2 Timothy 2:14-26
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Intro: discourse analysis into new unit, Timothy as relates to the church.
Overview
1:1-2 — Introduction
1:3-2:13 — Personal Instructions to Timothy
2:14-3:9 — Instructions to Timothy for the Church
3:10-4:8 — Final Instructions to Timothy
4:9-22 — Conclusion
Today’s text divides into two sections, vv. 14-19 and vv. 20-26, although the two sections go together more like a grilled cheese sandwich than a lasagna. Both of the outsides, verses 14-17a and 22-26, are very, very similar in their relatively straightforward content, while verses 17b-21 are chock full of interesting bits that ought to be savored a little.
In that vein, we’re going to do something a little different than usual. Our preaching outline is going to deviate slightly from the structure of the text itself, where we’re going to look at both of the pieces of bread together and then conclude with the gooey middle.
So here’s the plan:
vv. 14-17a; 22-26: God’s Good and Gentle Gospel Guardians
vv. 17b-21: Solid, Special, Set Apart Servants
Main idea: God’s gospel workers are most useful when they diligently dedicate themselves to the truth of the gospel message and adorn that message with Christlike mindsets.
vv. 14-17a; 22-26: God’s Good and Gentle Gospel Guardians
2 Timothy 2:14–17 (CSB)
14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to fight about words. This is useless and leads to the ruin of those who listen. 15 Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth. 16 Avoid irreverent and empty speech, since those who engage in it will produce even more godlessness, 17a and their teaching will spread like gangrene.
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, because you know that they breed quarrels. 24 The Lord’s servant 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 trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
In these sections, there are a bunch of commands — both do’s and don’ts.
Do:
Remember the gospel of Jesus, God’s resurrected Messiah and what it means to suffer for that gospel (remind ‘them’)
Be diligent in presenting the gospel straightforwardly (correctly teaching the word of truth)
Avoid godless, empty speech
Flee youthful passions
Pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with others who are doing the same
Reject foolish, ignorant disputes
Be gentle, able to teach, patient, instructing opponents with gentleness
Don’t:
EVER fight about words (charge ‘them’ before God)
Quarrel/fight
And, just as we’ve seen time and time again in Paul’s letters to Timothy, we see that God’s servants are held to high standards in both character and competency.
Character-wise, they are to be precisely like their Master, Jesus, who is gentle and lowly at heart, who rejected the ‘youthful’ passions of impatience, taking the easy route, hotheadedness, and all those things that plague so many young people once they have a grasp of solid theology, who is the embodiment of God’s righteousness, who is the source of faith, love, and peace.
Competency-wise, it’s actually quite the same. Jesus was able to avoid godless, empty speech and reject foolish, ignorant disputes not only because he knew people’s hearts and their thoughts, but because he knew his mission and was single-mindedly focused on carrying it out. This is embodied perfectly in so many of the stories where a scribe or teacher of the law is trying to trap Jesus in his words, and he’s able to shut down the argument in such a way that nobody dares to ask him any more questions because they know they’re going to have to reckon with the fact that he is, in fact, God in the flesh — the God whom they claim to serve but whom they obviously do not know at all.
And these standards must be high. Look at what’s at stake. Many of these commands also have consequences.
Word fighting is useless and ruins not only the fighters, but also the audience
God’s approved workers get to stand before God without shame
Those who engage in godless, empty speech literally ‘advance in godlessness’ as opposed to advancing in maturity in Christ
Godless teaching (literally, ‘their word’) spreads like a flesh-eating disease
Foolish, ignorant (literally, un-instructed) disputes ‘breed’ quarrels
Gentle, patient instruction may lead to opponents’ repentance, restoration, and freedom from slavery to the devil
Now, I know I don’t need to tell you this because you already know this, but that didn’t stop Paul from telling Timothy to reject disputes when he already knew they bred fights, so I’m going to tell you anyway.
Words matter.
Theology matters.
Hermeneutics matters.
These things are, quite literally, a matter of life and death on an eternal scale.
But words, theology, and hermeneutics alone aren’t enough.
If correct words aren’t tied to correct mindsets, a couple things might be going on.
First, those words may not actually be correct. We saw in 1 Timothy that the church of God is a pillar and buttress of the truth, that God’s people prove the power of God’s gospel by the lives that they live. The proof is in the pudding. Specifically, the fruit pudding. Correct words ought to bear the right sort of fruit.
Second, the words may, in fact, be correct, but nobody’s going to listen unless those words are spoken in the right way.
Sure, there are a few masochists out there willing to have their toes stepped on by some guy yelling at them for not being good enough so they can eventually feel self-righteous when they do measure up, but the reality for most people is that they’re simply going to ignore anybody who’s obviously not willing to meet them where they are.
I mean, most people in our culture are going to ignore anybody who doesn’t agree with them anyways, but for the rare few who are willing to at least listen, they’re only going to dialogue people they disagree with if that dialogue happens peacefully and it’s obvious that the person they’re talking to genuinely cares about them.
