PAUL

(2 Timothy 3 v 10)

i

The Romans

He taught

Christ as Mercy-seat and Deliverer:

The Spirit as power to walk with God.

The Corinthians

He taught

Jesus Christ and Him crucified,

And the order of the church, His body.

The Galatians

He taught

The Son of God, sonship,

And liberty by the Spirit.

The Ephesians

He taught

Their place in the purposes of God,

And the Man who, in God’s will, heads all.

The Philippians

He taught

The descending mind of Christ

And his own mind to pursue.

The Colossians

He taught

The glory of the Son of God’s love

And the virtue of the Head.

The Thessalonians

He taught

The hope of the believer

And how to live while waiting.

But Timotheus saw conduct that suited

The teaching: a man sensitive to the guide

Of the Spirit of Jesus, probing patiently

To ascertain God’s way – yet urgent

On a straight course once guided; humbly

Settling with praying women, joining

What God had begun; abiding where God

Opened a heart and door; yet ruthless

Against Satan’s pretences; joyful in prayer

And praise though severely beaten; ready,

As in the spirit of Jesus, to pour a blessing

On the man who had beaten him; and to join

In the joy of the house, fresh in baptism

At the jailor’s table; returning quickly to

The brethren to exhort them: triumph and disaster

Equal blasts to enliven his fire.

ii

I envisage Timothy

With an affectionate smile

As he read Paul’s guidance to

Be cutting in a straight line…

The man from the street called Straight

With his tenacious purpose

Had carried the Lord’s standard

Into many a province –

To espouse saints to one Man

As a chaste virgin to Christ;

Admonishing every man,

With the desire to present

Every man perfect in Christ;

And for himself to know Christ,

Power of His resurrection,

Fellowship of His sufferings.

Faith girded purpose:

He moved in his straight course since

He lived by faith of

The Son of God who loved him,

And who gave Himself for him.

The breastplate of faith

Protected his invasions

Of Satan’s kingdoms –

His way guided through Europe

Philippi was his beachhead.

His pathway ending

Strengthened by God he could say,

I have kept the faith,

I have completed the race,

And I have fought the good fight.

iii

What long-suffering God had shown

With him! As he kicked against

One goad God set another- although

Saints suffered and truth was blasphemed.

So as one to whom long-suffering

Had been shown he patiently knocked

On Jewish doors, as they shut them

In his face – even his turning to the nations

Was to provoke them to jealousy. And saints,

Saw too the long-suffering of the man

Whose hands worked for them; and if

Corinthians were recalcitrant, Galatians legal,

Or Colossians philosophical he worked quietly,

Not irked by the need to repeat his teachings,

Not complaining if compelled to travail again – by

His Lord’s methods seeking his Lord’s glory.

As a sinner to whom

Mercy was shown

He loved the Saviour.

As a son, chosen

In the Beloved,

He loved the Father.

As a mother

Travailing in birth

He loved the Galatians.

As a nurse

With her own children

He loved the Thessalonians.

As a father

In the truth

He loved his children in faith.

As a brother,

Spent for them,

He loved the brethren.

As an apostle,

Selected by the Lord,

He loved the truth.

iv

Winds lamming the sapling,

Hail like slingshot,

The frost imposing its grasp on the soil,

Survivors flourish;

Tribulation works endurance.

Roots strengthened, trunk resilient,

The tree grows, drinking

Sun, air and water,

Fresh weathers and seasons;

Endurance works experience.

Greenness fringes the tree,

Blossoms pink or white out,

Life fruits and seeds;

Experience works hope.

v

Hard to disentangle persecutions and sufferings

In Paul’s account: in labours exceedingly

Abundant, in stripes to excess, in prisons

Exceedingly abundant, in deaths oft. From the Jews

Five times he received forty stripes, save one.

Thrice he was scourged, once stoned, three times

Have suffered shipwreck; a night and day

He passed in the deep: in journeyings often,

In perils of rivers, in perils of robbers,

In perils from the Jews, in perils from the nations,

In perils in the city, in perils in the desert,

In perils on the sea, in perils among false brethren;

In labour and toil, in watchings often,

In hunger and thirst, in fastings often,

In cold and nakedness. Thus he conquered

And more than conquer through Him that had

Loved him – who had first showed him

How much he must suffer for His name.

And in all things the Spirit of Christ beamed:

Railed at, he blessed; persecuted, he suffered it;

Every way afflicted, but not straitened;

Seeing no apparent issue, but his way not

Entirely shut up; conscious that if he was

Persecuted he was not abandoned; knowing

He was persecuted because of the cross of Christ.

For who desired like Paul to live piously

In Christ Jesus? Blessed they who are persecuted

For righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens!

But there was other suffering too – the mark,

Rather than fighting, of a good soldier. If he

Was in tribulation, it was for the encouragement

And salvation for the saints; rejoicing in sufferings

For them, filling up that which is behind of the tribulations

Of Christ in his flesh, for His body, which is the assembly;

Ready to again travail in birth for his children

Until Christ shall have been formed in them.

And for himself he learned, “And he said to me,

My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected

In weakness”. While he reckoned that the sufferings

Of this present time are not worthy to be compared

With the coming glory to be revealed to us.