Realising the failure of the church in regard to the testimony committed to it by God, and knowing that its ruin was inevitable, the Apostle Paul wrote to his beloved child Timothy to instruct him, and us, in the path of God's will for such a time. While saddened at the church's failure, we need not be surprised, for man has failed in every position in which God has placed him in responsibility; and the greater the position of privilege, the greater has been the failure. Adam, Noah, Israel, Aaron, David and Nebuchadnezzar all witness to man's solemn history of failure.
With all this before him, Paul announces himself in his Second Epistle to Timothy as Apostle by the will of God, according to the promise of life, the life that is in Christ Jesus. We are brought at once, at the very threshold of the epistle, to what is outside the realm of human failure; to where all rests on the promise of God, not on man in responsibility. Moreover, the life that is promised is in Christ Jesus, where it cannot be corrupted or lost; death cannot touch it, for it has no claim upon it or power over it.
Here we can find rest, comfort and joy for our hearts amidst all the breakdown and ruin of the last days, for God has brought us into what lies outside of all the failure of man; He has given us what is in Christ Jesus, what was promised before the present church period began, yea, before the ages of time — a life — eternal life, which was brought to light by the Gospel after death had been annulled by the Lord Jesus.