Living A Successful Life -- Wisdom from the Aposte Paul

Living a Successful Life
2 Timothy 4:6-8
6For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now 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

This is Paul's valdcdictory addrss to his spiritual son, TImothy.  The Apostle Paul is looking back on his life, and telling his young friend Timothy, who is like a son to him, that he’s ready to die.  And he sums up his life in three verses.

When you come to the end of your life, what do you want your life story to have been? What do you want others to say about you? When you come close to the end of your life, what do you want your thoughts and feelings to be as you look back at the 70 or 80 or 90 or more years that you will live?

Paul is writing to his young friend, Timothy, as I said. Timothy may be about your age, or just slightly older. But not much. And, Paul knows that if he wants to get Timothy’s attention, he has to use language Timothy will understand and, more importantly, relate to.

So, if Paul is going to get and keep Timothy’s attention, he has to use examples that Timothy understands and relates to. So, guess what Paul does? He talks about sports.

Paul uses four sports images to tell Timothy what he wants him to understand.
First, Paul says “I have fought a good fight.”
Then, he says, “I have finished the race.”
Followed by, “I have kept the faith,”
And finally, “I won the trophy.”

Fight a Good Fight

The first thing Paul tells Timothy, after he says “the time has come for my departure” — which means “I’m going to die soon” — is “I fought the good fight.”


Boxing was a Roman sport. But boxing had started long before Paul’s time. The first historical record we have of boxing as a sport is from a stone tablet found in Baghdad, Iraq which is over 7,000 years old. Boxing has been around a long time.

Paul tells Timothy, “I have fought the good fight.” Not a dirty fight, not a ruthless fight, not a fight of the gladiators where there were no rules, and it was survival of the fittest.

No, Paul says, “I fought a good fight.”

And in life, we’re not fighting people, we’re fighting problems. We fight for principles. We fight for justice. We fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, but we fight the problems, not other people. We are tenacious, strong, determined, courageous, and tough, but we are also fair, respectful, honest, and merciful.

Dr. Martin Luther King was a tenacious advocate for civil rights. Dr. King fought unjust laws that effectively denied the right to vote, denied the right to public access, denied the rights of full citizenship to African-Americans. But when Dr. King himself was attacked during a speech in Alabama, he dropped his hands to his side, and let his assailant flail at him until his aides pulled the man away. Dr. King knew the difference between fighting people and fighting problems.
Paul said, “I fought a good fight.”

Finish The Race

Okay, so we’re changing sports now, moving from boxing to track. Paul says, “I finished the race.” Obviously, he’s referring to a track-and-field event, and he finishes.

Paul didn’t quit. When he was thrown in prison in Philippi just for freeing a slave girl from an evil spirit, Paul didn’t quit. As a matter of fact, at midnight, chained to the wall of his cell deep underground, Paul and Silas were singing. Which I’m sure irritated the other prisoners, but said something about Paul’s attitude. And when an earthquake opened the prison doors, and broke the chains that bound Paul and Silas, they didn’t run out to escape, they stayed to tell their story of how God had saved them.

When Paul was shipwrecked off the coast of Malta, he could have said, “This traveling around to preach at churches all over the Mediterranean is too hard. I’m going back home.”

But he didn’t quit. When the other apostles, and the earlier followers of Jesus were criticizing Paul, who was not one of the original disciples, Paul defended himself by saying that “Jesus himself called me.” He didn’t quit.

When finally, old and tired and probably sick, Paul traveled to Rome to appeal his case to Caesar himself, which was his right as a Roman citizen, Paul continued writing letters, praying for all those he had met and preached to, and kept on telling the story of how God had changed his life that night when he met Jesus on the Damascus road. No, Paul didn’t quit.

Paul finished the race, he completed the task. Paul did what God called him to do. He started churches among people who weren’t Jews, he debated Roman orators in the debate halls all over the empire. Paul didn’t quit. He ran the race he entered until the end. He finished.

Don’t quit. When life gets tough in the next four years at college, don’t quit. When others think you’re crazy to give up the possibility of making a lot of money to become a teacher in an urban school, don’t quit. When the task seems too hard, and the days seem too long, don’t quit.

Keep the Faith

In one respect, “keeping the faith” means to believe the Word of God, and keep on believing it. But he is also talking about teamwork with other Christians, binding together in churches to encourage each other and to do God's mission in the world. Paul is saying, “I was loyal to the team. I kept faith with the other apostles, I kept faith with all the members of the churches I started, and most of all, I kept faith with the coach, Jesus.”

In the Acts of the Apostles, in chapter 9, Paul is on his way to Damascus to arrest Christian leaders and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial. But Jesus appears to Paul on the Damascus road. Blinded by a bright light, and spoken to by a voice no one else in his party heard, Jesus appeared to Paul, and said, “Paul, why are you persecuting me?”

Paul didn’t know whose voice it was, so he said, “Who are you, lord?”

And Jesus said, “I’m Jesus whom you are persecuting.”

That night, Paul became a follower of Jesus. You can read that story in the rest of the book of Acts. That night Paul went from being on the opposing team, to being on Jesus’ team. Paul changed sides, and was faithful and loyal to the work of Christ for the rest of his life.

At first, Christians were suspicious of Paul. After all, he was the guy who had been harassing and killing them. But he won them over, and over the years, Paul became the most successful apostle at starting new churches, preaching the story of Jesus, and defending the Christian faith.

When the Christian community grew in size and influence, the emperor Nero decided that Christians would make good scapegoats. So, he blamed Christians for all the social problems in the empire, and a program of persecution was begun.

But through it all, Paul was faithful. He kept the faith, he was true to his word, he played for the right team, he was honest and frank with those who needed his help. He gave up his own life, to tell the story of how he found a new life in Jesus Christ.

Get The Trophy

Okay, last one. Finally, Paul says, “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.”

In the Roman games, when the contest was over, whether the sport was boxing, or track, or a team sport, the winners would stand in front of the emperor’s seat. The emperor himself took a a laurel wreath, a crown of green leaves, and placed it on the head of the victors. But it wasn’t the wreath itself the athletes valued, because it was just made of leaves. But it was the fact that the emperor himself placed it on the athlete’s head that made it all worthwhile.

That’s the image Paul paints in this last statement. Paul is saying “because I fought a good fight, because I finished the race, because I kept faith with my team and with Jesus, I’ve got a trophy coming!”

But, Paul was quick to say, “But it’s not just for me. It’s for anyone who has been on Jesus’ team, who has run the race to the end, who has fought a good fight, and who want to see their leader, their coach, Jesus, again. It’s for anybody who does what I did, and lives a life for God.”

So, when you look back on your life, will you be able to say with the apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day…”

If you can, you will have reached your goal of a successful life. May God bless you and keep you, may God make his face to shine upon you, may God lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.