In this blog, we will posit a biblical contextual backdrop as reasonable explanation for understanding 2Timothy 4:1-8. We will see that because of the “brutal, malicious and treacherous” nature of the Ephesian people, as described by the apostle Paul, Timothy possibly became fearful and timid of any further potential hostile encounters with these Ephesians, resulting in him becoming too disheartened and too frightened to continue his preaching and teaching ministry among them.
And we will deduce that Timothy’s fearful reluctance to continue to use his spiritual gift of evangelism to further his ministry of preaching and teaching among the Ephesian people became the impetus for the apostle Paul to write his second letter to Timothy.
Let's begin.
Overview
First, we will see that Timothy’s gift of evangelism empowered him to perform his ministry of preaching and teaching to the Ephesian people.
However, we will also see that because of the “brutal, malicious and treacherous” nature of the Ephesian people, as described by the apostle Paul, Timothy possibly became fearful of potential hostile encounters with the Ephesian people, resulting in him becoming too timid to continue preaching and teaching the gospel message to them.
Using the lack of character-change in the Ephesian people as his ministry-success-litmus-test, Timothy soon lost his sense of evangelistic power for preaching the gospel, and may have became so embarrassed, by what appeared to him to be powerless-results of his preaching and teaching ministry, that he abandoned the use of his spiritual gift on their behalf. So, being embarrassed, and with no sense of evangelistic power, Timothy eventually ceased preaching and teaching to the Ephesian people all together.
And so we deduce that Timothy’s reluctance to continue to use his spiritual gift of evangelism to further his ministry of preaching and teaching among the Ephesian people became the impetus for the apostle Paul to write his second letter to Timothy.
With this scenario in mind, let’s begin with the contextual backdrop of both for 2Timothy 1-8.
The Backdrop
We begin with the observation that over the many years that Paul and Timothy travelled the Mediterranean basin together, Paul most likely clearly recognized Timothy's spiritual gift of evangelism. We see that in 2Timothy 4:5, Paul encourages Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist.” It seems quite obvious to note that Paul wouldn’t have need to encourage Timothy in this way unless he indeed had the gift of evangelism and Paul wanted him to use it.
But what work might an evangelist do, you may ask? Paul answers that question for us: preaching and teaching. An evangelist devotes him/herself to the preaching and teaching of the gospel message using his/her gift of evangelism. (1Timothy 4:13)
Since Paul may have been well aware of Timothy’s gift of evangelism and his ability to preach and teach, we can deduce that before leaving Ephesus for the final time to make his way to Macedonia, the apostle Paul appointed the young, energetic Timothy to remain behind to pastor the church at in that polytheistic town. (1Timothy 1:3) Timothy’s ministry was to use his spiritual gift of evangelism to preach and teach the gospel message to the Ephesian people.
About two years into Timothy’s ministry in Ephesus, the apostle Paul wrote Timothy a letter filled with encouraging words, among which, the phrase, "keep fighting the good fight" (1Timothy 6:12) stands out as a thematic concept for both letters Paul wrote to Timothy.
Paul was pleased with Timothy's ministry at the two-year mark and wrote him to encourage him to continue strong in his preaching and teaching to the Ephesian people.
Paul specifically knew that Timothy was facing a group of people who would look down on him because of his youthfulness. (1Timothy 4:12) And he knew that the Ephesian people, to whom he sent Timothy, had "abandoned the faith and followed deceiving spirits and things taught by demons" (1Timothy 4:1), so Paul's encouragement was vey much warranted.
Even so, we see at this two-year mark that Paul was encouraged by Timothy's determination to "keep fighting the battle well" (1Timothy 1:19) and he was encouraged by Timothy’s diligence to continue to use his spiritual gift of evangelism (1Timothy 4:14) in his preaching and teaching to the Ephesian church.
Nonetheless, Paul knew that Timothy needed the extra encouragement to "continue to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching" (1Timothy 1:14) in the face of a group of people whom Paul describes as "hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron." (1Timothy 4:2). The people of Ephesus were a tough bunch to evangelize and Paul knew Timothy would need encouragement to continue to battle them well.
