The Charge of a Soldier

2 Timothy 4:1-9

Here it is, Paul’s “last hurrah.” This is his last chance before signing off to give Timothy what he needs to live after he is gone. What is the most important thing Paul wants Timothy to remember? 2 Timothy is a relatively short letter, but it is not until here in chapter 4 that we see the capstone command that Paul wants Timothy to maintain. Everything we have studied so far in 2 Timothy comes to a crescendo in 4:1-8. Here we find Paul’s enduring command that must guide our priorities and decisions as we seek to lead lives for Jesus.

1. The Charge: Proclaim the Word (4:1-5). Paul has spent this entire letter getting to this point. He has reminded Timothy of his heritage; he has commissioned him to courage, to character, to confidence, and to compassion. He has shown us the wiles of our crafty enemy, and in the passage we studied last week we saw the capable equipment that God has given to each and every one of us to overcome the enemy and be victorious in Christ. With all that in mind, Paul takes on a very serious tone, mustering his full authority for the command to come:

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 Timothy 4:1)

Paul gathers up all of his authority as Timothy’s spiritual father, and all of his apostolic authority, and puts that weight to bear right at the beginning of chapter 4. The word translated “solemnly charge” is used to command people in matters of extraordinary importance.[1] Paul is definitely not kidding around! We get even more of a sense of the importance and weight that Paul is bringing into this command when we see who is around to witness the charge: God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only is Jesus mentioned by name, but His Second Coming is the basis for the commands to come. Paul seems to have resigned himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to make it to Jesus’ appearing, and reminds Timothy that Jesus will judge those who do live until Christ comes again (i.e. “the living”) as well as those who have died in the interim (i.e. “the dead”). Jesus will come again, and when He comes He will judge every single person who ever lived. Those who never place faith alone in Christ alone for eternal life will face the judgment of the Great White Throne of Revelation 20:11-15.

That’s not the only judgment that Scripture gives us, though. We have seen several times already in 2 Timothy that Paul has alluded to the judgment that believers will face in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 for their faithfulness, a judgment that Jesus talked about in the parables of the minas (Luke 19:11-27) and the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). As we continue to look through our passage I think we will see that this is the judgment Paul has in mind; he is commanding Timothy based upon the judgment that Timothy will be accountable for at the end of his life.

…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. (2 Timothy 4:2)

Paul is straightforward with his command: Preach the Word! “The Word” that Paul obviously has in mind is the Scripture he just mentioned in 3:16, the profitable, inspired Word whose purpose is to make us capable and equipped for every good work. There are a couple of ideas that I want to slow down and take a close look at in this verse. In modern America the word “preach” has taken on a very negative idea. When someone “preaches” at you, they’re seen as talking down their nose and acting “holier-than-thou.”[2] The word translated “preach,” though, really means “proclaim.” The image that I get when I see this word is a medieval image of a royal messenger, unfurling a decree from the king and shouting it out for everyone to hear. “Hear ye, hear ye!” He’s not standing in judgment; he’s simply making sure that everyone hears what the king has to say. That’s what it means to preach the Word! The way Paul puts this command in the Greek text he wants us to make it our top priority[3], to put it as the first and foremost item on our agenda. Proclaiming God’s Word must be the most important thing that we do.

While we might be tempted to think that verse 2 is limited in its application to pastors or “preachers,” I doubt that Paul would have wanted it restricted that way. We all must be ready to proclaim the Word, ready to make known what the biblical message is. Not everyone in our congregation is called to be a Greek scholar, a counselor or a pastor, but we are all called to have enough of the Word of God in our hearts to be able to faithfully live out and understand God’s standard for our lives. We must be ready “in season and out of season,” meaning whether it is convenient or not. I also notice that proclaiming the Word will take “great patience and instruction.” When we proclaim the Word, people just won’t understand and will fight against it. Even so, we must stay the course and patiently and lovingly proclaim the truth of God’s Word.

