2 Timothy 4:1–22
The people of God solemnly preach God’s word at every opportunity, despite opposition and suffering, as they follow the example of godly leaders, asserting their lifelong faithfulness to God and to their ministries, confident of ultimate deliverance and eternal rewards.
It is apparent that the entire pericope is written with much emotion, expressing the characteristics of the apostle’s “last will and testament.”
While there are five second person imperatives in 4:2—“preach,” “be ready,” “reprove,” “rebuke,” and “exhort”—the second (“be ready,” accompanied by two adverbs, “in favorable time, in unfavorable time”) qualifies the first, together exhorting Timothy to “be ready and preach the word” at any and every opportunity. Thus these four particular imperatives ( “[readily] preach,” “reprove,” “rebuke,” and “exhort”) can be paralleled with the four avenues of the profitability of Scripture (in 3:16: for “teaching,” “reproof,” “for correction,” “for training in righteousness”). The eschatological dangers posed by heretics is given in 4:3 as the reason for this strong stance on preaching. While Timothy was urged to be ready to preach “in favourable time” and “in unfavourable time” (4:2), in 4:3 we have a warning about a future “time,” one of disinterest and intolerance to “sound teaching” manifested by devotees of false teachers.
Paul then turns the spotlight on himself with an autobiographical note (4:6–8). (The relative frequencies of the first-person singular pronouns in the Pastoral Epistles are illuminating: out of a total of forty-three, 1 Timothy has six, Titus four, and 2 Timothy thirty-three! And in 2 Timothy, 4:6–8 is probably the most personal of all its paragraphs.) We are given Paul’s reason for bombarding Timothy with imperatives: his time is running out. Besides this pressing personal and emotional reason, Paul is also encouraging his delegate with the assurance of eternal rewards for those who have been faithful in the Lord’s service (4:7–8). So we have the present tense in 4:6 (Paul’s imminent passing), the past in 4:7 (his irreproachable performance), and the future in 4:8 (his inevitable prize), all imbued with a sense of urgency befitting a final missive to his protégé. However, unlike in athletics, the crowning reward for this race is for all who have persisted and persevered: they are all winners!
Unlike 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy proceeds to a close with a cluster of personal names and references, autobiographical snippets and plaints, and final instructions and warnings. Demas’s moral and geographical movements mark 4:10: morally, he had loved the world; geographically he had abandoned Rome (and Paul) for Thessalonica. Alexander, too, was an antagonist to the apostle (4:14–15). Luke, though, remained faithful to Paul and the ministry (4:11. And Mark appears to have been rehabilitated (4:11) after the earlier separation from Paul (Acts 15:37–39). Tychicus (4:12) may have been the bearer of this Epistle, as he apparently was for other Pauline letters.
While no human supported Paul (4:16), he was confident that the Lord had stood with him (4:17). The “deliverance” in 4:17 was only temporary and earthly, but that in 4:18 would be permanent and heavenly. And with that confident assertion of the Lord’s deliverance in every facet and on every side, a doxology is evoked upon God, “to whom [be] the glory from eternity to eternity! Amen.” (4:18). A final set of names and a greeting conclude the this very personal letter (4:19–22)—the final recorded words of Paul in Scripture. According to tradition, Paul was beheaded on the Ostian Way, about three miles south of Rome, around 65 CE.
[For more details, see my commentary on 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus.]
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching. 