2 Timothy 4
McGeeCHAPTER 4THEME: Instructions for the last daysIt is with a note of sadness that we come to the final chapter of 2 Timothy. Paul will be giving Timothy instructions for the last days. Then we will have Paul’s deathbed testimony, which probably are his last written words. We will detect his feeling of loneliness. He is in Rome, alone and incarcerated in that horrible Mamertine prison. He is cold and asks Timothy to bring his cloak. I have been down in that prisonI’d hate to be imprisoned there! He is lonely and the hours are long. He asks Timothy to bring his books, especially the parchments. But with the sadness and loneliness we will also hear a note of victory as Paul gives his final charge to his son in the faith. As we hear him, we will be hearing from God the thing He wants us to hear. This is His final word to you and me. If you are not prepared to accept this, I don’t think that He has anything more to say to you.
2 Timothy 4:1
PAUL’S CHARGE TO TIMOTHYThis is a very solemn charge or command in the presence of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. “Who shall judge the quick and the dead,” the living and the dead. “At his appearing and his kingdom.” Christ’s appearing and His Kingdom are not the same thing. His appearing is the epiphany, the rapture of the church. His Kingdom refers to the revelation of Christ when He returns to earth to establish His Kingdom. Twice He will do some judging. He will judge His own when He takes them out of the world. Also, He will judge those who turn to God in the Great Tribulation. All of us who are believers will come before Him for judgment at one time or another. Our lives are going to be tested to see if we are to receive a reward or not. Paul is saying, “In view of the fact that you, Timothy, are going to stand before Him to have your life judged, this is what you are to do.” These instructions to Timothy are just as pertinent in our day as at the time they were given by the mouth of Timothy. This is what God is saying to you and me right now.
2 Timothy 4:2
“Preach the word” means to proclaim the Word, to give it out, to herald it. This phrase is sort of a rallying cry, a motto that people respond to. You remember that we had such a thing during World War II: “Remember Pearl Harbor.” Back in the Spanish-American War, it was “Remember the Maine.” This is our rallying cry today: “Preach the Word.” “Be instant [diligent] in season, out of season.” In other words, he means we should preach at any time. If someone wakes you up at two o’clock in the morning you ought to be able to give out the Word of God. Notice that he does not say to preach about the Bible. A wiseacre student in my class at seminary often came up with some good comments. One day he said to the professor, “You could graduate from this seminary and never own a Bible.” Why did he say that? He said that because we studied about the Bible; we did very little studying of the Bible itself. Paul tells us to preach the Word, not just talk about it. Here is another subtle point: Paul does not say to preach from the Word. He does not say to lift a verse from the Bible and then weave a sermon around it. Someone has well said that a text is a pretext that’s taken out of its context. We are not to preach about the Word of God or from the Word of God, but preach the Word of God itself! “Be instant in season, out of season.” The word instant means “diligent,” or even better “urgent.” There is a compulsion upon us. We should be chafing at the bit, ready to give out the Word of God. “In season, out of season” means any time of the day or night, any time of the year, under any and all circumstances. “Reprove"it should be given with conviction. “Rebuke” actually means to threaten! It reminds me of a black minister, a wonderful man of God, whose pulpit I have often shared. I heard him really threaten his people. He said he didn’t want any deacons who were not going to “deac.” If they didn’t intend to “deac” he didn’t want them on the board. Not many preachers have the courage to say that! “Exhort” means comfort. There are times when believers really need comfort. “With all longsuffering” means that all of us who give out the Word of God need to exercise a great deal of patience. “Doctrine” means, as we have said previously, teaching. Every minister should have a teaching ministry. All of this is included in preaching the Word of God.
