12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
14 That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.
Introduction
Open your Bibles to the book of 2 Timothy. Underscore in your minds, and perhaps in your Bibles, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12, where Paul says, “He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.”
I believe that Joseph Stalin said, “All I need to change a nation is one committed person in the right place.” The communists taught us a great deal about commitment. The right person in the right place at the right time can change almost anything. We shouldn’t have needed the communists to teach us that. The Bible is full of examples of life-changing experiences that took place just because somebody was committed. There was a time when Moses appeared before the Pharaoh with a ragtag army of slaves and demanded their freedom. You wouldn’t place good odds on Moses against Pharaoh—the ruler of the greatest nation on the face of the earth. But you add to Moses a commitment to the will and the way of God, and you have the children of Israel delivered from Egyptian bondage, making the exodus, heading toward the Promised Land, and experiencing some of the greatest events in all the history of the world.
There was another man who was committed at all costs to the will of God. What chances would you give Elijah the prophet when he stood face to face and toe to toe with Ahab and Jezebel—the king and queen of Israel? But Elijah was committed to the will of God. He was determined to serve God and to do what God wanted, regardless of what it would cost him. Elijah’s commitment to God and God working through him changed the whole course of Israel’s history.
Think of Jesus. He was born in a stable, raised in a carpenter’s shop, and crucified on the cross. What made all of that so significant? In addition to the fact that Jesus was and is the Son of God, he had a commitment to the will of God unequaled in the history of the world. We cannot understand or explain the significance of Jesus Christ and his mission apart from the fact that Jesus was willing to say, “Father, if thou are willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
The apostle Paul, a renegade Jew, honeycombed the Roman Empire with New Testament churches, and he did it with grit and determination because he was committed to the will of God. On the road to Damascus he caught a vision of the living Christ. He became determined to change this world and move it toward God. Through commitment he changed our world forever. Commitment is at the very heart of all we believe as the people of God.
The word commit is a banking term. It literally means “to make a deposit.” In 2 Timothy, Paul shared three commitments that need to be made in every believer’s life. In the passage we just read he says, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.” Then he says, “That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” Paul says later in 2 Timothy 2:2, And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”
The first commitment is the commitment of our souls to the Lord for salvation. The second commitment is the Lord’s commitment of his word to us. The third commitment is our commitment of sharing what we know and have learned with other people.
The first commitment makes you a Christian. The second commitment makes you a witness, and the third commitment makes you a disciple and multiplier.
Christians, witnesses, and disciplers—that’s what we are to be. We are to commit our souls to Jesus Christ. We are to also commit to sharing his word with the world, and then we are to pass what we’ve learned from his word on to other people that they may teach others also.
The first commitment that everyone needs to make is a commitment of his heart and life to Jesus Christ for salvation.
1. Commit your heart and life to Jesus Christ for salvation.
The Swiss physician-theologian Paul Tournier wrote that in every life there are a few special moments that count for more than all the rest because they mark the taking of a stand, or the making of a commitment or decision. He believed that it is commitment that creates the person. What we are and who we are is determined by the commitments we make in life. The greatest of all commitments is when a person comes face to face with Jesus Christ, and then trusts in the Lord Jesus as his personal Savior.
In that first commitment that Paul talks about, I want you to notice the pronouns—whom, he, and him. “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.” It helps us to understand the personal nature of salvation. Salvation does not come by joining the church; it does not come by living up to a certain moral or ethical creed; it does not come by embracing a certain doctrinal teaching; it comes through personal commitment of your heart and life to Jesus Christ.
No person is ever any safer than that to which they commit themselves. A few years ago I was in the jungles of Belize and we came to a number of swollen streams and rivers that were out of their banks. The only way to cross those rivers was with a dugout canoe that had been made by the Indians. When you got into that dugout canoe, it immediately sank into the water until about an inch of the top was sticking out of the water. It was a shaky bit of transportation at best. But we discovered after several crossings of the rivers that that canoe was adequate for bringing us from one side of the river to another. It would have been completely inadequate for crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
A man is never any safer than that to which he commits himself. When it comes to making a journey from life into eternity, we must commit ourselves to that one person who is able to keep us and to save us finally in the end. That person is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Paul says, “I have made the greatest of all commitments. I know in whom I have believed. I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.”
Have you made the greatest of all commitments—the keeping of your soul to the Lord Jesus Christ? Not only are we to commit our souls to him, but Paul tells us that Jesus has committed his word to us. Now he wants us to keep guard, to protect, and to pass on his word to other people.
2. Commit to knowing and sharing God’s word.
Paul said, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us” (2 Timothy 1:13-14). The best way to keep some things is to pass them on. The best way to keep knowledge is to share it with somebody else. In fact, we only really possess the knowledge that we understand enough to explain to somebody else. Until you can explain, it is not really yours. The best way to keep it is to pass it on and to share it with somebody else.
The best way to keep our talents is to use them, sharpen them, and refine them. In doing so we keep them in a way that we could never ever keep them otherwise. The best way—the surest way to keep a seed—is to plant it in the ground and let it grow, multiply, and produce more and more seeds. Then you plan those seeds and let those new seeds multiply and grow. If you do that sufficiently, the whole earth will be covered with seeds and there would be no way to ever destroy all of them.
Truly there are some things that are best kept by sharing, and I am persuaded that the Gospel—the word of God that has been entrusted to us—is best kept by passing it on to other people.
We sometimes talk about witnessing, soul winning, visitation, and sharing the Gospel with other people as though we really have a choice in the matter. Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). If you take seriously this command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you will know that it is as much our responsibility to ring a doorbell as it is to ring the church bell for Jesus Christ. It is ever and always true that Christianity is one generation from extinction. Let us not fail to pass on that which we have received to our children, to the young people in our church, to our friends, and to our neighbors. Let us not fail to share that good news with somebody else in such a way that they can share it with somebody else, in line with Jesus’ commands.
First, there is the commitment of our souls to Christ. Next, there is the commitment of knowing and sharing God’s word. Then there is a third commitment. Paul said, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2, ESV).
3. Commit to being a multiplier and discipler.
We need not only to be Christians and witnesses, but also multipliers. Paul says to teach others what we’ve learned. We need to share that which we have received and that which we have learned through teaching through Bible study, through discipleship, and through personal ministry in every way that we can, with every person we can. We need to compellingly share it with others who in turn will pass it on. In doing so, that which we have received will continue throughout all the ages to come.
At Christmastime I saw a film called The Journey Home. It is the story of Lottie Moon. In the film she said, “It is relatively easy to give yourself to foreign missions. It is difficult to give yourself to a foreign field, but that’s the heart of missions.”
The heart of the Christian life—once you have committed yourself to Jesus Christ and you know him in a personal and a dynamic way—is to commit yourself to somebody else in such a way that you introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you disciple them so that they might become all that he wants them to be.
Three commitments. We give ourselves to Christ. He entrusts his word to us for us to share, and then we pass it on to someone else. The first makes us a Christian, the second makes us a witness; and the third makes us a multiplier.
Christians, witnesses, multipliers. That’s what all of us are to be.