In Psalm 1, God promises His blessing to His people when they gather around His word and cling on to it. It is a wonderful picture to be like a tree, planted by streams of water, and growing and bearing fruit in season.

At a glance, this section in 2 Timothy might not be the sort of passage we’d want to read for our devotion/think is applicable. Yet. these verses are real and applicable, for they show us how to end well.

What would you say is an appropriate length for a sermon? Is 20 minutes too short? Is 1 hour too long? Is 30 minutes about right? What’s your appetite for hearing the word of God proclaimed?

What are your expectations for weekly corporate gathering of the church? Do you have a high view of the word of God? Otherwise, you run the risk of subjecting how you respond on Sunday mornings to your mood and environment. 

This passage in 2 Timothy 4:1-8 should challenge our expectations and how we respond to God’s word preached. 

Following this series, we see how Paul’s call to Timothy is repeated and consistent — guard the gospel, know it well, live it out, fight the good fight, finish well. Tonight’s study is almost a summary of what we’ve heard so far, repackaged, restated, but the difference here is Paul wraps this package up with a beautiful and important bow on top — He talks about how Scripture undergirds all of this.

Paul’s argument tonight is incredibly simple: The key to a godly life is the God-breathed Scripture, and everything that it informs — theology, conviction and life.

What would you say is the work of God? God’s work was first known when He formed creation and its creatures, and declared it very good. But his creatures turned to sin. In our rebellion we bring about curse rather than blessing. Death and its sting are our destiny. We yearn for eternity and find ourselves returned to dust.

What is God’s work in a fallen world like this? How do we know if it’s going well? And who are the people who get to participate in this work? Christian friends, how do you and I participate in God’s work for a fallen world?

What do we think of suffering? It has been said that “more people have died for their faith in the Twentieth Century than in all of the previous centuries combined.”

We might find this to be far removed from us. Christian gospel suffering can feel a bit far away, and we can be secretly happy about it. Yet this section in 2 Timothy show us how we are to relate to suffering. Paul specifically calls Timothy to share in gospel suffering.

1 Timothy spoke about godliness, God’s truth lived out in life. Now, what else does Paul have to say in 2 Timothy, after all that he has said? 2 Timothy is not just a letter to Timothy, but it is the final letter that Paul ever writes. Paul therefore writes this in a different circumstances from the first — now under imprisonment in Rome. This is the final stage of Paul’s life. He is an old man, about to leave this world under persecution, and these are his final words to young Timothy.