Year 2, Day 330: 2 Timothy 4

The first section of 2 Timothy 4 is stuffed full of good advice – but it is inherently depressing at the same time.  Let’s start with the good stuff.

Goals

Paul gives Timothy a list of goals.  Preach.  In fact, not just preach.  Be ready in season and out of season.  In other words, if we are going to know the Word and know the God who gave us His Word, we need to be ready whenever He should call upon us to talk about our faith.  I’m reminded of one of the more scarier parables Jesus told – The Parable of the Ten Virgins.  It’s in what I consider the absolute scariest chapter in the whole Bible: Matthew 25.  Just read the two parables that follow this one and think about how scary the combined message really is. 

What is the point of the Parable of the Ten Virgins?  If you aren’t prepared you get left out in the cold.  So why does Paul tell Timothy to be ready to preach the Word in season and out?  Paul cares about Timothy and wants to do whatever it takes to make sure that Timothy isn’t left out in the cold.  All those in Christ would be wise to heed this advice.

Paul goes on.  Reprove, rebuke, exhort, teach.  In other words, relate to people spiritually.  Every single one of us will make mistakes.  We need to be reproved.  We must be rebuked.  Love corrects wrongdoing rather than allowing it to persist.  On the other hand, every one of us will have successes, too.  We need people to celebrate with us when we actually do the right thing!  We need to exhort one another.  Of course, we all have room to grow.  Every single one of us has need for a teacher so that we can grow.  The whole second half of Paul’s list is indeed about relating to one another spiritually.

A Bit of a Rabbit Trail

Did you ever hear people who say, “I believe in God and I have respect for God’s Word, but this whole organized religion thing and public worship just isn’t for me.”  Now, I get the point that people who say such things are really saying.  Organized religion isn’t perfect and churches are absolutely full of people who do a much better job of talking the talk than walking the walk.  I’m one of those people who have flaws and imperfections.  But if I don’t go to a spiritual community and relate, who is going to rebuke me and challenge me and reprove me and exhort me and teach me?  Can I do all of those things myself for myself?  That’s what Paul is getting at with respect to Timothy.

Future Conditions Of Ministry

Then Paul moves on to talk about a time coming when people will not listen to sound teaching and they will find people who will tickle their ears rather than challenge them.  Now, it is really easy to sit back and say, “Man, Paul was speaking about the end times there and we are surely getting close!”  And perhaps there is some truth to that.  But I think Paul is actually saying something far deeper than that. 

Paul knows that the cycle of humanity is a rollercoaster.  A generation or two love God.  Then there is steady and slow decline.  Things eventually get so bad that another generation down the road returns to faith.  The cycle repeats, and repeats, and repeats.  Don’t believe me?  Isn’t that what happened in Egypt?  Did not a faithful family of Abraham’s descendants go to Egypt only to end up 400-some years later with a horribly rebellious nation wandering the wilderness for 40 years until another faithful generation comes forth?  Is this not the pattern of the entire book of Judges?  Is this not the pattern we find over and over in Kings and Chronicles?  Has this pattern not repeated itself all throughout history?  Yes, there is a time coming – and may be upon us – where people will not listen to sound teaching.  Our focus is not on the frustrating dynamic that brings.  Nor is it upon identifying the “end times.”  Our focus is on finding the remnant that will carry humanity through to the next faithful generation.  Our focus is always on preaching, teaching, rebuking, reproving, and exhorting whoever will come and listen!

Poured Out As An Offering

Then we get to the sad part.  Paul tells us he is already being poured out as a drink offering.  He knows that he’s going to die.  His death is inevitable.  The world is about to snuff out the life of one of Jesus’ greatest evangelists to have ever lived.

But here’s the really cool part.  Paul knows it.  He knows it, and where is his focus?  His focus is not on his impending death.  His focus is on giving glory to God.  His focus in on helping Timothy and those who come after him to help focus on the task at hand.  His focus – even in the face of death – is on God and God’s work.  This is why I love reading the letters of Paul.  They may be hard to read and understand.  They may be challenging.  But they are true.  Paul is an incredible example of what a follower of Christ can truly look like even in the face of humanity’s greatest foe.

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