To put it bluntly, if you’re the type of person who is only able to “tell it like it is”, the only people who are ever going to put up with you are the people who already agree with you, and they’re only going to do it because you’re on the same team, not because they actually like you unless you’re in some sort of weird echo chamber full of people who enjoy being abrasive.
Think of it this way — are you the type of person people are willing to suffer alongside of because of your comforting, encouraging presence, or are you the type of person more likely to be a source of suffering and discouragement because you misuse the right words?
So how do we put all this together? How do we simultaneously avoid and reject godless, empty chatter while gently and patiently instructing those who do want to engage in that sort of chatter?
Well, this obviously takes wisdom. Sometimes, you have to call a spade a spade and recognize that the person you’re talking to is a slave of the devil with no real hope of escape right now because they’re literally hell-bent on talking about anything other than what it means to follow Jesus.
Sometimes, you may just be engaging with someone who is foolish and ignorant, but not really trying to dispute. You have to realize that, if you are someone who handles God’s word well, it’s taken you a long time, and the convictions and knowledge you have today have likely been gained over years and decades of training, meditation, and life experience. You may just need to spend a lot of time, patiently and gently teaching that sort of person how to ask good questions, so that they might become competent and unashamed, like you are today.
Then, instead of useless, false words eating people alive as they advance in godlessness, you may help the people around you, and anybody watching, become useful, so that the true, healthy teaching of the gospel goes forth — that is, if God wills it. That ‘perhaps’ is both a pesky word and a great segue into the central part of our grilled cheese sandwich, verses 17b-21.
vv. 14-17a; 22-26: God’s Good and Gentle Gospel Guardians
vv. 17b-21: Solid, Special, Set Apart Servants
2 Timothy 2:17–21 (CSB)
17b Hymenaeus and Philetus are among them. 18 They have departed from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and are ruining the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, bearing this inscription: The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who calls on the name of the Lord turn away from wickedness. 20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also those of wood and clay; some for honorable use and 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.
Isn’t it always nice when you can take something abstract like “fighting about words”, “godless, empty speech”, and “godlessness” and point to something concrete, like “hey, those guys over there, especially that one guy who I already excommunicated in the last letter but whom the Ephesians let stick around anyway”?
Yes, this is the same Hymenaeus of 1 Timothy 1:18-20 fame.
18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the good fight, 19 having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and have shipwrecked their faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.
As an aside, this is a perfect example of why practicing regenerate church membership and church discipline are good, healthy, and necessary. If only Mark Dever were around in 1st century Ephesus.
But in all seriousness, now we do have a little more insight into the mysterious Ephesian heresy that included myths and endless genealogies — now there’s an assertion that ‘the resurrection’ has already taken place.
2 Timothy 2:17–21 (CSB)
17b Hymenaeus and Philetus are among them. 18 They have departed from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and are ruining the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, bearing this inscription: The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who calls on the name of the Lord turn away from wickedness. 20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also those of wood and clay; some for honorable use and 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.
Now, the best interpretation of this false teaching seems to be that Hymenaeus and Philetus were basically teaching an old form of the prosperity gospel. Where Paul taught that believers were spiritually resurrected by faith in Christ, what we call regeneration, and received all the benefits of being united with Christ by faith, these guys took it a step further and were teaching that all of the benefits of physical resurrection were now available, so that those who have faith in Christ would no longer get sick or die, and their lives would be characterized by blessing and prosperity rather than by suffering — so that if you were sick, dying, or poor, or anything less than happy and shiny, your faith in Christ probably wasn’t genuine — so it’s no wonder that their teaching was ruining some people’s faith.
Just like in the Corinthian church and in so many churches today, successful, these slick-talking “teachers” had a successful lifestyle that apparently enough people wanted for them to still have a platform, and their teaching was just close enough to the truth to deeply hurt some of the most vulnerable sheep.
Now, in light of that fact, we might expect Paul to simply lose his mind in righteous anger — why didn’t the Ephesian church just listen to him and kick those jokers out and follow Paul, who has literally been thrown in jail for the sake of God’s people?
But that’s not what he does. In verse 19, he recalls one of the most vivid stories in the Old Testament of someone rising up against God’s servant and very nearly destroying God’s entire project, and he does so in a way that allows Paul to put his head on the pillow, or probably the pillow-shaped rock, at night and rest, knowing that Hymenaeus and Philetus will never be able to pluck even one of Jesus’s sheep out of his hand, no matter how hard they try.
You may see in verse 19 a footnote or cross-reference to Numbers 16:5 (which is now on the screen)
5 Then he said to Korah and all his followers, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will reveal who belongs to him, who is set apart, and the one he will let come near him. He will let the one he chooses come near him.
Now, it might not immediately be clear why the editors of your Bible put this reference in there, but Paul is actually quoting the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, and most modern English translations use a version of the Hebrew text. The Septuagint says instead of “the LORD will reveal who belong to him”, “God knows those who are his, who are set apart.”
