GFAMISSIONS.ORG
BY TIMOTHY BERREY
PAGE 05
ENDURING HARDSHIP
REQUIRES PLAYING
BY THE RULES
ENDURING
HARDSHIP LIKE
A SOLDIER
BY FORREST MCPHAIL
PAGE 03
BY JON CROCKER
PAGE 09
JESUS CHRIST
AS THE ULTIMATE
EXAMPLE
SUMMER / FALL 2025 ISSUE 259
SOWING&REAPING
BY ALAN PATTERSON
PAGE 07
IMITATE THE
FARMER WHO
LOVES HIS WORK
ENDUREHARDSHIP
EDITORS: INGE CANNON AND SARAH HARTWIG
DESIGNER: YOUR CREATIVE PEOPLE
PUBLICATION ADVISORS:
JON CROCKER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
DALE CRAWFORD, ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR
FORREST MCPHAIL, REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR ASIA, AUSTRALIA, AND OCEANIA
ALAN PATTERSON, REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR EUROPE, AFRICA, AND THE MIDDLE EAST
TIMOTHY BERREY, DIRECTOR OF MISSIONARY RECRUITMENT
MARSH FANT, DIRECTOR OF CHURCH PLANTING AND REVITALIZATION
05
BY TIMOTHY BERREY
ENDURING HARDSHIP REQUIRES
PLAYING BY THE RULES
09
BY JON CROCKER
JESUS CHRIST AS THE
ULTIMATE EXAMPLE
03
BY FORREST MCPHAIL
ENDURING HARDSHIP
LIKE A SOLDIER
07
BY ALAN PATTERSON
IMITATE THE FARMER
WHO LOVES HIS WORK
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture
quotations are taken from the NASB®
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright
© 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
JON
CROCKER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
“Suffer hardship with me” (2 Timothy 2:3). We
have no way of knowing exactly how Timothy
felt when he first read those words from the
Apostle Paul, who referred to Timothy as “my
beloved son” (1:2). He may have
recalled some of the incidents in the
book of Acts that he had observed
or experienced with Paul. Perhaps
he thought of the two years of
house arrest during Paul’s first
imprisonment in Rome, where he
was guarded night and day by a
member of the Roman imperial
guard. As Timothy continued to
read this letter from Paul, he arrived
at these words: “For I am already being poured
out as a drink offering, and the time of my
departure has come. I have fought the good
fight, I have finished the course, I have kept
the faith” (4:6–7). Paul was about to give his
life for Christ. If I had been Timothy, I probably
would have thought, “So that’s what you mean
by ‘suffer hardship with me.’”
Paul understood very well that following Jesus
Christ meant taking up His cross and being
willing to die. For Paul, there was ridicule, riots,
stoning, beatings, imprisonment, shipwreck,
and death. And he called on Timothy (and on
us) to suffer hardship with him.
We can be grateful that Paul sandwiched his
exhortation to suffer between an assurance of
God’s grace in Christ (2:1) and three illustrations
of patient endurance (2:3–6). Suffering hard-
ship, even to the point of death, is beyond our
ability. We need the grace of God, the favor He
provides through our union with Jesus Christ!
Praise God that He enables us to follow Christ,
even into suffering.
This issue of Sowing & Reaping will examine the
three illustrations of perseverance in 2 Timothy
2:3–6. What can we learn from the soldier,
the athlete, and the farmer about suffering
hardship for the Gospel’s sake? The prayer
column encourages us to look to Christ and
pray for God’s help to consider Jesus as we
suffer for Him. May the Lord use this issue to
enable us to suffer hardship for Christ.
DIRECTOR
A W O R D F R O M T H E
“You therefore, my son, be
strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus. The things which
you have heard from me in the
presence of many witnesses,
entrust these to faithful men
who will be able to teach oth-
ers also. Suffer hardship with
me, as a good soldier of Christ
Jesus. No soldier in active
service entangles himself in
the affairs of everyday life, so
that he may please the one
who enlisted him as a soldier.”
2 TIMOTHY 2:1–4
1 R. Kent Hughes and Bryan Chapell, 1 & 2 Timothy
and Titus: To Guard the Deposit, Preaching the
Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000), 195.
COMMANDS:
1. Be strong in grace.
2. Entrust the Gospel to faithful men.
3. Endure hardship as a good soldier.
4. Don’t get distracted.
5. Live to please Christ.
ENDURING HARDSHIP LIKE A
SOLDIER
These verses are about training men for spiritual leadership.
