2 Timothy 4
2 Timothy 4:1-22 (NKJV)
1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
9 Be diligent to come to me quickly;
10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia.
11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.
12 And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.
13 Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come—and the books, especially the parchments.
14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works.
15 You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words.
16 At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.
17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!
19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.
20 Erastus stayed in Corinth, but Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick.
21 Do your utmost to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, as well as Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren.
22 The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.
Because it is the answer as the Rock that will establish stability through the toughest of times, the Word will be what is most threatened from every side. What God really said and how it applies to our lives was the vulnerability in the garden that has continued to be where the work of ministry is most challenging ever since. Doctrines and teachings abound on every side, but with each is an opportunity to either follow the heart of God in being bound to His body in love, mercy, and service, or to find reason to be offended, separated, and kept from His designed strength in union together. Paul poured His life into serving the truth of the Word and living in the fruit of its Spirit. As His God-given passion and purpose was to communicate the heart of God and our place there in Him, he became very defensive against alternative teachings that would produce a compromised result in his followers. After having endured much opposition from the world for faithfulness to his message, he had also endured abandonment, where his only assurance and encouragement was from the Lord. His encouragement to Timothy – remain true to the message and undaunted by variance in response, trusting in the Lord for the transforming results.
As we’re called into service, there is excitement for joy of service, but great opposition from both without and within. Rather than getting drawn into disappointments and diversions from the Word, there is an opportunity to discover strength and hope in the Lord that secure stability in Him against the greatest of spiritual challenges. It’s in His presence, hungry for His Word that we can remain true to that call He has placed in our hearts. With each experience of this, there is further growth of faith in the knowing that if He’s done anything before He will do it yet again.
18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!