Beyond this Life

“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. 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 4:6-8

The hope of a believer is not to be found in this life, but in the life to come. As Paul wrote, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied”—1 Corinthians 15:19. Peter tells us that we have a “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3) which is to say that our hope is alive in heaven, making intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25), preparing a place for us (John 14:2-3), and waiting for the day when His enemies will be made His footstool (Hebrews 10:13).

In today’s passage, Paul says his farewell to his beloved Timothy. 2 Timothy is Paul’s last letter before God would take him home. He was ready. He had lived his life with no regrets, accomplishing everything God had purposed him to do. He was ready to receive the fruit of all of his labor—the crown of righteousness. All of the work, study, sacrifices, and suffering would soon be over. He had fought the fight—and a fight it was. He had been through so much—to start it off he had been a persecutor of the church, but because of Jesus’ rich mercy, He was saved and made an ambassador for Christ. But his conversion served to alienate him from two worlds. Jews started to hate him and Christians didn’t understand him. But God was for him and when God is for you, who can be against you?

Paul did become Jesus’ ambassador, going from city to city, and church to church, dealing with situations of such great dysfunction it makes one wonder if he were living our world today. And yet, he could confidently say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Not too many of us have had to deal with everything that Paul did: constant death threats, violent mobs, alienation from friends and family, hunger, thirst, poverty, nakedness, not to mention the widespread sin in the churches. Satan threw everything he had at Paul: gossip, slander, misunderstanding, duplicitous brothers, deserters, factions, beatings, whippings, stonings, and a host of other obstacles that boggles the mind. And yet, he kept going. He didn’t give up. He didn’t give in. He kept fighting, refusing to give into Satan’s attacks, preferring to battle on—why? Because he knew there awaited him a reward beyond anything this world had to offer. He knew that he would soon be vindicated, and everything he had gone through would be worth what awaited him.

Paul’s life should challenge any of us to go further in our service to Christ. And it should also encourage us. Paul wasn’t the only one who was to receive a crown of righteousness. That same crown is available to “all who have loved His appearing” (v. 8). We all know what it’s like to live as a follower of Christ today: rampant sin in the world and in the church, cultural compromise left and right, assault from the world, assault from Satan, and assaults (at times) from other believers. But we cannot give up, no matter what happens. Our hope is not in this life, but in the life to come, and that is where we set our sights, because we know what awaits us, just like Paul did—a crown of righteousness that God Himself will give to us.

May God enable us to live in the light of the second coming of Christ! There awaits a reward for us! May we all press on to take hold of it, and may we all, as Paul, be able to say at the end of our lives, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Amen.