Paul writes this last letter of his from jail. Unlike in the other prison epistles, Paul has no longer any hope of being released and is sure of his imminent death: “As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:6-7). This indicates that he is imprisoned in Rome during Emperor Nero’s persecution, in which, according to church tradition, he dies a martyr’s death. The letter has the quality of handing over the baton in a relay race. It feels like the handover of a charge, like a testimony or an inheritance being passed on.
Paul is clearly suffering in prison and battling discouragement when he writes this letter: ”At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them” (2 Tim 4:16). Is there no cloak in Rome so that Timothy has to bring one from Troas (2 Tim 4:12)? It surely seems Paul was very isolated at this time. Some people have left him (Demas, 2 Tim 4:9), others he sent on much needed missions (Crescent, Titus, Tychicus, 2 Tim 4:10,12), others he hopes to see one more time (Mark, Timothy, 2 Tim 4:11).
He writes to Timothy “my beloved child” (2 Tim 1:2), his faithful long-term co-worker. Timothy is Paul’s junior by many years and a person very different in character and personality from Paul. Paul is the pioneer, the powerful apostle, unstoppable, invincible though he suffers continually. Timothy is his loyal companion, non-threatening, rather shy, probably introverted, sometimes finding it difficult to step up. Yet it is Timothy that Paul trusts, it is to him that he hands over his life work and the care for many churches. The love, friendship and deep loyalty between these two so different figures speaks strongly.
In the letter of 2 Timothy Paul charges Timothy to stand against false teachers and their influence in the church. They are involved in godless chatter (2 Tim 2:16), in disputes about words (2 Tim 2:14), in stupid and senseless controversies that breed quarrels (2 Tim 2:23). They are teaching that the resurrection has already happened (2 Tim 2:18). They were probably either denying Jesus’ humanness or his divinity, as Paul counters with assertions about Jesus being descended from David (2 Tim 2:8) and having risen from the dead (2 Tim 2:8).
As also in 1 Timothy, good (and bad) leadership is a major theme in 2 Timothy. Paul encourages Timothy to be an example, a workman approved by God who is rightly explaining the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15). He uses powerful metaphors: the metaphor of being a soldier, sharing in suffering and pleasing the enlisting officer (2 Tim 2:3-4); of being an athlete, who competes hard according to the rules (2 Tim 2:5) and of being a farmer, who works but also has a right to the first share of the crops (2 Tim 2:6-7). He challenges Timothy not to participate in stupid, senseless controversies that breed quarrels (2 Tim 2:16,23), but rather to be kind, a patient teacher, correcting others with gentleness (2 Tim 2:24-25). Paul encourages Timothy to imitate his own example of sound teaching, good conduct, single-mindedness, patience, love and perseverance (2 Tim 3:10-12). His basic message to Timothy is: You are doing well, continue to do well!
Paul also thinks ahead: He instructs Timothy to teach and build up others, like Paul did with him: ”What you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well” (2 Tim 2:2), ensuring discipleship and the pass down of the gospel. In this sentence Paul uses the gender-inclusive Greek pronouns, indicating that he wants both faithful men and women to teach and disciple others.
Paul reminds him that the Holy Spirit in him is a Spirit not of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-discipline (2 Tim 1:7). He solemnly urges him to proclaim the gospel and to keep teaching (2 Tim 4:1-2, 5). He passes on his confidence to Timothy: ”I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him” (1 Tim 1:12).

The author and his situation
Paul identifies himself as the writer of 2 Timothy, calling himself an “apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 1:1). Maybe he focuses on the “promise of life” because Paul writes this his last preserved letter from jail. Unlike in the other earlier prison epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 62 AD), in 2 Timothy Paul has no longer any hope of being released and is sure of his imminent death: “As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:6-7). This suggests that he is imprisoned in Rome during Emperor Nero’s persecution (64-67 AD), in which, according to church tradition, he dies a martyr’s death by being beheaded. Also the four persons Paul mentions to be with him and sending greetings to Timothy all have characteristically Latin names (2 Tim 4:21), pointing to Paul being in Latin speaking Rome.
The letter of 2 Timothy has the quality of handing over the baton in a relay race. It feels like the handover of a charge, like a testimony or an inheritance being passed on. Paul is clearly suffering in prison and battling discouragement when he writes this letter: “At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them” (2 Tim 4:16). Is there no cloak in Rome so that Timothy has to bring one from Troas (2 Tim 4:12)? It surely seems Paul was very isolated at this time. Some people have left him (Demas, 2 Tim 4:9), others he sent on much needed missions (Crescent, Titus, Tychicus, 2 Tim 4:10,12), others he hopes to see one more time (Mark, Timothy, 2 Tim 4:11).

