Bible Passage: “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2 CSB)
Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 2:1-13
Count Zinzendorf, aka Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760), was a German nobleman, Pietist leader, and bishop of the Moravian Church. He’s famous for a phrase that I love:
“Preach the Gospel, die, and be forgotten.”
Zinzendorf succeeded at two of these things. He preached the Gospel and died.
Unfortunately for his quote, he hasn’t been forgotten. We’re talking about him today.
Sometimes I think that we need to be remembered for our lives to count. But most of the people that God has used aren’t remembered anymore, and that’s okay.
Think of Paul’s instructions to Timothy. He told Timothy to pass on what he’d received to others, who would then pass it on to others themselves. That process has been going on for over two thousand years now. The Gospel is like a baton that’s been passed on from generation to generation without fail, and now it’s our turn to be men who run with that baton and pass it on faithfully to others.
If we do that, we’ll have succeeded. It doesn’t matter if people remember us in future years. It just matters that we do our part. Even if everyone else forgets our name, God never will, and we’ll have played our part in a race that will continue until Jesus returns.
Someone once told me that all it takes for a language to disappear is a single generation. If one generation fails to learn a language and pass it on, that language dies.
The same applies to passing down the Gospel. All it takes is for one generation to fail in its role.
So keep running. Don’t worry about whether you’ll be remembered or not. Pass on the Gospel to the next generation, die, and be forgotten.
History may forget your name, but God never will, and your life will make a difference for eternity.
Prayer: Lord, help me not to drop the baton. Help me to be okay with being forgotten, because You will never forget me. Amen.
Reflection: How can you pass on the Gospel to others, even today?
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