7Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 8Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel . . .
Discipleship involves conveying the master’s teaching to the student. The former gives the instruction; the latter interacts with and internalizes it. Paul challenges Timothy, “Consider what I say.” That is the human pattern of passing on the Word of God from one believer to the next. This, as we have said before, is the prototype for ensuring the propagation of Christian truth from one generation to another.
Notice the crucial phrase, “for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” This points to divine guidance. Elsewhere in Scripture, God assures us the fidelity of the wording of Scripture. But here, we are assured of His involvement in the understanding of the message. God will make sure the message will be heard and understood. Theologians call this the “divine illumination” that God provides to every Christian.
Paul reinforces what he said in the previous verse; the message is contained in what he taught. The apostle is very clear about the nature and importance of his teaching. As an apostle, he speaks with authorization from God. This is foundational to the Christian message and forms the bedrock, along with other apostolic teachings and writings, for our New Testament. Even the apostle Peter places Paul’s writings on the same level as other inspired Scripture (2 Peter 3:16).
The central core of Paul’s message is the person of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. In his earlier letter to the Corinthians, Paul spoke of preaching only Christ and Him crucified (see 1 Cor. 2:2). Crucifixion and resurrection are two sides of the same coin that Paul brings together in another place:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . . (1 Cor. 15:3–4).
Here in our passage for today, the emphasis is on the risen Lord. He is alive, and He is worth suffering for, as Paul is about to say in the next verse. The apostle was always mindful of stressing that he had received the gospel message directly from the Lord (“my gospel”) and not through anyone else (Gal. 1:11–12). But it was the same gospel, as affirmed by the other apostles.
Lord, I commit to telling others only the pure gospel of the risen Lord.
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