Do All Your Work

2 Timothy 4:5
As for you, be calm and cool and steady, accept and suffer unflinchingly every hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fully perform all the duties of your ministry. (AMP)

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Paul, an old soldier in the faith, is giving a final exhortation from prison to his spiritual son, Timothy, whom he has raised in the Lord. He tells Timothy to be someone who is even-keeled and able to accept hardship. He tells him to faithfully proclaim the good news of the kingdom and then to fulfill, or perform all the duties of his ministry.

Set in context, he tells Timothy to be this way, not because it's just the Christian standard of living, but because there will be a time coming when people will not want sound biblical teaching and people will waver from the truth and believe what they want to believe. So Paul tells Timothy these things because Timothy needs to be a solid example of a faithful servant of the Lord, in a time when people will be unfaithful.

I used to think Paul was talking about a future time, like a prophecy of sorts, describing 15 or 20 years into the future, and maybe he is. But more likely, I think he is teaching Timothy through his own experience. In the previous verses and chapters, Paul has talked about his own ministry and his own experiences. He's talked about people who once served alongside him, then left the church and the faith. So I think Paul is talking about a pattern in church. Even if a church begins with everyone on the same page, it can be said that people will eventually fall away.

So, he's telling Timothy from experience that the people in his own church will follow this same pattern. Because of this, his life needs to be a solid example and there are things he must do. Among them, are fulfilling ALL the duties of his ministry. There are so many times I feel like I only want to accomplish the things that I'm passionate about in ministry, or my life, but the Lord is clearly speaking through Paul to exhort Timothy to fulfill every single detail in the ministry he is called to. Again, Paul points to his life as an example; he's finished the race, he's fought the good fight, he's kept the faith, he's about to receive the crown of glory.

There may be things I don't want to do; maybe even things I feel "God hasn't called me to do," but that doesn't mean I shouldn't finish them. If I keep going with my mindset of only doing the things I feel I have time or passion for, I will not be able to get to the end of my life and honestly proclaim that I have finished the race well, like Paul.

Lord, put in my heart the desire to accomplish all you have purposed for me. All of it, every single thing. They are all important in your eyes; help me to see all things with the same importance you do. I ask that of you, and may I be faithful to fight against my desires to give up or pass it off as unimportant. May you be glorified in this life I have to live, in Jesus' name.