The prayers of Paul

Chapter 1 of Paul’s Second letter to Timothy can be be read as being one long prayer which he interrups to introduce a new subject, in this case respect. It follows the pattern of his first letter, where the first two chapters can be considered a prayer.

This is a series of the prayers of St Paul found in the letters attributed to him in the order he is believed to have written them. Letters to the same place or person will be treated together with the first letter to that destination.

May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, ¹⁷ but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— ¹⁸ may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

2 Timothy 1:16-18 ESVUK

What happens when we disagree with each other, even as Christians?

It is very difficult when people disagree with things that you hold on to, things so important that you base your existence and your hopes on them. Do you get angry? Social media has shown that when someone can show what they are saying is based on facts, instead of taking on that information they oppose it with insults and threats, yet when someone reinforces their beliefs they take it on as fact even when they know it is a lie and that person is unreliable. That is how human nature works, our natural responses make us all like that. We tend to respect people we agree with. When we are faced with people who disagree with us we need to be aware that they feel the same way about being disagreed with as we do. They think we are confronting them.

The subject of respect has been introduced by Paul because he is being disrespected even by some Christians. They have misunderstood where respect comes from and are instead they are following the Roman idea. Human nature hasn’t changed.

Respect was very important to the Romans. But their respect came from Caesar: Caesar was Lord, Caesar was who you got your status from. Paul was in a Roman prison, a position with no status or respect. Roman prisoners were not fed by the state, their supporters sent money so they could pay for even their basic food. That money from the churches in Asia may have dried up and led to Paul saying, “All who are in Asia turned away from me.” It could’ve been because they were ashamed of Paul being in prison, ao being scared of being associated with him for their own safety.

As always Paul points us to Jesus. Jesus was crucified, something that was as much about humiliation as execution, but Jesus was killed for being subversive to society, among other things, the ultimate humiliation that the Roman state could give, but was raised from the dead and is now sitting in the ultimate place of honour on the right of the Father in Heaven. When we proclaim Jesus is Lord we mean that Jesus is our ruler are also saying that Caesar is not our ruler, and by extension that kings, presidents and parliaments are not our rulers either. Proclaiming Jesus as Lord is just as subversive now as it was then.

Jesus has turned all honour systems upside down. Honour does not mean having the most money, or be born into the right family, being a celebrity, or having the right job. We are honoured by being born again into the family of God, a position that the world cannot take away.

Onesiphorus knew how honour works in God’s kingdom. Instead of shunning Paul because he was in prison he made an effort to find him. Paul’s prayer is one of joy in what Onesiphorus has done in contrast to what others were doing and at risk to his own reputation. Reputation counts for nothing in God’s kingdom.

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