2 Timothy 2.22a-Paul Commands Timothy to Continue Avoiding Youthful Lusts
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 3, 2015
Second Timothy: Second Timothy 2:22a-Paul Commands Timothy to Continue Avoiding Youthful Lusts
Lesson # 54
2 Timothy 2:22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. (NASB95)
“Now” is the conjunction de (δέ), which is introducing a statement which marks a transition from the household metaphor contained in verses 20-21 to the two commands which Paul issues Timothy here in verse 22.
“Flee” is the second person singular present active imperative form of the verb pheugō (φεύγω), which means “to avoid” youthful lusts.
The present imperative form of the verb pheugō is a “customary present imperative” whose force is for Timothy to simply continue making it his habit of avoiding youthful lusts.
“From youthful lusts” is composed of the following: (1) accusative feminine plural form of the adjective neōterikos (νεωτερικός), “youthful” (2) articular accusative feminine plural form of the noun epithumia (ἐπιθυμία), “lusts.”
The noun epithumia refers to the various lust patterns of the sin nature.
The word is modified by the adjective neōterikos which means “youthful” since it pertains to youth or in other words, it pertains to the period of time in which one is an adolescent and thus speaks of what is natural to an adolescent.
Second Timothy 2:22 Now you continue making it your habit of avoiding youthful lusts. Instead continue making it your habit of zealously practicing so as to exemplify divine-righteousness, Christian doctrine, divine-love, peace along with those who make it their habit of calling upon the Lord from a pure heart. (My translation)
Verse 22 marks a transition from Paul’s household metaphor contained in verses 20-21 to two commands which he issues Timothy in this verse.
However, the two commands in verse 22 are very much connected to this household metaphor which was designed to reinforce Paul’s command in verse 19 which required that those who confess the Lord’s name, i.e. the Christian must make it their top priority of abstaining from unrighteousness.
The metaphor along with this command in verse 19 were designed to encourage Timothy to continue rejecting the false doctrine taught by the apostate pastors in Ephesus.
They were designed to protect Timothy from the temptation of following the majority in the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia who were in apostasy.
The household metaphor in verses 21-22 makes clear to Timothy and the Ephesian Christian community that they must be obedient to the gospel if they were to be a vessel of honor who serves the Lord faithfully.
Now, here in verse 22 the first command requires Timothy to continue making it his habit of avoiding youthful lusts.
If he obeys this command he will remain a vessel of honor who causes himself to be sanctified, and useful for the Master.
He will also cause himself to be prepared to perform every kind of action which is divine good in quality and character.
The command requires Timothy to continue making it his habit of zealously practicing so as to exemplify righteousness, Christian doctrine, divine-love, peace along with those other Christians who make it their habit of calling upon the Lord from a pure heart.
If he obeys this command he will continue to remain a vessel of honor who causes himself to be sanctified, and useful for the Master.
He will also cause himself to be prepared to perform every kind of action which is divine good in quality and character.
When Paul orders Timothy to continue making it his habit of avoiding youthful lusts, he means that those sins which are commonly found in younger men.
These “youthful lusts” speak of those lust patterns of the sin nature which are commonly manifested in adolescent males.
Therefore, they refer to such sins as sexual lust, approbation lust, social lust, inordinate ambition resulting in inordinate competition, revenge lust, criminal lust, chemical lust, and pleasure lust.
At the heart of such lusts is the desire to live independently of the will of God, which is the essence of evil.
This first command implies that Timothy was still a young man in his thirties or late thirties.
Timothy must avoid these lusts because of their danger to his fellowship with God and his testimony before the Christian community and non-Christian community.
First of all, by practicing these youthful lusts it would cause him to lose fellowship with God.
Secondly, it would hurt his ministry in that it would discredit his ministry and thus hurt his testimony of his ministry in the non-Christian community.
It would also hurt his credibility in the Christian community.
Timothy is to fulfill this first command by appropriating by faith his union and identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
He is to do this by considering himself dead to the sin nature and alive to God (cf. Romans 6).
This first command does not imply that Timothy was not already obeying this first command and that Paul wanted him to begin again to do this since the context clearly implies the former was already doing this.
If you recall, in Second Timothy 1:5, the apostle Paul tells Timothy that he clung to the memory of his sincere faith.
In fact Paul says that he was convinced of this.
Now, some have argued that Paul’s statement in Second Timothy 1:6 indicates that Timothy had lost his enthusiasm in exercising his spiritual gift but there is nothing in Second Timothy which would indicate this taking place.
Rather, since the apostle in Second Timothy 1:5 acknowledges that Timothy possessed a sincere faith in his apostolic teaching and identified his background with Timothy’s in Second Timothy 1:3-5, it is clear that Timothy was not in apostasy or wavering.
So Paul’s statements in Second Timothy 1:6 do not imply that Timothy was no longer on fire for the Lord but rather it means he was to make his habit of exercising the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher which the Spirit bestowed upon him at the moment of his conversion.
Thus, instead of suppressing this gift Timothy was to exercise this gift with enthusiasm and zeal and thus to permit the Spirit’s power to work mightily through his ministry.
Paul wants to remind Timothy to exercise with the zeal or enthusiasm the spiritual gift that he received from God at the moment of his conversion.
Also some have argued that the mention of cowardice in Second Timothy 1:7 would seem to indicate that Timothy was acting like a coward.
However, again there is nothing which would indicate this in the immediate context or within the epistle itself.
Rather verse 5 affirms Timothy’s faithful to Paul’s apostolic teaching.
Therefore, Paul is simply reminding Timothy in verse 7 that the Holy Spirit permanently indwells him so as to give him the power, the love and discipline he will need to endure these things and remain faithful to his calling.
The apostle is again encouraging his young delegate, disciple and friend to persevere in his ministry by appropriating the ministry of the Spirit who is available to him because He indwells Timothy permanently.
So therefore, Paul is reminding Timothy in Second Timothy 1:7 that he has the capacity to continue exercising his spiritual gift with the enthusiasm despite persecution and various trials and tribulations because he possesses permanently the indwelling of the Spirit.
Timothy need not concern himself with trying to produce these attributes himself but rather when he obeys the Word of God, the Spirit who indwells him will produce the power, love and self-discipline he needs to remain faithful to his calling.
Thus, Paul exhorting Timothy to continue to depend upon the Spirit’s presence in his life.
He is to do this by continuing to obey the Spirit inspired commands and prohibitions in Paul’s apostolic teaching, which is the gospel.
Therefore, with this first command, the apostle Paul is not saying that Timothy was to begin to avoid youthful lusts but rather that he was to continue doing so.
The warnings that Paul issues Timothy throughout this epistle do not imply that Timothy was starting to fall away from the gospel or was no longer faithful but rather they were to protect him from falling into apostasy and unfaithfulness.
Lenski writes “Why should suspicion be cast on a man when he is urged to keep on in a course which flees evil and pursues good? Why may we not encourage a good man to keep on doing so without the reflection that he after all has a secret bent to go wrong? Paul is writing his last letter to Timothy. He is like an old father who is soon leaving his son forever. Shall he not be permitted to say: ‘Child, ever keep on as thou hast been doing until thou, too, art called away’? We also repeat that Paul would have been foolish to place and to leave a man in so responsible a position if he had fears about this man’s going wrong.”