Paul’s Last Letter
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world is insulted, and Satan laughs in triumph at the success of his
devices.
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With the growing contempt for God’s law there is an increasing
distaste for religion, an increase of pride, love of pleasure, disobedi-
ence to parents, and self-indulgence; and thoughtful minds everywhere
are anxiously inquiring, What can be done to correct these alarming
evils? The answer is found in Paul’s exhortation to Timothy, “Preach
the word.” In the Bible are found the only safe principles of action.
It is a transcript of the will of God, an expression of divine wisdom.
It opens to man’s understanding the great problems of life, and to all
who heed its precepts it will prove an unerring guide, keeping them
from wasting their lives in misdirected effort.
God has made known His will, and it is folly for man to question
that which has gone out of His lips. After Infinite Wisdom has spoken,
there can be no doubtful questions for man to settle, no wavering
possibilities for him to adjust. All that is required of him is a frank,
earnest concurrence in the expressed will of God. Obedience is the
highest dictate of reason as well as of conscience.
Paul continued his charge: “Watch thou in all things, endure afflic-
tions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
Paul was about to finish his course, and he desired Timothy to take
his place, guarding the church from the fables and heresies by which
the enemy, in various ways, would endeavor to lead them from the
simplicity of the gospel. He admonished him to shun all temporal pur-
suits and entanglements that would prevent him from giving himself
wholly to his work for God; to endure with cheerfulness the opposition,
reproach, and persecution to which his faithfulness would expose him;
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to make full proof of his ministry by employing every means within
his reach of doing good to those for whom Christ died.
Paul’s life was an exemplification of the truths he taught, and herein
lay his power. His heart was filled with a deep, abiding sense of his
responsibility, and he labored in close communion with Him who is the
fountain of justice, mercy, and truth. He clung to the cross of Christ as
his only guarantee of success. The love of the Saviour was the undying
motive that upheld him in his conflicts with self and in his struggles
against evil as in the service of Christ he pressed forward against the
unfriendliness of the world and the opposition of his enemies.