Very different from that melancholy and humiliating picture of the course of Christendom is the stand to which the apostle proceeds to exhort Timothy.
“But be thou sober in all things, suffer evils, do an evangelist's work, fully perform thy ministry. For r am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is all but come. The good combat I have combated, the course I have finished, the faith I have kept: henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me in that day; and not to me only, but also to all those that love His appearing” (ver. 5-8).
Here therefore, as in chap. 2:1, the charge is emphatically personal. To be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus has its own weighty place. But more is needed for a workman and leader in a day of general and dangerous declension, when intoxicating influences were as rife as they were various. “But thou, be sober in all things.” Vigilance (γρηγορεῖν) is not the thought as in the A.V., nor yet a sound mind (σωφρονισμός), however nearly allied, but sobriety of judgment. The Greek answers fully to the English usage, and, from the primary sense of drinking no wine, comes to the ready metaphor of being sober, or wary, in all things. Timothy was to stand clear of that which might excite or stupefy, in contrast with those drifting into a mass carried away from the truth into fables.
Further, he is called to “suffer evils," or hardships, and this in the most general way. In chap. 1:8, it was to suffer evil “with the gospel,” a favorite personification of the apostle, who was not ashamed of it, and would have the faithful servant identified with its afflictions here below. Chap 2:3 presents the different thought of Timothy's taking his part in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, without expressing or understanding any special comrade. Here all idea of “sharing” is left out. Readiness to endure ills in his place and service is what the apostle claims. Paul did not lay a burden on his young colleague which he had not long and fully borne. It is but fellowship with the Master's sufferings here below: only these, without of course speaking of the unique sorrows of atonement, went far deeper than those of His servants; which such as have experienced most would most freely own.
The next call appears to be often strangely misunderstood, as if the apostle meant Timothy to do an evangelist's work, when he had not that gift, and consequently was not really an evangelist! For such a construction there is not the shadow of a sound reason. The danger rather was that the increasing difficulties and troubles of the assembly might distract the young and sensitive laborer, calling him to forego the exercise of that which was truly his gift without, though not his only one, because of the demands from within. Work so blessed to which the Lord had called him must not be intermitted. The evangelist is not a preacher only: work of faith and labor of love in quest of souls characterize him who presses the glad tidings on souls individually as well as publicly.
But it is a mistake not to be passed over, that the evangelists did not form a special and separate class. It is more correct so to designate them than even the teachers, for Eph. 4:1111And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (Ephesians 4:11) couples the pastor with the teacher in a way in which he joins the evangelist with no other class; yet is the teacher elsewhere viewed, as a distinct gift, though here, as often in fact, combined with pastorship. All gifts were certainly subordinate to apostles; yet neither evangelists nor any others were missionaries of the apostles, but of the Lord. He it is Who sends laborers into His harvest, as He is the Lord of it. The apostles were servants, though set by God first in the church. They could not send: still less the church in this sense. Nor is it well founded to say that this was the work to which Timothy was called when he journeyed with the apostles. In all probability Timothy evangelized when privileged with that companionship; but the gift in itself had no connection with such a journey. On the contrary, Timothy would properly he intent on learning all he could in such circumstances, as it would be his joy to serve in every way personally and ministerially, if one may so say, to give the greater effect to the beloved and honored chief, as is implied in Acts 16:3; 19:223Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek. (Acts 16:3)
22So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. (Acts 19:22).
That this is no question of working as subordinates and missionaries of the apostles is made still clearer by the case of the only one whose course as an evangelist is traced in the Acts. Philip officially was one “of the seven” (chap. vi.), but as a gift was an evangelist, and is so designated in chap. 21:8. When his office lapsed through the dispersion of all who composed the assembly in Jerusalem, he is seen (chap. 8.) in the active exercise of his gift as an “evangelist,” and with signal blessing both to a whole city and to an individual. In no case is he even journeying with an apostle, but rather as one of a special and separate class. The apostles on bearing that Samaria had received the word of God, sent Peter and John who put, the seal of the Spirit on Philip's work; for indeed lowly love wrought, and rivalry was as far from the evangelist as lording it from the apostles. But the characteristic of what is described is the free and sovereign action of the Lord; and as the two apostles did not think it beneath their exalted place to evangelize “many villages” of the Samaritans during their return to Jerusalem, so Philip went on his unfettered way under the Lord's direction, evangelizing “all the cities” till he came to Caesarea. There was no question of a sphere circumscribed by the presence or the absence of an apostle. The world is in principle the evangelist's province: journeying or abiding is a question of subjection to the Lord.
Lastly, Timothy is told “fully to perform (πληροφόρησον) his ministry” (ver. 5). It seems more than πλήρωσον (Acts 12:2525And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark. (Acts 12:25), Col. 4:1717And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it. (Colossians 4:17)), judging by the emphatic usage of the word where it occurs as verb or noun elsewhere. To translate with Beta, to “give full assurance of thy ministry,” may sound more literal but hardly suits the subject before us, which wholly differs from faith, hope, or understanding. For these mean subjective enjoyment, the other would be objective proof; neither of which can rightly apply here, but filling to the full the measure of his service. Evangelizing, however incumbent on him who has the gift was not the whole of the ministry which Timothy had received in the Lord: to fulfill all he is here engaged.
