Timothy 4:6-8
Over the last month or so, we’ve twice briefly dipped our feet into Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy, his son-in-Christ, and Paul his great Godfather.
As I’ve said before, this is Paul’s last letter, written from a Roman jail shortly before he was beheaded. He writes in v.6, “the time of my departure has come.”
In some ways this is an immensely sad letter. He writes in v.16, “At my first defence no one came to my support, but all deserted me.” Alone and knowing he is about to be put to death by the imaginative-if-insane Emperor, Nero.
But it is also an immensely hopeful letter. He fully knows that the Lord will defend him from the ultimate evil of death, and on that day he, and all who long for the Lord’s coming, will be crowned with the crown of righteousness.
This morning, we are only looking at three verses, 6-8, and they follow directly on from last week’s reading of this letter.
To summarise last week. Paul was warning Timothy that the times are coming when people will not put up with sound teaching but will surround themselves with teachers who will only tell them what they want to hear – who will tickle their ears.
So therefore, writes Paul, preach the word, that is the good news of Jesus Christ as found in Holy Scripture, because it is the truth, breathed out by God and set afire.
Today’s reading begins in v.6, “I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come.” A libation is a drink offering to a deity and this is a remarkable opening verse!
A drink offering in the Old Testament was wine that poured out or splashed over the altar as a sacrifice to God.
What makes this verse so beautiful is that it is in what they call the ‘passive voice’. Paul is not pouring himself out but is being poured out. Paul is not pouring out his life, as it were, before the altar and neither is the Roman government taking his life.
God, sovereign in all things, has seen fit to pour out Paul’s life in this manner.
As in all the lives of his children, God is sovereignly in control. Paul then says such a simple thing, “The time of my departure has come.” Not death, but departure. The word here literally means ‘to loose or loosen.’ The time has come when his mooring ropes will be loosed and he will go to our Lord, just like a boat departing.
Paul knows that God is hauling up his anchor, and he is leaving port purely because it is on God’s timetable for this boat to depart. What humility even at his final hour.
Paul is not the master of this ship, nor is the Roman Emperor Nero. God has already appointed the time of Paul’s death and Paul humbly submits to his master’s call.
Paul is looking death in the face and does not cower like those who have no hope. Nor does he give a warlike smile and yell “bring it on!” like a pagan warrior might, longing for Valhalla or the Elysian Fields.
Rather, Paul uses this opportunity to submit in humility and worship, as one final example and encouragement to Timothy.
Which brings us to the heart of this passage, v.7, which could serve as a perfect summary of his life. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith.” This will be familiar to many as it is part of our baptism service.
The emphasis here is all on perseverance, not triumph. He says he has fought, not that he won. He finished the race, not that he won it. He is encouraging Timothy, and all of us, that even though we too are being poured out by God, just keep going.
Would that we too, may have that said of us when we depart!
The good fight is better understood as the good struggle. The idea is not that of armed conflict or a boxing match but that of effort, struggle, strife, and contention.
No opponent is mentioned because Paul is not struggling against another being. His ministry itself is the struggle.
Sometimes, working with and for the Lord is an exhausting struggle, yet it is a good and beautiful and holy struggle.
It does no one any good, especially us, if we burst out of the blocks with great power and speed, only to collapse on the side of the track halfway through the race.
Paul has run his race and finished it. That is all any of us can do, and it is enough. It is sufficient and adequate.
So whatever the Lord has us doing now and in the future, don’t quit. Everything we do in the name of Jesus becomes our ministry. Parenting and Grandparenting in a Godly way are a ministry.
Helping those who are perhaps literally our neighbours becomes our way of showing the great love of God.
Paul is encouraging us to embrace it and finish it. That’s all. The lowliest work in this life is valued as the highest of all in heaven become it comes from a humble and obedient heart.
Finally in v.7, “I have kept the faith.” This is not a metaphor, as the first two are. I pondered over this all week, and I think that Paul is referring to the sum total of Christianity. The complete word and teaching which we believe and trust to be the absolute truth.
The work “kept” here doesn’t mean ‘retained’, it means guarded and protected. Just as the large tower in the middle of a castle is called ‘the keep.’
Paul here is saying I have guarded our faith from everything that is not the truth, by all I have taught and done. What Paul constantly refers to as the truth of Jesus Christ and him crucified.
His life has been a protective defence of the gospel, so graciously given to him by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus – which is why Paul describes himself as an apostle, but the one who was abnormally born.
He is urging Timothy to preach only the truth of the Word, i.e., Christ Jesus and him crucified, and guard this same faith as I have done. He is saying it to us, too.
Now, even close to his end, Paul turns to worship. It is not in his own strength that he has struggled, finished, and guarded. It is the Spirit of the Living God who provided this power to him and to all of us.
He is utterly confident in v.8, as we all can be, because it is the truth in Christ Jesus and him crucified, to say,
“From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
He is not speaking of a reward that only he will get because he is Paul. He is saying that all those who love the Lord and can’t wait for his appearing will also be crowned, because they too, are in a righteous relationship with God in Jesus Christ. That’s us!
So there are two main things thing I’d like us to take from these three small verses. The first concerns the work that remains. We keep doing what we are doing for the lord. We may never see great results lit up in a huge neon light over us.
But the Lord God Almighty and the whole host of heaven see because they are all looking at Jesus, Son of God and darling of heaven, who has made his home with us here in Drayton
The second thing is how we approach our own coming departure. For surely, we will all depart. He did not look forward to death, but neither did he run from it.
He simply obeyed his master’s call until death prevented him from going any further. That will be enough for us as well. Let me