Receiving the baton

The second letter we have of Paul's correspondence to Timothy is a well-mined part of the Scriptures. It has something for everyone. Apart from the bizarre fascination of reflecting on the last recorded words of someone such as Paul, there is the general dynamic of exploring an older wiser individual writing from their years of experience and offloading this wisdom to their young charge. It taps into a relational yearning of many of us as we or our parents and grandparents age.

Because the life situation Paul is in when he wrote the letter is so extreme, we tend to read the whole letter through Paul's eyes. Some of Paul's letters don't lend themselves especially well to seeking specific individual application to the reader. It is there of course, but as many letters are written to entire churches there is some extra steps to take in order to satisfy our western individualistic mindset. As this letter is written to an individual it more easily has us asking individualistic questions. But from whose vantage point should we read? The writer or the recipient? The half dozen or so sermon series I've heard have taken more of a Paul view talking about 'famous last words' and 'passing the baton'. It's not that the view from Timothy's perspective is ignored, but the scale is weighted heavily to Paul's end.

Now that's all fine. But the passing the baton angle is helpful to demonstrate the potential issues. Because of 2 Timothy 2:2 we think of this as one place that encourages us to pass on our message of Jesus to others. Who these 'others' are is dependent on the congregation. But if we read ourselves as Paul rather than as Timothy, we can miss that at times the message focuses more on receiving the baton rather than merely passing it on.

Now the ideas aren't mutually exclusive. Paul is doing the passing on thing, and he's calling Timothy to do likewise. And it is a false distinction because one of the things you receive the gospel for, is in order to pass it on. The passing is also one of the methods to protect the gospel. So it's not about receiving the baton to the exclusion of passing it on. But I just get the vibe that rhetorically we lose some punch by taking too much of a Paul's eye view and go straight to the imperative to 'pass the gospel on' and miss the step of 'what does it mean to receive the gospel?'

Just some thoughts running through my head the last few weeks. Still a bit scattered.