This talk was originally given at Maximise 2025.

I preached this passage at the church I used to work at back in back in February 2024, and we came to 2 Timothy 3 the week that Alexei Navalny died. Do you remember that? Just under a year ago.

Navalny was the Russian opposition party leader, political prisoner, anti-corruption activist who, in all likelihood, was murdered by the repressive Russian government. In December 2023, he went missing from prison for almost three weeks. He re-emerged in a corrective colony somewhere up in the north of Siberia. In early 2024, the Russian prison service reported that Navalny had died.

Tragic story. Deeply inspiring man. 

Not least because of his Christian faith. At his trial in Moscow in 2021 Navalny shared some of his testimony: “The fact is that I am a Christian, which usually sets me up as an example for constant ridicule in the Anti-Corruption Foundation, because mostly our people are atheists, and I was once quite a militant atheist myself … now I am a believer, and that helps me a lot in my activities…”

After he died I saw the clip of the documentary (2022). In that documentary, he was asked what became a very poignant question. What would want to say to your followers if you died: very clear: “My message, for when I am killed is very simple. Don’t give up.”

It reminded me of the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy. 

The once a militant anti-Christian, converted, and now suffering for Jesus in a Roman jail. Not the house arrest at the end of the Book of Acts. It’s a few years later, and it’s much worse. 2 Timothy is his final letter before he is beheaded by the repressive Roman government. It’s a bit like Alexei Navalny being asked that question. “What one thing message do you want us to know, Paul, if you die?” What will you say to the next generation of Christian leaders, to the church?

The answer is the same. “Don’t give up.” This is his final charge. Whatever happens, just keep going with Jesus. Fight the good fight, keep the faith, run the race. It’s there in our reading in v14: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of.”

There’s loads of commands in 2 Timothy – but I think you can make a pretty good case that they all boil down to this. Don’t give up. Whatever happens, stick with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Because not everyone does…

As you read through 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, one of the things you can’t fail to notice is the names. Striking: there are at least half a dozen people Paul lists, by name, who have given up on Jesus.

• Hymanaeus and Philetus (2 Tim 2:17) – drawn in by some alternative fake version of Christianity.
• Demas (2 Tim 4:9) – who deserted Paul because he just “loved the world”. Chilling phrase. 
• Phygelus and Hermogenes (2 Tim 1:15) – deserted me. Not told why.
• Someone called Alexander (1 Tim 1:20; 2 Tim 4:14) – used to be onside, but now strongly opposed message. 

These were Paul’s trainees and protégés – some of them were Timothy’s mates. 

You can imagine the ministry intern year photo: Paul the missionary, with his trainees and protégés, they’ve learnt so much from him. Here’s my year photo from back in the day. I love these guys – not all of them are in paid Christian ministry. But imagine, for the sake of the illustration, that face after face is covered with a big red X – that person after person has given up.

That’s an illustration. But it was real for Paul. So what about Timothy? And what about us? Will we stick with Jesus to the end?

Where Paul starts might feel strange. The first thing Timothy must do is: 

1) Face up to reality (3:1-9)

“But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days.”

Mark this. Listen up. Get your pen out and write this down. Get this straight. Because it’ll seriously help you to keep going: understand that things will be hard.

V1 mentions terrible times. Literally that means times that are violent, harsh: both hard to bear, hard to deal with and put right. Timothy needs to set his expectations right. Like the doctor: “This is gonna hurt.” Or the pilot: “Watch out for turbulence as we come in to land”.

Paul has the courage to face reality. 

One of those leadership guru books talks about the Stockdale paradox. One characteristic of successful companies is embracing this tension: “On the one hand, they … accepted the brutal facts of reality. On the other hand, they maintained an unwavering faith in the endgame, and a commitment to prevail as a great company despite the brutal facts.”

When it comes to Christian ministry, people who are naïvely optimistic will struggle when things get tough. Paul wants Timothy to have realistic expectations. It’s going to be a tough time for the gospel in Asia Minor. But there’s more to it than that.

Paul mentions “the last days”. Sounds a bit weird. But it just describes the time between Jesus’ first appearing and his coming again.

