2 Timothy
Author: Paul
Paul's final letter — a charge to Timothy to guard the gospel and endure hardship as a good soldier.
Summary of the Book of 2 Timothy
Written: c. AD 64-67
This is Paul's last surviving letter. Writing from Roman imprisonment in the mid-60s, expecting execution under Nero, he tells Timothy plainly: I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come. Demas has deserted him for this present world; only Luke remains; he asks Timothy to come before winter and to bring the cloak and the parchments. Out of that loneliness comes the New Testament's most personal charge to the next generation.
Chapter 1 stirs up the gift in Timothy, reminding him of the sincere faith of his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice, and insisting that God gave a spirit not of fear but of power, love, and self-control. Chapter 2 stacks up images of costly endurance: the soldier who avoids entanglements, the athlete who competes by the rules, the farmer who labors first, the workman who properly handles the word of truth. Chapter 3 warns that grievous times will come, with people holding a form of godliness while denying its power, and anchors Timothy in what he has known from infancy: the sacred Scriptures, every one God-breathed and profitable. Chapter 4 delivers the final charge, preach the word in season and out of season, before Paul's own testimony: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.
In the canon's storyline, 2 Timothy is the baton pass. The apostle who carried the gospel across the Roman world entrusts it to a timid younger man, and through him to faithful people who will teach others also. The word of God is not chained, even when its preacher is.
To charge Timothy, in the face of Paul's imminent death, to guard the gospel, endure suffering, and keep preaching the word to the next generation.