Intimacy with Christ

2 Tim. 1:8; 4:14-17

It was not that they altogether ceased to be Christians, or abandoned the Christian profession, but they turned their backs upon Paul and left him on the day of trial. Now, it is under such circumstances that the heart turns, with particular tenderness, to individual faithfulness and affection.

If one is surrounded, on all sides, by true-hearted confessors—by a great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1)—a large army of good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 2:1-3)— if the tide of devotedness is flowing around one and bearing him or her on its bosom, he or she is not so dependent upon individual intimacy with Christ.