Back to Timothy, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” (v1) Paul knew that Timothy would need encouragement and to be strong, but it wasn’t just physical strength he needed, but spiritual, in God’s grace. When God gives us the opportunity to serve, he gives us the ability, therefore we can rely on God’s strength. However, we have gathered that Timothy was not in the best of health, thus he would need to be strong, but there was no doubt that God’s grace would make up for any physical deficiency. “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases strength… those that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:29, 31)
One writer has said that God’s strength, whilst it is available, we cannot sit back and expect Him to pour his strength on or in us. We must seek Him and rely on His strength. Strength in God’s grace is essential for a strong Christian life and service. Paul knew what it was like to receive the strength of God’s grace, as he explained in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” He could encourage Timothy like this from his own life experience.
He then encouraged Timothy to teach other faithful men the things which he had taught him. It appears that Paul had taught him much about the scriptures, even before witnesses and he was to train others to assist and to follow after him. (See v2) An essential part of being a Pastor is to train others in his church. The important thing was to look for faithful men, not clever men, not strong men, but faithful men.
“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” (v3,4)
Paul, certainly does not give Timothy any impression that his job would be easy. Now he tells him that he must endure hardship as a good soldier. No good soldier gives up in the face of adversity. If he did, he would probably face court martial as a coward. Anyone thinking that being a Christian is easy, is mistaken, it is not, it is not a bed of roses. In fact, try sitting down in a bed of roses and one will find it very uncomfortable. We will not accomplish much for Christ if we do not endure hardship. Jesus said that we are to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. (see Matthew 16:24). One has said that a good soldier is the bravest of the brave.
A good soldier does not get involved with the things of this life; he is totally committed to the cause. He is concerned about the cause; he cannot fight the foe if he is not concentrating on the battle ahead. We are to please the one who has called us, enlisted us. The old hymn says, ‘Looking unto Jesus who has gone before’. Paul talks elsewhere about laying aside every weight that would hinder us and run the race. Paul would know how soldiers behaved, he was chained to one as he wrote. He would know their commitment to their cause and probably suffered at their hands as a prisoner, and accordingly he realised that a Christian soldier should fulfil his calling, except being so cruel. We serve a master like no other.
From a soldier to an athlete who must keep the rules to be declared the winner and receive a crown (v5). Paul often used athletes to illustrate a point. We cannot make up the rules as we go, discipline is required. We may be tempted to think we can do as we please in our Christian walk. Paul said that there were those who thought they could keep on sinning to attract more grace from God, but he categorically said “No, certainly not” (see Romans 6:1,2).
From a soldier and an athlete to a farmer, another illustration which would be familiar (v6). He urges Timothy to be like a hard-working farmer. To be a successful farmer one needs to work hard to have any benefits. There is often nothing glamorous about farming, it is often tedious and monotonous. Similarly, there is no place for laziness as a Christian worker.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me”. He knew he had to work hard but recognised that it was it was all of God’s grace. I don’t think for one moment that Paul was suggesting that he was better than anyone else, but he fairly recognised that he worked harder than some others. This is evident from the context “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain;” He was a humble man, recognising that all he was and did was by God’s grace.
I quote Alistair Begg, “Even though God is perfectly able to “keep you from stumbling” and cause you to persevere in the faith (Jude 24), He still calls you to play an active role in keeping going in the Christian life—that is, to keep yourself in His love. Pursuing God’s love ought to be a constant in our lives. This is why the Bible has so much to say about it! There is no coasting in the walk of faith; our faith won’t be strengthened on its own.”
One writer has said that an effective pastor or worker will get more out of a message than his audience does. God may give us fruit for our labours, if not in this life, in the next.
Paul gave Timothy three illustrations and where he did not understand, he asked that God would give him understanding in what was required of him (v7).
“Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel.” (v8)
Paul is not suggesting that Timothy is likely to forget but it should be at the forefront of everything who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. The resurrection the core of the gospel. If Christ had not been raised everything is a waste of time (see 1 Corinthians 15).
There were others raised from the dead in the bible, but they were raised to continue their life until eventual death, but Jesus Christ was raised to a new body, an eternal body which would never die again. And because of that we too will be raised to a new body when He, Our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
He is the true Messiah (of the seed of David), which many of the Jews still do not recognise to this day. He was fully man and fully God, and he died a sinless one for our sin, to bring us salvation and remove the guilt of our sin. This is the gospel, the good news, to which we must steadfastly hold and teach. There is no other gospel.
