Proud to Be a Christian: The Fight Finished, a Crown Waiting

Are you proud to be a Christian? Not proud in the arrogant sense (as if you were better than others), but proud in the right sense: because God is your God and he has prepared a city for you. In his final letter, written from a Roman prison shortly before his beheading under Nero, the apostle Paul leaves Timothy, pastor of Ephesus and his spiritual son, something like a last will and testament. This short passage from 2 Timothy 4:1-8 gives you three concrete reasons to be proud of belonging to Christ, and invites you to examine what kind of race you are actually running.

Article Outline

1. The context: the last letter of a man sentenced to death
2. First reason: through your words, God can save souls
3. Second reason: you can teach and encourage in the truth
4. Enduring suffering: the lot of the faithful Christian
5. Third reason: a crown of righteousness is waiting for you
6. What fight are you actually fighting?

1. The context: the last letter of a man sentenced to death

Paul writes this second letter to Timothy from a prison in Rome. It isn't his first imprisonment, but this time he knows he won't come out alive. He will soon be beheaded under the emperor Nero. This letter is a kind of last will left to Timothy, pastor of Ephesus and his spiritual son, but also, through the canon of Scripture, a will left to each one of us.

Just before the passage we're looking at, Paul has reminded us that "every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching" (2 Timothy 3:16). The Word you read isn't a human word; it is the very Word of God. And in 1 Thessalonians, Paul makes clear that whoever rejects God's inspired words rejects not a man, but God himself. That's why you're invited to read and reread this Word, to feed on it daily like bread, just as Jesus said: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).

2. First reason: through your words, God can save souls

"I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom: preach the word" (2 Timothy 4:1-2). Paul doesn't simply ask Timothy to preach: he charges him solemnly, almost pleading. That's striking, because usually in the Bible it's people who plead with God. Here it's the other way around: through Paul's mouth, God's Spirit seems to plead with you to preach the word. And the proof of how serious this charge is, is that Paul calls on God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as witnesses.

When someone pleads with you like that, it's because there's a danger at stake. Paul ties his charge to the judgment of the living and the dead. For you who are in Christ, that judgment won't be a condemnation: you have chosen the best of advocates, Jesus Christ, whom 1 John 2:1-2 presents as your defender before the Father and the atoning sacrifice for your sins. But for everyone who has refused this advocate, that day will be a judgment of eternal separation, a judgment of death, since Romans 6:23 says plainly: "the wages of sin is death."

Jesus came the first time as a lamb, to take the sins of the world upon himself and offer forgiveness through his death and resurrection. But he will come a second time, as a lion, no longer to save but to judge. Remember the prophet Isaiah: he was an upright man, a man of integrity, who served the Lord. And yet, when he saw God on his throne in all his holiness, he cried out: "Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:5). Before the holiness of God, you cannot stand on your own. It was because of your sins that Christ suffered and died on the cross, forsaken by the Father.

Paul writes in Romans 5:7-8: "For one will hardly die for a righteous person." Yet Christ didn't die for righteous people; he died for the guilty. Think of Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, the French officer who offered to take a hostage's place during the terrorist attack in Trèbes. He told the terrorist: "Give me the hostage, and take my life instead." He was indeed killed, and strikingly, it happened during the Easter season. It's a very imperfect picture, but it points to what Christ did for you: he said, "I am the one taking the condemnation in your place."

Between Christ's first and second coming, God has left humanity a season of waiting and patience that has now lasted nearly two thousand years. A season of decision, during which anyone can choose to accept the grace offered in Jesus Christ. And that message, Christian, is yours to share with the people around you. It is the greatest proof of love you can show your neighbors, because you genuinely care about their eternal future. Here, then, is your first reason to be proud to be a Christian: through your words, God can save souls from death.

3. Second reason: you can teach and encourage in the truth

Paul continues: "be urgent in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all patience and teaching" (2 Timothy 4:2). Being urgent even when the season is unfavorable is a triple challenge. If you're naturally shy, if you fear negative reactions, you might feel small in the face of such a demand. But remember: "God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7). If you were truly proud to be a Christian, you wouldn't be afraid to preach.

