For as long as there have been people, there have been false teachings about how to find hope, healing, and wholeness. That is true throughout the Bible and is still true today. Plus, people are looking for hope, healing, and wholeness wherever they can find it.

So, what are they going to hear? Some false, distorted version of the true message of Jesus, or that Jesus, God in flesh, made a way for anyone who calls on him to be redeemed - and all we need to do is choose to accept that gift and follow him?

If you knew you only had a short time to live, what lessons would you pass on to those you love most? If you wrote them in a letter, who would it be addressed to?

That's what we have as the book of 2 Timothy. As Paul nears the end of his life, he writes a final letter, containing three important life lessons, to his son in the faith.

Being citizens of the kingdom of heaven who reside in the empire requires being humble and obedient to the point of dying to ourselves and the narrative that surrounds us so we can find true life in Christ and, ultimately, someday, thanks to Jesus’ humility and obedience, receive the ultimate fulfillment of our purpose collectively as a church and, yes, also, of your special purpose as a child of God, made in his image, a person for whom Christ died and purposed for his mission.

Paul points to the litmus test of that very calling in Philippians 2.