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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This section - Chapter 1 and 2 ch. 1:1-2 ch.1:3 - 2:13 ch. 2:14-26 My
Commentary On 2 Timothy Introduction
This commentary is based on the NIV, 1994 edition of the Bible. The chapter titles in this commentary correspond with those in the NIV Bible to make for easier study. It
has been suggested by many that Paul’s first letter to Timothy is hard
to date, while his second letter was probably written close to the end of
his life, while he was in prison in As
is the case in most of Paul’s writings, he introduces himself as “an
apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God”.
Paul has been sent by God to preach the gospel of Christ.
Paul adds the phrase, “according to the promise of life that is
in Christ Jesus”. If Paul
knew that his life was soon coming to an end, this “promise of life”
certainly meant a lot to him, and would refer to life in eternity. I've
often heard over the last couple of decades the importance that the gospel
has on this present life in which we live, but I think it has more
importance on the next life, for the next life is eternal.
I think the life that Paul is thinking about here is the next life.
We should not de-emphasize the next life as we emphasize the this
life. Some suggest that
those who try to balance this out by speaking of the next life are
"too heavenly minded to be any earthly good".
That may be true with some but the reverse can be true as well.
Some are to "earthly minded to be any heavenly good".
I think that's more of a problem in our day.
Verse
2 says, “to Timothy, my dear
son”. Note the affectionate
use of the word “dear”. As
I said before, Timothy was not the biological son of Paul, but Paul's
spiritual son. Paul considered
him a spiritual son in the Lord. In
the second half of verse 2 Paul gives greetings to Timothy as though he
were God’s ambassador to Timothy, which in fact he was.
He says, “grace, peace and mercy from God the Father and Christ
Jesus our Lord”. As I always
say, Paul constantly links God the Father to Jesus, because he knows that
the only true God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We
can note here that God is our Father.
We have a heavenly Father, and He is God.
We also have a Christ (Saviour) and a Lord.
Paul personalizes the Lordship of Jesus by calling Him “our
Lord”. He is not only “the
Lord”, but “our Lord”.
Encouragement To Be Faithful (ch. 1:3 - :13)
Paul
is a man of prayer. Of
course there is more than one aspect to prayer.
One aspect he mentions here in verse 3 is “remembering” Timothy
in prayer. This may take on
the form of intercession, or it may be as simple as remembering Timothy to
the Lord in a brief but meaningful thought to God.
Directing our thoughts to the Lord during daily life is one real
aspect of prayer. Paul
says that he serves God as his forefathers did, although his understanding
and service was quite different from that of his forefathers.
His forefathers of the Old Testament did not know God as the Father
of Jesus, but the God of the Messiah which was to come. One
real way in which Paul served God as his forefathers did was in his faith
in God. One of Paul's main
points in the first half of his book of Romans is that both New Testament
Christians and Old Testament Jews have the same faith.
Both Paul and Abraham had the same faith in the same God.
Paul
expresses his longing to see Timothy.
As we see in other of Paul’s letters, he had great emotion for
those he ministered to and cared for, and even more so with Timothy since
he considered him a son in the Lord. Paul
says that he remembers “Timothy’s tears”.
Paul does not express the occasion for these tears, so we really
can’t comment on what he means by these words, other than Timothy must
have had great emotion as well. Paul
did not view his service in the Lord as a job, or as a career.
It was a personal calling by God
to present the personal gospel to individuals which would result in
a personal relationship with these individuals. Paul’s
joy was found in Jesus and his people. When God’s people were not
following Jesus as they ought, he was quite distressed, but when they were
doing well in the Lord, Paul was very joyful.
Paul knew that Timothy was doing well, and therefore he knew that
he would be filled with joy if he could only see him again. In
verse 5 Paul says that he is “reminded of Timothy’s sincere faith”.
This could possibly suggest that some people do not have as sincere
of a faith as Timothy did. This
is most likely the case. Remember
faith is simply trusting in Jesus
for your salvation. Some
people trust more than others. Some
people’s faith is weak, as Paul says in Romans 14.
Those who tend to depend on other things for salvation, other than
what Jesus has already done, have weak faith. Paul
notes that this faith was not only found in Timothy, but in his mother and
grandmother as well. From Acts
16:1 – 3 we see that Timothy’s mother was a Jew and his father was a
Greek. Timothy’s mother
Eunice most likely was a devote Jew before becoming a Christian. In
verse 6 Paul tells Timothy “to fan into flame the gift of God that is in
you by the laying on of hands”. What
gift is Paul referring to here? I
think the gift that Paul is talking about here is the gift of the Holy
Spirit. Why do I say this?