Yeah, there’ll be ups and downs, times of peace, as well as conflict, but get this straight, Timothy – and all who follow Christ down through the centuries – you will face real hard graft.

Universal experience.

Why? “People”. People are the problem (vv 2–4).

“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”

Awful list. It’s not all there is to say about humans, who are capable of many wonderful things. And yet, if you had quick scroll through of the top ten items on BBC News, and which I did last night, and counted maybe two-thirds of these characteristics. And if we’re honest with ourselves, they don’t lurk that far beneath the surface of our own lives.

We won’t go through the whole list, but notice a few things.

Bracketed by “love”, v2. People are “lovers of themselves, lovers of money”. Then again in v4 – “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Love comes up in the middle too. At the heart of these terrible times is a misdirected love.

But what’s wrong with being lovers of ourselves? We make a virtue out of self. Selfie-culture. Waterstones and all the self-help books. But according to the Bible, the love of anything else above God is the root of all sin. It’s quite simple really: Love God. God, then others, then self.  It’s no bad thing to look after yourself, but when you flip the order round, self first, everything goes wrong. As John Stott says in his brilliant little commentary on 2 Timothy – “it is the neighbour in the middle who suffers”. Notice how so many of the other characteristics are vertical. Whether abuse, or family division, slander or treachery. When you put self first, others suffer: “everyone else becomes something the individual merely uses to achieve the ends of his or her own self-love.” People become a means to my end.

What is most striking is that Paul isn’t talking about the world out there. This is not BBC news. This is not a grumble about how bad things are in our world. He’s talking about religious people! These are people who are described in v5 as “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” The people Paul is talking about in vv 2–4 are self-professed Christians. More than that, they’re Christian leaders. They’re not only in the church, but in the pulpit. Their religion is an external one. It looks fine on the outside, but its reality is only skin deep. It’s the kind of thing Jesus calls out in the Sermon on the Mount. They love their flowing robes, long prayers. Obvious, external religion, but no internal righteousness. 

Religion is all about them… and they’ll use others to get what they want, as vv6–7 say: “They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Don’t read this in a sexist way. Paul’s not making a general point about women, as if all women are gullible – there are some specific characteristics that mean these particular women in Ephesus are vulnerable. These women are:

• Burdened by sin – and therefore they’re feeling guilty;
• Led by passion – and so they’re pleasure seekers;
• Always learning – and so they’re attracted by novelty.

Three characteristics that make them vulnerable – after all, they could make anyone vulnerable. It makes them the perfect prey for the me-centred Christian leader.

Think of the something like online fraud. Some of you I know have had that experience of helping elderly relatives who’ve been scammed out of money over the phone. These scammers deliberately target the elderly, the vulnerable. That’s what’s going on here. This is the reality check on the world we live in – including the church. It’s pretty stark. But it’s the reality. Abuse in the church, violence and hatred in the name of Christ, misuse of power, corruption. In every age, in every culture, in every denomination – these things will plague the people of God until Jesus returns.

It’s a tough sell.

I hope this helps, if you feel a bit depressed about the state of the church. I’m a Church of England minister. 2024 was an awful year. The church gets me down, it makes me doubt. I’ve got friends who are completely turned off Christianity by things that Christians do in this list.  Their biggest objection is not ‘did the resurrection happen?’ or ‘can I trust the Bible’ – it’s seeing Christians and churches do pretty horrible stuff. And you think: fair enough. As one writer puts it: “In history of mankind religion and morality have often been divorced.” It’s why Navalny’s colleagues in the Anti-Corruption Foundation laughed at him. Because in their mind, the Russian Orthodox Church and corruption go hand in hand.

Maybe you’ve even had awful experiences of church, or been taken advantage of by religious leaders, or experienced abuse in church. If that’s true for you, I’m so sorry. And I hope that you can speak about those experiences with someone you trust.

But in a funny way, I hope it’s a comfort to you to hear this kind of behaviour called out for what it is in the Bible. Not everything done in the name of Christ is true Christianity. Challenges to the gospel do not surprise our sovereign God.

