Packed and ready to go?

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:6-8

Anyone who reads the letters of Paul in the New Testament quickly discovers that he could be both quite a firebrand and quite a demanding teacher. Paul the firebrand challenges us to a life of whole-hearted Christian discipleship; Paul the teacher challenges us to bring our minds to bear on truths that can be hard to grapple with. Paul was a complex man.

But there are other times when he comes across as very human and even vulnerable. The fourth, and last, chapter of his second letter to Timothy is a good example: here we see an old man reflecting on his life and service for God, displaying his physical weakness, and boldly confronting his approaching “departure”.

I want to spend two or three posts in this very rich chapter, starting here in verses 6-8. Putting it very briefly, he is reflecting on the past, the present and the future of his life – though not in that order.

(1) He starts with the present: “I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near” (verse 6).

Poured out like a drink offering? That, to us, is a very strange figure of speech. But we need to remember that in the ancient world, both the Jewish and the pagan world, the offering of animal sacrifice was something you might come across every day of your life: ancient temples and town-centres would smell like an abattoir. And the sacrifices  would very likely be accompanied by oil or wine poured on the altar.

Paul seems to mean that he views his many years of service as a non-stop sacrifice, and his approaching death as the final drink-offering. Something like: “Father, my life is drawing to its end, and I want my death to be the last offering I can make to you”.

I heard about a Christian recently who had been diagnosed with terminal illness. Someone asked him how he was feeling about it, and he said, “I’m fine! I’m standing on the platform, my suitcase packed, and ready to depart”. Perhaps that’s a rough-and-ready, twenty-first century alternative to Paul’s “drink offering”! You may be still a long way from death (as far as you know!) – but do you see that event, when it comes, as an act of glad sacrifice?

May God help us to glorify him in our dying as much as in our living.

(2) Then Paul surveys his past: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (verse 7).

He could almost be boasting; but I don’t think he is. It’s more like a plain statement of fact.

First: Yes, it’s been hard – a fight! The Christian life is a daily struggle. To become a follower of Jesus is to join an army, not to book into a holiday camp. The so-called “prosperity gospel” is a straight lie – just see what Paul has to say in, say, 2 Corinthians 6:3-10.

Second: Yes, it’s been an endurance test – a race! And the Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint: we are called to keep on keeping on. Those crazy people who run long-distances for fun tell us that there comes a point where an endurance barrier has to be broken. And Christian living is like that.

May God help us to remember that when, say, we “grow weary in doing good” (Galatians 6:9).

Third: Yes, there have been times of doubt and even wavering, times to “keep – or hold on to - the faith”, even if through gritted teeth. Spurgeon’s Bible College in London has a motto: in Latin, Teneo et teneor: “I hold, and I am held”, or, a little more loosely, “As I hold, so I am held”.

May God help us to prove that true every day!

(3) Then Paul looks to the future: “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day…” (verse 8).

Just as the athlete in the arena looked forward to being crowned with the winner’s garland, so Paul looks forward to a “crown of righteousness”. In this present life, even the most dedicated follower of Jesus experiences disappointments, failures and hardships, but victory is on the way. Jesus wore the crown of thorns so that we might wear the crown of victory.

A fact: one day you will be the perfect you and I the perfect me. The perfection that Paul is referring to is entirely the gift of God’s grace, yet there is also a sense in which it is the natural outcome of the righteous life: as Jesus put it, “great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12).

So, says Paul, This is me, Timothy! – a fighter, a runner, a holder-on: and ultimately, a winner. But he can’t resist adding, And of course, this doesn’t only apply to me! No, “this is also for all who have longed for his appearing”.

Does that include you and me? Do we, today, long for the return of Jesus in glory? Are we also packed and ready to go?

Dear Father, please forgive me when I fail and refresh me when I am weary, and so bring me to that day when I will be rewarded with the crown of victory and glory. Amen.