The next sentence starts by saying “for God did not give us a
spirit of timidity…”. The
words “God did not give us a spirit” is in direct reference to the
“gift” in the previous sentence. One
might argue that the gift is Timothy's calling. This might well be right,
but I think in the present context the gift is the Spirit Himself. If
the gift is indeed the Holy Spirit, then Paul’s exhortation tells us
something concerning man’s responsibility in our relation to the Holy
Spirit. We need to “fan into
flame” our gift of the Spirit. What
does this mean? If one sets a
fire, one can cause the fire to increase in strength by fanning it.
The same with the Holy Spirit.
When we become a true Christian, we receive God’s Spirit, but
that is not enough. We need to
do certain things in order to allow the Holy Spirit to influence us and to
use us. Giving
ourselves to spiritual activity, such things as prayer, Bible study, and
doing God’s work will help the Holy Spirit within us increase His
influence in our lives. If we
are stagnant Christians the Holy Spirit will be like a small spark in our
lives. If we have an eagerness
to participate in things spiritual, then He will be more than a little
spark. Note
that this gift, that is the Holy Spirit, was given to Timothy when Paul
laid hands on him. This tells
me that Paul was instrumental in Timothy’s conversion. Paul
says that God has “not given us a spirit of timidity, but of love, power
and self-discipline”. Timidity
is a thing of the flesh. The
Holy Spirit can bring us out of such timidity because there is power in
the Spirit. He also can make
us love as we should and bring a discipline to our lives.
If these things are not found in a life, then this tells us that
the Holy Spirit’s activity is limited in that person’s life. There is
a human element to making the Holy Spirit work within us.
That is to say, there are things we need to do as Christians that
will allow His presence in our lives. In
verse 8 Paul tells Timothy “not to be ashamed to testify about our
Lord”. While growing up in
the church many of us were ashamed to give testimony to others about
Jesus. We were afraid of their
response. This was most likely due to the fact that the Holy Spirit was
not really involved in our lives. When
one gives himself to Jesus and allows God’s Spirit to have control, then
the fear of men begins to diminish.
We
might be able to learn something about Timothy here, although it is a bit
speculative. Paul tells
Timothy not to be timid or ashamed. Therefore,
Timothy might have been a bit shy and timid.
Paul might have needed to encourage him to step out of himself and
allow the Holy Spirit to work through him to boldly live and proclaim the
gospel of Christ.
Paul
also tells Timothy not to be ashamed that Paul is a prisoner for the Lord.
I am sure that Paul does not wish to be a prisoner.
I am sure that he would rather be set free to serve Jesus without
the chains. But this was not
the case. Paul was happy to
suffer for Jesus. He viewed it as part of his calling.
If he himself was not ashamed of his imprisonment, neither should
anyone else be ashamed. And
concerning Paul's imprisonment, it is clear that it was God's will and
probably Paul got more things accomplished in jail than what he would have
out of jail. God's ways are
not always logical to us. That
doesn't mean God isn't logical. It
simply means we don't understand God's logic.
We are the illogical ones. Being
ashamed of Jesus is one of the major factors why
the gospel is not spread as it should be.
Too many of us are too afraid to share our testimony.
It was clear in the book of Acts that one of the biggest results of
Acts 2, the receiving the Spirit into the lives of the believers, was
fearlessness. Paul
goes as far to tell Timothy to “join with him in suffering for the
gospel”. You can see
Paul’s thinking on suffering here. He
was not afraid to suffer. He
embraced it as part of his calling. He
tells Timothy to do the same. You
must remember that in Acts 9, when Jesus called Paul, He promised him that
he would suffer for His cause. In
verse 9 Paul says that God has not only saved us, but has also “called
us to a holy life”. The
salvation message should not merely include a way to heaven, but should
include the calling to be holy. This
is the important aspect the present life that we now live as Christians.
As I said earlier, there's an ongoing debate between some. What is
more important, this life or the next life.
Many of those who say this life is the important thing say this in
terms of what they can get from God, but that's selfish.
This life is important, and it is important because in this life we
should be living godly, and that will affect us in the next life.
