2 Timothy 3:16

2 Timothy 3:10-17

It is not unusual to compare yourself to your parents. In my case I was constantly looking at where I was and where my Dad was at my same age. For instance, my dad bought his first house at (22), I bought my first house at (26). My dad became a Manager at (42) and Director in a Fortune 500 company at the age of by the age of (57), I flamed out of the business world having never proceeded past Manager, achieved at the ripe age of (47). The one that amazed me the most was that my Dad married my mom at (19). I got married at (39). My dad had three kids by the age of (24), my second and last was born when I was (45)! When I was nineteen I still wanted to be a rock star and worked in a Pizza Hut. By the time I was (24), while I was in the Marines, I still had barely an idea of what life was about.

When I look at Timothy, I can’t imagine what it would have been like to have been thrown into the evangelical fire and being at risk of persecution, violence, even to the point of death. As a side note, the Israelite society was a patriarchal society, with reverence being projected to the older men. These were the heads of families, clans, villages, synagogues, as well as teachers and leaders in government. They lived and experienced life and passed this knowledge on to younger men who deferred to their judgement. The path for males in the family was quite different from today and distinctly planned out. Young boys started schooling with village elders from the age of three, learning to read and write by the age of five. At six, they started learning math, science and are introduced to the Torah, learning Leviticus.

By ten they are given over to a professional teacher in the village and they learn the Oral Torah and Tanakh, as well as law, astronomy, more math and science, all the while learning their father’s trade. For those that showed promise, typically by the age of twelve, they were moved to larger cities to learn at the hands of Pharisees in the temple. The next year, they typically join the ranks of adult men, undergoing the Bar Mitzvah ritual. They are also betrothed, and later married, all by the age of twenty. But still, they are usually ignored in matters of importance due to their inexperience and youth. This continues until around the age of thirty, when they are considered to have enough life behind them to join the ranks of the leaders of their village.

Now imagine being a twenty-something sent to a church to smooth out problems that one of the most definitive and vibrant church leaders have determined put the church on the wrong trajectory. This person would have little to no credibility, especially since they had only been a believer for a few years. This person would be viewed as nothing more than a young, disrespectful upstart and told to sit in a corner and be quiet. This is what Timothy may have been dealing with when he was sent to clean up new and established churches in Asia Minor. It would require a mountain of courage and confidence to pull this off.

The Bible doesn’t say how young he actually was, probably in his mid-twenties, but what is fascinating is the responsibility he carried at such a ‘young’ age. He was dispatched by Paul to Thessalonica to shore up the spiritual health of the church there, in an act of encouragement to them during a period of persecution. Timothy reported back to Paul that everything was fine in 1 Thess 3:2. At the same time it doesn’t show anywhere what Timothy’s thoughts were about the task that he faced, but Paul nevertheless continued to exhort him and continue to mentor him from his prison in Rome, a pretty hard-core Pauline action if there ever was one. This is the purpose of 2 Timothy.

The section for discussion today is 2 Tim 3:10-17. This breaks down neatly into three subsections. The first is verses 10 through 12.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

One of the things that amazes me is the amount of punishment Paul took at the hands of those who wished to do away with him, almost from the moment he was knocked off his donkey on the way to Damascus. Here he lists the variety of abuses he suffered all the while enduring with the name of Christ Jesus virtually at his lips. To sum up what he endured, from the time of his first encounter with Jesus to his death, can be found in 2 Cor 11:24-28 -

English Standard Version Chapter 11

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

Crimineys! For those of us of age, he was the ultimate Timex timepiece - he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. For those of you who are under the age of forty, it would be the Energizer Bunny - he keeps going and going and going.

This to me was one of the greatest evidences of the existence of Jesus and the veracity of his resurrection story. Who in their right mind would undergo this type of shellacking and still praise God, acknowledging that the Lord got him through all of this? The interesting thing is this is not meant to scare Timothy with a list of possible ways he can get beat up, but a reminder and testimony to God’s faithfulness. Timothy was a witness to some of these abuses, so this possibility is not new to him, but Paul is encouraging Timothy that the Lord God will be there with him always, as promised. This is also a reminder that those of us who are believers that we must expect difficulties brought upon us because we are believers.

Next in verses 14 and 15 is his exhortation to Timothy and Paul’s reminding him of where he came from and who he was.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus

Paul reminds Timothy that he is on the right path and to continue on that path. He was initially taught by his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice and this foundation stood him well with the teachings that came from Paul as noted in the first two chapters of 2 Timothy. Paul tells him that this foundation will serve him well while he is dealing with the doctrine of false prophets and false teachers. Referring back to 1 Tim 6:11, Paul states,” But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” His task at hand is to keep the members of his flock safe and secure in the doctrine of salvation through Christ Jesus while living in amongst these wolves.

But adhering to Scripture as a foundation of knowledge will also aid US in so many ways as well. It is good for qualifying believers for leadership, living according to our faith, training children in God’s way and honoring our parents who taught us and raised us according to Scripture. Earlier, Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:4 -

English Standard Version Chapter 6

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Also in Proverbs 22:6 it states

English Standard Version Chapter 22

Train up a child in the way he should go;

even when he is old he will not depart from it.

The last section for this passage is verses 16 and 17.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

When I started at Southeastern, one of the first things I learned about Scripture is that there were four options for how it was developed and recorded:

1 - God did it by using the writer as his scribe, perhaps putting him into a trance, but nevertheless feeding the message to the scribe who wrote it down word for word

2 - The author wrote it by himself with a little input from God

3 - The author wrote it entirely through his own thoughts

4 - God inspired the author who wrote down the words the God drew him towards. Sometimes referred to as dual-authorship of Scripture.

Obviously Paul is referring to the last option. God inspired all of these men who wrote these 66 books guiding them to write his message. Because it is the Word of God, it is divine and pure in its own right so by that authority it should be good for any use. Paul in this case points to four circumstances where the Holy Word is good in guiding others and keeping them on track with the right doctrine. After all this is the Word of God, so what else should we be focused on?

Alaistair Begg stated, ‘If the preacher loses confidence and faith in the power and truth and sufficiency of the Bible, then his ministry is essentially over.’

Augustine in one of his sermons said, ‘The Scriptures are holy, they are truthful, they are blameless. So we have no grounds at all for blaming Scripture if we happen to deviate in any way because we haven’t understood it. When we do understand it we are right. But when we are wrong because we haven’t understood it, we leave it in the right. When we have gone wrong, we don’t make out Scripture to be wrong, but it continues to stand up straight and right so that we may return to it for correction.’

A lot of the time, I find myself shaking my head when seeing how mankind is behaving. It is really laughable that with so many people running around proclaiming ‘we just have to love more’ or ‘love fixes all things’ or whatever, and then I see the protests over the latest cause celebre turning into a block burning party, I am beside myself, along with all the rest of you. Looking institutions that disallow the Decalogue from being posted or published in any form, you have some absolutely priceless guidance about living and treating others. Its almost like these protesters don’t really want people to treat each other with love and respect.

Recently one of my kids came to me and told me that she was tired of hearing about all of the anger and protesting and whether she should stop looking at social media. Who here can say that they don’t get burned out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or whatever? Seeing the same secular messages will breed nothing but anger, confusion, and depression because it is mankind-inspired. Put your phone down and pick up the perennial best seller (if you are afraid of having a panic attack from putting your phone down, I guess you could open a Bible app). In it you will find peace of mind, love for others and understanding of what is important.

The Bible - its good for what ails you...