You have only one week to live. Not due to sickness or some infirmity that has us bedridden. And not due a crime awaiting our execution (albeit for the Apostle Paul, this was nearly his case). In that week, would we go some place? Would we travel alone or with someone? Would we talk to or spend time with someone? Would we eat something? It’s no holds bar meaning not limited to just one thing. We simply have only one week to live.
First Timothy ends with considerable perspective. Like Jesus’ Last Supper teachings from John chapters 12-17, Paul has much to say and share with a very limited time to say it. And who did he choose to share his final words with? Besides John Mark, Luke, and a handful of others who visited him or perhaps were there with him to the end, Paul invests valuable insight into his spiritual son, Timothy.
And to what end does Paul wrap things up? Does he respond like some would with bitterness to “get revenge”? To proclaim, “Not my fault” in defense of our innocence? Regretfully “oh if I could do it all over again?” Does he tell Timothy to hide and even recant the relationship in Jesus as if all the blessed hope is in vain when you face your execution soon?
There is a paradox and challenge I once heard and was challenged to discuss which is true: do events make great men or do great men make events (a debate for who originated that quote)? A whirlwind of emotion and thoughts I am certain flowed through Paul’s mind; however, inside of him may had been a serene chaos. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he declared in the same chapter, “[7] But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. [8] Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8) and (Philippians 3:13) “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead”. There is, yes, the drive and compulsion to finish well, press on, to be faithful to the end. But under the surface is something to Lord shared to me this morning which was a single word “Potentate” which is found in 1 Timothy 6:15. Similarly of the letter to the Philippians, Paul reminds Timothy to keep advancing but within that Paul reminds Timothy something that we all need a reminder of. “[13] I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, [14] that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, [15] which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, [16] who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.,” 1 Timothy 6:13-16.
Why is Paul switching gears in mid-stride to say? Justice and injustice are words that have dominated our news cycles for years. Some want justice as in punishment for crimes committed. And some see injustice when judges go lenient or crimes unpunished. Riots ensue. Voices are angrily heard. And yet in a moment when many of us could choose to attack or be vocal of our defense as I know of one individual who does this himself often. Paul, though, had a singular confidence and that God is sovereign (the meaning for potentate). A life surrendered, especially to Christ, needs no defense and has no fear. It is a resolution of who they are in Christ and above all else, who God is.
So why does Paul remind Timothy of these things? One could be prophetic (even if in the general sense) because Christians were hunted and martyred and he felt Timothy may meet the same fate. But another way to look at it is to reaffirm a resolution to others beyond Timothy. For it is certain that there were lots of stories surrounding Paul’s arrest, travel to Rome, and eventual execution. Rumors of what really happened as well as others which portrayed Paul in not so nice of ways. And then rumors somewhere in between those extremes. And Paul wanted Timothy to remember that God is God and He will always be God, no matter what is said and no matter what happens.
Our lives may be like waves of an ocean crashing upon and around us. And we all need a reminder to whom God is: He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the Potentate and He reigns forevermore. Our trust in Him and His will can grant us serenity in the chaos of life and strength when we are in need of His presence.