People always have a fascination with the last words of celebrities, actors, and well-known people. When General John Sedgwick was sitting on his horse looking toward the Confederate Army he said,
“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distan…”
He was killed by sharpshooter at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. You never know if your last words will make an impact.
In the last words of Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5 he wrote,
“But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
He was telling him as he tells us to fulfill whatever God wants us to do. No God directed ministry is small or unimportant.
Timothy wasn’t only a preacher, he was also a soldier who would have to endure afflictions. Most of these afflictions would come from the religious crowd.
Some don’t want to hear the truth or even the Gospel. But our ministry must have soul-winning at heart along with soul feeding. Paul’s last were encouraging but also straight foward.
So words do matter whether they be the first or last to a lost and dying world. Paul later in verse 7 said those famous words,
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
This is how you quit like men. 1 Corinthians 16:13 teaches us to:
Be strong, carry out the Gospel, and you will finish well.