June 9, 2016

2 Timothy 4:5,7 NKJV - "But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry...I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

Commentary:

This might be a good "Discipleship Study" as well as a Daily Verse(s).  I'm taking just one primary thought out of this passage to emphasize today.  Paul said to Timothy, "...fulfill your ministry..." then he said of himself, "...I have finished the race..."  Simply put, Paul taught Timothy to complete his calling for Paul had accomplished that same goal himself, albeit, by the grace of God, 1 Corinthians 15:10.  Paul was not satisfied to leave this world with work undone.

Note Philippians 1:21-26.  There Paul expressed his desire to "...depart and be with Christ..." but he also realized there was still more work to fulfill.  I remember the great Bible teacher, Lehman Strauss, speaking in my home church in Connecticut back in 1964, said that he did not want to die and go to heaven until he had finished all that God had called him to do.  I haven't forgotten that.  In John 4:34 Jesus said, "...My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work."  On the cross Jesus cried out, "It is finished!" John 19:30.  What He set out to do, He did. 

By God's grace may we do the same.