2 Timothy 4:7

‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith,’

But he was not discouraged for he knew that in spite of his weaknesses and his failures, he had fought a good fight and had completed the race. The picture is of both a soldier and an athlete (compare 2 Timothy 2:3-5; see also 1 Corinthians 9:24-26; Hebrews 12:1-2). He had been following his own advice, and had done it successfully. But even more importantly he had ‘kept the faith’ with which he had started out, and which he had called on his lieutenants to closely guard (2 Timothy 1:13-14). Not for him a straying into false teaching or loose living. Happy the Christian who can come to the end of his life with this sense of fulfilment.