Second Timothy was written by the Apostle Paul to his personal
disciple in ministry, Timothy. Paul was in prison, his remaining
days on earth few. The Holy Spirit through Paul urged Timothy
to entrust to faithful men the Gospel he had been given, so
they could go on to teach and train others. The men who were
trained must serve with one overriding purpose—to please
the One Who enlisted them as
soldiers. Their enlistment officer
is also their Commander in Chief,
their Savior and King, Jesus Christ.
Spiritual leaders are taught here that
they can please their Lord by suffering
(enduring) hardship as a good soldier. Paul
draws our attention to the highest qualities
of good soldiers.
Hardship is a fact of life in
Christian ministry.
A good soldier accepts suffering as an ongoing
reality. The level of suffering may change based
on battle conditions, but he expects suffering. The
New Testament emphasizes hardship in Christian
ministry, but sometimes leaders neglect this truth
while training men for leadership.
Endurance through hardship is
fundamental for a good soldier.
Paul suffered much; Timothy had seen it. Paul
called upon Timothy to continue to endure through
hardship with Paul for the Gospel, though they
were geographically separated. Timothy was also
to train others to endure suffering for Christ’s sake.
Paul exemplified faithful endurance to Timothy;
now Timothy must exemplify the same to inspire
new recruits.
What must a soldier endure to be a good soldier?
He must endure intense training to get in shape and
acquire skill for battle. When battles rage, he must
put down his fears, struggle against overwhelming
weariness, and lay aside grief over fallen comrades.
He must withstand the psychological pressure of
being far from home and isolated in highly uncom-
fortable settings. In times of quiet, he must weather
the hardship of boredom and inactivity while waiting
for that sudden call to arms. Then there is the need
to endure the pain from the wounds of war, those
obtained by fighting with the enemy as well as those
obtained through accidents and even friendly fire.
And what of battle fatigue, dealing with traitors,
hunger and privation, possible captivity as a prisoner
of war, or the risk of losing life or limbs? There are
many parallels to Christian ministry.
Endurance requires
single-minded devotion.
Paul warned against getting entangled “in the affairs
of everyday life.” Single-mindedness, the ability
to shut out everything extraneous is the key to
success in virtually every area of life.1 The pleasures
and priorities of the world must not be allowed to
distract the good soldier from his life’s purpose to
please Jesus Christ. In times of hardship, the soldier
must remain single-minded.
Strength to endure comes from
Jesus Christ.
Paul told Timothy, “Be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus.” A Christian soldier is not expected
to dig deep and find within himself everything
needed to endure suffering in this spiritual war.
Men in training desperately need to understand this
foundational truth: Without Him we will fail!
Endurance will be rewarded.
A good soldier who faithfully fulfills his duty in
any and all circumstances, even at great personal
sacrifice, proves his love and loyalty, pleasing his
Commanding Officer. A “well done” from Him and
rewards to lay at His feet should motivate His troops.
Tenacious perseverance
through the grace of
Christ enables us to
become and remain
good soldiers. Those
who endure hardship
serve their Lord
with honor.
FORREST
MCPHAIL
BY
Consider these observations about enduring
hardship in the context of the military analogy:
I ran cross country in high school. My least favorite
part of an away meet was the “pre-run” of the
3.1-mile course. I barely had enough energy to run
the official 3.1 miles; to make me pre-run a good
chunk of those 3.1 miles in order to acquaint myself
with the 3.1 miles that I was about to run fell under
the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Couldn’t they shuttle us around? But it was a nec-
essary cruelty if I had any chance of competing
victoriously: missing a loop or a turn in the winding
course would automatically disqualify me from
placing in the meet. Enduring hardship—the kind
that results in victory—requires playing by the rules.
There are all kinds of creative ways to cross the
finish line first—like Rosie Ruiz, the women’s division
“winner” of the 1980 Boston Marathon who ran only
the last 800 meters of the 26.2 miles—but a true
winner will cross the finish line first according to
the rules.
PLAYING
BY THE
RULES
ENDURING HARDSHIP REQUIRES
“Also if anyone competes as
an athlete, he does not win
the prize unless he competes
according to the rules.”
2 TIMOTHY 2:5
TIMOTHY
BERREY
We understand this in athletics, but this same prin-
ciple also holds true in ministry and in the Christian
life. Part of enduring hardship means playing by the
rules. You will be tempted to bend the rules in order
to appear as a winner. Since the rulebook is the
Scripture, you must handle it accurately (2 Timothy
2:15): cut it straight, let the lines fall where they
may, and adjust your ministry to suit. Don’t
adjust the line of Scripture to fit your
ministry.
For example, you may be tempted
to adjust your gospel message so
that it is less offensive. Preach a
Gospel that gives people what they
want. However, Paul did exactly the
opposite (see 1 Corinthians 1:22–23).
