Looking for Opposition Points

In 2 Timothy 2:25 of the King James translation, we find a really precious bit of advice related to loving people we are called to serve. It’s about dealing with a man who is in opposition to himself. What does it mean “a man who is in opposition to himself?”

My beloved Joy and I were entrusted with 5 children. When my son, the youngest, was around 10 or 11, we were at a meeting in a home. All the adults were in the big room where the leader was talking. The children had all been put in the other room where they were to play or watch TV and do such things that would not disturb the adults (a common but sad practice that I do not recommend).

All of a sudden, out in the other room there arose such a clatter that I went to the door to see what was the matter. I discovered that my son was involved in a heated dispute with the leader’s daughter. If you’ve ever seen a no-win situation, this was it. I took him outside so that he could cool off a bit and suddenly it became one of those God moments.

We began to talk and I turned to him at one point in the conversation and I said, “Son, I want to ask you a question. Now before you answer son, please don’t say what you think I want to hear. Think for yourself for a moment. Make a decision for yourself. Here is the question: Do you really want to be a man of God? Is this really what you want?”

He paused and he thought, and he said, “Dad, I really do want to become a man of God.”

From that moment on, I have been able to help him through many, many difficult situations. I could sit down with him and say “Son, if you continue in this course of action, you are fighting against the thing you said you want for your life, which is to become a man of God.” I could show him how he was in opposition to himself. When you can show a man how he is in opposition to himself, then you are in a position to help him make the decision that he needs to make so that he can be the man that he wants to be.

His, thus Yours,

Stuart