Fulfil Your Ministry

Today, modern wisdom would counsel that when something is broken or even simply doesn’t appear to be producing the same results as it once did, then it ought to be thrown out and replaced.  Nothing is built to last in life today.  This applies to food mixers and marriages alike.  Such thinking has unsurprisingly found its way into many churches too.

The church context in Ephesus had changed since Paul first visited and proclaimed the gospel.  He knew that wolves would arise from within their own number who would seek to lead the flock of God’s people astray.  And so by the time he is writing to Timothy in his second letter, it is likely that such prophecies were sadly coming true.  What was Timothy to do?  Was the model of ministry he had been using now broken?  It certainly did not seem to be producing the same kind of results as many were going after other teachers.  Should Timothy start shopping around for the newest version of church life?

Of course Paul’s answer that must have echoed in his ears for many years after Paul put pen to paper was the final words of Ch 4:5: ‘fulfil your ministry’.

The idea here is basically, complete the ministry you were given Timothy, both in the sense of leaving nothing incomplete and also in seeing it through to the very end.  In other words do not give up on what you have been given.  And such a stirring conclusion in such unsettling times has much to teach us in regards to the nature of authentic apostolic ministry as Paul reflected on it.

For a start it is refreshingly honest.  Ministry for Paul and Timothy then, and for all gospel ministry today is hard work.

Paul is not unaware of the great temptation to change either our doctrine or our practice because it does not appear to be producing the results we want.  Timothy was faced with a very contemporary crisis as he saw people flock to the new church just opened down the road with a far better building, glossier website and substack, where the music was contextually fitting, the vision compelling and the preaching exceptional.   Of course there is nothing wrong with such things and we should praise God when either our church or others benefit from them.  But the context Timothy was facing is shot through with emptiness.  Sadly this new church was not calling people to repentance and faith, nor was it seeking to establish people as disciples who would sacrifice their own wants and desires to follow Christ.  Instead it was simply giving people what they wanted to hear (4:3-4).  Timothy needed to see through all this ‘success’ and not give up on what he had been given in the apostolic gospel.

Paul underscores just how hard ministry will be in these last days by piling up his metaphors in v. 6 & 7.  ‘ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’.  Four word pictures that each individually surely deserve our prayerful meditation as we seek to fulfil our ministries today.

But Paul is not only a thorough going realist, he is always the irrepressible optimist too.  Although ministry is hard, it is also saturated by hope.  Fulfilling our ministries is not an exercise in wish fulfilment, for Paul will not let our focus shift, even slightly, on the sure and certain future that Christ has secured.

This is so typically Pauline and Biblical.  It is a tried and tested method that brings clarity and strength in pastoral ministry and our Christian lives in general.  The principle is this:  what we know to be certain about the future changes how we experience the present.  Our hopes and dreams are what drive us in our day to day lives and they are the unifying core at the centre of our being that enable us to endure and carry on regardless of the set backs and difficulties that may come our way.  What we know to be certain about the future changes how we experience the present.  And what we know for certain about the future is the Christ will appear to judge the living and the dead (4:1) and we will appear with him to receive our reward (4:8).

This is the focus that Paul wanted to leave with Timothy.  It is bright and full of celebration.  It is weighty and carries a significance that the greatest accolade in this world cannot outdo.  It is a future  that is marked by the graciousness and generosity of a king.  It is filled with personal happiness and overflowing gratitude.  Paul explains that he is keeping his sights firmly fixed on the ‘crown of righteousness’ (v.8) which is being kept for him and will be given to him as a recognition of his faithfulness, yet still founded on the grace of the Lord.

Paul assures Timothy that this is not his alone.  It is not reserved for those who were members of the apostolic band, as though they and they alone are something special.  Here is the greatest of all joys.  This future and all its brightness and weightiness will be shared and experienced by ‘all who have loved his appearing’ (v.8).  This again is so typically Biblical, where our activity and our affections are combined.  In v.2 just after Paul has mentioned Jesus’ appearing he then gives a very clear and hard edged command.  Timothy is to ‘preach the word’.  But here in v.8 Jesus’ appearing is spoken of in the context of loving Jesus and longing for his return.  Both are the mark of any true Christian life and ministry.  And for those who cultivate both, then Paul assures us that we too will share in this future filled with glory.

Nothing in this world ought to cloud our vision of this; not the newest and fastest growing ministries in our city or town or village; not the opposition, struggle or lack of results that seek to suppress our spirits;  not the hardness, rejection or bitterness that may come from those inside our churches;  not our own doubts or our lingering guilt that we should be doing so much more.  Paul firmly encourages us to keep our eyes fixed on this sure and certain future.

So he says ‘fulfil your ministry’ and fulfil, by Jesus’ strength we will.