15 May 2026

In 2 Timothy, the writer gives a devastating critique of the world. ‘People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers …

He goes on, ‘profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward forms of goodliness but denying its power.’ What a catalogue! What a world! Our world?

By contrast, the Christian has not been given ‘a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.’ He is not distracted by unimportant things. He lives by God’s law.

He waits with patience for God to fulfil his purposes. He is single-minded and unashamed of the gospel. He has strength to endure whatever comes his way and to endure it with dignity.

The gospel is described as a treasure – something rare and valuable and worth a great deal. The reward for those who persevere in the faith is a crown, a victor’s crown, perhaps the laurel wreath of the Olympic athlete?

He may not be crowned in this life but in the life to come it will be for him an honour bringing much glory to all those who share the author’s immortal epitaph, ‘I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.’