2 Timothy 2:1-9
2 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 3 Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. 5 Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. 7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.
An old saying about mentoring and apprenticeships goes something like this: “I do, you watch; I do, you help; You do, I help; You do, I watch.”
When I started my journey in the electrical field 18 years ago, it started as a humble apprentice. During the four years of my apprenticeship I was doing everything I could to learn from the Journey Electrician that I was assign to and I was reading the electrical code book religiously because I wanted to be the best electrician that I could be, my journeyman was not only my teacher, but through the years he became my mentor, and friend, as we spend many years strengthening our relationship as teacher and apprentice, and I can say I that at the end of the day I am thankful for everything that he taught me, because not only did he teach me how to be an electrician, he game the tools that to succeed, once I became a journeyman electrician and I would be on my new journey teaching others to become electricians. The same Jesus trained his disciples in a way like this, and they passed along to others what they learned from him. An apprentice commits to learning from a master and then becomes experienced and able to teach others.
Paul urges Timothy to remember his training and to pass it along to reliable people who can teach others. By his grace, God wants to be in relationship with us in Christ, to fill us with his Holy Spirit, and to show us how to live fully so that we share all this with others. God wants us to be his apprentices. One final question remains:
“Will we let the master teach us?”
Dear father let us be taught by you, may you guide us in our journey, may you be the master of our lives, for us to learn from your Holy Spirit, so that when the day comes that we are ready to teach others we are obedient to teach the full counsel of God that has been taught to us. For you to Father to be the journeyman of our lives, and for us to be taught by you as apprentices. Amen.
Pastor Luis.