NOW YOU GO

As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
2 Timothy 4:5 ESV

¶Paul recognized in Timothy the gift of evangelist. Timothy must have felt a combination of pride and trepidation to be recognized by Paul, along with Philip the evangelist, and with Paul himself, as one those with the gift of evangelism. For him there was no evangelism training program, no course curriculum, no degree awarded. It was the fruition of a sincere faith first received by his grandmother, passed on through his mother, and then lived out alongside Paul in the trenches of conflict, suffering, and patient instruction. It must have brought a lump in the throat for Timothy to think of Paul, so deeply loved and trusted, nearing the time of his passing, and to receive from him the charge to carry his life's work forward. But this was the Gospel, the great good news, that thing that Peter had seen and heard, and of which he could not stop telling. 2 Timothy is so interesting as Paul shepherds young Timothy through the many dangers, toils and snares, both personal and inter-personal, of carrying forth the Gospel message into the real world.