Biblion Bible Commentary
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I Have Fought the Good Fight
2 Timothy 4:6-8
6 For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come. · WEB
Paul describes his death in two images, his life in three clauses, and then refuses to keep the reward to himself.
I am already being poured out. The verb is spendō G4689, used of a drink offering emptied beside a sacrifice — his life is not being taken but presented, and the present tense says it is already happening.
The second image is analysis G359, the time of my departure: a ship's cable loosed or a tent struck. Both are pictures of leaving rather than ending, which is the same instinct as calling death decommissioned in 2 Timothy 1:10.
Then three clauses in the perfect tense, each a completed thing. I have fought the good fight — agōn G73, the contest, so the emphasis falls on the struggle having been the right one rather than on winning it. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith, using the word for guarding a deposit that has run through the letter 2 Timothy 1:14.
Verse 8 names what is stored up: the crown of righteousness, given by the Lord, the righteous judge — the same judge invoked in verse 1, now described as the one handing out the wreath.
And the last clause opens it to everyone: not to me only, but to all those who have loved his appearing. The qualification is an affection rather than an achievement.
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