This week’s readings tell one story through many voices: the story of a faithful God who acts toward a faithless people. From Naaman’s resistance to the cleansing word, to Paul’s reminder that “if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13), we see the same pattern where grace meets pride, mercy meets resistance, and God’s steadfast purpose breaks through our unbelief.
God’s Faithfulness in Our Resistance (2 Timothy 2:8–13)
Paul writes from prison, urging Timothy to remember Jesus Christ as “risen from the dead, the offspring of David.” He grounds this reminder in the unshakable character of God: even when His people are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
That verse is not mere comfort; it’s a confession. Humanity’s story since the fall is one of rebellion and resistance to grace. Like Naaman, we often rage when God’s mercy doesn’t arrive in the form we expect. We prefer grand gestures to humble, quiet, obedience. Yet God’s faithfulness is not conditional. God’s faithfulness flows from His own nature. He cannot cease to be who He is. His constancy and immutability exposes our pride but also becomes the foundation of our hope.
The Proud Humbled and the Unclean Cleansed (2 Kings 5:1–15c)
Naaman, the Syrian commander, arrives at the prophet’s house expecting spectacle. Perhaps he is expecting a prophet’s incantation, a dramatic healing, a moment worthy of his status. Instead, he receives a simple command: wash in the Jordan and be clean. In anger, he nearly walks away.
Here we see both denominational traditions and themes converge. Human pride resists grace because it wants to contribute something, to make the exchange reasonable. But God’s mercy is received, not earned. Like justification itself, Naaman’s healing comes through trusting the word of promise, not through merit. When he finally humbles himself and obeys, cleansing comes and his confession follows: “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”
Grace leads to faith, and faith leads to worship.
From Cleansing to Gratitude (Luke 17:11–19)
This theme continues in Luke, where ten lepers cry out for mercy and are sent by Jesus to the priests. As they go, they are healed but only one, a Samaritan, returns to give thanks and glorify God. Like Naaman, this outsider receives not only physical healing but saving faith: “Your faith has made you well.”
Both stories reveal the proper response to divine mercy. God’s faithfulness is not meant to be observed at a distance but it calls forth gratitude, worship, and testimony. The Samaritan’s return mirrors the heart of worship itself: turning back to glorify the One who has already shown mercy.
A Church Formed by Faithful Grace (2 Timothy 2:14–15, Psalm 111)
Paul closes the passage by urging Timothy to remind the church of these truths, to “present yourself to God as one approved.” The foundation of that approval is not human perfection but divine faithfulness. The church exists because God keeps His promises. Biblical immutable covenants to Abraham, to David, to His Son’s body, now His people.
Psalm 111 captures this perfectly: “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.” The works of God’s mercy form the worship of God’s people. Gratitude and obedience flow not from fear but from wonder.
Glorifying the God Who Cannot Deny Himself
Taken together, these readings reveal a single truth: our faith may falter, but God’s faithfulness never does. When we resist His word in pride or forget His mercy in comfort, He still acts according to His covenant love. He cannot deny Himself.
The proper response is not guilt or striving, but worship. Like Naaman emerging from the Jordan, and the Samaritan falling at Jesus’s feet, we glorify the God who cleanses, restores, and calls us His own. The church exists for this purpose, to be the people through whom His unchanging faithfulness is made known to the world. When you come to church on next Sunday morning, think not of presenting oneself like Namaan, but sick, a leper, who will be healed not because we demand healing but because God will not deny Himself in being God.
A Note on Translation
Most translations, including the ESV, NIV, NRSV, and NASB, preserve Paul’s powerful phrase in 2 Timothy 2:13 nearly word for word: “He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” The slight differences in rendering (“He cannot disown Himself” in NIV; “He cannot deny who He is” in NLT) all underline the same truth—God’s covenant faithfulness flows not from human worthiness but from His own unchanging nature.
Jeremy Miller
Church Elder