Faithful Endurance 2 Timothy 2:11-13; Ruth 1:1-19a; Luke 17:11-19
Grace, mercy and peace be with you, from God, our faithful Father, and our dear Lord, Jesus Christ.
We’re going to talk about a life of faithful endurance, based on our Epistle, especially verses 11-13: 11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.
And from our Old Testament, especially verse 16: “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
The story of a young woman named Ruth, and her loyalty to her family and her God, is one of the great stories of love and faithfulness in the Old Testament.
The story begins in a time of famine, something we’re not accustomed to in our land, but many are in other lands.
And something people often had to deal with in ancient times.
So it was for Naomi and Elimelech.
Whether by drought, or by war, there was a scarcity of food in the land of Judah.
So they took their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, and became refugees.
Leaving their hometown, Bethlehem, and their homeland, Judah, they went looking for food and a place to live on the other side, the east side of the Dead Sea, in Moab, which is modern day Jordan.
It seems they found food and shelter and employment, so they stayed there.
After a while Elimelech died. Then Mahlon and Chilion married Moabite wives, Orpah and Ruth, which happens to be my wife’s middle name.
They stayed in Moab, and after 10 years, both Mahlon and Chilion died, possibly in war, or maybe from sickness.
Naomi was left with neither husband nor sons to love and support her. It would seem that she was resigned to a life of loneliness and poverty.
Then Naomi heard that things had changed in her homeland of Judah, and there was plenty of food again, so she decided the best thing would be for her to go back to her relatives in Bethlehem, and for Ruth and Orpah to stay in Moab and remarry.
Her daughters-in-law were very close to her. Naomi must have been a very kind and loving mother-in-law.
When she told Orpah and Ruth her plan, they both cried and objected. They didn’t want to leave their dear mother-in-law.
But Naomi insisted, not that she wanted to leave her daughters-in-law, but because she thought that would be best for them.
After awhile Orpah agreed, and kissed Naomi goodbye, and went back to her birth family, to live with them until she married again.
But Ruth wouldn’t go; she wouldn’t leave Naomi no matter what. And then she spoke those words of undying love that inspire us all these years later; and are sometimes read during wedding services.
“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried.
May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Although Naomi and her sons were in a foreign land, with foreign gods, it would seem that they remained faithful in worshipping the Lord.
We know that from what Ruth said, Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Naomi had shown God and His Word to her sons and daughters-in-law.
Maybe Ruth didn’t want to go back to her birth family because they weren’t all that good and loving, as Naomi was.
But certainly a big part of it was because she loved Naomi so dearly.
But there was more to it than that: Ruth had come to love Naomi’s God.
She didn’t want to leave Naomi, and she didn’t want to leave the Lord.
And she pledged her faithfulness, to endure all things, just be with her adopted mother and her God: May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Here Ruth shows that she believed in the Lord because she pledged her loyalty in His name: May the Lord do so to me…
In other words, may I die if I ever leave you and your God, now my God.
I think of two pledges that we might make, two vows of faithfulness. For the first one, please take your hymnal and turn to page 276…
For the other great pledge, turn back to page 272…
In our Epistle, Paul encourages Timothy, who was like a son to him, to remain faithful through all things, both as a pastor, and as a child of God.
And Paul holds up, as an example, his own faithful suffering for the Gospel, and even more so, the faithful suffering of Jesus for our sake.
8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
So we endure everything we must in a world that’s often not favorable to the Gospel; we believe the Gospel and endure whatever disfavor or ridicule or rejection we must endure.
In some lands, that means enduring persecution, even imprisonment and suffering and death.
Paul reminds us how worth it is, to remain faithful to Christ, not just for us, but also for those we share Gospel with.
10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, (those who believe) that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Then Paul shares a saying that had developed, maybe an early Christian hymn or song, to encourage us to suffer for Christ and for one another if need be.
If we have died with him, we will also live with him… In Baptism, we die to sin and self, and faith rises up in us, to love others and to walk with Christ.
12 If we endure, we will also reign with him… Revelation 2:10 says, Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life…
If we deny him, he also will deny us… There’s no salvation, no grace to live by now, and no glory to live in forever, if we deny Christ and fall from faith.
13 If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.
As the Son of God, Jesus is truly God, and God is truly and forever faithful; it’s how He is now, how He was in the past, and how He always will be.
His enduring love and faithfulness toward us, is our power to endure and remain in faith and love toward Him.
And to be faithful and loving in our relationships, with our family, our friends, our church family, with our fellow human being, and our neighbor in need.
God blesses us to faithfully endure, that we might eternally rejoice in His glory.
And as by His grace, we remain faithful even in the hardest of times and the worst of adversity, as Naomi and Ruth did, and as Paul did, we will have the peace of God, which passes understanding, to strengthen and sustain us, and to guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, who is forever faithful. Amen.