2 Timothy 4:3
“The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” I wonder if our contemporary society has come to this place. Although we are startled, amazed, and overwhelmed by the number of people today who are listening to the teaching of the Word, compared to the total population, that group is a very small percentage indeed. There are very few church members who will endure sound doctrine. They don’t want to hear it. What do they want? “After their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” Dr. Marvin R. Vincent discusses the meaning of this sentence in his Word Studies in the New Testament, Volume IV, pages 320-321: [They] shall invite teachers en masse. In periods of unsettled faith, skepticism, and mere curious speculation in matters of religion, teachers of all kinds swarm like the flies in Egypt. The demand creates the supply. The hearers invite and shape their own preachers. If the people desire a calf to worship, a ministerial calf-maker is readily found. That certainly is true today. Someone has said that the modern pulpit is a sounding board that is merely saying back to the people what they want to hear. “Having itching ears.” Again I quote Dr. Vincent, page 321: Clement of Alexandria describes certain teachers as “scratching and tickling, in no human way, the ears of those who eagerly desire to be scratched….” Seneca says: “Some come to hear, not to learn, just as we go to the theatre, for pleasure, to delight our ears with the speaking or the voice or the plays.” What a picture of our day! As someone has said, some people go to church to close their eyes and others to eye the clothes! In other words, they don’t go to church to hear sound (lit. healthy) doctrine! They don’t want to hear the Word of God; they want a substitute. Dr. Warren Wiersbe, former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, has said: They want religious entertainment from Christian performers who will tickle their ears. We have a love for novelty in the churches today: emotional movies, pageants, foot-tapping music, colored lights, etc. The man who simply opens the Bible is rejected while the shallow religious entertainer becomes a celebrity. And verse 2Ti_4:4 indicates that itching ears soon will become deaf ears as people turn away from the truth and believe man-made fables. That is a very excellent statement, and now let us read verse 2Ti_4:4
2 Timothy 4:4
They want something novel, something that will entertain them. When I first came to California, the late Dr. Arno C. Gaebelein, a great man of God who had been a very outstanding teacher, wintered out here in Pasadena, and I went to visit him. He asked me how I liked California, and I replied, “I love it here, but it’s very interesting that if I teach the Book of Revelation, I can fill the church (even during midweek service), but if I begin teaching the Epistle to the Romans, I can practically empty the church. I find there are people who will run all the way across this area to find out from a speaker just how many hairs are in the horse’s tail in Revelation.” He then made a statement to me that I shall never forget, “Dr. McGee, you’re going to find out in your own ministry that there are a great many people more interested in Antichrist than they are in Christ.” There are a lot of folk with itching ears. They like to hear about these strange, weird, unusual things. They want to be entertained, but they don’t want to be given the Word of God. Many people have told me that, when they started listening to me on the radio, they not only didn’t like my accent, they didn’t like what I said. They accused me of stepping on their toes. But I didn’t even know themI didn’t step on their toes; the Word of God did. I was just preaching the Scriptures. Then as they continued to listen, they found out that the Word of God was good for them. I’m sure there are many folk from whom I have never heard who tuned me in, then tuned me outbecause they didn’t want to hear the Word of God; they preferred to be entertained.
2 Timothy 4:5
The work of an evangelist didn’t mean what it does today. In Paul’s day an evangelist was a traveling teacher, a missionary. Paul was an evangelist in that sense. Now he says to Timothy, “You are to do the work of an evangelist,” which is what he did do when he was with the apostle Paul. “Endure afflictions"he warned that Timothy would suffer hardships for preaching the Word of God in the last days.
2 Timothy 4:6
PAUL’S DEATHBED TESTIMONYNow we come to a great passage of Scripture. Paul has written here his own epitaph. “I am now ready to be offered.” If you had gone into that execution room in Rome, you would have seen a bloody spectacle. Very candidly, it would have been sickening to see him put his head on the chopping block, to watch the big, burly, brutal Roman soldier lift that tremendous blade above his head, then with one fell swoop sever the head from the body and see the head drop into a basket on one side and the body fall limp and trembling on the other side. But Paul says if that’s all you saw, you really didn’t see very much. That happened to be an altar, and his life was being poured out as a libation, a drink offering. Paul used that figure of speech before in his letter to the Philippians, when he was arrested for the first time and thought death was before him. He wrote in Php_2:17, “Yea, and if I be offered [poured out as a drink offering] upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.” He wanted his life to be poured out. Now he could say at the end of his life that his life had been poured out like a drink offering. What was the drink offering? There were no specific instructions given by God to the Israelites concerning the drink offering. However, it is mentioned again and again in Exodus and Leviticus. The wine was taken and poured over the sacrifice, which, of course, was really hot because it was on a brazen altar with fire underneath it. You know exactly what would happen. The drink offering would go up in steam.
It would just evaporate and disappear. That is exactly what Paul is saying here. “I have just poured out my life as a drink offering on the sacrifice of Christ. It has been nothing for me but everything for Him.” Paul’s life would soon disappear, and all that could be seen was Christ. This is one of the most wonderful figures of speech he has used. So many Christians try to be remembered by having their names chiseled in stone or by having a building named in their memory. Paul was not interested in that type of thing.
