Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee; The Transfer of the Relics of the Great-Martyr Ignatius the God-bearer (of Antioch).
2 Timothy 3:10-15; Luke 18:10-14.
Read 2 Timothy 3:10-15
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
In today’s reading St. Paul is fortifying Timothy by, as they say, managing expectations. When he writes, “Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” the key word is “all”.
How could it be otherwise? Humans are directional beings. If you have a pulse and are human you are moving in a direction, even if you have long forgotten, denied, or repressed what reactions and decisions committed you to that course. We must deal with others who are pursuing very different ends. Sometimes it is ourself, pursuing conflicting ends, that we must deal with.
In the preceding verses, Paul provides a list of the life direction of some we encounter: “lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it.” He offers the example of his response: “my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings.”
Embedded in Paul’s confidence that, “they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all,” is the reality that their folly will often be made evident through our response to their persecution of us. That raises the question, are we committed to the way of life that includes as its goal living in such a way that, “evil men and impostors…go(ing) on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived,” may come to salvation through us?
To that end Paul concludes that we should follow such examples as his and be, “acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”