Thoughts on 2 Timothy

Lent 4 (06.03.16)  Sheffield Cathedral, Evensong
Isaiah 40.27-41.13; 2 Timothy 4.1-18

This evening’s second reading comes from a small group of New Testament writings known as the pastoral letters: The First and Second Letters to Timothy and the Letter to Titus

  • Letters from pastors to pastors
  • Concerned to ensure that as church matured, Christ remained central
  • The author – or authors – who claim to be Paul the Apostle have great love for church developing with the times

Pastoral letters stress the emerging role of spiritual leadership in church matters

  • Need of structure to deal with growing numbers
  • By time of writing (early 2nd century) church had changed
  • Moving from being a united group of local assemblies to universal concept of church

First generation of Christians – including apostles – was dying

  • Urgent need to develop an apostolic tradition becoming evident
  • Leaders needed to pass on leadership for church to survive
  • Directives needed for maintaining common lifestyle
  • Lifestyle based on teaching of apostle and early disciples
  • Recognising need for establishing norms for leadership with the church

Although referred to as Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, he was not the author

  • Most like an author familiar with Paul, but not Paul
  • Paul would have been dead before the letter was written (c.110 AD)
  • Custom of identifying oneself by another’s name an accepted convention
  • This was not plagiarism!

The use of Paul’s name indicates author believed he was faithful to Paul’s teaching

  • If the letter sounded like Paul, few would have objected to use of Paul’s name
  • His name reminds us that what is written is consistent with Paul’s thought
  • In pastoral letters we need, therefore, to think of Paul in inverted commas

This author, ‘Paul’ was intent on guiding Timothy – a beloved and youthful companion of Paul the apostle on his missionary journeys – in a true and faithful life as a disciple of Christ

  • Deep bond between Paul and Timothy recognised
  • We read of sad parting between Paul and Timothy
  • Paul’s yearning to see Timothy again
  • The sincere faith of Timothy is recalled in the letters to him

Here in latter part of 2 Timothy is Paul’s charge to Timothy

  • Proclaim the message with persistence, whatever the circumstances
  • Be conscious of the divine presence when preaching
  • Convince, rebuke and encourage with the utmost patience

Timothy warned about dangerous times

  • Peoples ears will be closed to sound teaching
  • Open to novel doctrines
  • Likely to have happened already but Paul writing as if still to come

Timothy urged to remain faithful to sound doctrine

  • Enduring suffering
  • Dedicating himself to preaching the gospel

Bearing in mind the author of this letter was speaking after Paul’s death it leaves us in effect, with a last testimony

  • Paul’s life compared to a practice used in Jewish worship
  • Pouring out an offering (of blood) – a libation – on an altar to honour God
  • Speaks of this with a calmness and satisfaction
  • He has fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith
  • Looking forward to the crown of righteousness
  • The author of the letter using the occasion to praise Paul for his dedication, setting him forth as an example to Timothy

Passage continues with a section considered by some to be interspersed with fragments of a deeply personal letter written by Paul

  • Includes reference to the loneliness he felt, particularly during Roman captivity

 

APPLICATION

Gospel imperative in this letter to Timothy

  • Proclaim the word – Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord – in words and deeds
  • The intention of Paul’s life passed on to the young Timothy
  • In good times and bad, fruitful and barren
  • Less worry on success and more on faithfulness – a sobering lesson!

Preach the gospel sensitively and courageously

  • Aware of the urgency
  • Live life poised, ready, and alert to opportunities day by day
  • Be bold to speak and so be identified with the cause of Christ and his kingdom

Even as Paul’s life narrowed down

  • Ending his days in a prison cell
  • Busy part of his life over
  • Struggling with feeling alone
  • Still manages to see a different vocation awaiting him

Two things remained constant

  • Gospel to be proclaimed in all circumstances – his trial another opportunity!
  • Faith hols steady – stretched and developed throughout his life it sustains him as he stares death in the face
  • Pattern and shape of his life manage have changed, but Paul knows that the Lord who has been his strength in the past will continue to be with him and bring him home

Using the example of Paul’s life, the author of this letter encourages Timothy to be a leader who remains faithful to the gospel

  • The example of God sustaining Paul through many trials and giving him peace in the face of death
  • The example of a Christian life well lived
  • In that way 2 Timothy and, indeed, each of the pastoral letters – very personal pieces of correspondence written to an individual 1900 years ago – speak directly into the church of every age

There is much current debate about leadership, or lack of, in the church

  • The identification and fast-tracking of Christian leaders
  • Business models of leadership utilised within the church
  • Leadership lessons from the corporate world
  • While such debate sometimes generates more heat than light there are, of course, lessons to be learned by the church from good models of leadership, whatever the source

However, the advice offered by Paul to Timothy was far more about character

  • More about the personal qualities of those called to lead the church
  • Less about leadership strategies and initiatives
  • More about the faithful proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ
  • Less about results-oriented mission programmes

Please don’t get me wrong on this

  • CA Evangelist for almost 25 years so hardly opposed to mission and evangelism
  • Church in every age has to engage seriously with its context
  • Ask the hard questions about why, for many, the church is irrelevant
  • Be concerned about falling congregations and plan for growth
  • It is simply that there is a danger of putting the cart before the horse

When Christians generally, and Christian leaders in particular, live lives that are faithful to the gospel everything else flows from it

  • We see the evidence of that in the life of the early church
  • In human terms the odds were always stacked against the survival of the church
  • It was the faithfulness of Paul and Timothy and their like that one through
  • Their unwillingness to proclaim the message of the gospel despite opposition
  • What attracted people to the early Christian community was how they lived according to the values of a kingdom very different to that of Rome
  • Remains the case today that there is no stronger witness to the gospel than a Christ-like life

Whoever the author was who wrote as Paul to Timothy knew this for sure

  • As his words encouraged Timothy back then may they encourage us today
  • Whether in Christian leadership or not, those words echo across the years
  • May our lives be the reason that others choose to live as disciples of the Risen Lord