Paul’s command to Timothy is clear in v5: “have nothing to do with them”. 

Those of us in mixed denominations need to pay careful attention to how we apply this – but there’s an implicit warning for all of us. Because it’s surprisingly easy to do ministry out of a whole bunch of things except the love of God. I’m speaking from personal experience. I remember this really vividly. Why do you want to do Christian ministry? I had my little answer… People, learning, teaching/communication. And the reply was: you haven’t said anything about loving God. Boom. And it’s so true.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a ministry intern or a senior pastor; or if you have a whole bookshelf of great Christian books; or dozens of devotional apps on your phone or a whole playlist of worship songs for the car.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a phenomenal speaker, or a great listener; or if you have a PhD in the Old Testament. The external form of religion is not enough. 

Anything else stands in opposition to the truth, and is eventually rejected by Jesus, and their folly will become clear to everyone, just like Jannes and Jambres – the magicians of Pharaoh’s court. Remember them? They’re ridiculed in The Prince of Egypt.

Paul faces reality, but it doesn’t end there. There is a command to Timothy.

2) Stick with the gospel of Christ Jesus (3:10-15)

Notice twice, Timothy is addressed directly. “You, however,” v10 and “But as for you,” v14. And he’s told, v14, “continue in what you’ve learned.” That word “continue” is the same word that Jesus uses in John 15 – it literally means ‘abide with’ or ‘stick with’. Timothy – you must keep going with the gospel. No innovating, or moving on, or getting bored.

There’s been a bit of a tradition to read all the commands in 1 and 2 Timothy and imagine a kind Timothy as this kind of sickly, weak, timid person. Take a little wine for your health, oh poor Timothy, he needs constant encouragement. But actually, as you read the rest of the Bible – he’s a pretty ordinary person. (In fact, Paul has quite a high opinion of him in Philippians 2.) And in a funny way, it’s kind of encouraging that he needs to be told this. Because, I need it too. Some are happy being unique and taking a stand. But most of us: we’re herd animals. We like to follow the crowd. Alexei Navalny is amazing. But I’m just not like that.

But the fact is, Paul is talking about ordinary Christianity. There’s nothing new. No silver bullet. Christianity, Christian ministry, is not about achieving some great heights or becoming the next famous pastor. It’s just about sticking with Jesus. Continue in what you have heard and become convinced of. Stand still on solid ground, when all around is shifting sand.

How? Because, vv 14–15: “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”.

Because you know. Timothy, the point is:

• You’ve known those from whom you learned it (Paul – perhaps the testimony of other apostles, but also I think his grandma Lois and his mum Eunice). 
• You’ve known Scripture.

The example of others, and the sufficiency of the Bible.

3) The example of others

In vv10–11, which we’ve so far skipped over, Paul has described his way of life: “You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings – what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.”

What a contrast to the list we looked at earlier. In the place of arrogance, there’s humility; pleasure, a willingness to suffer; hatred/discord/brutality; love. This is not a life lived for self, but a life sold out for Jesus. What happened to him in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra was awful – you can read about it in Acts 13–14. Persecuted and forcibly kicked out of one city, they then followed him to the next one, and he had to leave again and finally when he got to Lystra (which by the way, was where Timothy came from – probably the first time they met), by the time he got to Lystra the mob that had been chasing him around picked up stones, stoned him so much that they thought he was dead, picked up his body and dragged it out of the city.

Not arrogance. It’s the reality. Timothy – you know this, right. Remember when we first met. It could be your experience too. As Paul says in vv 12–13, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.“ If they hate Paul for loving Jesus, they’ll also hate us.

But with the help of God it is possible to keep going. I love v11: “Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.” In Paul’s experience, God has been enough.

And this brings us to the second thing that should motivate Timothy to stick with it.

4) The example of Scripture

You’ll be familiar with these verses I hope – but spot how it works in the logic of the passage. Continue in what you’ve learned because Reason #1 v14 ‘my example’, and v15 Reason #2, you’ve got everything in this Book which you need to keep going.

