Chapter 4
2021-2, This verse:
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: [2Ti 4:1 ESV]
Another judgment verse. Jesus will judge the living before the Millennial and the dead at the Great White Throne. Will he judge the raptured?
2024 - Theos will judge at the GWT. Given what we know about the rapture, the dead will be raised and the living changed. But a judgment right after the rapture would include both living and dead. I do not see any dead people judged at the Pre-Millennial judgment. So this verse may be the best one for "proof" of a bema judgment.
Paul gives Timothy a very direct "charge" to "preach the word". As if maybe Timothy was taking too many Sundays off...
Paul says that there will be a time when "real preachers" will be run off, and those who say what the congregation wants to hear will be promoted. Paul is saying "Preach now, while someone is still willing to listen."
2021-2, Look at the definition of "preaching":
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. [2Ti 4:2 ESV]. I had wondered at first what text Timothy was preaching from. You have to wonder about that. Today, preachers use OT and NT, and the OT is clarified by the NT. Back then, there was no NT. There were an increasing but limited number of letters from Paul, that told how things were to be done. He either extrapolated from the OT or he had direct revelation. But these letters, in that time and context, were just letters from a guy who went all over the world teaching about Jesus. Many did not believe his credentials. But this doesn't say preach expositionally from the existing scriptures. It says reprove, rebuke and exhort. In our day, preachers are long on exhort and reproof and rebuke are almost non-existent, at least from the pulpit to the assembled. Rummage says abortion is wrong. Rummage does not say that if you believe in abortion you ought to be ashamed of yourself and go back and do some serious Bible study and moreover, you might want to check on the status of your salvation, because saved people, with study, will ALWAYS come down on abortion as the worst sort of shedding innocent blood. And if you still believe it is ok, then you need to be rebuked, it is time for you to leave this church and go out into the world where people believe like you believe. In here, we believe the Bible, and we do not hide that because of the culture. I don't know that I have EVER heard a sermon with real reproof and rebuke in it. Two out of three are missing today. It would have been difficult, preaching without scripture.
2021-2, Here is the reason preaching is as it is now...didn't have to wait too long for the answer:
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, [2Ti 4:3 ESV]. You will never find a modern day "John the Baptist" preaching at the biggest church in town. They wouldn't have him. They wouldn't have people even a lot milder than John. John MacArthur is maybe the closest thing there is to what Paul is urging Timothy to be. He calls out false teachers. He calls out Catholicism. Does he have any sermons on Islam? I think I want to hear those if he does. I think he still "dis-fellowships" members who get divorced without Biblical cause. I sure would like to know more about how he does that. But the point is, if a preacher gets to doing too much reproving, and any rebuking at all, the church is likely to decide they need a different preacher.
2024 - Bonhoeffer preached. "The Cost of Discipleship" has a lot of very direct either/or kind of things. High time I reviewed my notes on that book. I know I've lost the resolve it gave me at the time.
Paul makes it clear in 6-8 that he does not expect to preach again. He does not expect to be released. He believes he has done all that God had planned for him to do, and it is now time to go home.
2021-2, Look at this verse:
8 Henceforth there is laid up 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 loved his appearing. [2Ti 4:8 ESV]
Paul believed he would receive a crown. Jesus is going to present it to him, and to many others, on "that day". This is the "bema seat" judgment - though I still do not think it is a third judgment. I think this happens at the GWT. Paul does nothing to imply that his crown will be bigger, but instead that ALL who "have loved" his appearing will likewise receive the Crown of Righteousness. Makes me think of the "Purple Heart", or the "Combat Medal", except a crown. But the biggest thing is the time it will be awarded - "on that day". From this, we can at least say that the saved will receive their awards at a specific time. This STILL DOES NOT say they will be judged in any way. The race will already be over. There won't be a judgment so much as an awards ceremony. But is that right in light of the verses that talk about some works being "burnt up in the fire". Is that the fire that consumes the old heaven and earth?
Took a look at the MSB. Bible text takes up less than a quarter of each page in 2Tim4, and study notes take up the rest. This is one of those passages that are just rich with lessons, with ideas, with content. MSB has a pretty lengthy note on vs 8:
There are five crowns mentioned in the NT. The reference for each is given in this note. In those, the description is about an intrinsic characteristic of the crown itself, rather than of the action that was the source of the crown. So the Crown of Life means, perhaps that the crown is about eternal life. But here, the Crown of Righteousness might well be about the life of righteousness, the belief, the justification and most of all the sanctification that takes place over the life of the believer, and this crown is because of that sanctification. The crown is not righteous, but instead signifies righteousness in the wearer. The MSB note says it might mean this, or might be like the other four crowns. As for "on that day", we are referred to the note on 2Tim1:12. (2024 - If you go read that note, it seems to be about the bema seat. MSB uses "judgment seat", but that is what he means, obviously.)
