Reading: 2 Timothy 1-4, Psalm 22

Paul’s second letter to Timothy is a very unique epistles. It offers instruction and encouragement, but more than that it is intensely personal. This comes from the circumstances of it’s writing. It is pretty obvious that Paul wrote this letter from prison, but that this was unlike his previous imprisonment. Paul sees the end of his life approaching, and is concerned that Timothy not be discouraged by his imprisonment and impending death. He also has experience both support and betrayal in Rome, and wants to warn Timothy against those who have been unfaithful. This letter is his encouragement to Timothy, his warning against those who have betrayed the gospel, and his last declaration of allegiance to Jesus Christ.

The letter opens with Paul’s personal message that he misses seeing Timothy, but that his faithfulness is an encouragement to him. He engages in a little typical Pauline cleverness by equating Timothy’s family history of belief with the history of the entire Jewish people. As the people of God often suffered but were resurrected in the Jesus Christ, Paul encourages Timothy to see Paul’s own suffering as simply another opportunity for God to be faithful. He reminds Timothy that he faithfully proclaimed the gospel, and that this imprisonment is simply that outcome of playing the game by the rules. He did not get distracted by other pursuits. He will go to his death for this work, remembering that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

Paul goes on to charge Timothy with passing the torch to others as Paul did to him. Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to get caught up in meaningless arguments. He compares such things to gangrene, which rots a person away. He names as example a couple of guys who are running around saying that the resurrection has already occurred. This makes them useless to the gospel. Paul wants Timothy to remain useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work and to encourage others to be the same. The next part is where it gets hard: have nothing to do with foolish ignorant controversies, but be kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting opponents with gentleness. The goal is that God might perhaps bring them to repentance leading to knowledge of the truth. The most important lesson, the one Paul put in the center of his last letter, was to looks always and only for repentance to life in the name of Jesus. The gospel is everything, at all times.

This will not be easy. Paul uses incidents of rebellion against Moses as examples of how even the chosen people may not listen to the good news of the gospel. But leaders like Timothy must hold on to the Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through Jesus Christ. The antidote to false teaching, to those running after the world, to the confusion brought about by persecution, is the Story. All through the New Testament, we hear the Story of the Hebrew Scriptures called upon to refute opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul here makes a clear statement on where Timothy and those he teaches are to go for their authority: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Paul charges Timothy to preach the word, ready in season and out of season. He warns him that people will not listen. That they will wander away. That they will teach false things. Timothy is to endure suffering, do the work of the evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

In the closing of the letter Paul makes a final declaration of his own allegiance. He knows that the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to be on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. There are many declarations of dependence in the Scripture, from Moses to David to Isaiah to Daniel, but this may be the most dramatic. Paul is in prison and sees his own execution coming soon, but sees this only as the completion of the path set before him by a righteous judge.

Paul’s last words are simply greeting and requests. He wants to see Timothy before he dies, and asks him to bring his old travelling companion Mark with him. He lets Timothy know where the various workers of the gospel have gone, and that Luke is with him in Rome. In an interesting window into the common moments of the lives of these ancient people, he asks for a cloak, some books, and some parchments. He warns Timothy against Alexander, a coppersmith who did Paul great harm. He references his first defense, at which no one came to stand by him, but the Lord stood by me, not to win the defense, but that the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. That he was rescued from the lion’s mouth was secondary. As he has lived his life, Paul puts the message of the gospel above all things, counting on God to bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.