2 Timothy 2:1-2: Entrusted to Reliable People

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 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.

2 Timothy 2:1-2 (NIV)

Entrusted to Reliable People

“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.” Paul wants what he taught to keep moving, out of Timothy and into people who’ll say it again to people after them. Timothy got it in the open, from a man who said it where witnesses could hear him say it.

There’s a feed store on the edge of town where they still weigh seed out loose. The man at the scale scoops from the bin, sets the sack on the pan, waits for the needle to settle, folds the top twice, and writes on it with a grease pencil. Most of what he knows about what’ll come up in this dirt he got from the man who had the store before him.

There’s a kid on the register who’s been told to wait for the needle. He calls the number early, and the man at the scale tells him again, the same way, with no heat in it. The kid writes it down this time, on the back of his wrist.

Paul asked for reliable people. Steady ones, who’ll still be around next year and who’ll say the thing straight when they say it. He expects them to be qualified to teach others.

The strength for it comes from grace that’s in Christ Jesus. Timothy is told to be strong in that, so the steadiness the work takes gets drawn from somewhere other than his own nerve.

The man at the scale hangs the grease pencil back on its string, gives the scoop to the kid, and goes out the back door. The kid stands there holding it, and the store is his for the afternoon.