2 Timothy – Part 3

Exhortations to Timothy ~ Part 3

Take a stand for positivity if you’re encountering a toxic work culture defined by negativity and self-centeredness. Commit to being the person who sees potential and promotes encouragement. Start each week by sharing a word of affirmation or encouraging email with your team. By doing so, you’re intentionally cultivating a more positive environment, breaking the cycle of ungratefulness and fostering an atmosphere resembling Yeshua’s grace.

Handling Truth Carefully

¹⁴ Keep reminding people of this, and charge them solemnly before the Lord not to engage in word-battles. They accomplish nothing useful and are a catastrophe for the hearers!

Sha’ul was willing to confront people when the Gospel was at stake. For example, he opposed Kefa to his face (Galatians 2:11). What he had in mind here was a meaningless argument.

¹⁵ Do all you can to present yourself to God as someone worthy of His approval, as a worker with no need to be ashamed, because he deals straightforwardly with the Word of the Truth.

Sha’ul had in mind a zealous pursuit of God’s approval. One way to do this is to make sure we handle Scripture correctly.

¹⁶ But avoid godless babbling, for those who engage in it will only become more ungodly,

The present tense of avoid means this is something Timothy must constantly do.

¹⁷ and their teaching will eat away at people like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are among these;

Hymenaeus. Sha’ul had already been excommunicated at 1 Timothy 1:20, but this did not end his mischief. Philetus is not mentioned elsewhere.

¹⁸ they have missed the mark, as far as the truth is concerned, by saying that our resurrection has already taken place; and they are overturning some people’s faith.

Our resurrection has already occurred spiritually in Immersion; no physical resurrection is to be expected. From Colossians 2:12 and Romans 6:5 one can see how such views start. They were held in Corinth, too, but Sha’ul countered them, pointing out that faith without a hope of physical resurrection is useless (1 Corinthians 15). A similar teaching, that the Day of the Lord had already come, was current in Thessalonica (2 Thessalonians 2:2–3).

¹⁹ Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, stamped with these words:

“The Lord knows His own” (Numbers 16:5; Nahum 1:7)

and,

“Let everyone who claims he belongs to the Lord

stand apart from wrongdoing.”  (Numbers 16:26)

Despite the work of these evildoers and evil teachers, God’s Kehilah still stands firm. The inscription emphasizes divine sovereignty (preserving) and human responsibility (persevering).

Teaching Above Quarreling

²⁰ In a large house, there are dishes and pots not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. That is, some are meant for honorable use and some for dishonorable. ²¹ If a person keeps himself free of defilement by the latter, he will be a vessel set aside for honorable use by the master of the house and ready for every kind of good work.

The analogy in these verses connects to the end of verse 19: stand apart from wrongdoing. The large house represents the Messianic community; the vessels for dishonorable use represent the false teachers. The point of verse 21 is that one should try to be an honorable vessel, useful to the Master.

²² So, flee the passions of youth; and, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, pursue righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace.

The word passions in this context refers to sinful desires in general. Desires that are particularly characteristic of youth could include sexual desires, the longing for novelty, or perhaps even impulsiveness. Significantly, fleeing wrong is combined with pursuing right.

²³ But stay away from stupid and ignorant controversies—you know that they lead to fights, ²⁴ and a slave of the Lord shouldn’t fight. On the contrary, he should be kind to everyone, a good teacher, and not resentful when mistreated.

With the word slave, Sha’ul referred to those who preached the Gospel, e.g., Sha’ul himself (Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:10; Titus 1:1) and Epaphras (Colossians 4:12).

²⁵ Also, he should be gentle as he corrects his opponents. For God may perhaps grant them the opportunity to turn from their sins, acquire full knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ come to their senses and escape the trap of the Adversary, after having been captured alive by him to do his will.

Sha’ul often described humanity as enslaved by the Adversary and needing rescue (2 Co 4:4).

Prediction of Godless Times

3 ¹ Moreover, understand this: in the acharit-hayamim will come trying times. ² People will be self-loving, money-loving, proud, arrogant, insulting, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, uncontrolled, brutal, hateful of good, ⁴ traitorous, headstrong, swollen with conceit, loving pleasure rather than God, ⁵ as they retain the outer form of religion but deny its power. [1]

In the acharit-hayamim (“in the end of days”; compare 1 Timothy 4:1), there will come trying times characterized by moral and spiritual decline. This will be accompanied by natural and social disasters, as is clear from the Messiah’s own description of this period (Mattityahu 24–25, Mark 13, Lk 21:5–36), but here the emphasis is on individual decadence.

In our next post, we will continue to examine Sha’ul’s Second Letter to Timothy.

Click here for the PDF version.

 

[1] 2 Timothy 2:14-3:5.