2. The Basis of the Charge (verses 1, 3–8)

2. The Basis of the Charge (verses 1, 3–8)

    I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
    For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and 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 me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
(2 Timothy 4:1-8 ESV)

It has already become apparent in early chapters of this letter both that Timothy was diffident by disposition and that the times in which he lived and worked were—to say the least—unpropitious. He must have quailed as he read the apostle's solemn charge to him to keep preaching the word. He would be tempted to shrink from such a responsibility. So Paul does more than issue a charge; he adds incentives. He bids Timothy look in three directions—first at Jesus Christ the coming judge and king, secondly at the contemporary scene, and thirdly at him, Paul, the aged prisoner approaching martyrdom.

[2 Timothy, Page 110]

a. The coming Christ (verse 1)

 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

Paul is not issuing his charge in his own name or on his own authority but 'in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus' and therefore conscious of the divine direction and approval. Perhaps the strongest of all incentives to faithfulness is the sense of a commission from God. If Timothy can only be assured that he is the servant of the most high God and an ambassador of Jesus Christ, and that Paul's challenge to him is God's challenge, then nothing will deflect him from his task.
    The main emphasis of this first verse, however, is not so much on the presence of God as on the coming of Christ. It is evident that Paul still believes in Christ's personal return. He wrote of it in his earliest letters, especially those to the Thessalonian church. Although he now knows that he will die before it takes place, yet still at the end of his ministry he looks forward to it, lives in the light of it and describes Christians as those who love Christ's appearing (8). He is sure that Christ will make a visible 'appearing' (the word is epiphaneia in verses 1 and 8), and that when he appears he will both 'judge the living and the dead' and consummate 'his kingdom' or reign.
    Now these three truths—the appearance, the judgment and the kingdom—should be as clear and certain an expectation to us as they were to Paul and Timothy. They cannot fail to exert a powerful influence on our ministry. For both those who preach the word and those who listen to it must give an account to Christ when he appears.

b. The contemporary scene (verses 3–5)

    [3] For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, [4] and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. [5] As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
(2 Timothy 4:3-5 ESV)

Notice the word 'for' or 'because' (gar) which introduces this paragraph. Paul is giving a second basis on which to ground his charge. It is another future event, not now the coming of Christ but, before that end point, the coming of dark and difficult days. Although the apostle seems to be anticipating that the situation will deteriorate, it is also plain from this paragraph and from what he has written earlier that such a time has already begun for Timothy. It is in the light of this contemporary scene that he issues further directions.

[2 Timothy, Page 111]