That said, this urgency must come with respect and gentleness. 1 Peter 3:15 reminds you: if anyone asks you for a reason for the hope you have, answer with gentleness and respect. You're not there to attack people, or to talk down to them, or to let them think you're better than they are. Truth is always spoken in love, never in judgment.

Paul asks Timothy to "reprove, rebuke, and exhort." Each of us has a particular temperament: some of us encourage easily but avoid confrontation; others correct readily but struggle to encourage. Paul asks for both, in a healthy balance. And he specifies that all of it must be done "with all patience and teaching." Those who love confrontation would do well to check whether they confront because God asks it of them, or because they simply enjoy it for the wrong reasons. Conversely, those who encourage too easily should ask themselves whether they're avoiding a truth that needs to be told.

Here, then, is a second reason to be proud to be a Christian: you can encourage and teach others, not from a position of superiority, but simply by passing on what the Lord has given you. Remember 1 Corinthians 4:7: "What do you have that you didn't receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" That's a very good antidote to pride.

Imagine that someone close to you had cancer and you had found a cure: it would be criminal to keep it to yourself. And yet, you're sometimes afraid to tell the truth to the people you love, out of fear of being loved less by them. When you do that, you're not looking out for their interests, but your own. Paul warns that a time will come when people "will not listen to the sound doctrine," but having "itching ears," will heap up for themselves "teachers after their own lusts" and turn away from the truth toward myths (2 Timothy 4:3-4). In the West, people even talk about "post-truth": everyone has their own truth, everything is relative.

Faced with this, you too can be tempted (by convenience, by selfishness, by cowardice) to sacrifice truth for what you call love but is really just comfort. For example, it's hard to admit that we won't all go to heaven, whatever popular songs might claim, and that hell is real. Of course, this calls for tact and gentleness: gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit. But gentleness must never be confused with cowardice. "To be a good witness for the gospel, you have to both love the truth and love in truth." If you don't genuinely love people, the truth you hand them won't land.

4. Enduring suffering: the lot of the faithful Christian

Paul adds: "But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:5). Elsewhere, the Word says that "through many afflictions we must enter into God's Kingdom" (Acts 14:22). Jesus never promised you a prosperity gospel: he told you "in the world you have oppression," but immediately added, "cheer up! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

In a pleasure-driven society that puts comfort at the center of everything, it's hard to hear talk of suffering. And yet suffering is the lot of every Christian at one point or another. Paul, for his part, knew what he was talking about: in his thirty years as a Christian, he had never stopped suffering, in body and soul, for the gospel. He even speaks of "hardships" in the plural: there will be several, there will be many. "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12).

When suffering comes, you may be tempted to believe that God has abandoned you, and in turn to abandon God. But this suffering is not a sign that God has left you. On the contrary, it's part and parcel of the gospel's promises. It was never hidden from you, not by Jesus, and not by the apostles.

5. Third reason: a crown of righteousness is waiting for you

"For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. From now on, there is stored up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day; and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Notice: Paul doesn't speak of his death, he speaks of his departure. A departure toward heaven, into glory, into the presence of the Lord. He is saying goodbye to Timothy and speaking of his life poured out for the gospel, not an atoning sacrifice, since the only sacrifice that forgives sin is Christ's, but a sacrifice that follows in the Master's footsteps.

Paul is joyful, in spite of his sorrows. In this same letter, he confesses, movingly, that everyone has abandoned him, including Demas, one of his closest coworkers. "No one stood with me, but all left me." From a human point of view, Paul's life looks like a failure: alone, abandoned, beheaded. He may even have hoped, he who spoke of it so often, to be among those Christians who would see Christ's return in their lifetime without passing through death, and yet, he wouldn't live to see it.

But Paul knows he has fought the good fight, and not a bad one. Today, so many people struggle for a goal that isn't the one God assigned them. You, as a Christian, know that every struggle, every battle you endure for the gospel, belongs to the one fight that's truly worth fighting. Paul knows that eternal blessedness, the everlasting presence of the Lord, now begins for him. And yet, right up to the last chapter of his last letter, he keeps speaking of the return of Jesus Christ, who will put an end to all suffering and all evil.

