Roads Day 2 Tell Me About Your God: Digging Deeper
September 11, 2018
Discover the original intent of Scripture. Make good application to our everyday lives.
Become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
2 Timothy 2:14-26
16 But avoid irreverent, empty speech, for this will produce an even greater measure of godlessness. 17 And their word will spread like gangrene; Hymenaeus and Philetus are among them. 18 They have deviated from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and are overturning the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, having this inscription: The Lord knows those who are His, and Everyone who names the name of the Lord must turn away from unrighteousness.
20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver bowls, but also those of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 So if anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
22 Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23 But reject foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they breed quarrels.
24 The Lord’s slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient,25 instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth. 26 Then they may come to their senses and escape the Devil’s trap, having been captured by him to do his will.
The Original Intent
1) What does it look like to be one who presents ourselves to God as “one approved”?
2 Timothy is one of Paul’s last letters as he sat in prison, awaiting execution. This is Paul’s final opportunity to encourage and charge his young pastor mentee as he, in a sense, passes the torch to the next generation of church planters and leaders.
These last words are used to repeat the core, fundamental truths of the Gospel to Timothy. Before approaching 2:14 and the charge to “present yourself approved,” Paul states, “remind them [the church; believers; ministry leaders] of these things”… What things? The promises of enduring hardship for the sake of spreading the Gospel that others may, “obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:10-13)
The gospel is worth it, not just part of the gospel, but the full of its weight: Jesus the Christ, the Redeemer, fully God, fully man, who suffered and died and rose again to conquer our death. This gospel is worth every suffering!
Sandwiched between the “Remind them” and leading into the charge of “working diligent to present yourself approved by to God”, Paul points out to “not wrangle about words”. He wraps up with “accurately handling the work of truth.”
To please God is not to perform some good deeds that we might lie to ourselves, thinking we have attained some “righteousness” of our own, rather, to be approved by God, we are to wholly cling to the gospel of Jesus Christ as presented in Scripture, and to reject all others. Scripture alone holds the whole truth of salvation.
The Everyday Application
1) What does it look like to be one who presents ourselves to God as “one approved”?
Do you ever find energy to clean house, go to work, exercise, chase children… but exhausted to STUDY a book that feels overwhelming to pick up?
When Paul tells Timothy to “present himself approved,” is he saying Timothy ought to have a certain level of perfection or outward law abidance?
This statement is found between other instructions regarding words. 1) Not to “wrangle about them”
2) To accurately handle the word of God, which is wholly true.
God’s approval does not come from our efforts. However, those who do not waver in what the Bible teaches, learn through diligent study.
Though Paul is speaking to Timothy regarding his fellow ministers in the Gospel, correctly handling the complete truth of God’s Word is the responsibility of all Christians. It’s easy to get side tracked with questions that do not alter the Gospel, before holding firmly to foundational truths on which the Gospel stands.
The starting point is to look solely to Christ as your covering before the Holy God and to continuously learn the character of God that we may accurately explain and live out the true Gospel to our children, spouse, roommates, co-workers, etc. Going beyond Scripture to find that gospel, or
The Original Intent
2) Do our words really matter?
Paul knew Old Testament Scripture thoroughly and was well-versed in Scripture before becoming a Christ-follower. Many years of his life had been spent memorizing Scripture without understanding the gravity of the words. This also had him following false ideas of who God is, false ideas of what it means to be saved, and therefore, an entirely false religion.
It sounds strange that Paul could have a false religion when he was a scholar in the Old Testament. But after his conversion, Paul, for the first time, truly understood the heartbeat of what Old Testament Scripture was saying; everything pointed to the coming Messiah, the Lord God in the flesh, Jesus Christ.
Paul had much he wanted to proclaim, but, here in 2 Timothy and throughout all his writings, he focuses on salvation in Christ, the only one who can bring salvation, and imploring Christians to persevere in this truth.
When bringing up “ignorant controversies,” the immediate examples, by name, are Hymenaeus and Philetus who proclaimed the resurrection of God’s church had already occurred. Later, in verse 23, Timothy is also warned to “refuse foolish and ignorant speculations” to protect from quarrels.
The Everyday Application
2) Do our words really matter?
Scripture warns the tongue is double-edged, useful for edifying and tearing down. It further points out our human inability to have self-control to “tame” such weaponry on our own (James 3:8-10). Much of this is due to the tongue, or mouth, springing up from the well of our hearts (Proverbs 4:23).
Our hearts are drawn to self. Notice how good we are at talking about ourselves and how much work it takes to ask someone about themselves? And a great tempter to self is knowledge. Even pursuing greater knowledge of “spiritual matters” can be wickedness when we lose the lens of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many false religions spring out of desiring further knowledge, but at the expense of rejecting the complete knowledge already provided the Bible. This is why it is important to take every thought captive by filtering them through the truth of Scripture alone, before allowing them space on our tongue.
Any thoughtless chatter that is not filtered through Scripture is fuel for “leading to further ungodliness” (verse 16), “upsetting the faith of some” (verse 18), and “producing quarrels” (verse 23). When it comes to our speech, allow the filter of God-breathed Scripture to teach us humility!
The Original Intent
3) What is considered “youthful passions” that we are told to flee from?
In 2 Timothy 2, Paul is honing-in on Timothy’s call to sacrificing the comforts of this world for the sake of spreading the Gospel and shoring up believers in solid truth found only in Scripture. Paul repeatedly emphasizes on sticking to foundational truths and not getting distracted in divisive arguments.
He encourages believers to lean on the Lord, “for the Lord knows those who are his”. A converted heart desires to be used for honorable use and to be right before God. A cleansing, to some extent, will be taking place out of these new desires.
In his podcast, Bible teacher Stephen Armstrong, explains that the “great house” of verse 19 is the Lord’s house (ie: committed followers of Christ). The honorable vessels, being Christians cleansing themselves of impurities by studying Scripture to renew their minds/alter their thought patterns and act in ways honoring to the Lord.
This is important as, “opportunities for honorable works are for those that are prepared… those ready to serve are rewarded by opportunities to serve.” (2 Timothy 2:21) Paul summarizes this inner cleansing that comes by the power of the Holy Spirit, with instruction to “flee youthful passions” in contrast to “pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace.”
The Everyday Application
3) What is considered “youthful passions” that we are told to flee from?
Salvation is not through self-cleansing, but only in the cleansing blood covering of Christ. God gives the converted Christian a new “nature”; it takes work and discipline to learn to operate in a way that aligns with God’s teaching.
We are accustomed to what we have been exposed to in the world. When we start to follow Jesus, learning to sacrifice “what could be”, in order to choose to act in a righteous manner and have our priorities align with God’s can feel overwhelming, but we must remember that this good change happens through the power of the Holy Spirit within us, not by a work of ourselves.
In Paul’s charge for Timothy to be ready Scripturally to take on the task of being a leader in the physical church, he sums it up with, “flee youthful passions.” I have yet to find a commentary that gives many specific examples, but it is often thought of youthful passions being closely related to fleshly, worldly desires.
Are desires for things of this temporal life the driving force behind your day to day decisions? Or, is learning Scripture, holding unswervingly to truth, passing its teachings on to those around us, and building up God’s church what drives your even seemingly small or common decisions?
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