2 Timothy: Endure, Encourage, EquipSample

The invitation to suffering

“Join with me in suffering” (2 Timothy 2:3). Paul phrases it like an invitation, as though inviting Timothy to a celebration or to participate in a joy-filled experience. But, as you’ve probably seen in your own life, suffering is anything but that. Whether suffering is physical, emotional, or spiritual, it’s painful. Numbing. Scarring.

So why does Paul write this way, as though suffering is something to be embraced rather than something to run from?

The truth is, we can’t run from suffering. It’s always hovering there, coming ever closer, like fog slowly descending over a lake. There’s nothing we can do except throw up our hands and watch it loom over us—at least, that’s what it feels like.

But Paul’s invitation isn’t to embrace suffering or even to avoid it. He’s challenging us to come together in suffering, “join with” him and others who endure—or have endured—trials because it’s the endurance that forms you as a “good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3).

Paul encourages us to come together when we face suffering but also to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1). He follows this with analogies of soldiers, farmers, and athletes who work tirelessly to get toward their goals. Faces covered in sweat, hands shaking, and legs about ready to give out, they endure pain every time they step out on the battlefield, tend the crops, or start a race.

So, let’s press on as we come together to pursue Christ—even in our suffering.

1. Consider Paul’s invitation to suffering (2 Timothy 2:3). How can we act out his encouragement to join together in suffering? What does it mean in your life?
2. How does endurance make you a “good soldier”? Do you think you are one? Why or why not?
3. Which of the three analogies (the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer) resonates with you the most (2 Timothy 2:4–6)? What can each of those analogies teach us?