Bible Study: 2 Timothy 4

Discuss

How do you find investing in your friendships with your sports friends when the season is over or your sport is forced to stop?

Covid-19 gave sportspeople a time to rest and reflect on what has been. It was a time to let our bodies recover and our passion for our sport grow again, to take our foot off the gas from the intensity of sport. Yet a danger comes when we do the same with our faith and our willingness to share Jesus with our sports friends. As a Christian, how do we best approach the times when your sport stops for the off season or because of things like Covid-19?

2 Timothy 4:1-2

¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

What you need to know

In this final chapter of Paul’s letter to Timothy, he reminds him that he lives under the gaze of God and Christ. That it is Christ who holds him to account and who will certainly return, and this is the ultimate reality that Timothy should be concerned with.

In this rally charge to Timothy, a young leader, what does Paul remind him of in v.1?
Why does he do this and how does it help us to be reminded of the same things?
What is Paul’s charge to Timothy from v.2?
What does it mean to be ready in season and out of season?

Sum Up

The charge to keep preaching the Word, even when we don’t feel like it or when we feel like we are on a ‘break’, is the same today as it was for Timothy. We need to be ready and willing at all times because Christ is coming!

Read 2 Timothy 4:3-4

³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

What you need to know

Itching ears indicates the desire to use Biblical teaching in order to justify behavioural choices. Rather, we should allow the Bible to shape how we choose to live. It is important that, in our off-seasons, we are careful who we listen to and what we do.

What is the danger of having ‘itching ears’ as described here?
How does this distract from the charge and make it even more important to preach the Word?
How do you see this happening around you in your sport context?

Sum Up

The people of sport are surrounded by all kinds of philosophies and theories on life, happiness and success. Our role is to point them to the truth in Jesus.

Read 2 Timothy 4:5

5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

What you need to know

Paul urges Timothy not to get distracted from the mission of telling people the Good News about Jesus Christ. Rather, he is to stay focused on what he is called to do.

In the face of wrong teaching what is Timothy to do?
What does it mean to ‘do the work of an evangelist’ in your sport?
What does it look like to be faithful to these verses during your off-season or when your sport is forced to stop?

Sum Up

When you next face a break in your sport, don’t rest from your faith and your mission to share Jesus with sportspeople. How can you intentionally share life and the gospel with sportspeople even when you aren’t seeing them so regularly?

What does this mean for us?

As a group think through ways you can share life with your sports friends during this off- season.

What can you invite them to?
What can you give them to read or listen to over the break?
What and who will you be praying during this time?

All Bible quotations are taken with permission from the NIV:
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Discuss

How do you find investing in your friendships with your sports friends when the season is over or your sport is forced to stop?

2 Timothy 4:1-2

What you need to know

Sum Up

Read 2 Timothy 4:3-4

What you need to know

Sum Up

Read 2 Timothy 4:5

What you need to know

Sum Up

What does this mean for us?

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