For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:6–7
The setting was stunning in the most negative sense. Paul was in a dark, cold, dirty pit known as a Roman prison. He was not under house arrest this time. He was on death row. No comforts. No rights, except what being a Roman citizen affords. In this case, all that gave to Paul was the knowledge he could not be crucified.
If you look at the context of 2 Timothy 4, Paul was alone. He had been deserted. All from Asia abandoned him. He only had Luke, that faithful friend and physician. He was longing for ministry companionship. He wanted Timothy to come to him soon, and he wanted John Mark to come as well.
The time of his departure was soon, but how soon? Hours? Days? Months? If he lived long enough he wanted books, parchments, and a cloak. He was in a miserable situation; far more miserable than most of us have endured.
He didn’t know how long he had left, but certainly the individual days were long. He likely had a lot of time to reflect and think about his life and ministry for Christ. As he wrote to Timothy in those dark days, his final assessment and celebration of God’s grace in his life was: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”1
What a statement! What a way to face death! What a blessing to leave this earth with the knowledge that he really fulfilled his ministry. Yes, the situation was miserable, but the peace was heavenly.
Paul said he was already being poured out as a drink offering.2 His life was being poured out and would be poured out completely for the Lord Jesus. This would be a sweet smell to the Lord. Paul was not saying that only his execution would be a drink offering poured out, although it would be in a most gruesome way.3 Paul used the present tense. The ESV captures this: “…I am already being poured out as a drink offering…” Even as Paul sat in that dungeon, he was pouring out his life for God.
This was how Paul saw his entire life. He used this picture before when writing to the Philippians. He said in Philippians 2:17, “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.”
As I pondered Paul’s words, I listened to a sermon by Eric Alexander4 on this passage, and he asked something like: “What are you pouring your life out for?”
I was broken with that question. The right answer was “for Christ!” However, the Holy Spirit would not allow that kind of hypocrisy.
There are way too many other loves in my heart. There are too many other people, causes, and things that I pour my life into and out for. Waste! All of it waste!
The thought of sitting on death row is something that makes us all uneasy. What about the thought of having to look back on a wasted life while on death row or on our death bed? That should send us into frenzy.
Paul was beyond the point of changing direction, and his course was already exactly where it should be. He was pouring his life out for the Lord, and the testimony of his life made clear that those were not empty words. His words confirmed his life’s testimony. What about mine? What about yours?
A life wasted on temporal things is one of the universe’s greatest tragedies. A life pursuing good things to the point that we make them idols is a serious transgression. What will I do about it? What will you do? Will we say, “That’s too uncomfortable,” then go comfort ourselves with Netflix, food, music, or whatever “drug” we use? The pain this question brings needs to be felt at full strength and not dulled by mind and heart anesthesia. It’s too important of a question to ignore: What are you pouring your life out for? Better put: Who are you pouring your life out for?
There are only two answers to that question. Either you are pouring your life out for God, or you are pouring your life out for yourself. There may be a lot of things that could disguise themselves as answers to this question, and some of them could be pretty good causes. At the end of the day, you and I are spending ourselves in service to self or Christ.
There are only three responses to the answer we give:
- Continue pouring your life out for Christ because you honestly believe before God that is what you are already doing. If that is the case, keep going! Persevere! Praise God for his grace in your life that is enabling you.
- If you are pouring out your life for yourself, confess and forsake your self-worship. Repent! Do so knowing that there is forgiveness in Christ. If you have never trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ alone to save you from sin, do so now. See your life of self-worship and run to the Lord Jesus for rescue from your sin and self. Salvation is promised to all who call on his name.5 If you are a believer and have found yourself off course, find hope in the Word of God that there is forgiveness to be found in the Lord.6
- Or you could do the deadly thing; ignore the issue and continue living for self. While this may seem like a passive choice, it is an active choice to rebel against the Lord. Don’t make this your choice. It’s end is death.
As I type this, I am praying that we would all find ourselves at the end of life looking back and saying, “Yes! I have poured out my life for Christ as a sweet smelling sacrifice. Yes! I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Let’s not forget the reward ahead! Whatever we face as we pour out our lives for Christ is worth it.
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:8
- 2 Timothy 2:1 and 1 Corinthians 15:10 are two verses that lead me to say this is a celebration of God’s grace. Although Paul fought, ran, and kept the faith, and he labored harder than anyone else, it was not Paul but the grace of God at work in Paul. Paul commanded Timothy to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Timothy’s ministry could not be fulfilled apart from the grace of Christ. This means Paul would be applying this to his own ministry as well. Far from boasting in himself, Paul was boasting in Christ’s strengthening grace in his life that enabled him to persevere to the end. ↩︎
- See Exodus 29 and Numbers 15 for an explanation of a drink offering. When an animal was offered as a burnt offering flour and oil were also added to this offering. Then wine would be poured out on it as well. This was said to be a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord. This was the picture Paul was giving of his life and upcoming death. ↩︎
- Since Paul was a Roman Citizen, he could not be crucified according to Roman law. Church tradition says he was beheaded, which fits with what we know in history. So, Paul’s blood was going to gush from his beheaded body. ↩︎
- You can find that sermon and a list of others on 2 Timothy 4 here. ↩︎
- Romans 10:9, 13: “…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved… For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” ↩︎
- Psalm 32:5: “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah“
Psalm 38:18: “I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.”
Proverbs 28:13: “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”
1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
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