Follow the logic through in vv15–16: “And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All Scripture is God-breathed…” God-breathed. Beautiful description. This is inspiration. This is God himself speaking. All of it – in context, Paul’s talking about the Old Testament. Diverse collection of writings from different authors over hundreds of years that includes poetry, law, history, songs, proverbs, philosophy. This is about the Old Testament, but Paul’s getting close to speaking about his own words, and the words of the New Testament. Paul writes as an apostle (2 Timothy 1:1) and he says, v14, “continue in what you have learned … from me and become convinced of”. 

Later Jesus’ Number 1 disciple Peter calls Paul’s letters Scripture (2 Peter 3:16). So it’s not wrong to take 2 Timothy 3:16 as a description of how all of Scripture works. It is the very voice of God to us.

There are loads of implications of this, which I hope many of you are exploring in various training courses.

It means that the Bible tells a consistent story, from beginning to end. One divine author through multiple human authors. It means that, as you hear the words of this book – God himself is speaking.It means that preaching and teaching the Word of God is the most exciting thing in the world! That’s because God is at work at the Bible is opened up.

God’s Word is Living and Active. It’s fundamental to all language – to speak is to act, to do something. For instance, “I’ll be there tomorrow” is me enacting a promise; when I say, “watch out,” I’m enacting a warning; and when I say “turn left,” I’m enacting an instruction. The same is true with God. His word is the same as his action. The first recorded words of God are “Let there be light” – and his words are immediately fulfilled. In fact, you could say that speaking is the primary way he acts in this world. 

What is he doing as he speaks in the Bible? Well, v15 reminds us that Scripture is “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” This is the rescue that trumps all other rescues. Salvation is a big idea in 1 and 2 Timothy. It describes a plan since the beginning of time to rescue people from sin judgement and bring people life and immortality to light. It hangs on Jesus’ life and death and resurrection and enthronement as king over the universe. Yes, Paul survived the stoning in Lystra – but what’s more amazing is that he, as a sinner, is brought back into a relationship with God. 

Okay – but this is the basics. Christianity ABC. Why does Timothy need to hear this? Because, vv 16–17, the Bible is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God [lit. Man of God] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

We sometimes use this verse quite generically, especially in a seminar on the Bible or something. Maybe you’ve taught it. But notice the context. All the things that the Bible is useful for – that’s all the stuff that Timothy as a church leader is meant to do in the context of the chaos and false teaching that has been flying around in Ephesus. And the reference to “man of God” is supposed to invoke echos of the Old Testament prophets, such Elijah and Elisha. The point is that Paul is confident that Timothy can keep going with Jesus, because in Scripture he has everything he needs to do the task of ministry. He has everything he needs to pastor the backsliders and the strugglers and the widows and the older men and the leaders of the church, because they can encounter God in this book. The Bible has what all these people need, whether it’s rebuking and correcting when they waver, or training in righteousness.

As Timothy tries to understand the terrible times and the mess in the church, Paul is saying, ‘Listen, Timothy, even though you’re a pastor facing all this mess, you’ve already got the one thing you most need. If you have Scripture, it’s enough.’ To use some theological jargon, in context, 2 Timothy 3:16 is less about the authority of Scripture – the fact that it comes from God, and more about the sufficiency. It is enough. ‘So Timothy, be encouraged, don’t waver, look for something else. You’ve got everything you need right here.’

Conclusion

There is a beautiful balance to Paul’s letter to Timothy. Timothy can have confidence because he knows Scripture and he’s seen it in action. Paul is calling Timothy to follow both his preaching and his living. This isn’ a ‘become exactly like me just because I say so,’ like some cult. But neither is it simply here’s the book, the raw data and you’re on your own now. What makes it plausible to keep going with Christ is seeing others who do the same. And that’s why it is so important to have friends in ministry to sustain both you and them for the long haul.

2 Timothy 3 faces squarely up to reality. But that reality comes hand-in-hand with hope. Yes, things are pretty hard – but you have every resource to keep going. Let’s close with this wonderful reminder from Martin Luther’s hymn ‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God’:

And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.