Wednesday Bible Study: The end of all things-2 Timothy

 

This is the end of Paul- the last of his many letters, written during his final imprisonment to the one man he counted on above all others to hold up the standard when he was gone.  This makes it seem harsh, almost bitter, but he was coming through what had to be a shocking disappointment- a team he thought would hold together had split apart, just like Jesus' team 40 years before:

2Ti 4:9  Do your best to come to me soon.
2Ti 4:10  For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
2Ti 4:11  Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
2Ti 4:12  Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 

Now, he saw his last duty as stopping the erosion.  And where five years before, he had wrote Timothy a patient letter to encourage him to growth, now Timothy was in a more solid place and Paul intended to keep him there.  To do this, Timothy would have to face a battle Paul foresaw from his cell...

2Ti 4:3  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2Ti 4:4  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

A couple I know on FB has been battling with their friends list (at least one-former- member of it, anyway) about some preacher whose already shaky rep as a questionable teacher was questioned further from a statement that, in all honesty, was taken out of context the wrong way- although, by the story they themselves posted, it may have been with good reason.  Andy Stanley tells us we need to stop teaching the Old Testament to draw younger people in.  Other famous pastors have been battling each other in the courts- in direct violation of the Bible- over property rights.  YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THEIR FRUIT, not just their words.  Prosperity Gospel is just one horn of this beast; accepting the sin to bring in the sinner (AKA what this world calls 'tolerance') is yet another.  Just do a survey among 'christians' about "What does God say about X", and you'll find along the way a lot of those myths- "God will let everyone into Heaven", "Hell doesn't really exist", and many others.

If it ain't in the Word, it ain't right.  You think I'm wrong?  Jesus' biggest 'rants' were against the Pharisees, a group whose main sin was exactly that.  The Word + the interpretations of rabbis + the nit picky extensions of the Law they tacked on.  So Paul, who saw OUR day as clear as his day, gave Timothy a set of instructions on how to keep his congregation out of this trap...

2Ti 4:2  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Along with ones to keep himself on the straight and narrow....

2Ti 4:5  As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Normally, this would be where I break down those verses, build a stairstep analogy or do a word study, to bring those traits into sharper focus.  But as I type this, I feel that the real need here is that you see the SERIOUSNESS OF WHY these were Paul's last written words we have.  Astrology won't get you there.  Good hearted philosophy won't get you there.  Blindly following any pastor without digging into the Word on your own won't get you there.

I won't get you there, only Christ will.  As far back as 2008, large chunks of people attending evangelical churches believe there are many ways to heaven.  In light of what Jesus told us...

Joh 14:6  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

...my thought is, if you are NOT going to believe what Jesus said, why be a believer at all?  If you are not going to believe He is the only way, it doesn't matter what else you believe, what else you've grafted in, and what good works you do, the real place of Hell awaits.

And it was obviously Paul's thought, and fueled his desperation to make sure Timothy, his spiritual son and successor, got it right.  Paul draws the line that all the world's pastors like Demas, 'who loved this present world' (v10) wander across in the name of softness, tolerance, and popularity.  That wasn't Paul, and I pray it won't ever be me.