Thoughts on 2 Timothy Part 1
2TIM 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,
2TIM 1:2 To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
2TIM 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
2TIM 1:4 Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;
2TIM 1:5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.
2TIM 1:6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
Paul calls Timothy, my dearly beloved son. Timothy was not Paul biological son. Instead what Paul is referring to is Paul lead Timothy to the Lord. Paul was involved in seeing Timothy get born again.
Timothy went with Paul on a missionary journey and was trained by Paul to do the work of God. Paul was also much older than Timothy. For all of those reasons Paul calling Timothy my dearly beloved son fits the relationship between them.
They were very close. And you see the great love here in how Paul prayed for Timothy night and day. Paul knew about and was mindful of the tears of Timothy. Even though they were a great distance apart what happened to Timothy affected Paul.
This shows that they had a real deep Christian brotherly love. The kind of genuine care for each other that Jesus would have us have for other Christians.
Paul gives him some encouragement by saying that he remembers the unfeigned faith that is in Timothy as well as his mother and grandmother. And then Paul reminds him of the gifts that are from God and encourages him to stir those up.
Relying on God is the answer to all the hard difficult situations in life.
2TIM 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2TIM 1:8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;
God hath not given us the spirit of fear. People will use this verse for all kinds of things. And it is true that God did not give us the spirit of fear and He does not want us to be afraid of our future or our present. He wants us to trust in Him. God would not want us to be fearful of anything from losing our job to being afraid of getting a cold. While that is true, that is not the context of this verse.
Verse 8 tells us therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Verse 7 and 8 are connected with the word therefore. Both verses are talking about the same thing. We have not been given the spirit of fear so don’t be afraid to witness to the lost about Jesus. Instead of fear we have been given the spirit of Love. That should motivate us to share Jesus with others. We have also been given power. The context here is witnessing. God will give us the power to witness. He gives us boldness and He makes our words powerful. He takes the blinders off of eyes. He brings the necessary conviction. And we have also been given a sound mind. If we will rely on Him, He will give us the words to say.
Because of all this verse 8 tells us, “but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel” God wants us to witness. He has provided the Spirit to empower our witness and give us boldness. Therefore get out there and witness. Be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Not everyone will accept your message. Some will slam a door in your face or talk about you behind you back. The gospel will offend some. Paul then follows up with this statement.
2TIM 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
God saved us and called us to His purpose. His plan is for us to witness. He could have sent angels to spread the gospel, but He chose us to do it. And not only did He tell us to do it, He also promised to empower us to obey. He has not given us the spirit of fear but of power so we will witness for Him. He has every right to expect that we will.
2TIM 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
2TIM 1:10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
2TIM 1:11 Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.
God saved us not according to our works. We are sinners and all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. It is impossible for us to ever make up for our sin and work our way to heaven. This is why Jesus, who had no sin of His own, left the glories of Heaven and came to this earth and went to the cross. The just dying for the unjust. Only He could pay the penalty for sin. The wages of sin is death. Jesus paid the penalty for us and then He arose 3 days later showing that the payment was sufficient and accepted.
We are saved by His mercy and His grace when we choose to believe and call upon Him to save us with a repentant heart.
And the decision to go to the cross was made before the world began.
One of the attributes of God is that He is all knowing and He sees the beginning and the ending and everything in between. So before creation God already foreknew who would reject Him and who would accept Him and get saved.
The Bible teaches in other places that the calling referenced in verse 9 is done out of His foreknowledge. It in no way is teaching that God chooses who goes to hell and who does not and man has no choice in the matter. That is a false teaching.
Calling and election is done with God’s foreknowledge and in no way interferes with man’s free will to choose.
2TIM 1:12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
Paul suffered many things for the cause of Christ. He was stoned and left for dead, he was ship wrecked, he hungered, he was betrayed, arrested, and in the end was killed. And none of that deterred him from serving Christ and witnessing to others. Paul says, “I am not ashamed”.
Compare that with most Christians today who are too ashamed to leave a gospel tract on a park bench or on someone’s door. It does not take a door slammed in their face to get them to stop. All it takes is the thought that someone might slam a door in their face. Just the thought of what might happen stops them.
I am NOT saying that people who do not witness are bad people. They are not. They just do not have a good grasp of what Jesus has done for them. Look at what Paul writes right after he says I am not ashamed.
“for I know whom I have believed,” Paul knew Christ. Paul had a close walk with the Lord. Listen, the further you walk from Christ the less witnessing you will do, and the closer that you walk to Christ the more witnessing you will do. If you are walking close to Christ, you WILL have a heart like His. A heart for seeing souls saved. A close walk with Christ will result in you not being ashamed.
Next Paul writes, “and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” Paul absolutely knew that his salvation was not kept by himself. Paul knew that his salvation rested in the hand of God and that He is able to keep it. What a wonderful thing to know that you are saved and that you CANNOT LOSE your salvation.
Paul knew that God had saved him from hell. He knew that no matter what happened he would never spend one second in hell. He fully realized just what a wonderful thing that God had done for him. The result of really understanding the depth of that truth will result in you wanting others to get saved also.
If you have a good grasp of what God has really done for you, then it will result in you not being ashamed.
2TIM 1:13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
2TIM 1:14 That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.
The older I get and the more I have seen, the more I see that the Bible way is always the best way. Paul found a man who wanted to serve Jesus by being in the ministry. So Paul trained him. Paul did not push that responsibility and that work off on someone else.
