Summary: Bible - Book of 2 Timothy

The GIST

2 Timothy reads as the last will and testament of the apostle Paul. It is a short, intensely personal letter of four chapters addressed to Timothy, his younger fellow missionary, whom he calls his dearly beloved son. Paul is in chains in Rome and expects to die. Many have deserted him. Winter is coming, and he wants his cloak, his books, and the company of the man he trusts most. Before that, he has things to say: about courage, about handing on the faith intact, about the hard times ahead, and about how to finish well.

It is one of the three pastoral epistles, with 1 Timothy and Titus, and is traditionally regarded as the last letter Paul wrote. Its famous lines have comforted and stiffened generations of readers: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Whether Paul wrote it himself or a follower composed it in his name is debated, and that question is taken up below. Either way, the letter belongs to the ancient tradition of the farewell discourse, in which a dying teacher gives his final charge.

What It Says

Thanksgiving and a call to courage (chapter 1). Paul begins with affection. He remembers Timothy in his prayers night and day, recalls his tears, and longs to see him. He is reminded of Timothy's sincere faith, a faith with a family history: it "dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice." On that foundation he builds his first appeal. Timothy is to fan into flame the gift he received when Paul laid hands on him, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

The besetting danger, it seems, is shame. A crucified Lord and an imprisoned apostle are not much to boast about. So: "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner." Timothy is to take his share of suffering for the gospel. Paul grounds this in the gospel itself: God saved and called us not because of anything we did but by his own purpose and grace, now shown in Christ, "who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light." For this Paul suffers, and he is not ashamed. "For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

Timothy's task is to guard what was entrusted to him and to hold to the pattern of sound teaching. The chapter ends with two contrasting examples. Everyone in the province of Asia has turned away from Paul, and he names two of them. But one man, Onesiphorus, often refreshed him, was not ashamed of his chains, and when he came to Rome searched hard until he found him.

Hand it on, and endure (2:1 to 13). The second chapter opens with a sentence about how the faith survives. "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." Four generations are in view: Paul, Timothy, those Timothy teaches, and those they teach in turn.

This work will be costly, and Paul offers three pictures of the dedication it takes. A soldier does not get tangled up in civilian affairs, because he wants to please his commander. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes by the rules. A farmer who does the hard labor has first claim on the crop. Timothy is to think these over. Above all he is to remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, the gospel for which Paul is chained like a criminal. Then comes a defiant aside: "but the word of God is not bound."

The section closes with what seems to be an early Christian hymn or saying. If we died with him, we shall live with him. If we endure, we shall reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. And then a line that breaks the pattern: "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself."

The workman and the quarrels (2:14 to 26). Timothy is facing people who love arguments about words, which do no good and ruin those who listen. He is to steer clear of that and concentrate on his own work: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Empty talk spreads like a canker. Paul names two men, Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have gone astray by saying that the resurrection has already happened, and are unsettling the faith of some. Yet God's foundation stands firm, with its inscription: "The Lord knoweth them that are his."

A large house has vessels of gold and silver and also of wood and clay, some for honorable use and some not. Timothy is to be the kind that is useful to the master. That means fleeing the passions of youth and pursuing righteousness, faith, love and peace. And it means a certain manner with opponents. "And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient." He is to correct them with meekness, in the hope that God may grant them a change of heart.

Hard times and firm ground (chapter 3). "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." What follows is a long catalogue of how people will be: lovers of themselves and of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, without natural affection, treacherous, reckless, "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." The most chilling item is the last. They will keep the outward form of religion while denying its power. Such people worm their way into households and prey on the vulnerable, who are always learning and never arriving at the truth. Paul compares them to Jannes and Jambres, the opponents of Moses, and says their folly will become plain to all.

Timothy has a different model. He has followed Paul's teaching and way of life, and knows what Paul endured at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, and how he was delivered. Paul states it as a rule: "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."

Against the drift of the times Timothy has two anchors. One is the people he learned from. The other is the sacred writings he has known since childhood, "which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." The sentence that follows is among the most quoted in the Bible about the Bible: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Its purpose is practical, that the servant of God may be fully equipped for every good work.

The final charge (4:1 to 8). The letter reaches its climax in a solemn commission, given before God and before Christ who will judge the living and the dead. "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." A time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching but will collect teachers to suit themselves, "having itching ears," and will turn from the truth to fables. Timothy is to keep his head, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist and carry out his ministry in full.

The reason for the urgency follows. "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." Paul looks back without regret: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." And he looks ahead to "a crown of righteousness," which the Lord will give not to him only but to all who have loved his appearing.

Personal notes (4:9 to 22). The closing lines are full of human detail. "Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me." Demas has deserted him, in love with this present world. Others have gone to their posts. "Only Luke is with me." Timothy is to bring Mark, who is useful to him, and to fetch the cloak left at Troas, along with the books and especially the parchments. He warns against Alexander the coppersmith, who did him great harm. At his first hearing no one stood by him; he prays it will not be held against them. "Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." Greetings follow, to Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus, and from friends in Rome, among them Linus. One more plea: "Do thy diligence to come before winter."

Why It Matters

2 Timothy has shaped the Christian ideal of ministry and of a good death. Its images of the soldier, the athlete and the farmer, its charge to preach in season and out, and its closing confession are among the best-remembered passages in the letters attributed to Paul. It is also a portrait of mentorship: an older man pouring himself into a younger one and telling him to do the same for others.

Its statement about scripture has been central to Christian thinking about the authority of the Bible, and its warnings about empty controversy made it a resource for the church in its later arguments with Gnostic teachers.

On authorship, the traditional view is that Paul wrote it shortly before his death. Since the nineteenth century many scholars have held that the pastoral epistles were written by a later follower, pointing to their distinctive language and their more developed picture of church order, and some date them between AD 90 and 140. Even among those scholars, 2 Timothy is often set apart. Its language and ideas are closer to Paul's prison letters than the other two pastorals are, and some have argued that it is genuine, or that it was written by a disciple who knew about Paul's last days. Its mention of Linus is the only one in the Bible; Catholic tradition lists him as Peter's successor as bishop of Rome.

Who Should Read It

Read 2 Timothy if you are handing something on, or receiving it: a faith, a calling, a responsibility. It is the most personal of the letters attributed to Paul and can be read in ten minutes. It speaks to anyone who is discouraged, to anyone who teaches, and to anyone thinking about what it would mean to finish well.