He refused to preach a Gospel that gave
the Jews what they wanted (a sign) or the Greeks
what they sought after (wisdom). He understood
that when you cater to a culture’s idols, you end
up preaching a Gospel that strips the cross of its
saving power (1 Corinthians 1:17). After all, the point
of genuine preaching of the cross is to save you from
your culture’s idols. “For they themselves report
about us what kind of a reception we had with you,
and how you turned to God from idols to serve a
living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).
Similarly, you may be tempted to tweak your teach-
ing so that it fits what your people want to hear.
After all, these are the kinds of teachers that people
will “accumulate for themselves” (2 Timothy 4:3).
Being a preacher of sound doctrine may mean you
minister to a smaller congregation. You could even
find yourself justifying a contemporizing ministry
shift: I will lose all opportunity to influence them if I
don’t cater to their wishes at least some of the time.
The Old Testament prophet Micah rebuked for-profit
prophets who preached “peace” when they had
something to bite on but declared “holy war” against
those who put “nothing in their mouths” (3:5).
If you want to win the prize, you must also exercise
“self-control in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:25). This is
yet another kind of rule keeping, a kind that may be
even more challenging because it involves personal
discipline. The Apostle Paul was so concerned that
he might disqualify himself that he disciplined his
body and made it his slave. “I discipline my body and
make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to
others, I myself will not be disqualified” (1 Cor-
inthians 9:27). For Paul, and for us as well,
this involves giving up personal rights
(9:3–15), restraining ourselves for the
sake of another man’s conscience
(10:28–29), and being sure that
above all else, we rightly represent
what God is like to others (10:31).
Ultimately, we are not running the
Christian race to win accolades from
others but to be crowned by God. Therefore,
we must play by His rules. As 2 Timothy 2:15 says,
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God
as a workman who does not need to be ashamed,
accurately handling the word of truth.” God approves
workmen who cut straight His Word, letting the lines
fall where they fall and living accordingly.
You will not be a true winner unless you win in God’s
eyes. A fake win will leave you feeling much like Rosie
Ruiz did: “I had one minute to feel that I had won
the race and every moment after that has been a
nightmare.”1 Aim for God’s eternal, irrevocable “well
done”—play by His rules.
1 https://www.
bangordailynews.
com/2019/08/08/
sports/rosie-ruiz-66-
won-boston-mara-
thon-but-skipped-
most-of-race/
BY
ALAN
PATTERSON
BY
He sometimes worked 365 days a year. Yes, my Uncle
Kermit, a dairy farmer for decades, worked virtually
every day of his life unless he was sick, and that
was rare. He labored in this way as long as he was
able from the time he got out of the Navy (World
War II) until he died at the age of 95. How do you
explain such a work ethic? Why did he almost never
take a vacation of even a day during those years?
The simple but inadequate explanation is that he
was obsessed with his work. But he had a deeper
motivation—he loved his work! He was the type
of person Paul envisioned when he spoke of the
“hard-working farmer” (2 Timothy 2:6).
This commitment to hard work is exactly what Paul
exhorted Timothy to exhibit in his life and ministry.
An obsession like this could be wrong, but not
when the work itself is commanded by the Lord
and when the “farmer” loves what he is doing. In this
context (2 Timothy 2:1–7) the Lord is indeed giving
a command, for Paul often uses imperatives: “be
strong” in verse 1, “entrust these to faithful men” in
verse 2, “suffer hardship” in verse 3, and “consider
what I say” in verse 7. He is commanding Timothy
to follow his example of utter commitment. Paul’s
life exemplified an obsessive commitment to see
people “obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
and with it eternal glory” (v. 10).
IMITATE THE
WHO LOVES HIS WORK
FARMER
The work was HARD
Uncle Kermit knew the work demanded utter com-
mitment, and that is what he gave. The work was
difficult in many ways. It took energy, time, and
perseverance. When my grandfather worked to put
up silage for the winter at his farm, the equipment
would sometimes break down. This was a
source of great frustration as my dad
and his other brothers were taking
time away from their own work to
help him, but Uncle Kermit could fix
just about anything because he had
done it countless times on his own
farm. He had learned to overcome
frustration not by walking away from
the difficulty but by the hard work of
fixing the problem. My cousin told me about
a typical effort by his dad. When all the daily work
of milking had been done, he might go and dig by
hand the holes for fence posts to enclose the large
pastures for the cows. If he wasn’t eating or sleeping,
Kermit was probably working.
The work was WORK
It was physically difficult, but it was also work in
every sense of the word. There was no way to coast.
