2 Timothy 3.5b-Paul Commands Timothy to Continue to Disassociate Himself From Unrepentant Apostate Christians
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday July 7, 2015
Second Timothy: Second Timothy 3:5b-Paul Commands Timothy to Continue to Disassociate Himself From Unrepentant Apostate Christians
Lesson # 67
2 Timothy 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (NASB95)
“Avoid such men as these” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction kai (καί), which is not translated (2) accusative masculine plural form of the immediate demonstrative pronoun houtos (οὗτος), “such men as these” (3) second person singular present middle imperative form of the verb apotrepomai (ἀποτρέπομαι), “avoid.”
The conjunction kai is a marker of result meaning it is presenting the result or the consequence of Paul’s previous statements in Second Timothy 3:2-5.
The verb apotrepomai means “to avoid, to disassociate oneself from” since it pertains to keeping away from someone or no longer maintaining an association with a person.
Therefore, here in Second Timothy 3:5, the verb apotrepomai indicates that the apostle Paul is ordering Timothy “to disassociate himself from” the people he describes in Second Timothy 3:1-4.
These people are unrepentant apostate Christians living in the last days which occurs between the First and Second Advents of Jesus Christ and the church age occurs during this period.
Paul would never command Timothy to avoid the non-Christian but only the unrepentant apostate Christian which is indicated by his teaching in First Corinthians 5:9-12.
These Christians are unrepentant since Paul would never command Timothy to avoid a Christian in apostasy unless they were unrepentant.
Timothy was to follow the procedure taught by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 18:15-17 for administering church discipline.
The present imperative form of the verb apotrepomai is a customary present imperative whose force is for Timothy to simply continue making it his habit of disassociate himself from these unrepentant apostate Christians.
The middle voice of the verb apotrepomai is an indirect middle which indicates that Timothy was for his own benefit spiritually avoid these unrepentant apostate Christians living in the Roman province of Asia.
The middle voice is also a direct middle which would that Timothy was to disassociate himself from unrepentant apostate Christians in the Roman province of Asia.
The accusative masculine plural form of the immediate demonstrative pronoun houtos means “these people, people like these, such people” since it points back to the people described by Paul in Second Timothy 3:2-5 who are unrepentant apostate Christians living during the last days in the church age.
Second Timothy 3:1 Indeed continue making it your habit of taking note of this, namely that dangerous circumstances interacting will exist during the last days. 2 For out of selfishness, people will be characterized as self-centered, lovers of money, braggarts, arrogant, slanderous, disobedient to the detriment of their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 devoid of natural affection, implacable, malicious gossips, self-indulgent, brutal, opposed to what is good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, hedonists rather than lovers of God. 5 They exhibit that which resembles godliness. However, they reject for themselves its power. Consequently, for your own benefit, continue making it your habit of disassociating yourself from these types of people. (Author’s translation)
Our study of Second Timothy 3:5 ends with a command which is the direct result of Paul’s previous statements in verses 2-5 which remind Timothy that during the last days, there will Christians characterized by ungodly behavior who will be unrepentant apostate Christians.
Therefore as a result of their being Christians who are characterized by ungodly behavior, Timothy was to continue making it his habit of disassociating himself from these unrepentant apostate Christians living in the Roman province of Asia.
Timothy was to disassociate himself from these unrepentant apostate Christians in the sense that he was to end his association with these Christians.
He was to deliberately avoid any association with them.
As we noted, these people are unrepentant apostate Christians living in the last days which occurs between the First and Second Advents of Jesus Christ and the church age occurs during this period.
Paul would never command Timothy to avoid the non-Christian but only the unrepentant apostate Christian which is indicated by his teaching in First Corinthians 5:9-12.
These Christians are unrepentant since Paul would never command Timothy to avoid a Christian in apostasy unless they were unrepentant.
Timothy was to follow the procedure taught by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 18:15-17 for administering church discipline.
This procedure involved three steps.
If after the third step they were still unrepentant, then the church was to avoid these Christians and not have fellowship with them until they did repent.
So Paul is commanding Timothy to avoid these unrepentant apostate Christians who reside in the Roman province of Asia and Ephesus where Timothy was stationed.
He was to avoid them in the sense that he was to have no fellowship with these individuals until they repented which would involve the confession of sin not only to the Father but also to Timothy and the faithful Christian community (cf. James 5:16).
After the confession of sin it would of course involve obedience to Paul’s apostolic teaching.
Therefore, the command in Second Timothy 3:5 speaks of the practice of administering church discipline and in specifically the final stage of church discipline which is taught by the Lord in Matthew 18:17.
So here at the end of Second Timothy 3:5, this command brings up one of the most controversial subjects in Christianity today, namely that of administering church discipline.
Too often, it has not been practiced in many churches which has resulted in disastrous consequences in the sense that it has destroyed the testimony of these churches before the world.
Unfortunately, many churches describe their legalistic bullying of other Christians, who did not fit their non-Biblical requirements for a Christian, as church discipline.
This too has produced disastrous consequences resulting in damaged souls who have been abused by these hypocritical, self-righteous people.
Because of this abuse, many churches don’t even attempt to practice it.
Church discipline is based upon God’s holiness and is patterned after God’s discipline of the church.
Failure to administer church discipline when it is called for demonstrates a church’s lack of awareness or concern for God’s holiness.
Church discipline is taught in Matthew 18:15-18, Romans 16:17-18; 1 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 2:6-11; Galatians 6:1-3; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-16; 2 Timothy 2:23-26; Titus 3:10; 2 John 9-11.
The purpose of church discipline is always restoration and not revenge.
The purpose of this discipline is to deliver the offender from sinful patterns of behavior and not to drive him or her away from the fellowship of the church.
The church’s attitude is to be one of love and gentleness (Galatians 6:1-3).
Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” (NASB95)
The Lord teaches in this passage that church discipline begins with a private confrontation.
The believer who is habitually sinning or possesses a sinful lifestyle must first be confronted privately as taught by the Lord in Matthew 18:15.
The second stage would involve confronting the disobedient Christian with two or three witnesses which is taught by the Lord in Matthew 18:16.
The third stage of church discipline as taught by the Lord in Matthew 18:17 would require that the entire church rebuke the Christian.
If they failed to repent after the third stage, there was to be no further warnings but instead they were to be removed from the fellowship of the church by the entire church until they repented.
2 Thessalonians 3:14 and 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 along with Matthew 18:17 indicate that the church is to exercise group disapproval by way of social ostracism (refusal to have intimate fellowship).
The church is to remove the offender from the church fellowship, which must be approved of and done by the entire congregation (2 Cor. 2:6) and this is the fourth and final stage of church discipline.
The fear of being publicly rebuked for a sinful lifestyle would deter the rest of the church from practicing a sinful lifestyle and it would teach the congregation the shamefulness and seriousness of sin and its consequences.
The Lord is exercising this discipline through the church’s actions.
This rejection of an unrepentant Christian after a second and third warning is for the benefit of the entire Christian community.
