Fulfill Your Ministry
1 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge z the living and the dead, a and because of his appearing and his kingdom: b 2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. 3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, c but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. 4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. d 5 But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, e fulfill your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, f and the time for my departure is close. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 There is reserved for me the crown g of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, h will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing. ,i
Final Instructions
9 Make every effort to come to me soon, j 10 because Demas k has deserted me, l since he loved this present world, and has gone to Thessalonica. m Crescens has gone to Galatia, n Titus o to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke p is with me. Bring Mark q with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry. 12 I have sent Tychicus r to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak I left in Troas s with Carpus, as well as the scrolls, especially the parchments. 14 Alexander t the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his works. 15 Watch out u for him yourself because he strongly opposed our words.
16 At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. v May it not be counted against them. 17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that I might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. w To him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.
Benediction
19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, x and the household of Onesiphorus. y 20 Erastus z has remained at Corinth; I left Trophimus a sick at Miletus. b 21 Make every effort to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters.
22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.
B. Third appeal, part two: . . . and preach the gospel (4:1–5). 4:1–2. In an ultimate effort to strengthen his timid protégé’s resolve, Paul brings Timothy before God (4:1; for Christ’s role in future judgment, see Ac 17:31; Rm 2:16; 1 Co 4:5; 2 Co 5:10). He puts Timothy under oath and defines his duty with crisp imperatives, five in 4:2 and four in 4:5. The overarching command comes first: “Preach the word”—Timothy is the herald of God’s restoration of creation and pardon for sinners through Christ. Second, Timothy is to be “ready in season and out of season.” Contemporary teachers wrote about the need to accommodate the disposition of their audience. Accordingly, Paul tells Timothy that in view of the urgency of the moment and the dire need of the church in Ephesus, he is to be ready to “rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching.”
4:3–5. Paul resumes the sober “later times” thoughts of 1 Tm 3:1–5, 12–13. Timothy should expect to encounter people who become discontent with sound doctrine and who seek teachers who merely satisfy spiritual lusts (4:3a). The false teachers specialize in ego-gratifying, speculative storytelling (4:3b–4). “An itch to hear,” it would seem, implies eagerness to hear that resurrection life is all in the “now.” In contrast with all counterfeit gospels and all false approaches to what it is for God to refashion us in his image, Timothy is to offer himself as one who is sober, courageous, godly, and just (4:5).
C. Paul’s final testimony (4:6–8). Chief among the reasons that Timothy must get over his timidity (1:7) is that, to anticipate Paul’s athletic imagery (4:7; cf. 2:5), the baton is being passed. Paul sees his present imprisonment ending in martyrdom (4:6). He offers this final testimony as the reason for the appeal he has just given and as one last summary of the type of life he has lived and urges on Timothy (see 1:11–12; 2:9–10; 3:10–11).
4:9–12. The pathos of this letter lies in Paul’s urgent, heartfelt request that Timothy join him (4:9). He appears to have sent Tychicus to relieve Timothy of his duties in Ephesus at least temporarily (4:12) so he can join Paul, awaiting martyrdom in Rome. Along the way—and this is one of the great stories of reconciliation in the NT—Timothy should bring along the once-estranged Mark (4:11; cf. Ac 13:5, 13; 15:36–41; Col 4:10; Phm 24).
4:13–15. Even if he expects his death in the near future, the apostle will not despair and will simply wait for it: he asks for a cloak in case he lasts the winter (4:13a). Paul’s request for manuscripts (4:13b) has prompted much guesswork: he may mean copies of Scriptures he had to leave behind at his arrest; he may mean his own collected writings; he may mean writings he is still preparing. In any event, his request means he is still working.
4:16–18a. Paul seems to be interpreting his situation through the lens of Ps 22, the song with which Jesus expressed the anguish of sufferings on the cross and by which the writer to the Hebrews speaks of the risen Jesus as the church’s worship leader (see Heb 2:12; 7:25; 8:1–2). As Jesus was abandoned on the cross (Mt 27:46; Ps 22:1), so Paul has been abandoned (4:16; cf. 4:10). As the psalmist looked to God for “rescue” from lions (Ps 22:20–21), Paul has experienced “rescue” at his preliminary hearing (4:17) and expects, even at death, “rescue” into God’s heavenly kingdom (4:18a). Paul continues to see his life as a union with Christ in his sufferings and glory (Php 3:10–11). Further, Paul still focuses on the work to which God has called him; he is grateful his duress has meant that he “might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it” (4:17).
4:18b–22. Even the greetings he sends indicate Paul is still on the job. He undergirds supporters in Ephesus (Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus, 4:19). He notes that Corinth’s city treasurer Erastus is still there (see Rm 16:23); he has left Trophimus in charge in Miletus despite the latter’s illness (4:20). Paul completes his greetings with four named and with unnumbered and unnamed individuals from Rome (4:21). Though Paul is left without any ministerial assistance there besides Luke’s (4:11), God’s work goes on in the empire’s capital city.