Bible Commentaries
2 Timothy 4

Verses 1-22

XV

PAUL’S FINAL WORD

2 Timothy 4:1-22

This chapter concludes the second letter to Timothy. We commence with 2 Timothy 4. This chapter is one of unexampled solemnity. All the circumstances make it so, as well as the character of the man who wrote it and the character of the man to whom it was written. It is Paul’s final word in the form of a charge.

Nearly everybody who delivers the charge when a preacher is ordained uses some of this 2 Timothy 4, and very appropriately. I call attention to the significance of the word "charge." Sometimes it is used in the sense of "adjure." The high priest said to Jesus, "I adjure thee before God." To adjure means to put on oath. "I put thee on oath before God, are you the Messiah?" "I am." That is the same as if he had sworn it with uplifted hand. A charge has that signification. "Oh, Timothy, I put thee on thine oath before God." It also has the meaning of enjoining very solemnly.

Now we will see how he charges: "I charge thee in the sight of God and of Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom." God, Christ, Christ’s appearing, Christ’s judgment of the living and the dead, Christ’s kingdom! What an assemblage of solemnities!

Now do what? Preach the word. The emphasis there is on "the word." Preach the word. Over and over again we have noticed that Paul had a system of truth which he received from Christ and which he delivered to Timothy, and that this system of truth is the most precious deposit in the world. That is what he must preach. That is the supreme limitation of the theme of the preacher. I have felt shame, sorrow, and contempt, all blended, at some things I have heard from the pulpit. They were nice enough little things, but nothing from the word of God, nothing to convict a sinner, nothing to lead a sinner to Christ, nothing to lead a babe in Christ to maturity in Christian knowledge, nothing to develop high, holy, and enduring Christian character. Preaching is a solemn work.

Just here I commend to the reader what Cowper says about the preacher who gets up in the pulpit to be a mountebank instead of a herald of the cross. "Imagine Spurgeon before a mirror practicing the attitudes and postures he will assume when he goes to preach!"

"I charge thee in the sight of God, and of Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the living and the dead, by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word." Some call me cranky on the subject of what I preach. One man, in criticizing my first book of sermons, said, "There is too much scripture in it." I thanked him for his criticism. I try to preach sermons that are literally saturated with scripture.

"Be urgent in season and out of season." Perhaps a little better rendering would be: "Be alert," that is, "keep your eyes open, do not go through the world sleeping." To be alert is to be ready. I traveled once with an old Indian scout, and the most notable feature about him was his alertness I could see his eye play over every bush or tree, over the mountains or plains. Not a thing in the range of his vision escaped his notice. He was alert. Everything around him was searched for a token of the presence of an enemy. He slept that way. I noticed that when he went to bed everything was put right where he could get it. He could in one minute after sudden waking be ready for a fight. That is alertness, and that is the thought here rather than urgency. The thought is: "Be alert in season and out of season." Any man can be alert under some circumstances. They are pregnant with warnings. But other circumstances lull into a sense of security. Paul urges alertness at all times, so as not to be taken by surprise.

Now come a number of words which have a special signification: "Reprove [or rather, convict], rebuke, exhort." "If your brother sin, convict him," that is, first make him see his sin. Then, having shown him his sin, rebuke, or admonish him; then having admonished him, exhort him, and let all of it be done with all possible forbearance and long-suffering, line upon line. A pastor should keep in mind John’s vision of the alert Son of God, moving among the churches, noticing everything, taking cognizance of all conditions.

He assigned the reason for this solemn charge: "For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine." We are to preach the sound doctrine – the word – for a time will come when our congregations will not endure the sound teaching; when they will not want it. They will want something else. What will they do? "Having itching ears," that is, ears eager to hear pleasant things, "they will heap to themselves teachers after their own desire." The times do come when people won’t hear sound doctrines. One of the saddest instances I know was the case of Jonathan Edwards, who is regarded, and particularly after his great revival, as one of the theologians since Paul. He insisted that in order to save that place the old-time word of God must be preached; that there is a devil and he must say so; that there is a hell and he must say so; there is imminent danger of falling under the wrath of God, into the hands of Satan, into the depths of hell. He preached that, and a most marvelous revival followed. Before the close of the series of meetings, which this sermon originated, 250,000 people were converted. Jonathan Edwards was the oracle of God. But there came a time in that very community when they would not hear Jonathan Edwards. They wanted a different sort of teaching, and just about the unsoundest piece of Christendom today is the section where Jonathan Edwards was repudiated. If one wants to get a set of preachers that know just the least part of the gospel, that is the place to find them. They have heaped up to themselves teachers that are according to their own desires. I have been in places, strategical places, mighty places, and have groaned in my soul because some mighty man of God was not in charge of that place. Maybe some preacher is in charge, and the people want him in charge, who does not care a snap of his finger for the mission work, for the cause of Christ, for anything except a good, comfortable, easy pastorate. I never wanted to be a bishop in the Methodist sense, but if I were a bishop I would make some quick removals.

I have seen churches turn away from preachers of real ability and unquestionable piety, preachers whose history demonstrated that they were alive with life, glory, and power. They were shelved, or turned out to make way for some popinjay, whose ministrations never instruct, never develop, but who holds the young people together. The trouble about ministrations of that kind is that when the older people of the congregation die off, the younger people do not know anything at all about doctrine and would just as soon drift into one denomination as another, or away from them all.