Of course, this good news does not mean that all will go well in this life, and Paul is quick to remind us that it was because of the gospel that he was suffering as an evildoer to the point of imprisonment. He was in chains, but, praise God, the word of God is not chained. (see v9)
I believe that it was around this time, that Nero is said to have started the fire which destroyed much of Rome, and blamed it all on the Christians because of which they suffered, having them arrested and put in prison. Wild animals were set on them to entertain the people. Many paid the ultimate price for their faith. If we profess to be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ we must be prepared to suffer for His sake.
Many through the ages have tried to get rid of God’s word, but they have failed. I think that is what Paul is saying here that the gospel is not chained. He was probably shackled to a soldier as he wrote, but the message was free and spelt freedom to those who would hear it. This was the very reason why Paul preached. The gospel was the power of God to salvation, and he was prepared to endure whatever the world threw at him so that we could know the gospel (v10).
What a transformation in Paul’s life, from an enemy and persecutor to the greatest proponent of the gospel. One who was prepared to suffer for Christ’s sake, when beforehand he was seeking to make Christ’s followers suffer.
Sadly, many of our churches do not preach the Word of God, they have tried to water it down and say what it does not say. How vital it is for salvation and for Christian Growth, that we teach and preach the absolute Word of God.
As we spread the gospel, we might lose out on earthly things, but the gospel is worth much more than earthly glory. It is eternal, which he then describes in another faithful saying probably in the form of an early hymn (v11-13) –
“This is a faithful saying:
For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him
If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.”
In this Paul encourages Timothy to be strong and endure hardships, even when facing death, he assures him of life in Christ, and the promise of future reigning. He warns about denying Christ in that He will deny us. This seems to be a contradiction with the next phrase, where he assures us that He will remain faithful whether or not we are faithful. Denying seems to be rejecting Christ. We read elsewhere that if we are not a true believer that the Lord will say that he never knew us even though we may think we are doing what God wants (see Matthew 7:21-23, 10:33)
We are encouraged to live in the knowledge of our identity in Christ and enduring trial in his strength and resting in his unwavering faithfulness.
He continued to remind Timothy to keep himself and those he was teaching to concentrate on these things, the things which really matter and not to fight over unprofitable things which don’t matter. We can be easily distracted by things which lead to our ruin (v14). We must stand for truth and nothing else. Many have been distracted and disillusioned by arguments over words and non-essentials. He was also to be diligent to present himself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (v15).
The important thing was to be approved to God. In a way it didn’t matter what people thought of him, the most important was what God thought of him. Of course, people should respect him and have a high regard for him, and he was to be approachable and helpful, but his priority was to serve God. He was, however, to do his job well and be above reproach. His work was to be found faithful. It was not to lead to shame and be found unfaithful by the people he served. If his work was examined, it should be such that he would not be ashamed before God and man. He was to ensure that his words were right from God, and he was to rightly divide the truth, passing on God’s word in all truth.
What does it mean to ‘rightly divide the word of truth?’ The old term was connected to handling a sword. In my very young days, we used to have sword drill, which was looking up Bible verses and being the first to find them. It is much more than just finding verses, although it was excellent at helping us to know where to find them in the Bible. It was knowing what they said and what they meant. We can’t leave it up to our hearers to interpret the word for themselves, but Timothy and we must study the word and search out its meaning so that our hearers knowing what God is saying. The Bible is not for us to interpret it as we think right, it is for the teacher to search out what God is saying to us. Now I know that sometimes we may misinterpret it, but if we study it and pray for God’s guidance, we will have a better understanding of it to pass on. It takes hard work. I was always told about context, that we should never take a text out of its context, thus it does require study and prayer.
Another term associated with this is ploughing a straight furrow, not bending things to say what we want them to say, but presenting properly the essential doctrines, allotting food to those who need feeding. Paul elaborates on this in more detail as we shall see in chapter 3 and 4 where people will only want to hear what they want to hear.
