Aim High

Aim High

2 Timothy 2:22-26Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. 

In 2 Timothy, Paul emphasized the life of the man or woman who decided to follow Jesus for real.  He wrote hoping to encourage Timothy to keep following, despite hardships and setbacks that may come.

It all begins by aiming high.  It begins by leaving behind sinful desires and motives, pursuing godly attitudes, and being upright in character.  If you set these in your heart, you will be able to follow Jesus for years to come, like Paul and Timothy before you.
FLEE…

1. Evil Desires“Flee the evil desires of youth…” – 2 Timothy 2:22a

• Paul told Timothy that in order to follow Jesus, he would have to flee the evil desires of youth.
• What might some of these “evil desires of youth” be?
• One of the biggest “evil desires of youth” you need to guard against is lust that can show up in fornication, pornography, and bad relationships.  Proverbs 7:7-27 talks about how dangerous it is to play around with sexual sin.
• 1 Corinthians 6:18 says that sexual sin is more dangerous than other sins, because you sin against yourself.
• We also have to guard against idolatry, whether it be making idols out of celebrities, clothes, money, school, or anything else (1 Corinthians 10:14).
• God has called us to run away from all evil desires and no longer be enslaved to sin (Romans 6:6-7).  See also Romans 6:11-12.

2. Arguments“Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” – 2 Timothy 2:23

• Besides fleeing evil desires, Paul told Timothy to make sure he didn’t get involved with “stupid arguments.”
• What sorts of “stupid arguments” have you heard recently, maybe even from your own mouth?
• Paul told Titus the same advice he gave Timothy – “avoid foolish… arguments and quarrels about the law” (Titus 3:9).
• It’s easy to get sucked into stupid arguments.  Even Jesus’ disciples did it (Luke 9:46).  And so did John’s disciples (John 3:25).
• Rather than getting sucked into “stupid arguments,” Paul said it’s our job to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5).  State the truth, but don’t get sucked into arguments about useless things.
• Proverbs 29:8 says that a wise man can turn away anger during an argument.

PURSUE…

“…pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” – 2 Timothy 2:22b 

1. Righteousness“I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.” – Job 29:14

• Not only does following Jesus mean that you have to flee certain things, but it also means that you need to pursue the things of God.
• Job said that he put on righteousness as clothing.
• What do you think it means that Job’s clothing was righteousness?
• What does it mean to be righteous?
• According to Psalm 5:8, being righteous means that you follow God’s ways.  John said that it means you do righteousness (1 John 3:7).
• When you pursue righteousness, God watches over you (Psalm 1:6), exalts you (Job 36:7), and blesses you (Psalm 5:12).
• Without righteousness, you will not see heaven (Matthew 5:20).  That is why it’s such an awesome thing that Jesus is our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30).

2. Faith“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1

• Besides pursuing righteousness, following Jesus means you pursue faith.
• What do you think it means to pursue faith in God?
• Faith means that you are “sure of what [you] hope for.”  It means you believe God even when it seems like He won’t come through for you.
• When we have faith in God, we are made righteous (Romans 1:17), we can do miracles even greater than Jesus (John 14:12, Matthew 21:21), we can see God move in our lives (Matthew 13:58), and we can be healed (Matthew 9:22, 29).

3. Love“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:13

• Paul told the Corinthian Christians that three things would last forever – faith, hope, and love.  Yet he said the greatest of these three was love.
• Why do you think Paul said that love was greater even than faith and hope? 
• How does it last forever?
• Jesus summed up our responsibility to love by saying that the whole law can be wrapped up in loving God and loving other people (Luke 10:27).
• In Luke 6:27-36, Jesus taught that our responsibility to love others even extends to our enemies and those who aren’t easy to love.
• It also means we need to love our fellow Christian brothers and sisters (John 13:34).
• We need to live our whole lives in love (Ephesians 5:2).

4. Peace“The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” – Romans 8:6

• If you are born again and filled with God’s Spirit, then your mind will be controlled by life and peace.
• Having peace doesn’t come easy, but it’s essential to seek it (Psalm 34:14).
• Jesus called us to be at peace with each other (Mark 9:50) and make peace in the world (Matthew 5:9, Romans 12:18).
• God himself is a called a “God of peace” by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:33.

Aim high and have a great day

John

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