To advance the Gospel of Jesus and his kingdom into the nations through spiritual generations of labourers living and discipling among the lost
A commentary on 2 Timothy by Rev John R.W. Stott, February 21st, 2002.
The Message of 2 Timothy
2 Timothy. Introduction:
Paul's preoccupation in writing to Timothy was with the gospel, the deposit of truth which had been revealed and committed to him by God. The apostle's own career of gospel-work was virtually over. For 30 years or so he had faithfully preached the good news, planted churches, defended the truth and consolidated the work.
Truly, he had 'fought the good fight,...finished the race, ...kept the faith' (2 Tim.4:7). Now nothing awaited him but the victor's wreath at the winning post. A prisoner now, he would be a martyr soon.
But what would happen to the gospel when he was dead and gone? The emperor Nero, bent on suppressing all secret societies, and misunderstanding the nature of the Christian church, seemed determined to destroy it. Heretics appeared to be on the increase.
There had recently been an almost total Asian apostasy from Paul's teaching (2 Tim.1:15). Bishop Moule goes so far as to write that 'Christianity... trembled, humanly speaking, on the verge of annihilation'. Who, then, would do battle for the truth when Paul had laid down his life? This was the question which dominated and vexed his mind as he lay in chains, and to which in this letter he addressed himself.
Already in his first letter he had pleaded with Timothy to keep safe the deposit: 'O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you' (1 Tim.6:20). But since then the situation had worsened. So the apostle's appeal became more urgent. He reminded Timothy that the precious gospel as now committed to him, and that it was now his turn to assume responsibility for it, to preach and teach it, to defend it against attack and against falsification, and to ensure its accurate transmission to the generations yet to come.
In each chapter Paul returned to the same basic concern, or some aspect of it. Indeed, we may summarize the message of the letter in terms of four-fold charge:
Chapter 1:
The charge to guard the gospel. Guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us (1:14).
Chapter 2:
The charge to suffer for the gospel.Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ...Remember Jesus Christ...as preached in my gospel for which I am suffering and wearing fetters like a criminal (2:3, 8, 9).
Chapter 3:
The charge to continue in the gospel. Evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed... (3:13, 14).
Chapter 4:
The charge to proclaim the gospel.I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus...preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching (4:1, 2).
The church of our day urgently needs to heed the message of this second letter of Paul to Timothy. For all around us we see Christians and churches relaxing their grasp of the gospel, fumbling it, in danger of letting it drop from their hands altogether. A new generation of young Timothys is needed, who will guard the sacred deposit of the gospel, who are determined to proclaim it and are prepared to suffer for it, and who will pass it on pure and uncorrupted to the generation which in due course will rise up and follow them.
The Stott Daily Devotional is made possible through interVarsity Press
of Downers Grove, Illinois, USA. Please be sure to visit their web site
at
http://www.gospelcom.net/ivpress.
This list is a part of the ministries of the John Stott web site at
http://www.JohnStott.org.
Rev John Stott led Bible expositions on 2 Timothy to the Asia Navigators
in the 1970s. The Navigators have been blessed also through the ministry
of other major figures like Stephen Olford, J I Packer and Graham
Miller. Rev Miller served the New Zealand Navigators at several
conferences many years ago