The Footsteps of Paul – 2 Timothy 3:10–17
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:10–17
Preacher: Russell Smith
Date: October 4, 2026
Church: Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio
Does a faithful life mean a successful life?
Not by the standards we are sold. Paul, very likely writing his last letter from prison, could still testify that the Lord rescued him from all his persecutions. Adversity is not a sign that we lack faith. Paul's example calls our contemporary ideas of success into question, as does Jesus, who was no worldly success in any Roman sense. In adversity we are not abandoned, and Paul's adversity became his opportunity to bear witness to Christ's unfailing love.
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What Kind of Person Do You Follow?
With our AI series behind us, and with our pilgrimage group getting ready to embark on the Footsteps of Paul pilgrimage, I thought it worthwhile to spend one week on the footsteps of Paul themselves. In particular, I want to dip into this little passage from 2 Timothy. Many believe it is Paul's last letter, written from prison to his protégé Timothy to encourage and support him.
As we lean into this passage, and as we think about what it means to learn to follow in the footsteps of Paul, it asks us a question: What kind of person do you follow? Here Paul is talking about what kind of person he is and how Timothy has been following him. But I ask you: What type of person do you follow? I invite you to think about the people who seek to have you follow them, the people who seek to influence you.
This passage offers some answers. Not a comprehensive set of answers, but some answers to help guide us into what kinds of examples of faith we follow.
Faith Is Learned from an Example We Can Watch
The first answer I suggest is an example you can actually watch, an example you can actually follow. Paul begins, "You, however, know all about my teaching." Yes, Timothy knows the content Paul delivers. But what comes next? "My way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance." My way of being and moving in the world. In other words: "Timothy, we have spent time together. You have seen me. You know how I live. You know my shortcomings and you know my virtues."
That is an important piece of this. In our twenty-first-century era it is so easy to follow any number of talking heads online. There are lots of them, seeking to get you to follow in any number of ways, shapes, or forms, but you don't know anything about their real way of life. And yet God, in his providence, puts actual people into our lives, people we can spend time with. We can see how they handle the challenges and the tug and pull of life. We can see how they live purposefully, how they exhibit faith, how they practice patience. Not just talking on social media, but actually living. When you are rubbing shoulders with someone, you get to see this in real life. That kind of lived reality is what Paul is referring to.
It harkens back to something he said in a much earlier letter, to the church in Corinth: "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." That clause “as I follow the example of Christ,” is a very, very important extra piece. Paul, like every follower of Christ, ultimately winds up pointing to Christ. John the Baptist said, "I must decrease, he must increase." So Paul is saying, in effect: "Yes, I'm imperfect. I'm trying to teach you a way, but the way is ultimately the way of Christ, and what I am trying to do is help you follow the way of Christ." Every Christian teacher worth their salt, indeed every Christian worth their salt, should be pointing you back to Jesus. That is the most important thing about Paul's way of life. It is always pointing to Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Then Paul widens the circle of living examples: "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it."
Who are "those from whom you learned it"? The very beginning of the letter makes it partially clear. In the salutation Paul writes, "I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also." Timothy learned from his family, from their example, from spending time with them. And I believe he also learned from a community of saints. As we spend time together, serve together, and fellowship together, we pick up faith from one another. It is not just one living example; it is a community of living examples: family, church members, leaders. Paul is not trying to create a little cult of personality centered amassing followers for himself. He is pointing Timothy to a community of Christ followers.
So the key thing I see in this is that Paul wants us to ask what kind of person we follow, and to make sure that the people we follow are examples we can actually watch, up close and personal. Learn to follow Christ from those who follow Christ.
Who has been an example of faith for you? Perhaps one of your actions this week might be to reach out to that person, to thank them, or simply to reconnect and assure them that their efforts have not been in vain.
Adversity Calls Our Ideas of Success into Question
It goes beyond simply an example you can watch, though. One of the key things Paul gives us, particularly for our day and era, is an example of faith in adversity. Paul talks about his own adversity, which Timothy had certainly seen: "persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them."
There were many more places where Paul was stoned or jailed or met with hardship. The key thing I want you to note is the point he is making. Difficulties come in life, and yet the Lord has been faithful through all of them. The Lord has carried him through all of these. And he goes on, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." The Christian life does bring adversity.
That the Christian life brings adversity is not something that preaches very well these days. We live in an era where you've constantly got to be succeeding. You've got to be going from better to best. You've got to have your best life now, your fullest life now, your most enjoyable life now. And there are movements within Christianity, such as the wealth and prosperity movement, that will say you should expect wealth, prosperity, and wellness. The implication in some of those movements is that if you don't experience wealth, prosperity, and wellness, then it’s your own fault. You didn’t exercise enough faith.
I suggest to you that here Paul makes it very clear: adversity, difficulty, challenge, poverty, all of these things can come, and they are not a sign that you lack faith. Paul is very realistic. Adversity happens in life, and yet we are not abandoned in it. God was with Paul. God carried him. Paul understood that the meaning of his life, the purpose of his life, was not bound up in some Greco-Roman notion of success.
