2 Timothy 2.13-If the Christian is Unfaithful, Jesus Christ Remains Faithful Because He is Never Untrue to Himself
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday April 30, 2015
Second Timothy: Second Timothy 2:13-If the Christian is Unfaithful, Jesus Christ Remains Faithful Because He is Never Untrue to Himself
Lesson # 40
2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. (NASB95
The apostle Paul employs the figure of asyndeton because he wants Timothy and the Ephesian Christian community and all Christians to be assured and confident that the Lord would never disown them for unfaithfulness.
“If we are faithless” is composed of the following: (1) conditional particle ei (εἰ), “if” (2) first person plural present active indicative form of the verb apisteō (ἀπιστέω), “we are faithless.”
The conditional particle ei introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
The idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that, then...”
Here the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument that we are unfaithful” and the apodosis is “He remains faithful.”
The verb apisteō means “unfaithful” and is used in relation to the Christian and thus speaks of the unfaithfulness of the Christian which is manifested by a lack of faith in the gospel, i.e. the Word of God which in turn results in disobedience to the gospel.
The first person plural form of this verb apisteō is a reference to all Christians without exception.
The first person plural could be taken as a reference to just Paul and Timothy but this epistle is not only directed at Timothy but also the entire Christian community in Ephesus and throughout the Roman Empire.
The first person plural should be taken as being used in a distributive sense meaning if “any of us” is unfaithful, Jesus Christ remains faithful to us.
The present tense of the verb apisteō is a customary present or stative present used to signal an ongoing state which would indicate the Christian existing in a state of unfaithfulness in life or after completing their lives on earth.
“He remains faithful” is composed of the following: (1) nominative masculine singular form of the demonstrative pronoun ekeinos (ἐκεῖνος), “He” (2) nominative masculine singular form of the adjective pistos (πιστός), “faithful” (3) third person singular present active indicative form of the verb menō (μένω), “remains.”
The demonstrative pronoun ekeinos means “He” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ who is not referred to explicitly but only implicitly in this hymn in Second Timothy 2:11-13.
The verb menō means “to remain” in the sense of continuing in a particular state and expresses the idea of the Lord Jesus Christ “remaining faithful” to the Christian despite their unfaithfulness to Him in the sense that He continues in a state of being faithful to the Christian despite their unfaithfulness.
The adjective pistos means “faithful” and refers to the exercise of the Lord Jesus Christ’s divine attribute of faithfulness to the Christian.
“For He cannot deny Himself” presents the reason for Paul’s previous assertion that the Lord Jesus Christ continues to remain faithful to the Christian even if the Christian is unfaithful to Him.
It is composed of the following: (1) aorist middle infinitive form of the verb arneomai (ἀρνέομαι), “He deny” (2) accusative third person masculine singular form of the reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυτοῦ) “Himself” (3) emphatic negative adverb ou (οὔ), “not” (4) third person singular present middle indicative form of the verb dunamai (δύναμαι), “can.”
The verb dunamai means, “to have the capacity, to be able to do something” and its meaning is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative adverb ou.
Together they emphatically negate the idea that the Lord Jesus Christ could ever deny Himself or be untrue to Himself or be inconsistent with His perfect standards.
The present tense of the verb dunamai is a “gnomic” present used to make a statement of a general, timeless fact indicating that the Lord Jesus Christ can absolutely never “as an eternal spiritual truth” deny Himself.
The verb arneomai means “to be untrue to oneself” since it pertains to behaving or conducting oneself in a manner which is untrue to oneself or untrue to the principles or standards one lives by.
Here it is used of course of the Lord Jesus Christ conducting Himself in a manner toward the unfaithful Christian which is untrue to Himself and specifically untrue to the principles or standards He lives by.
Second Timothy 2:13 If and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that any of us is unfaithful, He continues to remain faithful because He is, as an eternal spiritual truth never able to be untrue to Himself. (Author’s translation)
The apostle Paul is emphatically reassuring Timothy and the Ephesian Christian community and all Christians that the Lord Jesus Christ would never disown them for unfaithfulness.
Here he is reassuring his readers that they have eternal security if they become unfaithful.
