AM Bible Study Group; December 17, 2014
2 Timothy 2:22-26
Theme: Paul exhorts Timothy to fulfill his ministry with careful choices in his ‘conduct’ and in his ‘conversations.’
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
To follow the Lord Jesus faithfully in His call requires a willingness to live a separated life. It means that, to be useful to the Master, we cannot live as other people may feel free to live, or walk paths that other people may feel free to walk.
It may even be that those others are professing Christians—church-going people. Nevertheless, if we want to be useful to the Lord Jesus in His call for us, we can’t measure ourselves by what other people feel free to do, but by where our Lord leads us when He says, “Follow Me.” He will call us to live distinctive lives—separated from the common things of this world that others may enjoy. We cannot use the words of this world that they may feel themselves free to use, or engage in the kinds of activities of this world they may feel themselves free to participate in, or go to the places of this world that they feel themselves free to go. As the old saying goes, “Others may, you cannot.” We say ‘no’ to the lesser things of this world, so that we may be used by God for the best of purposes. This is as Jesus has taught concerning His faithful followers. He Himself has said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).
Paul was writing to Timothy and urging him to fulfill an acceptable ministry before God. And that acceptable ministry must mean “sanctification”—a separation unto God from lesser things for His high purposes. What Paul told Timothy certainly should be true of every pastor. But it is also true of every devoted Christian. Here, Paul urges Timothy to pursue sanctification in two broad areas—his personal conduct, and his personal conversations.
I. SANCTIFICATION IN HIS CONDUCT (v. 22).
A. Paul begins by urging Timothy to pursue sanctification in his personal conduct. Note what it is that he is commanded to “flee” with respect to his conduct. Paul tells him, “Flee also youthful lusts . . .” (v. 22a). There are, of course, things in life that it is proper to stand ground and fight against. But there are also things that the Bible tells us not to stay and fight against, but rather to tuck tail and run from. If we ignore God’s warning in this, we always end up in trouble. For example, Paul urges believers, “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18). To arrogantly stand one’s ground under the temptation of sexual immorality, and think that we can make ourselves invulnerable to it in the power of the flesh, is foolish and reckless. Similarly, Paul wrote to warn Timothy in his previous letter about the dangers of greed and materialism in ministry; urging him, “But you, O man of God, flee these things . . .” (1 Timothy 6:11). And so, Paul here urges Timothy to “flee youthful lusts”—the passions that characterize those who are young and immature and inexperienced. Such youthful lusts don’t just plague young men, either. Those who are well-along in years can become just as enamored and ensnared by sexual immorality, or with a love for money, or by a passion for material things, or by pride, or by a desire for recognition and applause. These are things not to ‘fight’, but from which to take ‘flight’. We should never think that we are so ‘mature’ in the faith that we no longer have to worry about them.
B. But it’s not enough for Timothy to simply flee from something. Truly sanctified conduct also involves chasing after the right things—with just as much diligence as fleeing from the wrong things. So note also, with regard to his personal conduct, what it is that he is to “pursue” instead. Paul writes, “but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (v. 22b). Just as devotedly and actively as he is to flee from these other things, he is to instead pursue righteous choices of conduct, and a deliberate trust in God’s sufficiency and faithfulness, and a self-sacrificing service to the interests and betterment of others, and a willingness to set aside his own rights and liberties in order to keep from harming the sensitivities and consciences of his brothers and sisters in Christ—protecting his bond of unity with them. He is to do this “from out of a pure heart”—not defiling his innermost being with the sinful things of this world. Those are the kind of faithful servants that Jesus can use!
II. SANCTIFICATION IN HIS CONVERSATIONS (vv. 23-26).
A. Those words of exhortation had to do with Timothy’s conduct. But note what, in terms of personal conversations, he must also avoid. Paul tells him, “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife” (v. 23). Many a pastor or Christian worker has thought himself or herself to be doing the Lord’s work when they engaging in heated discussions about politics or social problems or matters for which they are not intellectually qualified—only to do great damage to the cause of Christ. Paul qualifies these kinds of disputes as “foolish”—that is, not in keeping with true wisdom; and as “ignorant” or “unschooled”—that is, lacking in true knowledge, or in a way that exceeds one’s full information. Other people may feel free to rush right into such conversations and speak their mind; but the truly sanctified person “avoids” them or “excuses themselves” from them. Usually, the best thing to say about matters that cannot help but lead to a quarrel is ‘nothing’.
B. But note how, instead, he is to behave in personal interactions with others. Paul goes on to tell him, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition . . .” (vv. 24-25a). It’s true that there are times when a servant of the Lord must contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3); but he must make sure that the fights he enters into are a truly worthy for the cause of Christ—a contention truly worth having for the salvation of souls. And even then, he must not be “contentious” when contending for the faith. He must not be known for being a fighter and a brawler. (Sadly, some pastors have a reputation for being someone that you never want to “get into it with”. That’s a dishonor to the cause of the Savior!). Instead, he must be known for being “gentle”—that is, someone who never raises his voice or makes people afraid; and “able to teach”—that is, choosing his words to the best effect of presenting others with the truth, and persuading them in a way that they will hear and understand; and “patient”—that is, not having to have the matter settled ‘then and there’ or having to ‘have the last word’, but willing to wait and allow time for things to sink in; and “in humility” correcting those who oppose the faith—that is, not in such a way as to have to be ‘the winner’ in the argument or to be thought of as ‘brilliant’; and being even willing to be thought of as low, if it will eventually lead to the truth being held up high.
C. Finally, note why it is that he is to behave this way in his personal conversations. He is to speak with a humble spirit in correcting those who oppose the faith; “if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (vv. 25b-26). He must enter into his private conversations with others—and especially with hostile unbelievers—in such a way as he would treat them if he knew that they would one day become a brother or sister in Christ. The repentance that the man or woman of God seeks doesn’t come about by winning an argument, but rather by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. It helps if believers remember that they too “once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:2-3).
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Our care with our conduct and conversations is important; because the ability for someone to hear the message of the gospel from us is at stake. May we never carelessly harm or hinder the redeeming work that God is doing in someone else’s life. But may we be sanctified—in our walk and in or words—to the true adornment of the gospel we proclaim!