Bear in mind where Paul is as he writes. This letter is very likely his last, and he is likely writing it from prison in Rome, anticipating his execution. Anticipating your own death can be a very somber time. And yet, looking back over his life, he is able to testify that God has rescued him from every trouble. In the midst of adversity, it became his opportunity to bear witness to Christ's unfailing love.
The people who have demonstrated the faith to me most powerfully are the ones who showed a persistent faith in the midst of suffering, a persistent joyfulness in the midst of physical infirmity. I suspect every one of us can call to mind some great saint we have known who continued to demonstrate that kind of faith in adverse circumstances. Perhaps their circumstances were not as extreme as Paul's; Paul lived a larger-than-life life. But we can all think of some saint who has demonstrated for us faithfulness through pain, loss, and adversity.
I'm not suggesting that all of us are called to suffer the way Paul suffered. Paul suffered greatly. Nor am I suggesting that we should run out and try to manufacture suffering. Life is hard enough as it is. What I do suggest is that Paul's example of faith in adversity calls into question the ancient idea of success, and it calls into question our contemporary ideas of success as well.
One example of someone questioning the contemporary model of success is the thinker Seth Godin. Seth is an interesting guy, more of a marketing and sales kind of thinker, and not writing from a particularly Christian point of view. For something like twenty-five years he has written a short post every day, and he has amassed more than ten thousand nuggets of business wisdom. I've been dipping into his material on and off for twenty-some years. From very early in his on he began to question the idea that you have to chase followers and chase attention, that success is measured in money and in the number of people who follow your accounts online.
In his 2025 post titled "What Sort of Success?" Seth questions contemporary notions of success:
“Who’s it for?” is not simply a question about your target customer.
Milton Friedman offered to let us off the hook–the only thing the work is for is to maximize shareholder value, he said. Nothing else is worth measuring.
I’ve never met anyone who consistently believed this. There are folks who find it easy to allow money to make their decisions for them, but at some point, all of us move away from this empty path.
Work is an expression of ourselves, and a chance to find meaning as we make a difference and earn a living.
When we choose to serve our customers, we find a more reliable compass instead of only following the money. The customers are right there in front of us, and we can see and feel the results of our work every day. This is the doctor who spends a few extra minutes with a patient in need, or the staff member with a boss who rewards a customer-centric approach, even (especially) if it’s more expensive in the short run.
Seth is questioning the notion of success that is sold to us. The scorecard we are sold says what matters most is income, how much we accumulate, all the stuff, all the toys and the goodies. Seth questions all of that. What matters, finally, is the opportunity to serve, the opportunity to bless another person.
Now, Seth is a secular thinker. And if a secular thinker can question the success we are sold, how much more does the Apostle Paul, in his embrace of adversity, raise questions about contemporary notions of success? Jesus was not a worldly success in any Roman sense, nor in any first-century Jewish sense. When you embrace faithfulness, and when you have an example who perseveres in faithfulness through adversity, it causes you to question all kinds of received ideas.
So what kind of person do you follow? Someone online saying, "Look at my big mansion! Look at my shiny car! Look at all my cash"? Or a living example who faces adversity and perseveres in faith?
The Examples Worth Following Are Shaped by Scripture
The last piece of this passage points us to the idea of following an example who is shaped by Scripture. Paul reminds Timothy "how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." For Timothy, those Scriptures would have been the books of Old Testament that he had received. Again, Paul is pointing away from himself. He says, "Follow me," and then he points to the Scriptures. And Paul makes clear that the scriptures bear witness to Christ.
The examples we follow are not people who are just winging it on their own wisdom, or who say, "Life's knocked me around a little bit. I know a few things. You ought to listen to me." That is not what Paul is saying at all. He is saying, "I am shaped by the Scriptures. Let the Scriptures make you wise. Let the Scriptures teach you. Follow me as I follow Christ, and follow me as I have learned the way through the Scriptures." It is a kind of triangulation. It's not just Paul; it's the word of the Lord. It is not his own wisdom; it is a received wisdom that he is simply trying to impart as best he can.
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Paul commends a source of wisdom and knowledge that goes beyond his own example. Yes, follow a living example. But the living example is telling you that you've got the playbook right in front of you. And not just the playbook. You've got the love letter from God. You've got the poetry that stirs your soul. You've got the wisdom that will keep feeding and stimulating your mind. You've got the direct hotline to the living God through God's word.
So following in the footsteps of Paul isn't just saying, "Let me do what you do." A significant part of following Paul is searching the Scriptures to discover the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit. It means taking up one of the big things he did: "Let me search God's word so that I can learn to hear the Holy Spirit for myself." The living example is not about pointing to oneself. It is about pointing people to Christ so they can become Christ followers on their own.
So who do you follow? Who are the living examples who have shown the way for you: the people who have persevered through adversity, the people who have leaned on Scripture?
Invitation to Reflection
I believe God has been speaking through the whole of worship, through the songs, through the fellowship, and through the word. Take a few moments to be still and listen to the Holy Spirit. What has the Lord been saying to you, and what step of faith might you take in response?
Questions for Reflection
What specific practice have I received from a mentor in the faith?
Whose example has challenged me to rethink success?
Where has Scripture corrected or equipped me recently?
This sermon is part of the Digital Discipleship Resources of Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. We create resources to help people take their next step of faith with Jesus.
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