1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
Paul’s reality is a bleak one. He is in prison awaiting a final sentence. He knows that his time is short, yet there is still a great hope in Jesus’ second coming. At this point Paul has been preaching for close to thirty years, and his charge to Timothy carries a heavier meaning. Dianarturomai (charge in English) carries a solemnity to it, a testimony with legal connections. The testimony here is “under oath”, a real and binding stamp on Paul’s dissertation.
Preach the word: Paul’s first charge to Timothy is to not just interact with the word intellectually, but to preach the word from a spiritual core. The word must be part of him, in and around him; he must live in it and it must pour out of his life.
Be prepared in season and out of season: The second charge is to be ready all the time. In season is when the teaching comes easy. Out of season is when it is difficult. But the charge isn’t to pick our moments. The charge is to be ready for the opportunities that flow in and out of one’s life.
Correct, rebuke and encourage: Using the teaching of 2 Timothy 3:16-17, any of these actions must be accompanied by understanding. We must be connected to God’s word and understand the depth it can have for our life and others. Correction is when we seek to change behavior we see in others or even ourself. This is not judgment; it’s about measuring behavior against the word of God and bringing another back into the fold. Rebuking is calling out incorrect behavior sternly, but again, in the framework of the word of God. Encouragement is to bring people along in their spiritual evolution, again under the auspices of the word of God.
With great patience and careful instruction: You’ll note that both of these ways take great careened effort of the individual. We must operate gently in these avenues. We must come to others with understanding and endurance. Some problems and situations have a long shelf life. It takes many times of connection and instruction before someone can move forward. Instruction must always be in the framework of the word of God. Both of these are most effective when there is connection to the word and to others.
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. These verses are very powerful and applicable to our own time as well as during Paul’s time. Paul describes a time when people won’t listen to sound doctrine. Why? Remember, there is a spiritual assault active against all people, including Christians. The assault isn’t always overtly evil. Many times it’s a series of small steps that take us away from he path in subtle ways. Before long, the subtlety of evil brings us from a spiritual viewpoint to a world viewpoint. We’ve gone from the spiritual (selflessness) to the temporal (selfishness). Once we are in the temporal viewpoint, we want to feed our selfish nature, which often means we reinforce our selfishness by creating falsehoods in our personal theology. We create our own truths and look to outside sources for reinforcement of faulty ideas.
Once we’ve created new truth, we get rid of it by creating a new morality. That means that we create a new truth. These are not ideas reinforced by the word of God by by the world viewpoint. If we live long enough in it, we create a lifestyle. It becomes part of our identity until the new truth we’ve created is as essential to us as the air we breathe. We’ve turned away from the truth and now believe myths about ourself and the world around us.
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Timothy’s charge, as is ours, is to realize that our ministry is important work. There is clutter and confusion at every turn in the world system. The world viewpoint, after all, is built on the chassis of misinformation and lies. It is a corruption of God’s truth, meant to confuse and bewilder us just enough to take our eyes off the truth.
Keep your head in all situations: This is a very important bit of advice. How often do we keep our head in all situations? In the tornado of world events, it’s easy to lose our head. We become afraid, angry, envious and gluttonous. We starve ourselves of truth and buy into the lies and the worldly anger. It gives us a sense of control. But we really don’t have control, do we? Control is a fallacy and we’re always running after it. If I just worry enough, if I just work hard enough, if I just think hard enough. None of this works. In all situations it is important to stay rooted to the word of God, to use the strong mind and spirit given to us, and to remember the eternal implications of our actions.
Endure hardship: Patience is important when we are going through trials. Trials are meant to form us into a new way of connection with God and interacting with our world. Many times we consider trials as something in the way of progress. But God uses these to form us more fully. We are formed through patience to test our faith and build us stronger (James 1:2-4).
Do the work of an evangelist: Not all of us consider ourselves evangelists, but we are in the ways that God has shaped us. Some can speak to large groups while others are better one on one. Some reach others through art or writing or acting while others reach people through teaching and activity. Our work as an evangelist is spreading the gospel in the way we were designed.
Discharge all the duties of your ministry: We are required to give it all we have. If we are giving ourselves fully to the ministry, then not only obvious gifts and talents will come forward for use, but the hidden ones as well.
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Paul’s depiction of being “poured out” has a dual purpose. First, he is giving the illustration of a drink offering (Genesis 35:14). It was a legitimate OT way of sacrificing to God. But he is also revealing that he has given every bit of time, focus and energy to God and that offering is now being given to God. He knows his life is ending soon.
Oftentimes Paul used the analogy of the Christian life as as a race (1 Corinthians 9:24, Philippians 3:12-14, Acts 20:24). The point was never to win the race, but to finish it inside the rules. How does this apply? Our Christian life is about how well we operate with what we have, where we are, and who we affect. We are weighed down by sin, guilt and regret, but it isn’t about throwing it all off and becoming perfect. It’s about finishing the race as well as we can by following Jesus’ teachings and helping others.
8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Paul was focused on the race, but he understood the reward for finishing well. Some believe that he may have been too focused on the reward. Paul’s motivation, however, is plainly on running the race the best he can for the reward.
Personal Remarks 9 Do your best to come to me quickly, 10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12 I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
We see Paul in a lonely state toward the end of his life. So many have left him. Luke is the only one with him presently, but he yearns for Timothy. Demas went away from Paul because he loved the world. He fell into the worldly view and forgot the spiritual eternity he needed to follow. Crescens and Titus (we don’t know anything about Crescens but we know Titus was a faithful follower and was preaching) both seemingly went to other areas to carry God’s word forth. Mark (John Mark) and Paul had a falling out during Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13:13). He later joined with Peter and eventually proved himself to Paul during Paul’s first imprisonment.
14 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. 15 You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
Paul warns Timothy of this man, who originally was mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:20. Whatever specific harm was done to Paul is unknown, but there is a sense of betrayal and blasphemy. Judging from many of the warnings given to Timothy about yoking himself to certain godless people, we may be able to discern that Alexander had some of these traits.
16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Even though most had left Paul, Paul knew that God would not abandon him. Although some left for duty, others left out of sin and moving away from God. But Paul does not show bitterness to them. He still understands the great truth about trials: that God uses them for teaching and provides for us during and after.
Final Greetings 19 Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus. 21 Do your best to get here before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers and sisters. 22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.
These are Paul’s final words, and they are simple ones. They are the words of a man who loved and trusted God and used his final letter to build up Timothy so he could build up others. It is a letter of encouragement and acknowledgement that we all have a scope of influence that we are responsible for. We aren’t responsible for correcting all of the world’s problems or saving everyone in our sight, but we are responsible to run the best race we can.