And the second part of this inscription could be from a couple of other places, but I want to point out that later on in this very same story, Moses expressly warns the people to get away from the “wicked” men, lest they be swept away in God’s inescapable wrath.
26 He warned the community, “Get away now from the tents of these wicked men. Don’t touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.” 27 So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Meanwhile, Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrance of their tents with their wives, children, and infants.
The effect of this quotation is twofold: first, it grounds Paul’s, Timothy’s, your, and my, mission, in the fact that if God has chosen to save someone, there is nothing that can change that. Notice in this section: God knows who belong to him. God chooses who gets to come near him. Last week, we saw that Paul endures everything for the sake of those whom God has chosen. That’s why Paul is able to say ‘perhaps’ God will grant repentance — because there is no amount of correct teaching, no level of gentleness or patience, no amount of right, Christlike living, that will guarantee someone else’s salvation.
From start to finish, salvation is up to God himself, and if we miss that point, we are basing our lives and our work on a sandy, shifting foundation that will only be swept away when the suffering gets bad enough or we don’t see the fruit we’d like to see when it seems like we’re doing everything right, or at least nobody has gently corrected us otherwise.
The second effect is that it drives home the stakes of getting tangled up with people like Hymenaeus and Philetus or any of their modern-day counterparts. They don’t fight fair, so it’s a losing battle no matter what — it’s best to just get away from their tents before God destroys them so fantastically and overwhelmingly that you get caught in the blast zone and yourself suffer damage. This is a train wreck best watched from a distance. Brush the dust off your clothes and seek more fertile fields in which to sow seed.
Now, moving on from this quotation, Paul gets metaphorical.
20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
In addition to turning away from the wickedness of others, God’s people should turn away from their own wickedness, cleansing their lives from the old sinful ways that remain even though they belong to the person who has been crucified with Christ and not the person who has been raised to walk in a new life.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a metaphor we can press as far as, perhaps, the soldier, athlete, and farmer metaphors, so we shouldn’t look so much for correspondences to reality as we should for the ethical, or lifestyle, motivation.
For example, we know what the armor and weapons of a soldier of Christ are (see, interestingly enough, Ephesians 6:10-20), and we know the rules the athlete must follow, as well as the seed that the farmer must sow.
On the other hand, it would be a mistake for us to just equate the “large house” directly with the church, the household of God, and then try to figure out who’s made of gold, who’s made of silver, and who’s the chamber pot who’s going to be dumped out in the street because underground plumbing and wastewater treatment hadn’t been invented in Paul’s time.
After all, Paul teaches in a much clearer metaphor in 2 Cor 4:7
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
The point isn’t so much the vessel itself as it is what goes into the vessel.
20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
Just as Moses was set apart as holy for God’s work in his day, and Paul and Timothy were set apart in their day, we are invited into the same usefulness for our master — and not just on an individual basis, but on a corporate basis.
Look back at verse 19.
19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, bearing this inscription: The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who calls on the name of the Lord turn away from wickedness.
and put it with verse 22.
22 Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Although Paul says “anybody who cleanses himself from what is dishonorable”, isn’t it obvious that we’re all to get clean in the same water?
We who call on the Lord, would be foolish to try to do this on our own, lest we end up reflecting Proverbs 30:12
Proverbs 30:12 (TCT)
12 Some people view themselves as clean, but they’ve completely forgotten to wipe.
So, brothers and sisters, if we want to see God grant people repentance leading them to knowledge of the truth, this is something that starts at home — and it starts up here, in the pulpit. Please, if you think Caleb, Hayden, or I will be ashamed when we stand before God because we’ve failed to teach the gospel clearly, gently, and patiently, let us know so we can be diligent to put in whatever work we need to.
And let’s all ask ourselves — what flows out of our vessels most readily? Do we delight to speak of Jesus in a way that is gentle and patient, even with those people who are most annoying to us? If something else comes out of our mouths first, it’s most likely that’s what our hearts are full of, and we must ask the Lord to do the necessary work in our hearts so we might be clean and ready to be full of Jesus instead.
Are we the sorts of people who, when people listen to us, their lives are healthier as a result, or do those around us tend to be worse off when they follow our advice? Or do those around us tend not to follow our advice because it’s bad advice and they’re too polite to tell us?
Finally, let’s remember Jesus, the resurrected Messiah, and what awaits us. The master of this house is only tarrying to return until his work here on earth, in the church, is complete, until he has saved everyone he intends to save, at which point he will return to judge the living and the dead, and will give his people imperishable, glorious bodies that do not faint or grow weary, that do not need to be cleansed of any dishonor because they are clothed with glory and splendor beyond earthly comprehension.
Our gentle, patient Shepherd will one day return with a sword in his hand and will swallow up that great enemy, Death, and all who have been enslaved by the devil to do his will, so that the diligence currently required of us will be remembered as nothing more than a light, momentary affliction which served to acquaint us with the eternal weight of glory we will all bear as we reign with Christ if we endure to the end.
