Stroll through Scripture for July 26, 2026

Based on 2 Timothy 1:1-14

The Narrative Lectionary moves us to 2 Timothy. The two letters to Timothy are full of passages that are used today in many religious and church debates – often in unhealthy ways. 

The letter’s purpose is to offer encouragement and help the reader to stay the course and be faithful.  Here’s the challenge with that.  You can be sure that you have the right belief and that those who disagree with you are very wrong.  And then you read 2 Timothy and the encouragement to stay faithful and you might take that as confirmation that you are right.  

In our modern context, we have many people, especially Christians, who fall victim to what theologian Peter Enns calls the “Sin of Certainty.”  In fact, he wrote a whole book about this several years ago that I highly recommend.  

And it’s easy to fall into this sin.  Certainty feels good.  Certainty makes us feel righteous.  And when humans feel righteous, they are prone to use that as an excuse to use force.  And that never ends well for anyone. 

Which is why a careful reading of Scripture is vital.  Like 1 Timothy, the authorship of 2 Timothy is in question.  It is most likely written by someone who followed Paul’s teaching, writing at least 30 years after his death.  

It is important to keep in mind the situation – the church is very much an outsider to the culture, the empire, and the norm of society.  Christians are literally persecuted and jailed for the practice of their faith.  The radicalness of the faith upset the status quo to the point that people needed to be dealt with so that the rest of society would not be impacted.  

In our modern times and culture, we often make the mistake of reading passages through our own experience and time and culture and assuming that the author was on the same page as us.  Popular Christian culture will often take Scripture and apply it their arguments about various culture war issues – which is not what the authors were writing about. 

The author’s message in verse 7 “for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of love and of self-discipline” isn’t a message about keeping up the fight in some American culture war.  It was a message for the faithful that are struggling to survive because they have chosen to stay true to the faith.  That’s far different that the false persecution that presents itself in our culture today.  Too often we end up with a so-called persecution narrative where some dominant group is upset about a loss of total control over a segment of culture.  

The beginning of 2 Timothy is not a message to encourage people looking for a fight.  It’s a call to grace, mercy, and peace which is needed in order to survive oppression and a struggle to survive.