There are extensive xrefs to still other places, and no real explanation of when this term applies. The phrase is found in vs 12, but also in v 18 - which is interesting in that it certainly implies at least a qualitative judgment of believers:
18 may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!--and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. [2Ti 1:18 ESV]. This is Paul's prayer for Onesiphorus, who had remained loyal to Paul through his trials. The implication is that Paul wants Onesiphorus to receive a good reward on "that day". We must believe from Paul's further description of him that he was saved. So why would he need mercy if he was saved already? Perhaps in the magnitude of his reward? These words need to be studied on out, but here too is a really good indication of a "qualitative judgment of the works of the saved". I am dispensing with the whole bema thing, because I think it is misused to designate a third time of judgment and I cannot find where that is the case.
Phil 1:6 should be looked at in ref to that day. Here is the verse:
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. [Phl 1:6 ESV]. So this verse has a reference to "the day of Jesus Christ", and here is the bulk of the note:
This phrase is not to be confused with the "Day of the Lord" which describes final divine judgment and wrath. "Day of Christ Jesus" is also called the "day of Christ" (v 10, 2:16) and the "day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1Co 1:8), which looks to the final salvation, reward, and glorification of believers. Cf 1Co 3:10-15; 4:5; 2Co 5:9,10.
So, lot's of "note" but nothing specific about the time of judgment. "that day" refers to the same "day" as these other three phrases (so it has four names), it is about the reward of believers, and yet...there is no "when" that I have yet found. That diagram of his from his book seems to imply that this day takes place in heaven right after the rapture, which would also seem to imply either that only NT saints will get these rewards or that both OT and NT saints will rise at the rapture.
Again, the deeper I go, the less clear it is.
There are also notes on Phil 1:10.
In the note at 2Tim 1:12 it also says this: "Also called "day of Christ" when believers will stand before the judgment seat and be rewarded (see notes on 1Co 3:13; 2Co 5:10; 1Pe 1:5)." These would be very good to look at...though I think I've already seen them all.
Copying this whole section to the judgment study, because it is really much more about that than about notes on 2Tim4...and I need to move on through today's reading!
Paul asks Timothy to make a sincere effort to come and see him.
Demas had left Paul, drawn back to the things of this world, and gone to Thessalonica. Wouldn't Paul be worried about what Demas might teach them? Demas could claim his false teaching came direct from Paul, and undermine that whole church. THAT is why the writings of Paul are Scripture! Because we already know those letters served to bring the early churches back to pure doctrine. That pure doctrine must persist, and it does so through the writings of Paul! Oh my...this is why the writings of the NT MUST be considered Scripture!
2021-2, This verse:
11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. [2Ti 4:11 ESV]
Wherever it is that Paul is writing from, it is unlikely to be a prison cell. Unless we are to believe that Luke is imprisoned with him. At the very least, if Paul is imprisoned, he is allowed visitors, and it would make sense that Luke is the one furnishing Paul with writing equipment, and is the one "posting" the letters as Paul finishes them. It is also possible that Luke was his "stenographer", or was bringing someone with him who could take down what Paul dictated. Paul is NOT at this point in that hole in the ground dungeon that I heard one preacher say he is in at some point. I don't t think we have anything but some tradition, and perhaps not a "widely accepted as truth" tradition that Paul was ever in that dungeon. But if he was, I don't think he ever wrote a letter from there, and I would think it likely that he died there. This vs 11 says that while Paul's own movements might have been entirely restricted at this time, he was not unable to communicate, his conditions were hospitable enough to allow at least for dictation of his letters if not his actual writing them, and for those willing to brave the suspicion and possible persecution that might accrue from doing so, he could still have visitors and so receive some moral support.
13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. [2Ti 4:13 ESV]
He would not have wanted these things delivered to a damp and foul dungeon cell where they would certainly be damaged by the conditions. He was not free to roam about and continue his preaching, but he was not at this time in a prison cell...I do not believe.
Paul, nearing the end of his life, asks Timothy to bring him some items from which he can draw some comfort. A cloak...a favorite cloak, or "The Robe"? He also has some favorite books, and some precious "parchments" that he has likely been given or accumulated along the way. Originals of OT scripture? A complete scroll of the Septuagint? We don't know, but we know he longed to have them by him.