We will be rewarded for our godliness in this life.
It's not what we can get from God in this life, but what we can
give to Him in this life.
In
verse 9 Paul emphasizes the true nature of the gospel, that is our
salvation “is not because of anything we have done”.
This is fundamental in the gospel message.
We can do absolutely nothing to earn our salvation. It has been
completely paid for by Jesus. We
simply trust Him with our lives, and as we do, we find favour and
salvation with God. Salvation
is based on “God’s own purpose and grace” Paul says.
God has purposed, or works out a plan to save us, and that plan is
based on His grace, His unmerited mercy that has been extended towards all
mankind. Paul
says that “this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the
beginning of time”. God’s
love and grace is clearly shown to mankind in the fact that God came to
earth in human flesh, that is in Jesus.
This was not an after thought for God.
God had decided this before the beginning of time.
Somehow this suggests to me that when God created mankind, He knew
that things would go as they did, and that a drastic plan would have to be
put in place. Therefore,
before Genesis 1, before the creation of human beings. God had purposed to
show His love by giving Himself in the form of Jesus, and He did this
because sin was already in existence in satan and those with him. Even
though God purposed salvation long before creation, He now has made it
known by the appearing of Jesus in human history and by the gospel message
that He brought, and that Paul fearlessly preached.
In verse 11 Paul says that he “was appointed a herald, an
apostle, and a teacher” of this gospel.
A herald simply means a preacher, or one who speaks forth the
gospel. An apostle is one who is sent to bring the good news to people and
build them into a living community of God’s people.
A teacher is one who teaches new believers the things of God. Paul
goes on to say, “that is why I am suffering as I am”.
The mere fact that God has called Paul to be these things has
brought all this suffering on him.
But that is fine with Paul. He
is “not ashamed” as he states once again. Why
was Paul not ashamed? Because
he says “ I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able
to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day”.
This “knowing for sure’, and being “convinced” is extremely
important in the life of a believer. The
more “we know of Jesus and are convinced” in our hearts of Him, the
more effective we will be in living as we should.
What
has Paul “entrusted” to God? I
am not one hundred percent sure what Paul had in mind, but we do know that
Paul had a great hope for the future resurrection.
Paul trusted his whole life to Jesus, in the hope that one day they
would meet again, face to face. In
verse 13 Paul tells Timothy that what he “has learned keep as the
pattern for sound teaching”. Many
quote this Scripture in reference to discipleship.
In one sense Paul was training Timothy for a place of leadership in
Christian circles. Whether this is actually called “discipleship” or
“leadership training” may be debatable.
Paul does clearly tell Timothy that what he has learned from Paul
should be thought of as sound doctrine and therefore taught to others. Paul
qualifies his point about sound teaching by saying
that it must be mixed with
“faith and love”, two words that Paul always links together.
Faith, or true trust in Jesus produces love, both being the
foundation to teaching doctrine
to the church. We do not teach
for the sake of teaching, or for the sake of being noticed as we teach.
We teach because we want to serve Jesus and help His people
understand as they should. In
the next verse Paul tells Timothy “to guard the good deposit that was
entrusted to you - guard it
with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us”.
The use of the word “guard” suggests that Timothy (us as well)
should keep close watch over whatever God has given him.
God “entrusted” Timothy with a “good deposit”.
What could this good deposit possibly be?
We know that the Holy Spirit can help Timothy in the guarding
process, as Paul says, so the Holy Spirit cannot be the “good deposit”
that Paul is thinking about. What
I think Paul might be speaking about, and I could be wrong, is Timothy’s
ministry. We often see Paul
speaking of his ministry as something that has been “entrusted” to him
by the Lord. The same would be
true of Timothy. He has a God given ministry to take care of, to watch
over, and to guard. We
all know of servants of God who have not guarded their ministry and for
one reason or another have fallen, ending the ministry that God had given
them. Sexual sin, along with
pride are often two things that cause a man to fall.
In
verse 15 Paul says that “everyone in the province of The
household of Onesiphorus was not so inclined like the rest.
They often “refreshed” Paul in his need.
Onesiphorus actually went out of his way to seek Paul out when he
was in
In
chapter 2 verse 1 Paul tells Timothy to be strong in the grace that is in
Christ”. He prefaces these
words by calling Timothy “my son”, emphasizing the words that would
follow. The grace that is in
Christ is the foundation to our lives as Christians.
