Sermon Tone Analysis

“An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”

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I consider the initial verses of this chapter to be among the most significant verses of the letter.

They are, as well, perhaps the most neglected verses of the missive which Paul wrote.

I realise that I am ploughing quite a narrow furrow with these expositions.

Note that the Apostle appeals to multiple metaphors in order to emphasise a truth.

He has spoken of a teacher who is teaching a teacher when he writes, “What you have herd from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” [2 TIMOTHY 2:2].

Immediately after presenting the image of a teacher preparing a teacher for the future, Paul wrote of a soldier.

He urged the younger minister, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him” [2 TIMOTHY 2:3, 4].

Now, he presents the image of an athlete engaged in a great contest.

“An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules” [2 TIMOTHY 2:5].

One further metaphor will emphasise the contest in we are engaged—that of a hard working farmer.

We will consider that word picture in a message planned for delivery in the near future.

A significant truth that must be stressed in each of the scenarios the Apostle presents confronts modern Christendom—indeed, confronts all of modern life!

We are programmed to anticipate instant gratification.

To a tragic degree, our modern approach to life is quite infantile.

We come into this life demanding attention.

We are moved with compassion at the helplessness of a wee bairn; they are totally dependent upon adults for nourishment, shelter, warmth, clothing—we do not anticipate that babies will provide anything for themselves.

However, we expect that infants will mature, assuming responsibility for their own needs.

The aforementioned needs will be provided through their own efforts—at least, that is our expectation.

Modern life has delivered a new twist on this perception, however.

Modern western idealism has conditioned us to refuse to accept responsibility for anything bad that may come into our lives.

Moreover, our needs—which never cease—are expected to be provided immediately, perhaps even magically, without any input on our part.

I am not attempting to present a treatise on social aspects of modern life; I am, however, directing our focus to modern church life.

Church goers come into the church looking for answers to life’s problems.

Churches meeting this expectation through sermons addressing life conflicts appear to prosper in the popular image.

In broadest terms, modern religion demands little of participants and promises exaggerated returns.

One can live precisely as does the remainder of the world without experiencing deprivation or hardship.

Nevertheless, each example the Apostle uses speaks of delayed gratification.

The teacher may rejoice as the student excels his teacher, but the reward of seeing the advance of knowledge to another generation lies in the distant future.

The soldier will one day see a cessation of the conflict, but the constant threat of battle demands that he stay alert and that he make constant sacrifice.

The athlete will never see the dais unless she exerts herself, depriving herself of sleep, eating a Spartan diet and constantly pushing her body to best her prior times.

The farmer receives no crop until he plants the seed; and seed that is planted cannot be eaten.

*COMPETITORS* — In our text, the Apostle uses the illustration of an athlete.

He uses the Greek verb /athléō/, which speaks of competing in an athletic contest.

His use of that word recalls the Greek games.

Though the Romans were rulers of what we today identify as North Africa, the Near East or the Mediterranean and European nations, regional customs from the various nations often continued unabated despite Roman rule.

The Greek Games were one such custom that continued long after the Romans had assumed the role of empire builders and rulers.

These games were still very popular at the time the Apostle was writing.

It is clear from reading what the Apostle has written, that he considers Christians as competitors.

Throughout the message I will be stressing that we who believe are not competing against other believers; rather, we are competing against our own desires.

Let me explain what I mean.

Throughout his writings, Paul warns against succumbing to “the flesh.”

By this, he is speaking of surrendering to the desires of the natural man.

In ROMANS 7, Paul writes of his struggle not to surrender to his natural desires.

We haven’t time to read the entire account at this time, but do note how the Apostle sets the scene.

“My brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” [ROMANS 7:4-6].

We once lived by a moral code that prohibited certain actions.

The force of a law on the natural person is to make that person desire to try to see how close he can come to the boundary without actually crossing the boundary.

Those of you who have children will recognise that this is the natural condition.

Two children riding in the back seat begin to argue.

One cries out, “Mom, she’s touching me!”

You warn them to stop aggravating one another and continue driving.

Shortly, you hear the inevitable cry, only this time from the other side of the vehicle, “Mom, he’s touching me!”

You warn them and continue driving, and the scenario is repeated several times.

Finally, you stop the car, sternly warn the children there is a boundary between them and they are not to put a finger across an imaginary line drawn in the centre of the seat.

You resume your drive, anticipating that all is resolved.

Suddenly, you hear the inevitable, “Mom, his finger is on my side of the seat!”

At this moment you are ready to send them both to grandma so you have some rest.

What is happening?

They are displaying the human condition.

Make a law and the natural inclination is to test the boundaries.

When caught transgressing the law, complain bitterly that you didn’t cross the line.

So throughout the remainder of this chapter Paul speaks of his struggle—a losing struggle we must note—against the natural desires as they run up against the law of God.

He concludes in genuine anguish, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” [ROMANS 7:18-20].

His final observation on what is happening is found in the final statements of the chapter.

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” [ROMANS 7:24, 25].

The Christian’s life means that the child of God is firmly situated in two worlds.

Believers are restricted by the body to this material world with all the problems associated with our fallen condition.

The great tragedy of this condition is that the old nature with its desires is not buried.

We are dead with Christ, and thus spiritually alive; but we struggle against the desires—very natural desires—that still define our earthly lives.

And those desires are now perverted and will remain so.

For this reason, we must not surrender to those desires as though they mean nothing.

At the same time we are God’s new creation, destined to live eternally in the presence of God.

That future is already a spiritual reality—we are now living in the presence of the True and Living God.

In fact, God Himself lives in the Christian.

Shortly the Apostle will write, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

“So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” [ROMANS 8:1-14].

Note the dichotomy of life that Paul describes.

We are free in Christ, but we must not surrender to the flesh.