to be aware of God’s word and God’s will.

None of this is possible if we have not been saved from God’s wrath for our sin.

So, let me ask you right now, are you saved? Have you put your trust in God’s provision for your sin, Jesus Christ? When Jesus died on the cross, he bore our sin and paid its price by taking our place. Now God’s promise to us is simply this: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” (Acts 16:31)

We get there by knowing the Word because it is God-breathed

“All Scripture is God-breathed…”

The Word is trustworthy because of where it came from: God himself. The vocabulary Paul uses here is very personal. Our Bible came from God “breathing it out” from his lungs, so to speak, into the minds of those who wrote it down.

Peter describes biblical inspiration this way:

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21)

The biblical writers were “carried along by the Holy Spirit.” They wrote in their own style, but what they wrote were the very words of God.

Therefore, since all Scripture has been God-breathed, or inspired by God, it is inerrant in the original manuscripts and completely trustworthy for faith and practice, which includes the practice of good works.

We get there by knowing the Word because it is useful for teaching doctrine

“…and is useful for teaching…”

The word “teaching” in the Greek text is a noun, not a verb. If it were a verb, this phrase would mean, “useful for the process of teaching.” But since it is a noun, it means, “useful for acquiring a body of knowledge,” which is why many translations translate “teaching” as “doctrine.” Paul is saying that the Bible is useful for developing an accurate body of knowledge about God and God’s acts in history, about heaven, about the fall, about the state of mankind, about how we can be saved, about heaven, about future events, and about many other things relating to spiritual reality and right living. In other words, the Bible is useful for learning sound doctrine.

Without a knowledge of biblically sound doctrine, that is, doctrine that accurately reflects what the Bible says, we cannot accomplish the good work God saved us to do. We will inevitably go off course and descend into things like legalism, licentiousness, old wives tales, endless genealogies, and disputes about the law. In modern parlance, some believers today have gotten caught up in conspiracy theories and other rumors they read online and it distracts them from remembering and implementing the pure doctrine we have learned from the Bible.

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

In Acts 20 the Apostle Paul warned the Ephesian elders:

“I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:29-31)

In Hebrews 2, the writer to the Hebrews warns his readers in a similar fashion:

“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:1-3)

Ignoring our Bible-based doctrine, distorting our doctrine, and drifting away from our doctrine are serious sins. Consequently, we must avoid being deceived regarding our doctrine, avoid distorting our doctrine, and avoid gradually drifting away from our doctrine. Why? Because our own salvation and the salvation of those who hear us depends on us being faithful to sound biblical doctrine.

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16)

We get there by knowing the Word because it rebukes us if we fall into serious sin, and it teaches us how to give rebuke to others and how to accept rebuke from others

“…and is useful for… rebuking…”

One morning in my first pastorate I woke up and the first thing that came to my mind was the following thought: “People are not fearing God.” The thought kept repeating over and over, “People are not fearing God.” I got up and sat on the edge of my bed and the thought continued, “People are not fearing God.”

As I commenced my daily routine the thought gradually left me until the following event that evening.

My wife and I were returning home after dinner when we passed the apartment building of two members of our church. On the spur of the moment I suggested to Patti that we stop by and pay them a visit.

When we knocked on their door, they answered and invited us in. After several minutes of polite conversation with the husband and wife and their two small girls, the husband turned to me and said bluntly, “I need to tell you something. My wife and I have decided that we are going to make it our primary goal in life to become millionaires. So we will not be coming back to church.”

Suddenly, the thought that had been running through my mind that morning came flooding back, “People are not fearing God.”

I looked at him and said in a stern voice, “You are not fearing God! It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”

But he was obstinate and refused to repent of what he had said, so we left with heavy hearts.

A few weeks later Patti and I heard that one of their daughters had been diagnosed with a terminal disease. Now, just because this happened soon after this couple apostatized does not automatically mean that her diagnosis was God’s judgment on them. There were all kinds of reasons why this may have happened to their daughter. But when I visited the girl and her parents in the hospital, it was obvious that the father viewed his daughter’s diagnosis as a judgment on him and his wife because he could not look me in the eye. He just stared down at the floor the entire time we talked.

