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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 2 Timothy 4:5 - 4:5
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5. σὺ δὲ νῆφε ἐν πᾶσιν, but do you, in contrast with these aspirants after novelty (cp. 2Ti 3:10 above), be sober in all things. νήφειν, ‘to be sober,’ (not ‘to be watchful,’) is a Pauline word; cp. 1Th 5:6; 1Th 5:8 and 1Ti 3:2 νηφάλιος, 2Ti 2:26 ἀνανήφειν. So Ignatius writes to Polycarp (§ 2) νῆφε ὡς θεοῦ ἀθλητής, sobriety being an important preparatory discipline for him who would be victor in the Christian struggle. It is possible that the same idea is here behind St Paul’s words, for 2Ti 4:7-8 take up the idea of the Christian course as an ἀγών and a δρόμος; but it is not required by the immediate context.
κακοπάθησον, suffer hardness. Cp. ch. 2Ti 1:8, 2Ti 2:3.
ἔργον ποίησον εὐαγγελιστοῦ, do the work of an evangelist. The title εὐαγγελιστής is only found in N.T. here, Act 21:8; Eph 4:11; and it is most probable that it is used of one who performs a distinct work, rather than of one who is a member of a distinct order. In the list at Eph 4:11, evangelists are mentioned after apostles and prophets, and before pastors and teachers, which would suggest that their function was intermediate between that of the apostles and the local ministers of the Christian communities. It was, in short, κηρύσσειν τὸν λόγον (2Ti 4:2), ‘to preach the gospel,’ to tell the facts of the Christian story. As a distinct order it does not appear in the Apostolic Fathers or the Didache, and we are not to suppose that the office of Timothy was in all respects like that of a εὐαγγελιστής of later times, when the evangelist was identical with the ἀναγνώστης or reader. In the half-organized condition of the Church which the Pastoral Epistles depict, there would necessarily be an overlapping of function, and the duty of ‘preaching the word’ would devolve on occasion on every Christian, from the Apostles down. It was truly said “Omnis apostolus evangelists, non omnis evangelista apostolus.” And thus Timothy was directed, as a part (though not the whole) of his duty, to ‘do the work of an evangelist,’ εὐαγγελίζεσθαι, which St Paul counted the main purpose of his own commission (1Co 1:17).
τὴν διακονίαν σου πληροφόρησον, fulfil thy ministry. As at 1Ti 1:12, (where see note), διακονία is used quite generally, and not in the special sense of ‘the office of a deacon’; cp. Rom 12:7 and Eph 4:12, εἰς ἔργον διακονίας. The force of the verb πληροφορεῖν here should not be mistaken. It is not “make full proof of,” as the A.V., or as Calvin “ministerium tuum probatum redde,” but simply ‘fulfil,’ like πληροῦν (as it is in Luk 1:1); cp. Act 12:25, πληρώσαντες τὴν διακονίαν, and Col 4:17. St Paul elsewhere (Rom 4:21; Rom 14:5; Col 4:12) uses it in the sense of convince, but that meaning will not suit the context here or at 2Ti 4:17.