Day 157: March 24, 2026 – II Timothy 1-4, Proverbs 22 and Psalm 48

We close out Paul’s letter to Timothy and we find the most commonly used Scripture in the New Testament for Funerals: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. What’s not to like in these verses? There is one line that is problematic for me and which I just discovered this morning as I was reading which I don’t remember seeing earlier. You can find it in II Timothy 1:3 where he states that he is grateful to God whom he worships, as his ancestors did. Maybe it refers to the clear conscience that he mentions in regards to his worship. Maybe both he and his ancestors had clear consciousnesses when they worshipped God. My problem lies in the fact that I do not believe that we worship the same God as those who follow any other religion, including Judaism. This is not a value judgment, it is simply a fact. Different religions must worship a different God, and the old saying that people find very simpatico: there is only one God, is true but only so far as the one God that there is is either the God of Christianity through Jesus Christ, or the God of Judaism, without our Savior, or the God of Islam revealed through Muhammed. It is not all three, it is only one. As a Christian I would humbly posit that we worship the one true God, and the others do not. So, I guess that is something that I will find out when I am no longer in a state where I have to think about it.