A weighty and affecting enforcement follows in the approaching departure of the apostle. “For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is all but come” (ver. 6). The A. V. by no means conveys correctly the form: “now ready to be offered” is in several respects different from “am already being poured out,” which exactly reproduces the original. It is not the first time that the apostle employs the same figure of a drink offering. To his beloved Philippian brethren (H. 17) he had written a little before, “But if also I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your. faith,” &AL Now he drops all condition, as his release is before his eyes. He speaks as though the libation were being made. Again, ἐφ-is hardly the same as ἐν-έστηκεν, though the difference be the merest shade, which is sought to be expressed in “is all but come,” as compared with “is present,” or “come.” “Is at hand,” as in the A.V., is the true rendering of neither, but of ἐγγύς or ἤγγικεν.
Few even of the apostles could say as Paul does at this solemn moment, “The good combat I have Combated, the course I have finished, the faith I have kept” (ver. 7). The imputation of vain glory to the apostle, with death (and such a death!) before his eyes, is unworthy of anyone but a rationalist. It was of the utmost moment, not only for Timothy but for all who might follow, to know what grace can, and does, accomplish amidst the general wreck. Neither 1 Cor. 4:3, 43But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. 4For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. (1 Corinthians 4:3‑4), nor Phil. 3:1212Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12), &c., is inconsistent; whereas Phil. 4:1313I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13) affords direct ground for its realization.
How are we to account for such inability to conceive the power of grace by faith Is it not that so many excellent men, through a false system, are still groveling in the fleshy combats of Rom. 7, ignorant of that deliverance which Rom. 8 proclaims in virtue of a dead and risen Savior, that is, of our death with Him, and the power of the Spirit of life in Him. Under law they look for failure, and failure is theirs according to their unbelief, however grace may interfere sovereignly spite of the error. But that of which the apostle speaks is the honorable combat which befits the soul set free, who has Christ before him, and has to face in his measure what Christ faced in the days of His flesh. It is the holy struggle for God's glory in a hostile world, and not merely struggling against self in the despairing strife of Rom. 7. This we learn experimentally to teach as what we are even as converted, and that the law aggravates the distress instead of giving us practical victory; which comes solely from giving ourselves up as good for nothing to find all in Christ dead and risen. Thenceforth begins the proper and good combat of us Christians, now not converted only but delivered, in whom the Holy Spirit works in power with Christ before our eyes, whose grace is sufficient for us. Paul had triumphed day by day, and so are we called to defeat the enemy here below.
Next, “the course I have finished.” There is the general idea of the games narrowed to the race; and on this he looks back as “finished.” At an earlier day in writing to the Corinthians, familiar as they were with the Isthmian Games in their neighborhood, he had applied the theme to the life and service of the saints in general, introducing himself as an example of one running not uncertainly, not beating the air but buffeting, or bruising, his body, and bringing it into bondage, instead of surrendering it to relaxation, and indulgence, and luxury. In Phil. 3 we hear him expressing the utmost ardor of devotedness in that race for the prize. The general reference recurs in 2 Tim. 2:55And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. (2 Timothy 2:5), in just the same spirit in which it was first urged in 1 Cor. 9:2525And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. (1 Corinthians 9:25). Now he applies it to his own case, not for self-applause, as a bad conscience and an envious heart might think, but transferring these things in application to himself for Timothy's sake, and all after who in faith read these words. Boasting was far indeed from one who had one foot in the grave and all his heart with Christ in heaven.
Finally, he adds, “The faith I have kept.” This Christendom sought to make easy and sure by the regular profession of the three creeds. But alas! all who look below the surface know how pitiable is the failure, when the most heterodox leap over all bounds in the solemn and habitual repetition of every word; while godly, but weak souls, are too often stumbled at that in them which they fail to comprehend; and thus on both sides endless mischief ensues. The faith was really kept when creeds did not exist. The word and the Spirit of God are all-sufficient for him whose eye is on Christ by faith. And then keeping the faith, as Paul did, to the end, was a blessed test of fidelity to the Master. How many have turned aside following their own minds and lusts, without creeds at first and now with them! They are but puny and human barriers and of necessity powerless, the inventions of men when the word and Spirit of God were losing power through unbelief.
The sense of all being closed here below is what gives force to his looking onward to the kingdom, and this most appropriately. For responsibility and service are bound up, not with the Son's coming to take us to the Father's home, but to the Lord's appearing, when fidelity to His name here below, or the lack of it, will be made manifest. It will be observed that it is the epiphany of the Lord which is presented in these pastoral Epistles, rather than His presence or coming; because it is a question throughout of work done in and for the Lord, with its specific reward “in that day” from His hand. It is not heavenly grace with the blessed issues of Christ's love in heaven before the day shines. Here the necessary principles of righteousness and of order, ecclesiastical or moral, are laid down, and the work on that foundation is insisted on, with its reward to the faithful. Both aspects are true and important, each in its place, and never to be confounded without loss. Which of the two is before us here is beyond controversy in ver. 8: “Henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall award to me in that day; and not only to me but to all those that love (ἠγαπηκόδιν have loved and do love) His appearing.” Is not this precious? The promise is sure to the apostle, but he is careful to ensure it to all that love the Lord's appearing, which will put all evil down, judge the indifferent as well as the rebellious, and establish peace and righteousness over the earth, with the display of all the saints in whom He is glorified.