Papa Joe Mac's Commentary:

Preach to the End?  What do you mean?  What “end”?  Me, “preach”?  Be a Witness?  Evangelize?  Me?  Teach my children Scripture?  Take my Christianity for granted?  Do I wanna keep Jesus my own ‘little’ secret and not share what He’s done for me?  Ready to die?  These are common questions posed by Christians and non-believers alike.  For Christians, these become questions due to confusion.  I will step on toes here and say that confusion creeps in by NOT reading God’s Word and by NOT staying in touch (spending quiet time) with God.  It’s really pretty simple, eh?  I mean, God wants our companionship so why don’t we comply?! 

In parts of the world today it requires risking one’s life to be a Christian.  In other places, it is not difficult to be a Christian.  Do we take “Christianity” for granted?  I often wonder if we have.  Statistics show that 85 to 90 % of the people polled in the United States say they are “Christian”?  If that is true, why is our country struggling in areas such as abortion, Ten Commandments in courthouses, eliminating God’s name from the pledge, removing crosses from public places, etc.  85%?  I don’t think so!

In the verses for this study, Paul refers to the “last days”.  I believe that Paul uses the reference to relay his sense of urgency to the reader.  We should act on this lesson and make the most of the time God has given us until Christ returns.  We know not the day of His return so we must be vigilant.

End time studies are termed “eschatology”.  From the Greek “eschatos” means ‘last’ and ‘ology’ means the ‘study of’.  When do you think the “end times” started?  The “end times” technically started after Jesus’ resurrection when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers at Pentecost.  We are indeed living in the “end times”!!  When Christ was preparing to return to Heaven, He said “go and preach……”  We call His words the Great Commandment; not the Great SUGGESTION!  The end is truly approaching.

Paul gives us a list in 2 Timothy 3:1-4.  How do we measure up against Paul’s list? Do you see some of these traits in our society:  Pride, pleasure, recklessness, etc.?

Not only does Paul give us a list of things to look for in the ‘last days’, he helps us become more knowledgeable about what young Timothy and what Timothy was chartered to do.  Timothy was a Christian because his mother and grandmother taught him the Holy Scriptures when he was a small child.  Timothy studied the Old Testament writings which all pointed to the coming Messiah – Jesus.  If you are a parent, you have a vitally important job to do.  Don’t EVER depend on someone else to teach your children about our Lord.  It is the parent’s responsibility to “bring up the child in the way he should go”.  Small children were important to Jesus and He wanted them to come to Him.   We should be no different. 

 
Just at Timothy’s family did for him, we too must teach the truth – God’s Word – total truth.  People often say there are errors in the Bible and it is not longer applicable to our culture.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Many “historical” writings have recorded the same people, places and things as the Bible and have used the Bible to lend credibility to their own documents!  We must teach that the Bible is not a collection of stories, fables, myths, or merely human ideas about God.  Through the Holy Spirit, God revealed His person and plan to certain believers, who wrote down His message.

 
The writers wrote from their own personal, historical, and cultural contexts and used their own minds, talents, language, and style, but they wrote what God wanted them to. The Bible is referred to as “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”.  It is the Christian’s standard for testing everything that claims to be true.  Timothy was a young second-generation Christian chartered by Paul to proclaim the truth.

As he neared the end of his life, Paul faced death calmly, knowing that he would be rewarded by Christ.  Is your life preparing you for death?  Are you ready for the “last days”?  Do you know the signs?  Do you share Paul’s confident expectation of meeting Christ? The good news is that the heavenly reward is not just for giants of the faith, like Paul, but for all who are eagerly looking forward to Christ’s second coming. Paul gave these words to encourage Timothy and us, so that no matter how difficult the fight seems, we can keep fighting. When we are with Jesus Christ, we will discover that it was all worth it – and preaching to the end – will bring others into God’s family.