“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
In a fundamental sense, no sinner is approved by God unless he receives that approval in Jesus Christ. This is our justification. But it is not the case that God relates to us in our justification, and we are on our own with regard to sanctification. We grow in grace (by faith) throughout the course of our lives, and as we do, we are seeking to present ourselves to God in a way that He would approve. This applies to all Christians, and in this text, Paul is talking about the sanctification of the minister, the one who handles the Word. We are to come before God in a way that seeks His approval, knowing that we cannot seek that approval from Him unless we have already sought it from Him, and have already received it. On that foundation, we can seek to have a ministry that meets His approval.
The fact that we strive to be working who have no need to be ashamed means that it is possible to be a workman who ought to be ashamed of his ministry. When Paul speaks to this situation elsewhere, he describes some Christian ministers as building on the foundation of Christ with wood, hay, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:12). They will be saved, but their ministry will be consumed. Others build a ministry to last, one that will be purified and tested with divine fire, but will gloriously survive the divine fire. Not to put too fine a point on it, we are living in wood, hay and stubble times.
It is striking that the absence of shame that is commended here is an absence of shame that comes from a right handling of the word of truth. God is not playing hide and seek with us in His Word. He reveals to His church what He wants the Church to know, and reveals what He wants His ministers to preach. Those who do so faithfully are presenting themselves before God as Paul urges Timothy here.