Getting up at 4:00 a.m. every day is work in itself, but
making sure the cows are milked and also provided
with the water, hay, and silage they need is a relent-
less pressure. The dairy farmer works literally night
(when he begins) and throughout the day. His work
includes milking the cows twice a day (the morning
milking is only the start), making sure the milk is not
contaminated with bacteria (the inspectors do check
regularly), and then taking care of the more typical
farm activities of growing crops (plowing, fertilizing,
harvesting, storing), maintaining machinery, and
mending those fences. Sound like work?
The work was LOVED
Despite being hard and constant work, the life was
enjoyable. My uncle could have hired a neighbor
to look after milking his cows for a few days so he
could have time away for a vacation. But he rarely
if ever did. Why? Part of the answer is his work
ethic and the fact that cows can be skittish
with change, but a bigger part of the
answer is that he truly enjoyed his
work. Silage has an invigorating smell,
but the other smells around the barn
are not so endearing. Nevertheless,
Uncle Kermit loved the work and
was willing to be in the thick of it, so
to speak.
No doubt Paul had all these factors (hard-
ness/difficulty, work, love for the work) in mind
as he charged his protégé Timothy to remember
the farmer. The man of God must be “prepared”
(2 Timothy 2:21) and “equipped” (3:17) “for every
good work.” Even evangelism is work, and it is
required for the fulfillment of the ministry: “But you,
be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work
of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (4:5).
Above all, the Lord would have the missionary emu-
late the good farmer and Paul, who both exemplify a
love for the work. No one will continue to be faithful
until the end who does not love the ministry of the
Gospel. Love is the ultimate issue. In the concluding
chapter of 2 Timothy, Paul refers to Demas, who
spent time with Paul and undoubtedly endured
some hardness. That he was Paul’s coworker virtually
guarantees that Demas showed a capacity to work
hard. But he failed the most important test of love.
He forsook the hardness and the work for lack of the
third element, love for the work. His motivation was
love, but it was a love for “this present world” (4:10).
Surely, we all want to be faithful until the end. How does that happen?
It happens when we are willing to endure hardness, when we are willing to do the
work required, and when we love the work because we love the Lord of the work.
Remember His purity of character.
First Peter 2:21 reveals that Christ provided an
example for His people, “for you to follow in His
steps” while suffering. The following verses point
to His avoidance of sin, particularly sins of speech.
He did not deceive, revile, or threaten.
We know the temptation to be angry or to lash
out with belittling sarcasm toward those who hurt
us. In our day, it is all too common for Christians
to mock and demean public figures who oppose
Biblical positions and Christian doctrine. It is
common, but it is not Christlike. Let us pray that
God would help us endure hardship with the
purity of Christ, remembering that the gentle
(not the sharp or quick-witted) will inherit the
earth (see Matthew 5:5).
Remember His trust in the Father.
The same passage in 1 Peter 2 says that instead
of threatening others He “kept entrusting Himself
to Him who judges righteously” (2:23).
We often feel pressure to “straighten people out”
or “make things turn out” the right way, as if
everything depended on our power or ingenuity!
Unfortunately, that burden can lead us to be
manipulative and controlling toward others. Let
us pray that God would help us endure hardship
with the faith of Christ, remembering that the
Righteous Judge will perfectly settle all accounts.
Remember His expectation of joy.
Our Lord endured the cross “for the joy set before
Him” (Hebrews 12:2). He looked forward to taking
His place at the right hand of His Father, exalted
over all. Much of His joy must have come from
His confidence that the reward for His suffering
would include sinners from every nation gathered
around His throne forever, praising the Lamb
Who was slain. As a result of His sacrifice, He
would “see His offspring” (Isaiah 53:10) and “be
satisfied” (53:11).
If we know Jesus, we are part of His reward. Let
that truth stir us to follow Him into suffering for
His sake. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and
dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much
fruit” (John 12:24). Do we understand what it will
take to reach some places with the Gospel? Let
us pray that God would help us endure hardship
with the joyful anticipation that Jesus Himself
possessed, remembering the fruit that God will
produce through our self-denying suffering for
His glory.
JESUS CHRIST AS THE
ULTIMATE EXAMPLE
BY JON CROCKER
“Remember Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:8). After using the images of a soldier,
an athlete, and a farmer to motivate Timothy to endure suffering for
Christ’s sake, Paul calls on his son in the faith to fix his heart on
Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:3 gives us a parallel command
to consider the endurance of Jesus in suffering, “so that
you [we] will not grow weary and lose heart.” Let’s
examine a few prayer requests from passages about our
Lord’s suffering. May the Lord answer these prayers to
help us endure hardship. Remember Jesus Christ!