Paul's final letter — a torch passed, a course finished, a crown ahead.
"For God hath not given us the spirit of ______; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
This is almost certainly Paul's last surviving letter — written from a Roman dungeon awaiting execution, asking Timothy to come before winter and to bring the cloak and the parchments.
'All scripture is given by inspiration of God' — the Bible's own statement about itself — comes from chapter 3 of this letter.
Paul's farewell reads like a finish line: 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.' Athletes and saints have borrowed it ever since.
Even at the end, Paul was a reader — the 'parchments' he requested were likely his copies of the Scriptures. The man wrote half the New Testament and still wanted his Bible.