Paul tells Timothy that profane and idle babblings will increase and lead to more ungodliness, and spread like cancer, and that he must shun them, have nothing to do with such tittle tattle. The verse goes on to tell us what those included – saying that the resurrection was past, overthrowing the faith of some. Paul names two men who were guilty of this, Hymenaeus and Philetus who have strayed from the truth. Hymenaeus is mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:20, but Philetus is not mentioned elsewhere. These two were not the only false teachers as the passage says that they were ‘of this sort’, so, there were others. I guess this was not their only false teaching, such basic errors lead to other strange beliefs and lead to many abandoning the faith. People can easily be led astray, and we must avoid it at all costs, as their faith can be destroyed (see v16-18).
Paul goes on to make it clear that in God is a solid foundation, and He knows those who are His (v19). What a statement that is! If we are doing any building, we need a solid foundation, and that is what we have in God. We can be assured of it. There is no need for us to be led astray, and, whats more, He knows those who are His. Our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life if we have received Him as our Saviour and Lord. Im reminded of the passage in
Isaiah 43:1 and John 10:3, and particularly Exodus 33:17 “So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.””
It is one thing to talk the talk, but we must also walk the walk. “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (v19) It is not enough to name the name of Christ; we must also depart from iniquity. If we say we belong to Christ, it should be evident in the way we live.
“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonour. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.” (v20,21)
Paul uses an everyday illustration of cups and saucers, jugs, plates, pots and pans to describe the various types of people who seek to be used by God in His service. Vessels of honour and dishonour. I’m not sure of the significance of the great house, unless it is meaning not just any old house, even the greatest of houses. Some think it is God’s house, or a house of great importance. I’m not sure.
The concentration seems to be on the vessels of gold, silver, wood, clay. Some for honour but some for dishonour such as garbage. It indicates that we can cleanse ourselves and be used as a vessel of honour. I am not sure how do this apart from putting away of sinful things, but we are cleansed initially only by the blood of Christ. However, there is the indication that some responsibility is upon us to put away the things that make us dishonourable. The Bible tells us to walk in ways which please God and the Christian life is one of action and not passive expecting God to do all the work. This is cleansing for service whereas the cleansing for sin is the work of God and God alone. In 1 John 1:9 we read “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
To be used of God, we need to walk close to Him, and the following verses tells us how to cleanse ourselves. We can be sanctified for every good work. We are justified the moment we repent and receive Christ as Saviour and Lord, but sanctification can take a lifetime. We are not all called to do the same work, but God can use us as He wills, and we must never think of ourselves better than others because of our work.
Here’s how – v22,23 – “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.”
Youthful lusts are desires and temptations perhaps prominent in young Christians. Sexual, pleasures of the flesh, looking for fame and glory which often mark young ones. Nevertheless, we older ones can be led by such temptations.
Pursue righteousness, faith love, peace out of a pure heart. Thus, there are negatives and positives in our lives, things to flee from and things to pursue, for us to fulfil, to be used of God. One of the things we must pursue is peace, doing everything we can to be at peace with others – “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” (Romans 12:18) We must avoid disputes and arguments which cause divisions. Many of these disputes are foolish and pointless.
In verses 24-26, Paul describes a servant of the Lord as one who is gentle to all and does not quarrel. This is really following on from the previous verse. Great men are not usually described in this way, but the greatest of all, the Lord Jesus Christ was. In fact, He said that to be the greatest we must consider ourselves as the least, and the servant of all. Note the ‘gentle to all’ not just some or those who deserve it. It does not come easily but such we must.
Remember, these are the qualities of a pastor, shepherd as Paul instructed Timothy, but it still applies today. Further, a pastor should be able to teach, such a person who cannot or does not teach God’s Word is not qualified to be a pastor. He must be patient. I’m sure we’ve all heard the story of the man asking for patience, “And I want it NOW”. God’s timing is always right, He is not in a hurry, and we must trust Him for the future and the outcome of our service. My late friend Horace Banner was called to be a missionary in Brazil and in forty years he never saw a convert, however, after his death, his wife went out to Brazil and found those who had trusted the Lord, and their testimony was that it was through Horace. That’s what I call patience!
Further, he was to correct those who opposed him, but in humility. Gentleness and patience do not mean we do not confront and correct people, but we must do it in humility. Such was to be exercised in a manner that God would grant them repentance, so that they would come to know the truth, even to come to their senses to escape the snare of the devil. This is indicating that it is senseless to fall into the devil’s snares. To be in the devil’s snare is to be held captive by him and doing his will, whether they realise it or not. What a terrible place to be in, but there is release from it as shown here. We can be cleansed and be a servant of the Lord.
