Encouraging Recollections & Being Unashamed
Last Words
When spending time with loved ones during their final days, the conversations take on a different character than in previous times. Last words carry more weight than our everyday conversation. The subject matter is not light.
This series of articles will explore Paul’s last words to Timothy, focusing on the themes this older man deemed important for the younger man to know in order to continue faithfully during last days. In this personal note, Paul understands Timothy’s strengths and weaknesses and wants to give him help to carry on the work of God according to his ability. Lessons from 2 Timothy still help men and women of God to remain faithful in ever-darkening days.
Remembrance
The first thing Paul draws attention to is remembrance. There are four different occurrences of “recollection” and its cognates in 2 Timothy 1:3-8: Paul praying for Timothy, remembering Timothy’s tears, recalling Timothy’s genuine faith, and reminding Timothy to stir up the gift within him. Judging that the time had come for the fledgling to fly, it’s as if he is telling Timothy, “I led you this far. Now you take up the cause.” Is there someone you could mentor to carry on your work in the local assembly when you no longer can? If you’re a younger believer, are you looking to exercise your gift?
Paul’s prayer list was long, but there was always time to pray for Timothy. Praying “night and day” (v3) for Timothy conveys the idea that Paul depended upon God to help Timothy in his work, as well as to help him bring Paul relief in Rome. Similar to the dependent, destitute widows that Paul observed praying night and day (1Ti 5:5), Paul looks for the same helping power from God and encourages Timothy to aid in prayer. When it becomes clear that the Holy Spirit is raising someone up to the work, we can join in their development via prayer.
Paul’s care for Timothy is also evident in Timothy’s tears (v4). We may try to withhold our tears from the sight of others, yet Timothy had shed tears at Paul’s momentous departure from Miletus (Act 20:4,37-38). Timothy highly esteemed Paul, likely because of Paul’s tenderness for him, and the question of their next meeting loomed large. Later, Paul anticipated a joyful reunion with Timothy if he could get to Rome in time, before winter made the Mediterranean impassable (2Ti 4:9,21).1 There is a time for weeping and a time for sharing our deepest hopes.
Paul also remembered the “unfeigned faith” that was in Timothy (v5). Dwelling on the reality of Timothy’s faith encouraged Paul. Paul spent a considerable amount of time with Timothy, chronicled in the Acts, where he detected authenticity in his understudy. It was the same faith that Paul had observed in Timothy’s mother and grandmother when he was in Lystra and Derbe. These were women who lived in places where persecution against the gospel was rampant. Are others encouraged when they think about us?
Lastly, Paul reminded Timothy to stir up his gift instead of taking the path of least resistance. We can imagine Timothy’s doubts as he finished reading the letter, considering the great tasks that lay ahead. Yet there was the assurance that he was in Paul’s prayers, that his tears were understood, that his past faith was recognized, and that he could rest in God to accomplish the task necessary. He was there for a reason and needed to fan the flame of his gift to make it useful.
Not Ashamed
The first half of the chapter was to encourage Timothy with support, and now he is told of certain hardship ahead. Three times from verses 8-18, Paul talks about not being ashamed. First in verse 8, Paul says, “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.”2 Notice verse 12 where Paul states, “I am not ashamed.” Finally, note verse 16 concerning Onesiphorus, who was “not ashamed of [Paul’s] chain.”
Paul told Timothy to relinquish his natural tendency toward timidity and instead embrace the power, love and sound mind that God desires to work within. He was to be unashamed of two things: the testimony of the Lord, and Paul his prisoner. The testimony of the Lord is the message that brought the knowledge of salvation to Timothy, likely through Paul himself. Many deliberately avoided the danger of being associated with Paul, who was kept in a high-security Roman dungeon, yet Paul reminded Timothy that he was not Nero’s prisoner but the Lord’s prisoner; there is no shame in that. Being unashamed is to “endure hardness” like a good soldier (2:3), “endure all things for the elect’s sake” (2:10) and “endure afflictions” (4:5).
Paul showed Timothy the example of being unashamed in suffering. He was a preacher who proclaimed the gospel authoritatively, an apostle who brought the message with unique authority, and a teacher who clearly explained the truth involved with the gospel. He was a target and suffered for his ministry. Paul was not ashamed of his plight because he understood that the cause of the gospel was far greater than the apostle to the Gentiles. God entrusted Paul with a work and a message, and Paul committed it back to the Lord finished and unadulterated. Paul gave his life to keep the truth pure, and he was confident that God would keep preserving that same truth unto the coming of Christ and His Judgment Seat.
Lastly, Paul encourages Timothy by telling him about an unashamed friend, Onesiphorus. Demas forsook him, while Crescens and Titus left to go to other cities (4:10,16). No one would stand with him, though he doesn’t blame them for it (4:16). Onesiphorus’ visit would have been extremely refreshing to him. Paul was no longer in the public eye and was disgraced by many, but this man showed mercy to Paul. By hazarding his life and stirring up his own spiritual gift of service and showing mercy toward others, Onesiphorus will find mercy from the Lord at the Judgment Seat.
1 Andreas J. Köstenberger, 1-2 Timothy and Titus (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021), 288.
2 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV.