He did not send Timothy to some modern faith wrecking Bible College that teaches some things contrary to the Bible. Paul taught him himself.
Timothy heard the form of sound words that he was to hold fast to from Paul. Paul taught him and trained him. Once Paul taught Timothy God’s word then Paul committed Timothy to keep that truth. Do not deviate to the right or to the left.
And He reminds Timothy here that the Holy Spirit indwells us and will help us and guide us and strengthen us. We need to lean upon God to hold fast to the truth of God’s Word.
2TIM 1:15 This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
We see here that apostasy and spiritual decline had already started before the Bible was even finished. And when you compare 2 Tim to 1 Tim you see that the decline in Asia has progressed a lot. In 1st Tim Paul says some had turned away and in 2nd Tim he says that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing, and tares with the wheat, and people backsliding was all going on and getting worse in some areas even before the New Testament was finished.
That was going on since the very beginning. You see in Cain and his descendants, you see it in the entire society in Noah’s day, the tower of Babel, and in the time of the judges. The examples go on and on. And that same tendency was around in Paul’s day and if your eyes are open at all you see it everywhere today.
But at the same time God has always had a remnant of the few who truly love God and are faithful. There was Abel and then Seth, and Enoch and Noah, and Gideon, and Daniel and Nehemiah and Esther. The examples of the faithful also go on and on.
And for Paul Onesiphorus was one of the faithful.
2TIM 1:16 The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:
2TIM 1:17 But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.
2TIM 1:18 The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.
I am very thankful for all of those who love the Lord and are faithful to Him and His instructions and who will live the way the Lord wants them to. Here Onesiphorus was loving the brethren like God instructs us to do in His Word.
He was a blessing and a help over and over again. He did not let Paul being arrested stop him from searching and finding and helping his brother in Christ.
The Lord sees everything that anyone does for one of His children. And they will receive eternal rewards for it.
Praise God for the faithful and the helpers and the comforters and those that do to be a blessing no matter the cost.
2TIM 2:1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Christians should be strong, but notice not in the flesh; not out of our own strength. The strength comes from the grace that is in Christ. We need to rely on His grace. You cannot do that if you are living in sin and thus quenching the Spirit.
We need to also remember that God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. We need to walk close to the Lord each and every day. Everything we watch, where we go, what we do, and even what we think should be pleasing to our Lord. One good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, if Jesus was here right beside me, would I be doing this? If He was on this couch, would I be watching this violence on TV? If He was standing at the water cooler at my job site, would I listen to that dirty joke?
Whatever it is in your life, would it pass this simple test? If not then you are quenching the Spirit to some degree and are not as strong as you could be in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
We are saved by grace and never lose that. But we also need His grace for the trials of life. We often do not handle hardships like we should because we are not as strong in His grace as we should be. A big reason why is the things that we do that we should not do, and the things we don’t do that we should.
If we really live for Jesus, then we will be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We will have the strength from Him that we need to see us thru the hard things of life.
2TIM 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
This was an instruction directed to Timothy. Timothy himself was to prepare faithful men to teach others. It is clearly God’s will that it is one of the jobs of the pastor. Paul did not instruct Timothy to push that responsibility off on someone else and ship anyone who feels the call to preach off to a Bible College.
The idea of our modern day Bible College is not to be found in the New Testament at all. Many of them will start out well. Often the man who starts it teaches good but over time they tend to go downhill. False teachers and liberal ideas infiltrate it. The more time that passes the further away they get from what the founder started.
Think about this. If one pastor gets off and he teaches other men wrong you have a few men taught wrong. When a Bible College gets off then you have hundreds and thousands of men taught wrong.
What I am saying here will shock some and make others angry. But doing things the way the Bible teaches should not be shocking to a Christian and the Bible way should not make a Christian angry.
The truth is the Bible way is always the best way.
2TIM 2:1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
The therefore in verse 1 is referring to the example of Onesiphorus at the end of chapter 1. He stayed strong and faithful and continued to serve the Lord and others when others would not. He is an example of a man who stayed strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Paul says thou therefore Timothy do the same. Stay strong in God’s grace.
2TIM 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
This world hates Jesus. And when you walk with Him you will suffer persecution. We are to endure the hardness and keep pressing on for our Savior. And if we try to stay strong on our own we will fail. We need God’s help and grace and strength.
Paul now teaches how you stay strong and endure.
2TIM 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
To stay strong you need to separate from the world. This is talking about worldly lusts. This is not talking about going out into the world to work a job or buy groceries.
This is talking about entangling yourself into some worldly sinful thing that the world offers. Doing that will grieve the Spirit which is the one that indwells you and that you desperately need to guide you and strengthen you and help you endure the hardness.
To be a good soldier you need to do things right and follow the rules of your commander.
2TIM 2:5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
If a soldier comes back from a mission and he expects a reward, but if he broke the rules then he is not praised. He gets the opposite.
You cannot expect to please the Lord if you are not living the way he wants. And you cannot expect others to listen to you if you are not living what you preach.
2TIM 2:6 The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.
A way of saying don’t be a hypocrite. First partake of the fruit of living for Jesus and not getting entangled in worldly sin and then be a partaker of being strong in the grace of God and then be a partaker of beign a good soldier for Christ. And they labor in preaching that to others.
2TIM 2:7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.