2 Timothy 3,4

Paul saw an age coming that would test the church. Men would count shameful things as virtues. Self-love, love of money, boasting, arrogance and disobedience to parents would pass as normative. The virtues of gratitude, love, truth, forgiveness, self-control, and humility would be absent from the culture (2:1-9). Persecution and suffering would inevitably follow, with evil men increasing (2:10-13), yet the scripture could still be trusted (vs 16,17).

Knowing he was shortly to be executed, Paul’s last concerns were that Timothy would come to see him and would bring Mark (later author of the Gospel of Mark), whom Paul had earlier accused of desertion (Acts 15:36-40). In the intervening time, Paul had seen Mark’s worth (2Tim 2:11). Whether the change was in Paul or Mark, or both, grace had worked and it still does.