What does "fulfill your ministry" mean (2 Timothy 4:5)?

Lastly, Timothy is told "fully to perform (πληροφόρησον) his ministry" (ver. 5). It seems more than πλήρωσον (Acts 12:25; Col. 4:17), judging by the emphatic usage of the word where it occurs as verb or noun elsewhere. To translate with Beza, to "give full assurance of thy ministry," may sound more literal but hardly suits the subject before us, which wholly differs from faith, hope, or understanding. For these mean subjective enjoyment, the other would be objective proof; neither of which can rightly apply here, but filling to the full the measure of his service. Evangelizing, however incumbent on him who has the gift, was not the whole of the ministry which Timothy had received in the Lord: to fulfil all of it he is here enjoined.

In contrast with all this, the Apostle, turning again to Timothy, exhorts him: "But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." v. 5. To watch is, in this place, rather to be sober — "that sober clearness of mind resulting from exemption from false influences," and which can only be acquired and maintained by walking before God and in communion with His mind. To endure afflictions points to the character of the path of the servant in an evil day (see chap. 1:7). He was moreover to do the work of an evangelist. He is thus directed to preach the gospel as well as teach and preach the Word. Apart from the apostles, and cases like Timothy and Titus, the gift of an evangelist would never seem to have been combined with that of a teacher. The only two combined, as may be learned from the fact that one article is prefixed to the two nouns, are pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11). Then summing up all together, Timothy is to make full proof of his ministry, or his service, and in the way here shown; that is, by his whole life being devoted in the energy of the Spirit to the work to which he had been called.

Another motive is supplied as an incentive to Timothy's zeal — the prospect of the Apostle's speedy departure. "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." vv. 6-8. "The absence therefore of apostolic ministry, so serious a fact with regard to the assembly's position, makes the duty of the man of God the more urgent.

How watchful God's servant must be: he must watch "in all things," for the enemy is watchful for any occasion to mar the testimony rendered to Christ. Afflictions are not sent to turn us aside, but to be endured. Timothy was not only to hand on the truths that he had learned from Paul, but he was to do evangelical work as well; thus making full proof of the special ministry that had been entrusted to him, and for which the gift of Christ had fitted him. God's Gospel is to be preached until the end; and if a servant of God cannot call himself an Evangelist, he can, according to the measure of his gift, do the work of an evangelist, and make full proof of his ministry, whatever the state of things in the church.

The servant of the Lord, on the other hand, is to keep steadily on with his ministry. He is to "watch" or rather "be sober" in all things: the word used means, "that sober clearness of mind resulting from exemption from false influences — not muddled with the influence of what intoxicates." A very important word this for all of us, for there is nothing that so intoxicates the mind and muddles the perceptions as the false modernistic teaching to which we have just alluded. Further he is to be prepared to suffer, for he cannot expect to be popular, either with the purveyors of fables who stand in the pulpit or with the consumers of fables who sit in the pew. Timothy was to do the work of an evangelist and so fill up the full measure of his ministry.

Whatever others might do, Timothy was to watch in all things; and a watchman must be prepared for danger from any direction. And passive, patient endurance of afflictions was to be accompanied by the active doing of the work of an evangelist. No doubt the pressures of work among the saints, and the many demands this might make upon his time, would tend to hinder the carrying of the message of grace to the perishing; and this urgent reminder was necessary for him, and for us. Though he was possibly not gifted particularly as an evangelist, yet as he saw the need, he could do as much good work in this way as he was able. Is it not a message for every believer? He ought to fully prove in experience for the sake of others, the value of the ministry God had given him. A similar exhortation is found in Colossians 4:17: "And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it."

The next call appears to be often strangely misunderstood, as if the apostle meant Timothy to do an evangelist's work, when he had not that gift, and consequently was not really an evangelist! For such a construction there is not the shadow of a sound reason. The danger rather was that the increasing difficulties and troubles of the assembly might distract the young and sensitive labourer, calling him to forego the exercise of that which was truly his gift without, though not his only one, because of the demands from within. Work so blessed to which the Lord has called him must not be intermitted. The evangelist is not a preacher only: work of faith and labour of love in quest of souls characterize him who presses the glad tidings on souls individually as well as publicly.

Scripture is that which our souls are turned back upon, and which really fits the man of God - whoever he may be — for his work. Then in 2 Timothy 4:5 we read, "Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing." Do the work of the evangelist. People ask me, "Are you an evangelist?" "I don't know," I reply. I do not know or care whether I am one or not, if I can only do the work of one. The work of the evangelist is to bring Christ before souls, and bring souls to Christ. In the day when everything is out of gear, the servant of Christ is to be "man of all work." When an establishment is in full working order there may be the tablemaid, the housemaid, and the cook, but when things are diminished, and retrenchment is the order of the day, then there comes as a necessity the "maid of all work"; and so the servant of Christ may have to do a little bit of gospel work, a little bit of teaching, a little bit of pastoral work. Any service for Christ is sweet.

Then sobriety and endurance are needed. It is not every one who is so free of exciting influences that he has really sound views and a clear judgment. Endurance - active work in seeking souls (the work of an evangelist), full proof to be made of the ministry. It is a wonderful career, to be finished with energy and vigour supplied by the Lord through the Spirit.

Further, however evil the day, and as long as the day of grace continues, the man of God, whatever his gift, is to pursue his work as an evangelist. The abandonment of the truth by the mass, with the greater part of their so-called churches given up to worldliness and fables, only makes it more incumbent upon the man of God to continue evangelistic work, and fill up the full measure of his ministry. The Lord's work is not to be half done. We are to seek to finish to perfection that which He gives us to do.

The closing chapter (2 Tim. 4) then gives his solemn charge, and at the same time his own expression of what was before him. As Timothy was about to enter upon a new phase of his ministry, without the apostle's presence or living counsel, the latter charges him with great emphasis, "before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." And the reason why he makes it so urgent not to be turned aside was, that the time would come when men would not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they should heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they should turn away their ears from the truth, and should be turned unto fables. "But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." Thus he looks not to the coming of the Lord to receive him to Himself, but to the "appearing of the Lord," which is the usual side of the truth taken in these epistles. The reason is obvious. The coming of the Lord will in no way manifest the faithfulness of the servant; His appearing will. At "that day" will be the display of whatever has been endured, as well as done, for the Lord's sake.