We have followed Paul from his persecution of believers to his imprisonment in Rome awaiting trial. After encountering Jesus on the road to Damascus his life was completely changed. He was given the mission to proclaim Christ to the Jews, the Gentiles and to Kings and those in authority.
In city after city Paul faced opposition from both Jews and Gentiles. After his third missionary journey, he heads back to Jerusalem and is taken into custody after a mob threatens to kill him in the temple courts. Even though he was innocent of any charge, he was left in prison for two years. At the end of his third trial, Paul asked to be tried by Caesar—which was his right as a Roman citizen.
After two years imprisonment in Rome awaiting his trial, he was set free and tradition indicates he traveled to Spain establishing churches there. Now in AD 64 Paul returns to Rome and again is imprisoned. He has had a preliminary trial which didn’t go well and now anticipates his coming execution.
Paul knows his time is short on this earth. In his damp prison cell, he pens a second letter to Timothy, his young partner in ministry. He writes to encourage him to be faithful, enduring difficult times ahead, and exhorts him in to focus on what matters. In essence Paul is passing the baton of leadership to his son in the ministry.
This book is the most heartfelt book Paul wrote. He distills what is important to know and embrace. He also anticipates his own future with courage and confidence. This is seen beginning in the very first verse where he writes that his apostleship was according to “the promise of life” that is found in Christ Jesus. In the last chapter of the book, he anticipates the crown of righteousness which he will receive from our Lord.
This short letter contains some of our most cherished verses:
“I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me” - 2 Tim. 1:12
“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” - 2 Tim. 2:2
“If we have died with him, we will live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—he can’t deny himself” - 2 Tim. 2:11-13
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” - 2 Tim. 2:15
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” - 2 Tim. 3:16
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth 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 Tim. 4:7-8
Tradition tell us the Roman authorities took Paul “to a spot about three miles out of Rome and right there on the road, where he had spent most of his life including what was in a way the beginning of his life, they lopped off his head”. . . It was there “with angel eyes that he exchanged a last long glance with his executioners.” - Frederick Buechner, “Peculiar Treasurers”
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