We need to know and understand the best we can what this means.
As Christians I feel we don’t appreciate God’s grace as we
should, mainly because we have not given it much consideration or thought.
I don’t think we will ever be able to understand God’s grace in
its totality but I think we can understand and appreciate it more than we
do. I think
one of the worst things we do as Christians is to take advantage of
God’s grace. That is, we do
our own thing, or even sin, knowing that God will forgive. Verse
2 is another one of those “discipleship” verses, probably the most
popular one. Paul tells
Timothy to pass along what he has told him and to “entrust” these
things to “reliable men” who can also pass them on to other reliable
men. The adjective
“reliable” is important here. Paul
is not one who likes waste, and I don’t think that he would like wasting
his time and effort on training unreliable men, men who will do nothing
with it. Paul
also uses the word “qualified” . If
Timothy successfully passed this teaching on to reliable men, then they
would be “qualified” to pass it on to others.
We do need to be “qualified” if we want to serve our Lord,
especially in certain areas such as teaching and preaching.
Leaders in the church need certain qualities to lead.
If they don’t have these qualities, then they should not be
leaders. In
verse 3 he tells Timothy “to endure hardship as a good soldier…”
When becoming a Christian in today’s world, we don’t think in
terms of “enduring hardship” because we have become a Christian.
This was not the case with the first century church.
Hardship was a result of finding faith in Jesus.
Paul knew that only to well, and Paul was encouraging Timothy not
to run from such hardship, but to embrace it.
In one sense of the word, Paul felt like a soldier.
He was in a fight, not against flesh and blood, but against evil
powers of spiritual darkness. The
gospel that is often preached these days has no suggestion that one will
suffer hardship once they become a Christian.
This shouldn't be. Christians
will be tested by God, and hardships are one means of testing.
As our society moves away from its Christian heritage, we will also
suffer greater hardship as a Christian.
We need to prepare ourselves for that.
It's beginning to happen now.
In
the next verse Paul continues on with his military analogy when he says
that “no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs”.
Soldiers are single minded. They
serve their commanding officer. The
same is true with soldiers of Christ.
They have devoted themselves to serving Jesus and don’t get
caught up in worldly things. Soldiers
have to be single minded, especially in battle or else they will lose
their lives. The same is true
with Christians. Paul
gives another analogy and that is a sporting analogy.
An athlete must train hard, be single minded and “play by the
rules”, as Paul puts it. Only
then will he have a chance to win the prize for which he is competing for.
In
verse 6 Paul gives another analogy. He
compares the servant of God to a farmer.
The comparison here is in terms of financial remuneration.
A farmer who plants crops should be the first one to share in the
crops that he has planted. He
plants in order to sell, but he also plants in order for him to eat.
So before he sells any of his crops, he takes some for himself and
his family. The same should be
true with a Christian minister, even though Paul himself in many cases did
not take this privilege for himself. One
thing I think Paul would agree to is that a servant of God should not take
an over-abundance of money from those he serves.
The calling of God is not a means to get rich.
Many pastors today are highly paid.
It is a lucrative career, something it shouldn't be.
In
verse 7 Paul says, “reflect on what I am saying and the Lord will give
the insight in all of these things”.
This should be the attitude of any Christian teacher or preacher.
Those listening should hear what is being said but then take the
time on their own to “reflect” on what is said.
If what is being said is truly of God, then God Himself “will
give insight” on the matters. There
are a couple of difficulties as I see them.
Sometimes those doing the teaching think that they are important
and what they say should be accepted as the full truth all the time.
But we who teach should allow the Lord to give the final insight.
Then on the other hand, in today’s society many of us would
rather have things just given to us. We
would rather simply hear something, accept it as gospel, without doing any
reflecting on the subject for ourselves. Without this reflecting, God will
not give us real insight. It
will all be head knowledge that we may soon forget.
When God gives insight,
it penetrates into our hearts as well as our minds. In
verse 8 Paul reminds Timothy to “remember Jesus Christ” for He is what
the gospel is all about, and it is for this reason that Paul is in prison
as if he were a criminal. Even
though Paul himself is in chains, he says that the gospel is not in
chains. You can imprison the
messenger, but the message is still out there, working its way across the
land. Because
the gospel can’t be chained, Paul “endures everything for the sake of
the elect”. Spreading of the
good news of Jesus is foremost in Paul’s life.