Rebuking is necessary when a believer knowingly and willfully does or says something that is sinful and spiritually harmful to themselves and to others and brings disrepute on the church and on God.

We get there by knowing the Word so that it can restore us when we have sinned

“…and is useful for… correcting…”

The Bible is not only useful for reproving us when we have sinned, but also for restoring us in our walk with the Lord when we have sinned. Many versions translate the Greek word επανορθωσιν (epanorthosin) by “correcting.” But the word comes from a verb meaning “to restore,” as in to restore a relationship that has been broken.

A biblical example of someone asking for restoration with God is Psalm 51, where David seeks restoration with after his sin with Bathsheba.

In the New Testament, a beautiful example of how we can be restored to full fellowship with God after we sin is 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

We get there by knowing the Word because it helps us develop a clear view of the way things are in heaven and the way things should be on earth

“and is useful for… training in righteousness…”

I live in a suburb of Denver, Colorado. When people think of Denver, they think of mountains and pine forests. Actually, Denver is on a flat plain at the base of the Rockies and has a semi-arid climate. Often, the humidity is so low that when it rains, it evaporates before it hits the ground. We call this type of rain virga. It looks like a black curtain dangling in mid air under the rainclouds.

Heaven is a righteous place. One day God will establish righteousness on earth, as we know from the Lord’s prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

But like Denver’s virga rain, heaven’s righteousness can’t reach the hearts of sinful people on earth. At least, not until they are made righteous through faith in God’s son, Jesus Christ. When that happens, suddenly a whole new heavenly world opens up, a righteous world that seeks to implement righteousness in the life of the new believer.

Unfortunately, we believers can lose sight of our heavenly destiny and fail to implement righteousness in our daily relationships. For that reason, the Bible gives us a lot of information about heaven. We even know what Jesus looks like in heaven! (Revelation 1:12-16) Then the Bible exhorts us to keep our minds and hearts focused on heaven and implement heaven’s righteousness in our daily relationships; that is, to bring heaven down to earth.

Listen to how Paul exhorts his readers to focus on heaven in Colossians 3:1-4:

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

So heaven is our destiny and we are to “set our hearts on things above.” Paul goes on to explain what should happen as a result of our new focus on heaven in 3:5-11. First he starts with the negative, which is the sinful behavior of this world:

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

Then Paul goes on to describe what the positive results should be in 3:12-17, which is the righteousness of heaven as we express it on earth:

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Wow! What a contrast. As we learn the Word of God and develop a clear picture of what heaven is like, we can actually create a piece of heaven here on earth as we go about our daily lives and as we worship with fellow believers. That is what it means to use the Bible for training in righteousness.

We have gotten there when, as God’s servants, we are able to accomplish every good work that God brings our way

“ …so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

The goal of all of this hard work is a “servant of God” who is “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” That is, the goal of all men’s ministry is to produce men of God who do the good work God saved them to do.

“Learn to do good,” God exhorted Judah in Isaiah 1:17. We noted that doing the good God wants us to do does not come naturally. It has to be learned. This learning process is, according to 2 Timothy 3:12-17, very strenuous. Note all the obstacles to doing the good God saved us to do that we have seen in this passage:

• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we allow persecution to deter us.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we get discouraged because of the world’s increasing sin.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we get sidetracked into thinking we must confront the world in its sin.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we ignore the examples of our mentors.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we are ignorant of the Word of God.
• We cannot do the good work of God if in fact we are not actually saved.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we do not honor the Word of God as inspired and accept it as authoritative.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we do not hold to sound doctrine.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we are unwilling to accept rebuke.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we have not been restored to full fellowship with God after serious sin.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we are ignorant of heaven’s righteousness and do not maintain a heavenly focus.
• We cannot do the good work God saved us to do if we think good works are not the culmination of the Christian life.

Given the obstacles we Christian men face, it is a wonder that we do any good work for the kingdom at all. Thankfully, it is God himself who does the work in and through us.

” I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

In my future posts, there are several key concepts relating to men’s ministry in this passage that I want to develop further, especially the concept of good works.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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