Remember Jesus Christ! Does anyone ever really forget Him? It is a bit difficult to forget Him when His name is used worse than a curse word or as a word that implies shock or a disturbance. However, this is not the true remembrance Paul wrote to young Timothy about, nor the remembrance of Jesus Christ that God wants us to embrace. Too many of us say, “Jesus Christ!” just to say it. It seems to be part of our natural vocabulary in our everyday speech.

2 Timothy 2:8-9 reads, “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained.” Some suggest in the original Greek text, the word “that” should be excluded from the beginning of the verse. It would then read, “Remember Jesus Christ.” Some enemies of God suggest that Paul did not believe that Jesus Christ was a real man and walked the earth but rather was a mystical being made up in his mind. They base their foolish theory on the fact Paul did not speak of the birth, the life, or the family of Jesus Christ but only focused on the death by crucifixion and the resurrection. My beloved brothers and sisters united by the grace of God, let us not be reeled in by the blindness of the world. Paul speaks of what is important.

The turning point of each of our lives is in the death by crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord which brings us new life. Paul is very familiar with those two events. Some would even suggest he was present at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I would be surprised if he was not present. However, whether Paul was present or not, he embraced the grace of God through Jesus Christ with open arms when Jesus showed up to him on the Damascus road. When Paul would close his eyes, his past would try to attack him, he would remember Jesus Christ. We can always say “remember Jesus Christ,” but it is not always easy, yet it is life; our life. Paul’s history could not hold him down because his hope in the future lifted him up. Let that be true for us as well my beloved! In the midst of battle, remember Jesus Christ!