What Does 2 Timothy 2:6 Mean?

(6) **The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.**—Again the picture is painted from every-day life. “The husbandman that laboureth”—with an emphasis upon “that laboureth”—is the successful tiller of the ground; “the *labouring* husbandman” it is, for whom the earth brings forth her increase. It is the enduring, patient, self-sacrificing toil that is rewarded in the affairs of common life—the man that “endures hardness,” whether as a soldier, or athlete, or tiller of the ground, wins the reward; and as in the world, so in religion. Further on in the Epistle the Apostle speaks of *his* having won the crown of righteousness. *He* had *endured hardness* of every conceivable kind; every affliction for the Lord’s sake he had endured save death, and *that* he was expecting, and knew it could not long tarry. The teaching of St. Paul in this triple picture is—not *every* soldier wins its commander’s applause, but only the veteran who devotes himself heart and soul to his profession; not *every* athlete wins the crown or prize, but only he who trains with anxious, painful care; not *every* tiller of the ground gathers the earth’s fruits, but only the patient toiler. So must it be in religious life. It is not enough to *say* we are Christians, or even to *wish* to be of the brotherhood of Christ. Men must really *live* the life they say they love.