For His Glory
Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 4:18
The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen
Second Timothy is Paul’s last letter. Not long after he wrote these words he perished at the hands of a Roman executioner. Yet, we read him saying that he was confident that the Lord would rescue him from every evil deed. Was Paul wrong to think that?
Well, if we read the whole sentence, we find that he said that the Lord would bring him safely into his heavenly kingdom. If I understand Paul’s thinking here, he was saying that the Lord would rescue him from or through the executioner’s work. He would be rescued by being set free to continue his life and ministry on earth, or he would be rescued by being put to death here and thereby being taken into the heavenly kingdom.
How could Paul speak so of his own death? What drove Paul was his desire for God to be glorified in everything. If God could be glorified by life he would choose life. If God would be glorified through his death, he would submit to dying.
This spirit was more recently reflected by the long-time pastor of the 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. When James Montgomery Boice was told he had been diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer he stunned his congregation with the announcement on a Sunday morning. That day he told his church:
“Should you pray for a miracle? Well, you’re free to do that, of course. My general impression is that the God who can perform miracles – and he certainly can – is also able to keep you from getting the problem in the first place…Above all, I would say pray for the glory of God. If you think of God glorifying himself in history and you ask, ‘Where has God most glorified himself?’ The answer is that he did it at the cross of Jesus Christ, and it wasn’t by delivering Jesus from the cross, though he could have…And yet that is where God is most glorified.”
Whether by life or by death, in sickness or health, in strength or weakness, in the good times and the bad times, may God be glorified, and may a desire for His glory fill our hearts.