So, in Paul's first letter to Timothy, Paul encourages Timothy to continue to boldly teach and preach on specific issues of the gospel message that have eternal ramifications for the Ephesians. Paul tells Timothy, "these things you are to continue to teach and insist on." (1Timothy 6:2)
However, the people to whom Timothy had been sent were not of any mindset to listen to anything Timothy had to say. In fact, by the time Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, the Ephesians were actively opposing Timothy's preaching and teaching ministry. (2 Timothy 3:8)
To get a clear picture of the opposition that Timothy faced, let’s look at how Paul graphically describes the Ephesian people...
· "They are conceited, and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind. They have been robbed of the truth and they think that godliness is a means to financial gain." (1Timothy 6:3-5)
· "They have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1Timothy 6:10)
· They are "arrogant and they put their hope in wealth." (1Timothy 6:17)
· "They quarrel about words." (2Timothy 2:14)
· "They indulge in godless chatter, and become more and more ungodly." (2Timothy 2:16)
· "Their teaching spreads like gangrene." (2Timothy 2:17)
· "They destroy the faith of some." (2Timothy 2:18)
· "They are involved in foolish and stupid arguments." (2Timothy 2:23)
· "They are quarrelsome." (2Timothy 2:24)
· "They have been trapped by the devil." (2 Timothy 2:26)
· "They have been taken captive by the devil to do his will." (2 Timothy 2:26)
· "They are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unappeasable, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power." (2 Timothy 3:2-5)
This litany of inhospitable character traits is tough to ignore in our attempt to understand Timothy's circumstances. It is these same unfriendly, brutal, treacherous, unforgiving and ungrateful people, who Paul here describes, who are the very people to whom Timothy is charged with evangelizing; the very people to whom he is to serve with his gift of evangelism. So we must take into account Paul's account of their character if we hope to understand Timothy's state of mind and Paul's encouragement to him.
Timothy has now spent two years in heated opposition with these people, preaching and teaching with little to no positive response from them. And Paul is now encouraging him to not become discouraged at his efforts; to "keep fighting the good fight" (1Timothy 6:12) by "continuing to not neglect (the use) his gift of evangelism" (1Timothy 4:14) and to "continue preaching and teaching, even insisting on" (1Timothy 6:2) obedience to the truth in the face of such a tough group of people.
Each of the verbs in those references above are, grammatically, in the present tense indicating that Timothy was currently “fighting,” currently “not neglecting,” and currently “preaching and teaching and insisting.” The use of the English “keep”, and “continue” capture the present tense meaning of those references.
If the first two years of Timothy's ministry can be compared to a fire, then Timothy would be considered, "on fire", and his ministry would be a blazing inferno roaring with flames and heat. And in order to keep the flames Timothy would need to continually throw logs on that fire to sustain its intense burning. Those logs could be his daily encounters of preaching and teaching of the gospel message to these "proud, abusive, and disobedient" people.
The implication of Paul's encouragement to "keep fighting the good fight" is that Timothy is indeed still fighting the good fight. He is still preaching and teaching the gospel message. It indicates that Timothy has not yet quit and given up fighting even in his extremely difficult circumstances. The fire of his ministry is still burning hot and strong because he is still preaching, continuing to throw into the flames of his still-burning ministry more and more Ephesian encounter logs.
So, the fact that Paul uses the present tense imperative here provides us with the translation of "keep on," and indicates that Timothy was still using his gift of evangelism at the time of his writing and still preaching and teaching to these people in the face of adverse opposition.
And after what must have been a treacherous two-year period of ministry, Timothy was still fighting the good fight. The fire of his ministry was burning hot and he was feeding that fire every day by his continued preaching and teaching in the face of opposition which was just as heated as his ministry.
However..., at the sixth year mark; after four more years of heated obstruction to his ministry, something is different. It may appear that the continual heat of opposition seems to have severely scorched Timothy’s enthusiasm to preach and teach, and the fire of his ministry was bit by bit knocked down to the point that it was struggling to stay ablaze.
By the time Paul wrote Timothy the second time, after those additional four more years of intense fiery encounters, engaging the Ephesian people in the ministry of preaching and teaching, Paul now describes Timothy’s ministry as being reduced to a smoldering ember.
