I Have Kept the Faith
“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing.”
— 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NIV)
These lines come from a man in chains in Rome, writing to someone much younger. A few sentences on he asks him to come quickly. He wants the coat he left behind at Troas, and his scrolls. He mentions that at his first hearing nobody stood with him. The last thing he asks, at the very close of the letter, is that the young man get there before winter. Almost everything has been taken from him and he is still making plans. His first picture is a libation, the wine that went with many sacrifices under the Law, emptied out before God and gone the second it touched the ground. His word for leaving is the ordinary word for untying, the way a boat is untied from the dock or a tent is taken down when camp moves on. His second picture is the games: the contest, the course and the wreath all come from that world. Those wreaths were woven from leaves and dried out within weeks, and earlier in this same letter he wrote that the wreath goes to the competitor who stuck to the rules. So the claim at the end is not that his life was long, but that he took it all the way to the line. A life is weighed by whether it was carried to the end, not by how it began.
Starting is rarely the hard part. Staying is, when nobody has noticed for years. Someone has looked after an ill parent for a long time now. Someone is holding a marriage together through a hard year. Someone keeps turning up to a job they do not love because the family lives on it, and someone keeps praying after months of feeling nothing. Nobody hands out medals for year twelve. Paul looked back from a cell, with almost everyone gone, and what he could say was that he had kept the faith. The Lord will give that wreath to him and to all who long for his appearing, and that can include you.
Keep faith today
- 1Pick one thing you have stayed faithful to for a long time, even when you are tired: caring for someone, a marriage, a job, prayer, a duty at home. Do today's ordinary part of it on purpose, and tonight tell God in one sentence: today I stayed with it too.
- 2If nothing like that comes to mind, take the smallest thing you have done faithfully for years: a daily prayer, a call to your mother, a visit to someone who is ill. Do it today on purpose, as a gift to God.
God, there are things I have stayed with for years, and nobody sees them anymore. Some days I have had enough. Do not let me walk away from them before the finish. I want to reach the end and be able to say that I kept the faith. Amen.
Today I hold on to what I have carried for years, and tonight I thank God that I kept at it.
What is the drink offering picture about?
It points to a libation, the wine that went with many sacrifices under the Law. Numbers 28:7 has it poured out in the holy place, and once it was gone there was no gathering it back. He uses that image for his own life being spent.
What kind of crown is he talking about?
The word is the one for the wreath handed out at the Greek games. Those wreaths were woven from leaves and dried out soon after; the Lord's does not. Earlier in the same letter he writes that it goes to the competitor who stuck to the rules, so it marked a contest carried to the end.
What if I am worn out by what I am carrying?
Being worn out does not mean you are failing. Do today's ordinary part and tell God tonight that you stayed with it. The wreath in this passage goes to those who finished and longed for his appearing, not to the fastest.