1I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom: 2preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all patience and teaching. 3For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts, 4and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn away to fables. 5But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.
6For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come. 7I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. 8From now on, the crown of righteousness is stored up for me, 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.
9Be diligent to come to me soon, 10for Demas left me, having loved this present world, and went to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia; and Titus to Dalmatia. 11Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. 12But I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13Bring the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus when you come—and the books, especially the parchments. 14Alexander the coppersmith did much evil to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15Beware of him, for he greatly opposed our words.
16At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them. 17But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear. So I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 18And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me for his heavenly Kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
19Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the house of Onesiphorus. 20Erastus remained at Corinth, but I left Trophimus at Miletus sick. 21Be diligent to come before winter. Eubulus salutes you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers.
22The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.
The Lycaonian city of Lystra appears six times in the Bible (Acts 14:6, 8, 21; 16:1, 2; 2 Tim. 3:11). Located approximately twenty-five miles south by south-west of Iconium, this city was originally a Roman colony, colonized by Roman army veterans, under Augustus Caesar in 26 B.C. The colony was founded on the route called Via Sebaste to provide protection from hostile mountain tribes.
Inscriptions dated to the era before Paul's arrival, as well as the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses (8.616-724), describe the gods Zeus and Hermes wandering about the city as unwelcomed, unadorned visitors. After Paul healed a crippled man (Acts 14:2-6) so that he could leap (vs. 10) for all to see, Lystrans (connecting the myth with the reality of Paul's miracle) wrongly concluded that Paul (the chief speaker) and Barnabas were actually Hermes (the messenger god) and Zeus respectively, and brought sacrificial bulls and garlands to worship them. Led by the priest of the temple of Zeus outside the city (14:13), the residents cried out in Lycaonian, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us" (Acts 14:11)! After Paul refused such idolatry (14:14-18) the fickle crowd degenerated, at the instigation of unbelieving Jews (14:19), into a angry, violent mob. In a public riot (cf. 2 Tim 3:11), they stoned Paul, dragged him outside the city, and left him for dead (Acts 14:19). Nonetheless, Paul later returned with Silas on his second missionary journey, recruiting Timothy, who was highly regarded by the brethren in Iconium and Lystra, and whose father was Greek (Acts 15:40-16:4). Paul would later write the two epistles to Timothy, his son in the faith (1 Tim. 1:2).