This would be Paul's last letter. It seemed only right that he would address it to a brother he'd mentored instead of the church at large. Paul was most concerned about the work in which he had invested the last years of his life. Even though Timothy was not a big character in the church, he had spent most of his time helping Paul and learning beside the man known as apostle to the Gentiles.

What do you tell someone when you may not have another opportunity? Of course, Paul encouraged his young disciple to continue the preaching of the Gospel to anyone who would hear it. But he added something that must've seemed a little curious to Timothy. Paul said, "Correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction."

In a conversation with someone who is open to hearing what you have to say, there is a certain degree of relaxation that means you don't have to watch every word. But Paul was stalked by the enemy as if they were waiting for a slip of the tongue by which to accuse him of heresy or false doctrine. If Timothy was to do what Paul asked, he would more than likely become the host for his own spiritual "parasites."

One would think in the arena of conversation that truth prevails, but it didn't always do so then and it certainly doesn't in our day either. We have naysayers who doubt everything, debaters who want to argue the other side of every discussion to give "equal" balance. And then we have spinners who take our words, look for cracks and twist what they want to hear in order to accuse us of saying something we never even implied.

What should Timothy do when it appeared he faced a formidable enemy in every discussion? Paul used his own life as an example when he advised Timothy to keep his head down, keep moving forward if even against the flow, preach the truth regardless of the reception and finish what he started, even when it seems the work is futile.

Paul's first century encouragement to Timothy is still good advise for this one. It seems there's a new handbook in use for settling disputes over doctrine and truth. When highly educated people excuse a former US President for wrongdoing through his argumentation over the meaning of "is," we've crossed the line of sanity. We must be the time Paul was predicting would come. Somewhere we cast off the Age of Reason and put on a new one that can only be called the Age of Reasonable Deception.

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( Jr. 48:1-49:22 2 Tm. 4:1-22 Ps. 95:1-96:13 Pr. 26:9-12 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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