Everything else is secondary, even his own personal welfare. We
see the word “elect” in this sentence.
This word has caused great controversy over the centuries.
Some have believed that God has chosen certain people for
salvation, and these people are called “the elect”, while those who
aren’t chosen can never be saved. In
my commentary on Rom. 8:31 I explain that God has called, or has chosen,
or has elected all mankind to salvation.
But only those who actually respond in a positive fashion will
receive salvation. To me this
is the tenor of New Testament thinking.
This is fundamental to what Jesus so many times said, “whosoever
will…”, that is whosoever will be saved, will be saved.
If you don’t want to be saved, you won’t be saved.
It is that simple. Therefore
when Paul uses the word “elect” in this verse, he is speaking about
all those who respond to Cod’s call, both present and future.
That being said, in some New Testament contexts, the word
"elect" refers to Jews. Verse
11 begins another “trustworthy saying”.
It actually appears to be more than one saying.
The first one is, “if we died with Him, we will also live with
Him”. Whether Paul is
speaking of future resurrection life here or living with Jesus in the
present is difficult to know. Yet
both are true. We will live
with Jesus in Heaven and also in the next life on the new earth.
Also, to the degree in which we die to self now, is the degree we
will experience the present day reality of Jesus. The
next saying is, “if we endure, we will also reign with Him”.
If we don’t give up our faith, our trust in Jesus, someday in
Heaven we will reign over the universe along side of Jesus. Paul
goes on to say, “if we disown Him, He will also disown us”.
The KJV says, “if we believe not…”.
This is what I think Paul is saying.
I believe that disowning Jesus means to lay aside your faith, your
trust, or to renounce Him altogether.
If this then is the case, then Jesus has no other alternative than
to lay aside you. Our
salvation is based on our trust in Him, and if we no longer trust Him, we
no longer have salvation. Once again, it is that simple.
Good works don’t save us, faith does.
Bad works don’t unsaved us, unbelief does. The
last trustworthy statement is found in verse 13.
It says, “ if we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He
cannot disown Himself”. Paul
is not saying that if we are faithless, God is still faithful and will
save us. He is saying that we
can be faithless, but God will be faithful to who He is and what He plans.
Our faithlessness will not change God in the least.
He will continue to do as He wishes.
We may disown Him, or not trust Him, but He cannot disown Himself
or His plans. Faithlessness is
not a part of God. He will do
what He wishes whether we believe in Him or not. Workman
Approved By God (ch. 2:14 - 26) In
verse 14 Paul tells Timothy to “remind them of these things.”
Who is the word “them” referring to?
I believe that “them” is referring back to the “elect”.
Paul wants Timothy to remind the elect of the things Paul has
taught him. Paul tells Timothy
to “warn them about
quarrelling”, for “it has no value”. In
verse 15 Paul tells Timothy “to do your best to present yourself to God
as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed”.
A servant of the Lord who doesn’t do his best job will have
something to be ashamed of before the Lord.
Paul does not want Timothy to be in this position.
Paul did his best, and was quite assured of that before the Lord.
Therefore Paul had nothing to be ashamed of. Part
of not being ashamed is “correctly handling the word of truth”, as
Paul puts it. This is very
important. The word of truth
for Timothy was the gospel in general which would include the Scriptures
of the Old Testament. Correctly
handling the word of truth means to first understand what the word of
truth is, and then passing it along with pure motives.
Some mishandle God’s word by the way they interpret it, and also
by the way they use it. Paul
proceeds to tell Timothy “to avoid godless chatter”. There might be
some variation from person to person to just what “godless chatter”
might mean. To me, godless
chatter is talk that does not glorify God.
Much of what we need to say in a day is neutral.
It neither glorifies God or blasphemes God.
Much of this kind of talk is necessary.
But there is other things that we say, maybe by complaining, maybe
by gossiping, or maybe by becoming too involved in worldly discussions,
may be godless chatter. The
more we talk in the fashion of the world, the more we become like the
world, and the more “ungodly” we will become.
Growing
up in the church led me to believe that godless chatter was what many
called “dirty jokes”. Then
at times one would have to define what “dirty” actually meant.
From person to person, it seemed to mean something different.
Yet the next sentence suggests that unscriptural teaching is also
godless chatter. Paul says,
“their teaching will spread like gangrene”.
