20060127
    Paul was a condemned man. It was only a short time before he was going to finally be convicted of treason and executed by the Romans. In that knowledge, he wrote his second letter to Timothy, and likely his last letter ever, to give his young pastor and protégé what last encouragement and advice.
    In the final chapter of 2 Timothy, we see Paul, the great apostle, in the glory of his faith. What other man, except one saved in Christ and ruled by the Holy Spirit, could sit in chains, awaiting execution, abandon by friends, and yet still calmly send workers to where they were needed and write a letter to a trusted friend.
    Consider the final warning that Paul gives Timothy at the close of this letter, because it is a warning that we should heed even today. Paul warns Timothy against the world and against the very real truth that our fellow men will eventually reject even the presence of the teaching of the Truth of God. Even in our present era, this fact is painfully true.
    We do not know whether Timothy was able to make it to Rome, whether he ever recovered Paul’s cloak and scrolls from Carpus in Troas, but we can be assured that he received this letter, for its successful delivery ensured its survival to this day. And with that survival, comes the message of the Spirit through the writing of the Apostle Paul, words we would do well to heed even today:
    1 I solemnly 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: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
    This is a charge to be heeded by all Christians, whether a pastor, a church worker, or a layman, for this is how we fulfill our Great Commission and carry on the work of Christ.
Amen
DLH