In the protasis, he speaks of the Christian being unfaithful which is manifested by a lack of faith in the gospel, i.e. the Word of God which in turn results in disobedience to the gospel.
It also speaks of the Christian failing to fulfill their responsibilities to the Lord which is manifested by unbelief in His Word which results in disobedience to His Word.
Consequently as a result of their lack of faith and obedience to the Word of God they fail to fulfill their responsibilities to God to love Him with their entire being.
Also, they fail to fulfill their responsibility to their fellow human being to love their fellow human being as themselves.
In relation to their fellow Christian, their unbelief in the Word of God and resultant disobedience to it results in their failing to fulfill their responsibility to love their fellow Christian as Christ loves them.
This unbelief and disobedience also results in the Christian failing to be a good steward with their time, talent, treasure and truth which were given to them by the Lord as trusts in serving Him.
In the apodosis, the apostle Paul teaches that despite their unfaithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ, He continues in a state of being faithful which refers to the exercise of the Lord Jesus Christ’s divine attribute of faithfulness to the Christian.
Paul is teaching that the Lord Jesus Christ continues to remain faithful to the Christian despite the Christian’s unfaithfulness to Him because He is true to His promise in His Word to forgive the sins of those who express faith in Him.
He is steady in allegiance to His promise of the forgiveness of sins.
Faithfulness is one of the attributes of God as related to moral beings (Deut. 7:9; 32:4; Lam. 3:23; Isa. 49:7; Hos. 11:12; Ps. 25:10; 33:4; 89:1-8; 91:4; 96:13; 98:3; 100:5; 119:75; 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 2 Cor. 1:18; 1 Thess. 5:23; 2 Thess. 3:3; 1 2 Tim. 2:13; Jn. 1:9; Heb. 10:23; 1 Pet. 4:19; Rev. 19:11).
What does Paul in Second Timothy 2:13 mean when he states that the Lord Jesus Christ remains faithful to the Christian despite the Christian being unfaithful to Him or in other words, to what is the Lord faithful?
The answer is that the Lord is faithful to His promise to save us through faith in Him (John 3:16-18, 36; 6:29; 7:37-38; 11:25-26; cf. 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 1:18-20; 1 Thess. 4:23-24; 2 Thess. 3:3; Heb. 10:23; 1 Pet. 4:19).
He is also faithful to His promises found in the Old Testament, which speak of the forgiveness of sins and which promise is of course rooted in the Old Testament (Is. 43:25; 53:11; Ps. 103:12-13; Ezek. 36:24-26; Jer. 31:34; Mic. 7:18-20).
The Lord is faithful to His promises in the Old Testament to forgive sins and this is what Paul is referring to here in Second Timothy 2:13.
Some argue that Paul is saying here in Second Timothy 2:13 that if a Christian is unfaithful, the Lord remains faithful to His promise to punish them.
However, Paul always speaks of God’s faithfulness in the context of salvation and never punishment.
Some argue that here in Second Timothy 2:13 that Paul is speaking of the Lord remaining faithful to His promise to punish for unfaithfulness because he teaches in Second Timothy 2:12 that if the Christian denies Christ, Christ will deny the Christian.
However, Paul is speaking in the context of rewards in verse 12 since he mentions in the first statement in verse 12 that if the Christian is faithful they will be rewarded.
Thus, the second statement in verse 12 is stating that if the Christian refuses to follow the Lord, the Lord will refuse to reward them.
The Lord will discipline the Christian for unfaithfulness and if they don’t repent, they will lose rewards at the Bema Seat (1 Cor. 3:11-15).
The Christian was not saved based upon their own merits but rather on the merits of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross.
Thus, it is impossible for the Lord to disown the Christian for their unfaithfulness and thus cause them to lose their salvation since they were not saved on their own merits in the first place.
So Paul’s reassurance in Second Timothy 2:13 that the Lord will remain faithful to the Christian even if they are unfaithful to Him is significant since there was great apostasy in the church in Asia as evidenced by the fact that the majority of Christians in this province had abandoned Paul upon his arrest and imprisonment.
First Timothy makes clear that there was great apostasy among pastors in Ephesus.
So Paul is teaching that despite the apostasy in the church, the Lord will remain faithful to His promises to save and forgive them because He always keeps His promises.