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Timothy's fellowship is to be with "those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart".
Serious opposition to the truth is predicted (2: 25, 26), culminating in the "last days" with
a "form of godliness"; "from such", continues the apostle, "turn away". The charge
which he gives to Timothy in the fourth chapter points essentially to a lonely and isolated
stand:--
"Preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season.......for the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine.......they shall turn away their ears from the
truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (II Tim. 4: 2-4).
Still the loneliness continues:--
"Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me, for Demas HATH FORSAKEN
ME.......only Luke is with me.......bring the cloak and the books, especially the
parchments.......at my first defence NO MAN stood with me, but all FORSOOK me"
(II Tim. 4: 9-22).
The second epistle suits the period in which we live. Churches there are by the
thousand, but, in spite of all that the votaries of each peculiar assembly may bring
forward, the true church has disappeared from the face of the earth. All the existing
assemblies from the great apostate church, down through every grade and variety of
connection with, or separation from, this world's patronage, manifested in the presence of
every variety of ministry or in its absence, in the claim to gifts or the denial of them, in a
plethora of ceremonies and observances as well as in their entire absence, no collective
company of saints now represents the church. At best these companies provide
convenient opportunities for testimony and worship, and association with the purest may
often prove a snare.
Whereas the pathway for attaining to the Prize in the days of Philippians was one of
blessed fellowship, the pathway to-day is one of blessed loneliness. The essentials of the
conflict remain the same, and He who shall sit upon the Umpire's throne (the bema, the
seat of the umpire at the races and athletic sports) alone knows the just and equal terms in
which the handicap can be fixed; before therefore we can fully understand the scriptural
teaching of The Hope and the Prize, the altered conditions of II Timothy must be
studied. We therefore hope to turn our attention to this epistle which deals with the last
and perilous days, so that the reader may not be left in uncertainty either as to the nature
of the conflict, or the terms of its triumphs.