But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me…
2 Timothy 4:17 (NKJV)

Paul pleads with Timothy, he warns him, he commands him – and he has some requests. They come from a man who is facing death, lonely, but looking back on a life of fulfilling a calling from Christ to preach His gospel (2 Timothy 4:7). Depending on how you do the counting, there are at least eighteen different commands or requests. Timothy is told, among other directions, to ‘stir up the gift of God’ (2 Timothy 1:6); to pass on Paul’s teaching to ‘faithful men’ (2 Timothy 2:2); to ‘avoid foolish and ignorant disputes’ (v.23), and – to make sure he takes Paul a warm cloak (2 Timothy 4:13). There is real urgency about the message that Paul has for Timothy in this epistle. He was making what might be a final appeal to someone he numbered among those faithful to the true gospel message that Paul had seen corrupted. 2 Timothy was written around AD 64-65, so there was a battle for preserving the gospel message very soon in the history of the church.

The corruption that Paul was battling against came from within the church, and in 2 Timothy he names some of the perpetrators: people who have ‘turned away’ from him (2 Timothy 1:15), and those whose ‘profane and idle babblings… will spread like cancer’ (2 Timothy 2:16-17). Paul’s comments were not directed at unconverted people but at those who, at some point, were convicted of the saving work of Jesus, or at least professed to have been. This battle, or ‘fight’, that Paul refers to, is ongoing and he warns Timothy that this will continue. It continues to this day, where it is always a battle to preserve the true gospel of Christ – not to add to it, or to take away from it. The gospel can only be preached if its purity is preserved.

What Paul couldn’t do for Timothy, and the faithful leaders he commanded Timothy to raise up, is to promise them a good life – at least not in this life. He couldn’t say, ‘Look at me. Live like me and life will be easy and full of blessings.’ This is embedded in the poem found in  2 Timothy 2:11-12:

For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him.
If we endure, We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him, He also will deny us.

Paul was imprisoned, probably awaiting the death penalty. The promised future of reigning with Christ was real to him. 

The insights we have into Paul’s life through his writings show us how he was able to make sense of the Old Testament scriptures in the light of the risen Christ. Timothy also has this understanding – having been well taught from these same scriptures by his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5), and then hearing the gospel preached by Paul. As Timothy no doubt set out to visit Paul, loaded down with his cloak, some parchments, some books – and Mark (2 Timothy 4:11), he would have known that being seen as his friend would have put himself in danger, but he would have had Paul’s words ringing in his ears: ‘…and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.’ (2 Timothy 3:12).

Prayer
Heavenly Father, as you give each one of us opportunity to proclaim the gospel that Jesus preached, give us the courage to face any difficulties and challenges, any resentments, any anger, and to remember that your reward is eternal. In Jesus’s name, Amen.