So today for our final week in our series on Timothy, we have jumped from 1 Timothy to 2 Timothy. You probably noticed in the reading that this letter feels far more personal. Yet even in this, it continues to speak to us today.
Before delving in, let’s pray, Your word, living God, is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We thank you that this light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not (and will not) overcome it.
Like 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy is not one of the undisputed letters of Paul. Who actually wrote this letter, to whom, for what purpose and when is contested. Most scholarship argues it was probably written by a follower of Paul seeking to honour Paul’s teaching and continue his legacy.
But in this series we’ve taken a literary criticism approach. We’ve simply received the letters as they and the Biblical canon present them: Paul writing from a Roman prison to his protégé Timothy in Ephesus. And we’ve asked, What does this text still say to us?
In 1 Timothy, Paul writes because he’s heard that some in the Ephesian church are teaching incorrectly about Jesus. He instructs Timothy on how to respond and how the church should live together faithfully. We have talked over the past three weeks about Paul’s focus on practical behaviour—how ordinary people in an ordinary church follow Jesus when not everyone behaves in Christ-like ways.
Paul names qualities expected of Christian leaders: integrity, faithfulness, humility, hospitality, gentleness, simplicity, and a commitment to the mystery of the faith. And, as Mikaila explored last week, Paul also names the behaviours of false teachers: a love of controversy, speaking badly of others, fruitless arguments, greed, and envy.
Mikaila beautifully summarised the letter as Paul’s heart to protect the church from self-serving people and unnecessary divisions. Paul keeps saying: Don’t get distracted. Don’t get caught up in money-hungry and power-hungry voices. Stay focused on what matters.
And in our own time of ever-increasing distractions and divisions—how important is this?
2 Timothy is written some time later. While we don’t know exactly how much later, Paul’s situation has clearly worsened.
Paul is again imprisoned in Rome. It could be his time under house arrest in Acts 28 or it could be that he was released from that imprisonment and had another long season of ministry before being arrested again.
Either way, Paul says that he’s in the middle of his court trial, and it’s not going well. Paul is pretty sure that he’s not going to survive this one. Out of this dark situation, Paul asks Timothy to come be with him in prison. Paul no doubt wants to pass on more teaching to Timothy but he also just desires his company and comfort. He needs Timothy to minister to him as well.
The letter opens with greetings and thanksgiving to God. Paul tells Timothy he has be praying for him and longs to see him. He says he has been reminded of Timothy’s faith that was passed on to him first by his grandmother, Lois and his mother, Eunice and then Paul himself in the laying of hands. Even in the earliest days of Christianity, Paul wants Timothy to remember that faith is inherited, rooted in something older and larger than himself—and yet must be fanned into flame.
I have said many times that this remains the church’s work: to receive the old traditions and to continually revive and renew them for our own time and place—to fan them into flame so to speak.
Paul then says to Timothy, “for God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
As many of you know, in the tradition of the desert mothers and fathers, at the beginning of each year I seek a verse from God to guide my year. This verse from 2 Timothy has been this year’s verse. I received it somewhat reluctantly, but it has been a gift in what I’ve called “the year of uncertainty.” Global uncertainty, yes—but also in my own life. Uncertainty usually brings me great anxiety. But repeating this verse each morning as part of my prayers has helped keep that anxiety from overwhelming me. I have felt it, of course—but I have not been overtaken by it.
The Spirit God gives is one of power, love, and self-discipline.
These qualities rarely appear together in our world. Those who seek power often do not seek to love but manipulate. They are not self-disciplined but self-indulgent and greedy. Today’s powerful lead hedonistic lives and seek to control others not limit their own indulgences. Take for example, the fact that the world’s richest man already, who this very year cut aid to the world poorest people, has ben granted a $1 trillion pay check.
This is not what Paul is talking about. As John Frederick from Working Preacher says,
“for Paul the Spirit given for ministry is one that is both powerful and loving. This loving power and powerful love is indicative of how power operates in the heart of God and in those made in his image. We can see this love most clearly demonstrated in the power of Jesus’ sacrificial death which is viewed as weakness in the eyes of the world but which — through the Resurrection — is actually the strength and power which defeats death. Thus we have here a redefinition of “power” that is only illuminated in the work of Jesus through his life, death, and resurrection. Therefore, it is our calling and responsibility to subvert the present world order rooted in the “will to Power” with the Gospel of love by the power of the Spirit who in turn redefines power by love.”
This Spirit is what enables Paul to endure suffering and remain faithful in persecution. And he urges Timothy to do the same:
Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, in the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace.
For Paul, suffering is not to the unfortunate result of an illegitimate religious life, it does mean that God has abandoned him. Rather, suffering is a natural part of faithful living and since Christ has already overcome it so can we.
This does not mean that pain is not real. Suffering is real—Paul does not deny that. And we do not deny that. But suffering will not have the final say. Pain is real but so is Christ’s death and resurrection.
As the letter comes to a close Paul instructs Timothy,
proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage with the utmost patience in teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching, but, having their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires.
It seems that time has come. Perhaps every generation faces this, but our social media algorithms certainly intensify it. We can now surround ourselves entirely with voices that tell us what we want to hear.
And the good news is distorted by celebrity pastors, the prosperity gospel, Christian nationalism, and rigid notions of “biblical manhood” and “biblical womanhood” that deny the risk, sacrifice, tension, and discomfort that Jesus actually calls us into.
And then Paul closes with these beautiful words:
As for me, I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8 From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
May we all feel able to say this when our time comes.
Amen.
And now let us sing this beautiful old hymn, “abide with me.” I imagine if this song was around when Paul was in that jail cell writing these words to Timothy it would have been a comfort.