The teaching of the ungodly, possibly the Judiazers for example,
would be classified as godless chatter. There
were two men that Paul pointed out as examples of those who promoted wrong
teaching or godless chatter. Hymenaeus
and Philetus were teaching that the resurrection had already taken place.
By teaching such things Paul says that they “destroy the faith of
some”. The two men
themselves as Paul puts it, “have wandered from the truth”.
If one wanders too far from the truth, they will step beyond the
borders of truth and by so doing will forsake the true gospel and its
accompanying salvation. With
some men teaching wrong doctrine and wandering from true Biblical truth we
might question who really belongs to God.
Who are really saved? This
may be hard for us to know at times. That
is, how can we know when one wanders too far?
Where is the dividing line? So
in answer to this Paul says, “the foundation stands firm, sealed with
this inscription, the Lord knows those who are His, and, everyone who
confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness”.
Paul is saying that if we don’t know if someone is really saved
or not, God does, and that is the important thing.
He also adds that those who claim to be saved must “turn from
wickedness”, suggesting that if they don’t turn from their wicked
ways, they may not be saved in the first place. In
verse 20 Paul says that in “a large house there are not only articles of
gold and silver, but also of wood and clay”.
He is suggesting that the gold and silver articles are used for
“noble purposes”, and that the wood and clay articles are used for
“ignoble purposes”. Then
in verse 22 he says that if “a man cleanses himself from the latter, he
will be an instrument for noble purposes”.
What is Paul saying here? Remember,
he has just spoken of those who are teaching wrong doctrine.
What he is saying is that within the church there are two types of
people, those who are noble and those, like the false teachers, who are
ignoble. Paul says to stay
away from the ignoble, those who are not walking in truth.
If Timothy does that, then he can be used of God for noble
purposes. Things
have not changed since the first generation church.
Within what is called the church today, there are godly people who
follow after truth, and there are ungodly people who don’t care to
follow after the truth. The
same admonition would be true for us today, as it was for Timothy back in
the first century. Paul
continues by saying that Timothy “would be useful … prepared for any
good work”. We all want to
be useful in the service of the Lord.
There are many things that need to be found in our life to have
this come about. Withdrawing from those who are described as wood and clay
is one of these things. We
need to understand who to withdraw from.
Paul is not talking about withdrawing from just anyone.
He's not talking about withdrawing from weak Christians.
He's talking about withdrawing from false leaders. This
is important today since many denominations are far from Christian. In
verse 21 Paul tells Timothy to “flee youthful desires”.
What Paul might have had in mind might be somewhat debatable.
“Youthful desires” could be referring to sexual desire, a
desire to succeed in a worldly way, or probably a number of other things.
The important thing for Timothy, especially in light of his calling
from God is to “pursue righteousness, faith , love and peace …”, all
things that are holy and spiritual. He
tells Timothy to do this with “all those who call upon the name of the
Lord”. Timothy’s calling
is to the church, and in the church is where he should find his close
associates. Once
again, in verse 23 Paul tells Timothy not to have anything to do with
“foolish and stupid arguments” since they only lead to quarrelling.
Paul
says that the “Lord’s servant must not quarrel”. (ch. 2:24)
Instead of being argumentative, he must be “kind to everyone,
able to teach, and not resentful”. Note
the importance that Paul puts on teaching in this verse.
It ranks with being kind and not being resentful.
At
this point we should note the distinction between quarrelling
and a healthy debate. If
you read the book of Acts you will see that Paul spent much time in
debating, that is, if he felt the debate was useful.
But, he would not get into a nasty quarrel.
There is a difference between the two.
The debates were always around theological issues.
In
verse 25 Paul says that he expects opposition to leadership.
Timothy is encouraged to “gently correct” his opposition.
Gentleness should be one of the marks of a true Christian leader.
Abrasiveness and argumentativeness
should not be found in a church leader.
The goal of this gentle correction is to bring the opposition into
a “knowledge of the truth”. Correction
is not meant to vent your anger at someone.
Paul
speaks strong against those who oppose him and his gospel, the gospel that
Timothy has learned. He tells
Timothy that these men are “in the trap of the devil”, and have been
made “captive to his will”. This
might suggest the nature of the opposition Paul is speaking about here.
It does not appear that he is speaking about people who have minor
differences with leadership. He
is speaking about those, like the Judaizers and false teachers who have
mounted a direct attack against Timothy and other leaders.
These men are actually being used of the devil, whether they
realize it or not.
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