Old Dr. Lyman Beecher, the greatest of all the Beechers, saw that illustrated in his own children, and yet he is the man who stood up and said, "The time will come when the imposture of Mohammed will be exposed, when the principles of Mormonism will receive no favor in an intelligent community. But I fear the time is also coming when the preachers will preach a gospel that has no power to awaken a sinner, nor to save him after awakened, nor to console a broken heart, but of simply enough power to lull him to sleep until the day passes and the night of eternal death has come."

"They will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables." What did the apostasy which he predicted do when it came? It turned aside from the truth to accept the infallible declaration of the Pope. It condemned the giving of the word of God to the people. It reared up monasteries and nunneries where marriage was adjured and where a string of fables concerning the saints were doled out instead of the word of God. That time did come when people left the Bible, the impregnable rock of the Holy Scriptures, to take up something else.

He exhorts Timothy as to his own conduct. "Be sober in all things. Suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry." Can we ever get that thought sufficiently in the minds of our preachers – that the ministerial service is a hard service and that the preacher has a course to fulfil, so that whether he lives long or dies soon he ought to be able to say: "I have finished my course, I have fulfilled what I had to do"?

This deep concern of Paul arose from his knowledge that his own day of departure was at hand. The gospel must be transmitted. It must not die with him. He had fought his fight and finished his course, but who would be the standard bearer when the flag fell from his nerveless hand? "The time of my exodus has come." This is the same word in the Greek that we have in Moses’ time. It means the unmooring of a ship. The time had come for that ship to go out on an unknown sea. In view of that fact he takes a backward look at his life, and this is what he says: "I have fought a good fight; I have finished the course. I have kept the faith." There is not one iota of the revelation made to me that I have swerved from. I have preserved it inviolate, and I desire to transmit it intact.

Now we come to a new thought: "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day." This is a reward. There are several kinds of crowns mentioned in the Bible – a crown of victory, a crown of rejoicing, and there is a crown which Jesus will bestow upon faithful laborers. The question is, When will he do it? In other words, as soon as Paul died did he get his reward? He did not; that is not the doctrine at all. He got his salvation, which was not a reward, but grace. He went straight to God, for to be absent from the body is to be present with God. His reward is laid up and will be bestowed when Jesus comes again. At the second advent of our Lord is the time for the bestowing of rewards. Then, according to our fidelity as Christians, will we be rewarded. As it is said by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3, where he compares a preacher to a builder whose foundation is Christ, and if any man build on this foundation of bad material like wood, hay, and stubble, he shall suffer loss that day – the day that tries by fire. But if he has built with enduring material, gold, silver, precious stones (not jewels, but good building rock), he will get his reward.

Now I will tell a dream which I had. I am sure that my study of the subject had something to do with my dreaming it. It seemed that I was just gliding around. I could lift myself up without making a step, without wings, and move with great rapidity by volition. Moving that way I came to a glorious habitation. I don’t know how I got in, but when I got inside I saw a vast hall with the most glorious objects that my eyes had ever beheld or my heart had conceived of, hanging on the walls: jewels, medals, badges of honor, and everything on earth I could conceive of. Finally, I came and stood right under one, by far the most glorious of all, and read this inscription: "This crown is reserved for Paul."

When that day comes and every Christian stands before God, according to his fidelity as a Christian, he will be rewarded or suffer loss. That does not touch the question of salvation. He says here that Christ will not only reward him, but all that have loved his appearing, all who have believed in his advent. I am sure that when the time for this distribution comes, it will be an eye-opening time. Many people will be startled. People who expect their crown to be a brilliant diadem will get but small reward. Instead of their ship coming in with every flag flying and mast standing, it will have to be towed in by the tug, Grace. It barely gets in, and is "saved as by fire."

I give one more scripture before closing this chapter. The last book of the Old Testament states that one cannot right now altogether discern between righteousness and wickedness. Some sins go before man and some follow after. There are a great many things that keep us from discerning the righteous and the wicked now, but when we appear before God on that day, we shall discern between the righteous and the wicked.

In Malachi 3 he says that in a time of great spiritual dearth, when it looked like everybody was going astray, there were some who feared God, and who spake often one with another. God-fearing men who thought much about heaven, and about prayer, held their communions with each other. The record says that God listened, that he heard what was said, and’ commanded the angel to write it down. "That is worth keeping. Put that in a book. That which men count great you may pass over; it does not amount to anything, but here is something worthy of record, these God-fearing men and women, in this awful spiritual dearth, speaking of heaven one to another, put down what they say."

QUESTIONS

1. Of what does this last chapter of 2 Timothy consist, and what use has been made of it?

2. What is the meaning of the word "charge"? Give example.

3. Name the five Solemnities with which he gave this charge.

4. What the charge?

5. What the meaning of "be urgent in season and out of season"? Illustrate.

6. What the reason he assigns for this charge? Give an instance.

7. What danger to the rising generation here pointed out? Give an instance.

8. What did the apostasy which he predicted do when it came?

9. How does Paul exhort Timothy as to his own conduct?

10. Why this deep concern of Paul?

11. What his famous parting words?

12. What Paul’s reward, and when bestowed?

13. What the basis of our rewards? Cite other scripture.

14. Give the author’s dream relative to this point.

15. What startling facts mentioned here will be brought out at the Judgment?