    What are these times like? One characteristic is singled out, namely that people cannot bear the truth. Paul expresses it negatively and positively, and states it twice: They 'will not endure sound teaching, but … accumulate … teachers to suit their own likings' (3). They 'will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths' (4). In other words, they cannot stand the truth and refuse to listen to it. Instead, they find teachers to suit the speculative fancies into which they are determined to wander. It all has to do with their ears, which (in the Greek sentence) are mentioned twice. They suffer from a peculiar pathological condition called 'itching ears', 'an itch for novelty'.1 AG explain that the expression is a figure of speech for that kind of curiosity which 'looks for interesting and spicy hits of information'. Further, 'this itching is relieved by the messages of the new teachers'. In fact what the people do is stop their ears against the truth (cf. Acts 7:57) and open them to any teacher who will relieve their tickle by scratching it.
    Notice that what they reject is 'the sound teaching' (3) or 'the truth' (4), and what they prefer is 'their own likings' (3) or 'myths' (4). They thus substitute their fancy for God's revelation. The criterion by which they judge teachers is not (as it should be) God's word but their own subjective taste. Worse still, they do not first listen and then decide whether what they have heard is true; they first decide what they want to hear and then select teachers who will oblige by toeing their line.
    How is Timothy to react to this? One might guess that such a desperate situation should silence him. If men cannot bear the truth and will not listen to it, surely the prudent course will be for him to hold his peace? But Paul reaches the opposite conclusion. For the third time he uses those two little monosyllables su de, 'but as for you' (5; cf. 3:10, 14). He repeats his call to Timothy to be different. He must not take his lead from the prevailing fashions of the day.
    Now follow four staccato commands which seem to be deliberately framed in relation to the situation in which Timothy finds himself and to the kind of people to whom he is called to minister.
    1. Because the people are unstable in mind and conduct, [2 Timothy, Page 112] Timothy is above everything else always to 'be steady'. Literally, neœphoœ means to be sober, and figuratively to 'be free from every form of mental and spiritual drunkenness' and so to 'be well-balanced, self-controlled' (AG). When men and women get intoxicated with heady heresies and sparkling novelties, ministers must keep 'calm and sane' (NEB).
    2. Although the people will not listen to the sound teaching, Timothy must persist in teaching it and so be prepared to 'endure suffering' on account of the truth he refuses to compromise. Whenever the biblical faith becomes unpopular, ministers are sorely tempted to mute those elements which give most offence.
    3. Because the people are woefully ignorant of the true evangel, Timothy is to 'do the work of an evangelist'. It is not clear whether the reference is to a specialist ministry such as is implied in the only other New Testament passages where the word occurs (Acts 21:8; Eph. 4:11). The alternative is to interpret it of anybody who preaches the gospel and witnesses to Christ. In either case Paul is bidding Timothy: 'make the preaching of the Good News your life's work' (JB). The good news is not just to be preserved against distortion; it is to be spread abroad.
    4. Even if the people forsake Timothy's ministry in favour of teachers who tickle their fancy, Timothy is to 'fulfil' his 'ministry'. The same verb is used when Paul and Barnabas had completed the relief work which they went to Jerusalem to do. 'They had fulfilled their mission', Luke writes (Acts 12:25). Just so Timothy must persevere until his task is accomplished.
    Thus Paul's four words of command, although different in detail, convey the same general message. Those difficult days, in which it was hard to gain a hearing for the gospel, were not to discourage Timothy; nor to deter him from his ministry; nor to induce him to trim his message to suit his hearers; still less to silence him altogether; but rather to spur him on to preach the more. It should be the same with us. The harder the times and the deafer the people, the clearer and more persuasive our proclamation must be. As Calvin puts it, 'the more determined men become to despise the teaching of Christ, the more zealous should godly ministers be to assert it and the more strenuous their [2 Timothy, Page 113] efforts to preserve it entire, and more than that, by their diligence to ward off Satan's attacks'.1

c. The aged apostle (verses 6–8)

    [6] For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. [7] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. [8] Henceforth there is laid up 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 loved his appearing.
(2 Timothy 4:6-8 ESV)

