Sometime before I entered my eighties, I began to realize that I am now in the final chapter of my life and ministry. I want to finish well. I have been thinking much about what that means and why it is so important. Scripture and church history are full of tragic examples of men who showed great promise but didn’t finish well.
Demas was a fellow laborer with the apostle Paul. He is mentioned in the penultimate verse in Philemon and in Colossians 4:14. He served in an important, strategic, and distinguished role. But in Paul’s final inspired epistle the apostle mentions Demas in a different light: “Demas, having loved this present age, has deserted me” (2 Tim. 4:10). Under the threat of persecution and the daily pressure of caring for all the churches (cf. 2 Cor. 11:28), Demas abandoned his calling.
There is a very real danger that someone who has lived and served Christ faithfully for most of his life might grow lazy, careless, fatigued, or lukewarm in the faith—and thus stumble to the finish. We all know of gifted servants of Christ who have fallen into shocking and disqualifying sins, discrediting their testimonies, dishonoring Christ, and destroying their ability to finish well.
And here is one reason this is such a problem: Living the Christian life faithfully is no more trouble-free the older we get. Sanctification doesn’t come any more easily with advanced age. The number and intensity of the fiery darts the powers of evil aim at us does not diminish. The obstacles we face don’t get easier to overcome. Furthermore, Scripture warns us, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).
The apostle Paul, steadfast as he was, was keenly aware of the dangers of falling. He wrote, “Run in such a way that you may win” (1 Cor. 9:24). “I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified” (vv. 26–27).
I want to follow Paul’s example. I want every Christian to aim for that incorruptible crown, to run to win, and to finish well. At the end of our lives, we want to be able to say what Paul said to his son in the faith in 2 Timothy 4:7–8: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.”
Those were practically the apostle’s last recorded words. He closed the epistle with some personal remarks, but this was his final statement of triumph: “I have kept the faith.” Paul had reached the end of his earthly life, and it was an eternally triumphant conclusion. He was standing on the summit of loyalty to his Lord, and he was bloody but unbowed. There is no higher kind of triumph for any Christian.
My prayer for you, dear reader, is that you too will fight the good fight triumphantly—that you will one day finish the course victoriously, and that you will keep the faith with unwavering devotion.
An excerpt from On Finishing Well: The apostle Paul’s strategy for a God-blessed ministry and lifelong devotion to Christ by John MacArthur (Grace to You, 2025), 1–2, 4–7.