Here, then, is the third and final reason to be proud to be a Christian: at Christ's return, a crown of righteousness is waiting for you, if you have loved his appearing and longed for it.

6. What fight are you actually fighting?

For every human being, Christian or not, life is a fight. But you can fight the wrong fights. You can struggle for existence apart from God. The question facing you this morning is simple: do you want to fight the wrong fights, or the one good fight, that of receiving and keeping the faith?

Second question: are you longing with love for the coming of Jesus Christ? Have you perhaps settled into a routine that has made you lose sight of that return, when it should be cherished in your heart and sustain you even in trial?

Finally, one application concerning others: even if you're not a pastor, even if evangelism isn't your particular calling, do you at least desire to share the word with the people around you? Do you have the courage to love them enough to tell them the truth? And when you're going through suffering, are you tempted to stop speaking about Christ to those around you?

If you can be proud to be a Christian, it's ultimately because you can be proud of your God. He was not ashamed of you: Hebrews 11:16 says he was not ashamed to be called your God, and that he has prepared a city for you in heaven. Jesus rose up for you; now it's your turn to rise up for him.

Key Takeaways

• 2 Timothy is the last will of an apostle who knows he is about to die: every word counts.
• Three reasons to be proud to be a Christian: through your words God can save, you can teach and encourage in the truth, and a crown is waiting for you.
• Preaching isn't reserved for pastors: every Christian is called, in their own measure, to speak of Christ to the people around them.
• Truth is always spoken in love; gentleness is not the same as cowardice.
• Suffering is not a sign of abandonment; it's part of the gospel's promises.
• Paul doesn't speak of his death, but of his departure to the Lord: death does not have the last word.

Personal Application

• What fight are you really fighting today: your own, or the gospel's?
• Is there someone in your life to whom you're afraid to tell the whole truth about Christ, for fear of being loved less?
• Are you still longing with love for the return of Jesus Christ, or have you tucked it away in a corner of your mind?
• Does your temperament push you more toward encouraging or toward correcting, and how can you cultivate the balance Paul calls for?
• When suffering comes, is your first instinct to fall silent about Christ, or to keep speaking of him?

Verses Cited

• 2 Timothy 4:1-8 · main text of the message
• 2 Timothy 3:16 · "Every Scripture is God-breathed"
• 2 Timothy 1:7 · a spirit of power, love, and self-control
• 2 Timothy 3:12 · all who desire to live godly will be persecuted
• Matthew 4:4 · "Man shall not live by bread alone"
• John 16:33 · "I have overcome the world"
• Acts 14:22 · through many afflictions...
• Romans 5:7-8 · Christ died for the guilty
• Romans 6:23 · the wages of sin is death
• 1 Corinthians 4:7 · "What do you have that you didn't receive?"
• 1 Peter 3:15 · answer with gentleness and respect
• 1 John 2:1-2 · Christ, our advocate and atoning sacrifice
• Isaiah 6:5 · "Woe is me! For I am undone"
• Hebrews 11:16 · God was not ashamed to be called our God

FAQ

How can I be proud to be a Christian without falling into spiritual pride?

The pride Paul speaks of isn't about being better than others; that would betray the gospel, since you have nothing you didn't receive (1 Corinthians 4:7). The right kind of pride is belonging to a God who was not ashamed of you, who forgave you in Christ and prepared a city for you. It shows up as the courage to speak of him, not as contempt for those who don't believe.

Does suffering mean God has abandoned me?

No. Jesus said you would have hardship in the world; Paul adds that all who desire to live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. Suffering is part of the gospel's promises; it was never hidden from you. Often, it's precisely the occasion for discovering that God is closer than ever and that his grace is enough for you.

Is preaching only for pastors?

No. In its immediate context, Paul is writing to Timothy, pastor of Ephesus. But the Spirit who speaks through Paul also addresses every Christian in the twenty-first century. Even without the gift of an evangelist, you can, in your own measure, speak of Christ to the people around you. It is the greatest proof of love you can give them, because you genuinely care about their eternal future.