Trust and Work - 2 Timothy 2:1-7

2 Timothy 2:1, 6-7 (ESV)

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, . . . It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

We are to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and work hard. I have a friend that fails to understand this. His focus is on working hard. His view of the Christian life is to just do it. When he hears me say that the Christian life is a life of resting in Christ, or that sanctification is by grace through faith not works, he thinks that I am saying that the believer does nothing. We are just to sit on the couch and wait for the Spirit to move us. But nothing could be further from the truth. Believers are to work hard. This passage uses the analogies of soldiers, athletes, and farmers, hard workers. Yet in that hard work we recognize that our energy, our ability, our strength comes not from us, but from the indwelling Holy Spirit. Any hard work that we produce is the result of the Holy Spirit who strengthens us by the grace we find in Jesus. Apart from that our work is simply legalism and human effort. We cannot separate the two ideas. Be strengthened in Christ and work hard. One flows into the other. Hard work results from the strength of Christ in us. Trust him and then step out in faith trusting him to do in and through you that which you cannot do on your own.