In Paul’s second letter of encouragement to Timothy, one of the first words of encouragement to Timothy are…
“I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands…” (2Timothy 1:6)
No one needs to "fan into flame a blazing fire, only smoldering embers. The implication of Paul's encouragement her is that Timothy is no longer using his gift of evangelism and is thus no longer stoking his blazing fire of ministry with preaching and teaching encounters, and as a result, his fire of ministry is dying out to a mere ember that needs to be reignited by fanning it into flame.
God has, on other occasions, used the imagery of a dying ember in scripture to capture the image of something "pitiful and powerless." In Isaiah 7:2-6, God describes Aram and Ephraim in their meager attempt to form an alliance to overtake Judah as "two smoldering stubs of firewood."
From God's perspective, in Isaiah 7:2-6, even in the beginning stages of that alliance formation, God indicates Judah's victory had already won by his description of Aram and Ephraim as "two smoldering stubs of firewood." God, in a veiled prophecy, encourages Isaiah to take his son, Shear-Jashub, with him to encourage Ahaz, the king of Judah to not be afraid of those "two smoldering stubs of firewood." So, the imagery of a smoldering piece of wood indicates something or someone as "pitiful and powerless."
The Hebrew translation of Shear-Jashub, is "a remnant will return." God had in mind His eternal purpose, and so He commissioned Isaiah to go encourage Ahaz, king of Judah to understand the pitifulness and powerlessness of the two in light of His eternal purpose.
Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.”
So, Paul’s encouragement to Timothy is similar to Isaiah's encouragement to Ahaz. Paul wanted to encourage Timothy to no longer consider himself to be a smoldering stub of firewood, but to reignite the flames of his ministry by beginning to use his spiritual gift once again; to fan into flames his ministry and refuel the fire of his ministry by once again stoking it with Ephesian encounter logs by renewing his preaching and teaching ministry which had its roots in his gift of evangelism.
It seems that, after six years of ministry, Timothy had become timid, powerless and ineffectual. In the face of the brutal, harsh, and unappeasable Ephesian people, Timothy has perhaps cowered in fear of their brutality, and perhaps has began to feel powerless in his preaching and teaching, and as a result, he has shrunk back from his preaching and teaching responsibilities to the Ephesian people in the face of their harsh opposition. Perhaps with the lack of results in his ministry, Timothy became embarrassed of what appears to be a pitiful and powerless message.
So, what was once a well-fed, hot, roaring fire has now become a starving ember, gasping for air as it smolders to extinction. This previous roaring fire of Timothy’s ministry which Timothy once stoked with the logs of his daily encounters of preaching and teaching by using his spiritual gift of evangelism, that roaring fire has now been reduced to a smoldering, whimpering ember as his spiritual gift of evangelism, his preaching and his teaching lay scorched and smoldering by the wayside.
Perhaps Timothy’s interactions with these brutal, unforgiving, reckless, and quarrelsome people had worn on Timothy to the point where he became too timid to preach and teach them any longer. Perhaps Timothy became too fearful to preach and teach. Perhaps he became too embarrassed to preach and teach. And with fuel no longer being thrown on the fire, his once heated, roaring fire of a ministry, has now begun to starve from lack of fuel.
Perhaps in the course of his ministry, Timothy had been burned by the demands of his preaching and teaching ministry to the Ephesian people. It seems that by Paul’s words of encouragement to Timothy we might deduce that Timothy perhaps became too fearful, too powerless and perhaps too embarrassed to perform his ministry any longer. Timothy was suffering ministry burn out.
Paul tells Timothy, “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord,” (2Tinothy 1:6-8).
So, Paul, in writing his second letter to Timothy, encourages Timothy, by way of that reminder, to reignite the use of his spiritual gift and to begin again stoking the fire of his ministry with daily preaching and teaching encounters with the Ephesian people in spite of their obstinance.
That reminder included the fact that God did not give him a spirit of fear in the face of Ephesian opposition, but one of power. Paul wanted to remind Timothy that there is nothing to be ashamed of in preaching and teaching the gospel message to the Ephesian people, no matter how it is received.
Practical words of encouragement.
Comments