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, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

As we have seen, Paul is a realist. He knows that there will be people in our lives who won’t listen. The word “tickled” is probably better translated “scratched;” the image pictures someone reacting to an itch by scratching it. Because they need to scratch an itch, Paul says that people will gather up piles of teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. It’s as if Paul is writing right to us today! How many people will react to hearing the biblical message by trying to find some supposed “expert” who agrees with their opinion instead? If they can find two or three people who agree with them on Google, they feel like they can ignore the Word. Once their ears are scratched, they are happy.

The perfect example of this lifestyle is our dog, Grace. Grace is a lab mix who weighs about 50 pounds and constantly struggles with ear infections. Her ears are always itching! Whenever someone is sitting on the couch, Grace will come over and try to get them to scratch her ears. If you scratch for awhile and then stop, Grace will whimper and snuggle up to your hand to try to get you to scratch her. When you finally shoo her away, she’ll move on to the next person. She doesn’t care who it is as long as her ears get scratched! Paul gives us the same image here, of people wandering from teacher to teacher trying to find someone who will scratch where they itch. They aren’t interested in a permanent solution any more than Grace likes it when I clean out her ear. They’re only interested in getting rid of the itch.

I think that the danger that Paul is warning Timothy about is not so much the opportunity he might miss in failing to get them before they head into error, but maybe in light of verse 1 the danger Timothy faced was in trying to accommodate his message to become a good “ear scratcher.” Because he was in a struggle with his opponents for recognition and respect in his church it would have been very tempting to try to craft the message that he thought they wanted to hear and then insert a tidbit or two of biblical truth in there under the radar. There was a real danger of compromising the truth of the message in order to be peaceful and popular. And if these people had “piled up” teachers they probably had a list of names. This is the modern equivalent to “Well, X famous televangelist, and Y internet blog, and Z writer and W secular psychologist all disagree with you and agree with me, so they must be right and you must be wrong.”

But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:5)

Yes, the opponents had a good marketing strategy. Yes, they were popular. No, Paul reminds us, we shouldn’t follow them! The word “sober” has at its root the idea of self-control,[4] and that idea fits very well into Paul’s message here. Timothy has to show some self-control and not run after the winds of culture. We must not give in to the temptation to be so culturally relevant that we compromise the message of Jesus Christ. It will not be easy to resist the desire to be well-liked! I know that the desire to be respected and appreciated is one I struggle against; I want people to like me. Here, though, I am reminded that whenever that bug tries to bite me I must remember that one day I will stand before the King of Kings and Lord of lords; that’s the day I want to focus on, because all of the respect and appreciation of people will not matter if I have been displeasing to Jesus.

This then, is our charge from the Lord: proclaim the Word! Be biblical before you worry about being relevant. The Word of God is relevant to every people in every age, and certainly Paul used culture to bring the gospel to people. What we are warned of here, though, is accommodating the message to the audience so much that the message is changed or lost in the shuffle. There will be lots of pressure to “go along to get along” in our world[5]. Whose judgment is more important to us, the world’s judgment today or the Lord’s judgment on the last day?

Take a good, hard look at your life. Are you making each decision as if you will lay it at the feet of Jesus today?
Is your relationship with Christ the first priority in your life? Do you consider His approval when you are thinking about what decisions to make? Have you asked Him to help you see the issues clearly and not sacrifice His Word for an easy path?
If you think about it for a minute, we control ourselves in a lot of areas in life because of fear of punishment. We don’t speed like mad because there might be a police officer nearby to write us a ticket. We don’t fudge numbers on our taxes in case we get audited. We don’t cheat on tests because we might get caught. Have you thought about the fact that Jesus is omniscient, and every time we ignore Him to accommodate our outside pressures He knows it?

2. The Reason: The Approval of Christ (4:6-8). There are two fundamental ways that we can gain motivation for the way we live: fear of punishment and hope of reward. This forms the bedrock of our society! In a free-market Republic we obey the laws to stay out of trouble and work hard to earn the ability to live well. Paul uses negative motivation in verses 1-5 to help us see the risk we take for disobedience; in verses 6-8 he shifts gears and gives us the positive reasons for our obedience.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. (2 Timothy 4:6)