The third ground of the apostle's charge is yet another coming event, namely his own martyrdom. The link between this paragraph and verse 5 which precedes it is plain. Paul's argument runs like this: 'But as for you, Timothy, you must fulfil your ministry, for I am already on the point of death.' It is all the more vital for Timothy to continue and complete his ministry because the apostle's life-work has reached completion and is about to close. As Joshua had followed Moses, and Solomon David, and Elisha Elijah, so now Timothy must follow Paul.
    The apostle uses two vivid figures of speech to portray his coming death, one taken from the language of sacrifice and the other (probably) of boats. First, 'I am already on the point of being sacrificed.' Or 'Already my life is being poured out on the altar' (NEB). He likens his life to a libation or drink offering. So imminent does he believe his martyrdom to be that he speaks of the sacrifice as having already begun. He goes on: 'the time of my departure has come'. 'Departure' (analysis) seems to have become a regular word for death, but we need not necessarily conclude from this that its metaphorical origin had been entirely forgotten. It means 'loosing' and could be used either of striking a tent (which Lock favours,2 because of the soldier's 'I have fought a good fight' in the following verse) or of 'release from shackles' (which Simpson mentions),3 or of untying a boat from its moorings. The last is certainly the most picturesque of the three possibilities. The two images then to some extent correspond,4 for the end of this life (outpoured as a libation) is the beginning of another (putting out to sea). Already the anchor is weighed, the ropes are slipped, and the boat is about to set sail for another shore. Now, before the great adventure of his new voyage begins, he looks back over his ministry of about 30 years. He [2 Timothy, Page 114] describes it—factually not boastfully—in three terse expressions.
    First, 'I have fought the good fight'. The words could equally well be translated 'I have run the great race' (NEB), for agoœn denoted any contest involving exertion, whether a race or a fight. But since the next phrase clearly alludes to the race or course he has finished, it seems probable that Paul is again combining the soldier and athlete metaphors (as in 2:3–5), or at least the wrestling and running metaphors.
    Next, he writes, 'I have finished the race'. Some years previously, speaking to the elders of the very Ephesian church over which Timothy was now presiding, Paul had expressed his ambition to do just this. 'I do not account my life of any value,' he had declared, 'nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus …' (Acts 20:24). Now he is able to say that he has done so. Both the verb and the noun he uses are the same. 'What had been a purpose was now a retrospect,' comments N. J. D. White.1 He could use the perfect tense in each of these three expressions, as Jesus had done in the upper room,2 because the end was so clearly in sight.
    Thirdly, 'I have kept the faith'. This may conceivably mean 'I have kept faith with my Master'.3 But in the context of this letter, which emphasizes so strongly the importance of guarding the deposit of revealed truth, it is more likely that Paul is affirming his faithfulness in this respect. 'I have safely preserved, as a guardian or steward, the gospel treasure committed to my trust.'
    So the work of the apostle, and to a lesser extent of every gospel preacher and teacher, is pictured as fighting a fight, running a race, guarding a treasure. Each involves labour, sacrifice and even danger. In all three Paul has been faithful to the end.
    Now nothing remains for him but the prize, which he terms 'the crown (or better 'garland') of righteousness', which is 'laid up' for him and which will be given him at the winning post 'on that Day'. Though intrinsically valueless, being made of evergreen [2 Timothy, Page 115] leaves rather than of silver or gold, the garlands won by victors in the Greek games were greatly prized. 'Many a little town in those days', writes Bishop Handley Moule, 'took down a piece of its white wall in order that its son, crowned with the crown of the isthmus or of Olympia, might enter it by a gate unused before.'1 The crown which Paul anticipates he calls 'righteousness' (dikaiosyneœ). From his pen the word would most naturally mean 'justification'. But perhaps here it has a slightly different legal connotation, and is in deliberate contrast to the sentence he is expecting any day to receive from a human judge in a human court. The Emperor Nero may declare him guilty and condemn him to death, but there will soon come a 'magnificent reversal of Nero's verdict'2 when 'the Lord, the righteous judge', declares him righteous.
    The same vindication by Christ also awaits 'all who have loved his appearing'. This is not, of course, a doctrine of justification by good works. It is hardly necessary to emphasize Paul's continuing conviction that salvation is a free gift of God's grace, 'not in virtue of our works but in virtue of his own purpose and … grace' (1:9). The crown of righteousness is awarded to all those who 'have set their hearts on his coming appearance' (NEB), not because this is a meritorious attitude to adopt but because it is a sure evidence of justification. The unbeliever, being unjustified, dreads the coming of Christ (if he believes in it or thinks about it at all). Being unready for it, he will shrink in shame from Christ at his coming. The believer, on the other hand, having been justified, looks forward to Christ's coming and has set his heart upon it. Being ready for it, he will have boldness when Christ appears (1 Jn. 2:28). Only those who have entered by faith into the benefit of Christ's first coming are eagerly awaiting his second (cf. Heb. 9:28).
    This then is 'Paul the aged', as he has described himself a year or two previously in his letter to Philemon (verse 9). He has fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith. His lifeblood is on the point of being poured out. His little boat is about to set sail. He is eagerly awaiting his crown. These facts are to be Timothy's third spur to faithfulness.
    Our God is the God of history. 'God is working his purpose [2 Timothy, Page 116] out, as year succeeds to year.' 'He buries his workmen, but carries on his work.' The torch of the gospel is handed down by each generation to the next. As the leaders of the former generation die, it is all the more urgent for those of the next generation to step forward bravely to take their place. Timothy's heart must have been profoundly moved by this exhortation from Paul the old warrior who had led him to Christ. Who led you to Christ? Is he growing old? The man who introduced me to Christ is now living in retirement (though an active one!). We cannot rest for ever on the leadership of the preceding generation. The day comes when we must step into their shoes and ourselves take the lead. That day had come for Timothy. It comes to all of us in time.
    So then, in view of the coming of Christ to judgment, of the contemporary world's distaste for the gospel and of the imprisoned apostle's imminent death, the latter's charge to Timothy had a note of solemn urgency: Preach the word!

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Regards,
Ryan Chia

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Mission exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.

From John Piper, Let The Nations Be Glad