God’s Word Is Not Chained!

2 Timothy 2:1-10 Paul is writing to Timothy from prison. He is writing to Him as a mentor who knows that his time left to minister personally is growing short. He is encouraging Timothy to pick up and carry the torch. He is encouraging him to teach and preach with a view to preparing the succeeding generations of believers; that is to entrust the Gospel to trustworthy people who will in turn be able to teach the next generation to continue in the process. I believe that the same message is valid for today. Certainly, Jesus may well return in our generation; but we must teach and train so that the next generation will be able to teach and train. Getting the Word passed on to the next generation is worth whatever the price, whether it be hardship or imprisonment. Then as Paul thinks about his own imprisonment and realizes that it has not only not stopped the spread of the Gospel, the Word continues to go forth in greater and greater power. He is saying that although I am in chains, the Word of God is not. In one sense we see this in I Thessalonians chapter 1 of how the Thessalonians had been so eager to share the Gospel that when Paul arrived in the neighboring cities, they had already heard. Also, in Acts when the persecution had broken out the fleeing believers spread the Word everywhere, they went. That’s how the church at Antioch came to be. Isaiah 55:11 tells us that God's Word does not return void or empty but accomplishes God’s purposes. Whenever God’s Word is spoken it accomplishes God’s purposes. This is especially true as it is spoken in the context of a life that has been changed by it. Let us make it a point to faithfully speak forth God’s Word through both life and lips.