Paul can’t help Timothy stay on the straight-and-narrow any more. Timothy will have to stand on his own feet and serve Christ without his mentor to guide him. The term “departure” carries the image of a ship setting sail after releasing its mooring lines, or an army breaking camp and heading out. It’s an obvious analogy to death. Though it looks to me like Paul’s a little sad that he won’t get to be alive to see Jesus come back again, he reminds Timothy here that he is going on ahead to face the very judgment at the feet of Jesus that he has been discussing. In this book we have seen time and again the contrast between the conduct of Paul and the conduct of Timothy’s opponents, and now we get to see Paul’s analysis of his efforts at proclaiming the Word:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; (2 Timothy 4:7)

He uses two athletic contest images to begin with. One of the original Olympic contests was boxing, and Paul thinks he has acquitted himself well in the boxing ring. Another contest was a footrace, and Paul says that he has finished the race laid before him. Lastly Paul tells us that he has “kept the faith,” which isn’t an athletic image. He breaks out of the metaphor here to describe for us what his imagery has been about. The word “kept” is a term that has the idea of guarding or keeping custody of a charge.[6] I think what Paul has in mind here is that he has guarded the truth of Scripture with his life, and has been faithful to the task that God has given him. He has been a faithful servant. Finally Paul gives us the “so what” of his self-analysis:

…in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. (2 Timothy 4:8)

We have to jump back into the athletic analogy to get Paul’s point here. The “crown” that Paul talks about is the Greek stephanos, from which we get the name Stephen. The stephanos was the wreath given to the victor in the games, or to a public official who had done his duties well and faithfully, often at great personal expense. This crown was a reward; it gave public recognition of his faithfulness and the great benefit he had been to the community. Probably here Paul has in mind the idea that this is a “crown for righteousness;”[7] in other words, because Paul has been faithful and has lived his life with the end in mind, he will receive the victor’s wreath. These are the “crowns” of Revelation 4:10, which we will cast at the feet of Jesus upon His return.

What a great motivation to serve the Lord! Instead of the negative thought of His judgment, Paul gives us the positive option of receiving great reward from our Lord. “Well done, good and faithful slave” (Matthew 25:21) is the reception Paul has to look forward to as he enters into the celebration of his Master. I notice as well that Paul expands this crown past himself. This isn’t a “winner-takes-all” event! Paul says that everyone who eagerly seeks after the coming of the Lord Jesus will receive a crown just like it. Not only can Paul and Timothy hear “Well done;” Paul says that we can hear it from our Lord, too. Some of us can be “scared straight” by the thought of Jesus’ watching over our lives; for me, the thought of having a crown to lay at the feet of Christ gives me “holy bumps.”

Are you eager to meet Jesus? That’s what it means to “love His appearing.” Do you look forward to the day that He comes for us?
If your life ended today, could you make the same statement Paul did? Are you running the race today like it might be the end? Are you fighting the fight like this might be the last round?

Proclaim the Word. Stay close to the truth. We have both negative and positive motivation to look to Jesus to help us avoid the pressures from the world to accommodate the message. The question is, will we listen to Paul or to the world, to God or to Satan?

All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, and are used by permission.

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[1] See Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. Διαμαρτύρομαι. (referred to as BDAG)

[2] Incidentally, in my opinion the fault for this idea does not fall solely upon our society’s rejection of biblical truth. At least an equal portion must be laid at the feet of the church, whose hypocrisy has led to a rejection of God’s message.

[3] See Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics - Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI; Zondervan, 1996), 720 for the discussion of this instance of the constative aorist.

[4] See BDAG, s.v. νήφω

[5] I am reminded of a recent (August 12, 2007) AP story about the ELCA Lutheran church having a national meeting urging their bishops not to defrock openly gay and lesbian ministers who violate celibacy pledges. Even discounting the huge issue of ordaining those who could not meet the standards of 1 Tim 3 and Titus 1, the very fact that the church is considering allowing their clergy to openly violate a pledge that they had willingly signed without any ramifications tells me that the church is indeed in danger of making the error Paul is talking about. These kind of issues are very common today.

[6] See BDAG, s.v. τηρέω definition 1.

[7] BDAG notes that this is an objective genitive, and notes that recognition of uprightness is a common topic in Greco-Roman decrees. In other words, it was common to mention the “righteousness” of the servant or victor being recognized.