The addressee Timothy
Paul writes this letter to Timothy “my beloved child” (2 Tim 1:2), his faithful long-term co-worker. Timothy is Paul’s junior by many years and a person very different in character and personality from Paul. Paul is the pioneer, the powerful apostle, unstoppable, invincible though he suffers continually. Timothy is his loyal companion, non-threatening, rather shy, probably introverted, sometimes finding it difficult to step up. Yet it is Timothy that Paul trusts, it is to him that he hands over his life work and the care for many churches. The love, friendship and deep loyalty between these two so different figures speaks strongly.

Timothy’s life and character
Timothy is a young men from Lystra, born to a Greek father and a Jewish mother. Though his mother is Jewish, Timothy hasn’t been circumcised. He is well spoken of in Lystra and the neighboring Iconium (Acts 16:1-3). In the short time between the 1st and 2nd missionary journey (maximum two years) Timothy has already become a wholehearted, outstanding believer in his church. It seems he made some sort of public confession as a believer, probably at his baptism (1 Tim 6:12). His grandmother Lois and mother Eunice were both believers before him (2 Tim 1:5) and carefully taught him the “sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation” (2 Tim 3:15). Timothy has heard Paul’s teaching, seen his conduct, aim in life, faith, patience, love and steadfastness in suffering in Galatia in 47-48 AD and thus has a quite realistic picture of what apostleship means (2 Tim 3:10-11, Ac 14). It is interesting that Timothy, as a very young and rather shy person, is not put off by Paul’s strong personality or his sacrificial life style.
What is Timothy’s age when Paul recruits him? Nothing exact can be said but quite a few years later (depending on the dating of 1 Timothy, it could be as many as fourteen years later), Paul still says “let no one despise your youth” (1 Tim 4:12). So Timothy must have been young indeed when he joined Paul’s team.
Timothy seems to need some encouragement to fully step out: “do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders” (1 Tim 4:14) and ”rekindle the gift in you through laying on of my hands” (2 Tim 1:6). Paul commands him to not let anyone despise his youth (1 Tim 4:12) but rather for him to practice preaching, teaching and public reading of Scripture (1 Tim 4:13-15). He instructs the Corinthian church to treat Timothy well (1 Cor 16:10). He encourages Timothy to study the Word (1 Tim 2:15) and encourages him that God ”has not given us a spirit of fear, but a Spirit of power, love and self control” (2 Tim 1:8). So probably Timothy was not a natural pioneer, nor an up-front leader or a happy-go-lucky type. Rather he seems to have been introverted, quite timid and holding back. He is thus very different from Paul, which does not prevent Paul from recruiting him, but rather leads to years of friendship and co-work, in spite of their differences.
Paul warmly recommends Timothy as his fellow worker (Rom 16:21) and God’s servant (1 Cor 4:17) and says about him: ”I have no one like him, who will be genuinely anxious for your welfare. They all look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But Timothy’s worth you know, how as a son with a father he has served with we in the work of the gospel” (Php 2:20-22).
As Timothy grows in his ministry, Paul invests increasing authority in him and instructs him to “charge certain persons not to teach different doctrines” (1 Tim 1:3), to “command and teach these things” (1 Tim 4:11), to “teach and urge these duties” (1 Tin 6:2), to “remind people and charge them” (2 Tim 2:14) and to “convince, rebuke, exhort” (2 Tim 4:2).
At the end of Paul’s life it is to Timothy that Paul hands over the charge of spreading the gospel and the care of the churches he planted.