He says, “My life is a drink offering poured out; Christnot Paulis the One who is to be exalted.” This is a very rich passage of Scripture. Paul’s epitaph is divided into two sections. The first is retrospective, in which Paul looks back upon his earthly lifethis is right before he is executed. Then the second part of the epitaph is the prospective. He looks forward to eternal life. The earthly life and the eternal life are separated by what we call death down here. Paul sums up his life in three different ways: “I have fought a good fight.” He has been a soldier, a good soldier. There had been a battle to be fought and a victory to be won. Here at the end of his life he says, “I have been a soldier of my Savior.” My friend, all believers should take that position. There is a battle to be fought, and every Christian should be a defender of the Word of God and stand for the great truths of the Bible. “I have finished my course.” Life is not only a battle, life is a race. Paul was a disciplined athlete who was striving to win the prize. During the race Paul was keeping his body under subjection. He was attempting to live the Christian life in such a way that he would not be disapproved. He wrote in 1Co_9:27, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection….” Paul also wrote in Heb_12:1-2 (I consider him the author of that book): “…let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith….” Now at the end of his life he could say, “I have finished my course"he had touched all the bases; he had completed all that God had planned for Him. “I have kept the faith.” Life had been a trust from God, and he had been a good steward. He had kept the faith. He had never veered from the great truths and doctrines in the Word of God. What tremendous statements these are! Now let’s return to his statement in verse 2Ti_4:6: “my departure is at hand.” Departure is from a different Greek word than the one used in 1 Thessalonians for the departure of the church at the Rapture from this earth. Paul himself was going through a different doorway. Believers who are living when the Rapture takes place will not go through the doorway of death. “…We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye …” (1Co_15:51-52). The Greek word which Paul uses in speaking of his departure is analusis, an entirely different word. It is made up of two words, one of which is luo, which means “to untie or unloose.” Analusis could be used to refer to untying anything, but basically it was a nautical term used for a ship which was tied up at the harbor, ready to put out to sea. Paul had an altogether different conception than that which is popular today. I’ve heard this so often at funeral services: “Dear Brother So-and-So. He’s come into the harbor at last. He’s been out yonder on a pretty wild sea, but the voyage is over now, and he’s come into the harbor.” Paul is really saying just the opposite of this. He’s saying, “I’ve been tied down to the harbor.” And that is what life iswe haven’t been anywhere yet; we’ve just been tied down to this little earth. I know of only one writer from the past who has caught this meaning of Paul’s. Tennyson wrote as the first verse of his poem, “Crossing the Bar”: Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea. That’s what death is for the child of God. It is a release for us. Paul says, “Don’t look at my execution and let blood make you sick. I’m like a ship that has been tied up at the harbor. When death comes, I’m really taking off to go and be with Christ, which will be far better.” “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.” This brings us to the positive side. Paul is looking forward to the future. He is expecting a crown of righteousness. A crown is a reward, and he will receive his reward someday. I don’t think it has been given to him yet, but the Lord has it for him when He starts passing them out. There are several such crowns mentioned in the New Testament. For example, 1Co_9:24-25 reads: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” That is the athlete’s crown for being a winner on the racetrack of life. Also there is the soulwinner’s crown, mentioned in Php_4:1: “…my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown….” A crown is given for having a part in leading folk to the Lord. Paul will have many crownsthere is no doubt about that. “A crown of righteousness” is, I believe, the reward for a righteous life, and Paul will receive that. “Unto all them also that love his appearing” does not refer to doctrine you hold regarding His appearing. You may be a premillennialist, a postmillennialist, or an amillennialist. I have news for you: there’s no reward for holding any one of those views. The question is: Do you love His appearing? To love His appearing means that you will have to love Him. Oh, my friend, do you have a close relationship with Him? Have you ever told Him that you love Him? (I have a notion that Paul told the Lord every day that he loved Him, because he had hated and persecuted Him before.) There is a crown for those who love His appearing. I would like to have that crown. I believe it will shine brighter than all the others.
2 Timothy 4:9
PAUL’S LAST WORDSWe have heard a triumphant note in the preceding verses, but now it’s not so triumphant. Paul faces the reality of his situation. Why does he say this? He is lonesome. When I visited that Mamertine prison, I thought of these words.
2 Timothy 4:10
Demas took offhe couldn’t stand the heat. So he left Paul and went to Thessalonica, which was quite a distance. “Titus unto Dalmatia.” I don’t know if these other brethren had a legitimate excuse for leaving Paul, but I think Titus did. Paul probably sent him to Dalmatia to perform a ministry in his behalf. I don’t know enough about Crescens to defend him.
2 Timothy 4:11
“Only Luke is with me"good old Dr. Luke stood by Paul clear to the end. “Take Mark, and bring him with thee.” Remember that Paul wouldn’t take John Mark with him on his second missionary journey. But Paul had been wrong about Mark, and now he was able to say that Mark was profitable to him in his ministryand I am glad he said that here as one of his last words.
2 Timothy 4:12
Paul sent him back to Ephesus because he was the pastor of the church there. He couldn’t stick around Rome indefinitely since he was pastoring a church. Now notice something that is quite revealing
2 Timothy 4:13
Paul asks for his cloak or coat which he had left at Troas. This reveals a little of Paul’s suffering. I have been in that prison in May and June, and it was cold in there. This is a request for his physical need. “And the books, but especially the parchments"he needed something to read, something for his mind.
2 Timothy 4:14
His “reward” won’t be what Alexander would consider a reward! I am sure God will judge him for what he did to Paul.
2 Timothy 4:15
Paul warns Timothy to be on guard against him. He is one of those laymen who will softsoap you, then put a knife in you when you turn your back. Watch out for him.
2 Timothy 4:16
“At my first answer” was either the preliminary hearing which opened Paul’s final trial, or it was his first trial in Rome three years earlier. Paul was alone at that time.
2 Timothy 4:17
Paul had asked Timothy for his cloaksomething for his bodyand his books and parchmentssomething for his mind; now here is something for his spirit: “The Lord stood with me.” All of us, whether in or out of prison, have needs in these three areas. It is wonderful to be able to say, “The Lord is with me.” “I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion"he was spared execution at that time.
2 Timothy 4:18
Paul knew he was going to be translated to heaven. Paul concludes this personal letter to Timothy with references to these mutual friends
2 Timothy 4:19
Notice that he again urges Timothy to come, and to come before winter. This concludes the tremendous swan song of the apostle Paul.