Verses 1-11

2 Timothy 4:1-2. I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word;

We are not to use such strong language as this, unless there is some sufficient reason for it. We must not be too hot upon cold matters, but even this is better than to be cold upon matters that require heat. When John Calvin wished to leave Geneva to complete his studies elsewhere, that man of God, Farrell, knowing how necessary it was for the Church that Calvin should remain at Geneva, charged him before God that he dared not go, and hoped that a curse might light upon all his studies, if for the sake of them he should forsake what he held to be his duty. So sometimes, like the Apostle, we may before the Judge of quick and dead, charge men not to forsake their work and calling.

2 Timothy 4:2. Be instant in season, out of season;

The Greek word means, “Stand up to it;” as when a man is determined to finish his work, he stands right up to it. Stand over your work, putting your whole strength into it up-standing over it. “In season, out of season,” because the Gospel is a fruit which is in season all the year round. Sometimes these “out of season” sermons, preached at night or at some unusual time, have been of more service than the regular ordinances of God’s house. Mr. Grimshaw used to ride on horseback from village to village throughout the more desolate parts of Yorkshire, and wherever he met with ten or a dozen people, he would preach on horseback to them, preaching sometimes as many as four and twenty sermons in a week. That was being instant “out of season” as well as “in season.” So should God’s Timothys be, and, indeed, all of us.

2 Timothy 4:2. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

That is, do not exhort with mere declamation, but put some argument into your exhortation. Some men think it quite enough to appear to be in earnest, though they have nothing to say. Let such exhorters remember that they are to exhort with doctrine, with solid teaching.

2 Timothy 4:3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

When men have not good preachers, they are sure to have a great many of them. Those nations which have the worst priests always have them in swarms. So let us be thankful if God sends us a glowing and zealous minister, for even those who count it an affliction to have a minister, would be more afflicted if they had not a good one. But how evil is it when men get itching ears, when they want some one to be perpetually tickling them, giving them some pretty things, some fine pretentious intellectualism. In all congregations there is good to be done, except in a congregation having itching ears. From this may God deliver us.

2 Timothy 4:4. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

When a man will not believe the truth, he is sure ere long to be a greedy believer of lies. No persons are so credulous as skeptics. There is no absurdity so gross but what an unbeliever will very soon be brought to receive it, though he rejects the truth of God.

2 Timothy 4:5-6. But watch thou in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

How complacently he talks about it! It is only a departure, though Caesar’s sword might smite his head from his body. And truly death to the believer is no frightful thing. “Go up,” said God to Moses, and the prophet went up, and God took away his soul to him, and he was blessed. And so, “Come up,” saith God to the Christian, and the Christian goeth up, first to his chamber, and then from his chamber to Paradise.

2 Timothy 4:7-8. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

This seems, then, to be a distinguishing mark of a true child of God, he loves the appearing of Christ. Now there are some professors who never think of the Second Advent at all. It never gives them the slightest joy to believe that —

“Jesus the king will come,

To take his people up To their eternal home.”

Truly they are mistaken and are surely wrong, for was not this the very comfort that Christ gave to his disciples: “If I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” I trust, dear friends, we are among those “who love his appearing,” and if we are, it is a sure prophecy that we shall have a crown of righteousness.

2 Timothy 4:9-10. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica;

Demas was once almost a martyr, he was upon the very edge of suffering, but now you see he goeth back to the world again; he is not content to lie in the dungeon and rot with Paul, but will rather seek his own ease. Alas! Demas, how hast thou dishonoured thyself for ever, for every man who reads this passage as he passes by, flings another stone at the heap which is the memorial of one of cowardly spirit who fled from Paul in danger.

2 Timothy 4:10. Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

It is likely that Paul had sent Crescens and Titus away upon a mission but now, from certain intimations, the Apostle is sure that his time of death is coming on, and so indeed it was, for his head was struck off by Nero’s orders a few weeks after the writing of this Epistle, and now he somewhat laments that he had sent them away. And would not you and I want the consolation of kind faces round about us, and the sweet music of loving voices in our ears, if we were about to be offered up?

2 Timothy 4:11. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.

That is one of the prettiest verses in the Bible, because you will remember that the Apostle Paul quarreled with Barnabas about this very Mark, because John Mark would not go into Bithynia to preach the Word, but left Paul and Barnabas, therefore Paul would not have Mark with him any more, because he had turned in the day of trouble. But now Paul is about to die, and he wishes to be perfectly at peace with everyone. He has quite forgiven poor John Mark himself for his former weakness; he sees grace in him, and so he is afraid lest John Mark should be under some apprehensions of the Apostle’s anger, and so he puts in this very kind passage, without seeming to have any reference at all to the past, but he gives him this great praise — “for he is profitable to me for the ministry.”