Standing against false teachers
A major theme in the letter of 2 Timothy are false teachers. As Paul had to do so many times, he now charges and instructs Timothy to stand against false teachers and their influence in the church.
What exactly are the false teachers teaching or doing? Paul describes them as involved in godless chatter (2 Tim 2:16), in disputes about words (2 Tim 2:14), in stupid and senseless controversies that breed quarrels (2 Tim 2:23). They are swerving from the truth by teaching that the resurrection has already happened and thereby upsetting some believers (2 Tim 2:18). They seem to move away from the gospel of grace (2 Tim 1:9). They were likely either denying Jesus’ humanness or his divinity, for Paul counters with assertions about Jesus being descended from David and having risen from the dead (2 Tim 2:8). They are teaching to please people. The people themselves are guilty, too: “they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths” (2 Tim 4:3).
Paul warns Timothy that “distressing times will come” where people will be “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful… swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power”. They “make their way into households and captivate silly women… who are always being instructed but can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:1-9).
Paul is not mincing words, but who is he referring to? First it seems he is describing a deteriorating general culture in the Roman empire, but then it turns out he is describing believers (2 Tim 3:5) or believers influencing others in a negative way (2 Tim 3:6-9). False teachers is a term he uses for those who are purposefully teaching wrong things, or those that have in no way responded to correction. Two he mentions by name (2 Tim 2:16): Hymenaeus and Philetus. He also mentions Alexander the copper smith as a strong opponent (2 Tim 4:14) and Phygelus and Hermogenes as having “turned away from me” (2 Tim 1:15).

Godly and ungodly leadership
As also in 1 Timothy, good (and bad) leadership is therefore a major theme in 2 Timothy. How to combat bad leadership, wrong influence and false teaching?
Paul describes his own clear conscience (2 Tim 1:3). He encourages Timothy to be an example, a workman approved by God who is rightly explaining the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15). He uses powerful metaphors: the metaphor of being a soldier, sharing in suffering and pleasing the enlisting officer (2 Tim 2:3-4); of being an athlete, who competes hard according to the rules (2 Tim 2:5) and of being a farmer, who works but also has a right to the first share of the crops (2 Tim 2:6-7). He challenges Timothy not to participate in stupid, senseless controversies that breed quarrels (2 Tim 2:16,23), but rather to be kind, a patient teacher, correcting others with gentleness (2 Tim 2:24-25). Paul warns him to “shun youthful passions” but rather to “pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Tim 2:22). Paul encourages Timothy to imitate his own example of sound teaching, good conduct, single-mindedness, patience, love and perseverance (2 Tim 3:10-12).
His basic message to Timothy is: You are doing well, continue to do well! Also he is confirming to him that it is only by an exemplary life, by modeling godliness, obedience and faithfulness that people are discipled. The real victories are always won the hard way.

Suffering
It is not surprising, then, that suffering is a quite often repeated theme in 2 Timothy: Paul urges Timothy to join him in suffering for the gospel (2 Tim 1:8), naturally links apostleship with suffering (2 Tim 1:11-12), naturally links a godly life with suffering (2 Tim 3:12), encourages Timothy to suffer as a soldier of Christ (2 Tim 2:3, 4:5), freely shares about his own suffering in the past (2 Tim 3:11), right now (2 Tim 1:15, 2:9) and in the immediate future, his impending death (2 Tim 4:6).
Paul, though suffering and somewhat discouraged, lets none of this throw him off his faith, confidence or calling. It is what is to be expected, God will give the grace for it and it will pale in the light of eternal realities (2 Tim 4:8). Paul continues to encourage Timothy as he has all throughout his sacrificial, difficult yet victorious and blessed life.

Passing on the baton
Paul also thinks ahead: He instructs Timothy to teach and build up others, like Paul taught Timothy and built him up: “What you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well” (2 Tim 2:2). Paul is ensuring that discipleship continues and that the gospel will be passed down.
In this sentence Paul uses the gender-inclusive Greek pronouns, indicating that he wants both faithful men and women to teach and disciple others. There is therefore no general prohibition to teach for women, but a need for faithfulness for whoever teaches.
Paul reminds Timothy further that the Holy Spirit in him is not a spirit of cowardice or fear, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline (2 Tim 1:7). He solemnly urges him to proclaim the gospel and to keep teaching (2 Ti 4:1-2, 5). He passes on his confidence to Timothy: ”I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him” (1 Tim 1:12).
Paul finishes with an encouragement, his humbly triumphant last salvo: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Tim 4:7-8).

Coming.