The crumbling away of everything here was before the apostle; and accordingly it is one of the peculiar features of this second epistle, that he brings out that which never can decay which was before there was a world to dissolve namely, that life which was in Christ Jesus before the world began. He must maintain this confidence, knowing that the Scriptures are divinely given and that they are Gods means of instructing people in right belief and right living. There are persons who think that the approach of death is intended to blot out everything here. His mental palate loses its taste. 4. And many shall be stirred up in anger to injure many; And they shall rouse up armies in order to shed blood. I mean, people will have had it with the unrighteousness of the world. The Greek moralists wrote much about this word. If they had been more faithful, and more like their Master, would they have always escaped? But it is asked, Must all men be martyrs? He tells such women that by his spells and incantations he can enable them to prophesy. The world easily puts up with the mask of a religion which depends on itself, but the piety which derives its vigor directly from Christ is as odious to modern Christians as it was to the ancient Jews [Bengel]. Heavenly Father, thank You for the privilege of being one with Christ, positioned in Him, and clothed in His righteousness. The fact is that God loves to make His children mutually dependent; and if we are only humble, there are very few saints from whom we may not derive some good, though not always in the same way. He was to remember, then, "that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel: wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil-doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound." 4. They should remember that, in this respect, they are treated as the Master was, and are in the goodly company of the prophets, apostles, and martyrs; for they were all persecuted. The Gnostic heretics taught, either that, since matter is altogether evil, a rigid asceticism must be practiced and all the things of the body as far as possible eliminated, or that it does not matter what we do with the body and its desires can be indulged in to the limit because they do not matter. It is not a question here about elders, but what would abide all the same when elders could not be duly appointed. Those ministers are likely to do good, and leave lasting fruits of their labours, whose manner of life agrees with their doctrine; as, on the contrary, those cannot expect to profit the people at all that preach well and live ill. 3. They said, Wait a minute, this is the hand of God, we can't, we can't touch this. 2 To Timothy, d my beloved child:. And the word perfect of course is always that of completeness. He said, "A wicked and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign; but no sign will be given it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" ( Matthew 12:38-40 ). Paul regarded these as man-made things; but the great books for a man's soul were the God-inspired ones which tradition and the experience of men had sanctified. A word altogether unbecoming in one mouth might be most proper in another. The same tone of mercy is equally promised in this #epistle as in the last. 2 Timothy 3:12 (NASB) Verse Thoughts We live in a fallen world, and there are many challenges that face the believer who has not only trusted Christ for salvation, but is also ready and willing to deny self, take up his cross, follow Christ's example, and say without compromise - Thy will, not mine, be done. 2 Timothy 3:12, NASB: Indeed, all who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. The reason is obvious. 13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. Now when Moses appeared before Pharaoh and he threw down his rod and it turned into a snake, you'll remember that Pharaoh's magicians threw down their rods and they also became snakes, but Moses' snake swallowed theirs. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise." Not so the apostle Paul. Abandoned by virtually all of those close to him for fear of persecution (cf. Here is the essential conclusion. We usually try to avoid it on Friday evening if we can, but sometimes our schedules are such that we just don't have time to. "Trucebreakers". Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace." 3. 2 Timothy 3:12, NLT: Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It is not merely what had been preached, but what is in a permanent shape for the good of the saints of God here below, which elicits the remarkable assertion of its peculiar worth. It was the glory of the Jews that their children from their earliest days were trained in the law. Why does the world hate Christians? But let him not infer, therefore, that he is to be enrolled among the martyrs, and that he is certainly a real Christian. Negative and positive illustrations 3:8-13. How appropriate that "trucebreakers" is for this day. THE EXPERIENCES OF AN APOSTLE ( 2 Timothy 3:10-13 continued). When children are disobedient to their parents, and break through the obligations which they lie under to them both in duty and gratitude, and frequently in interest, having their dependence upon them and their expectation from them, they make the times perilous; for what wickedness will those stick at who will be abusive to their own parents and When we know the afflictions of believers only in part, they tempt us to decline the cause for which they suffer. Men will refuse to recognize even the ultimate decencies of life. In those days trade tended to flow down river valleys; Ephesus was at the mouth of the River Cayster, and commanded the trade of one of the richest hinterlands in all Asia Minor. The woman, thrilled to the heart, does so and is deluded into thinking that she can prophesy. Each one of these words in the Greek is an interesting word study. When children are disobedient to their parents, and break through the obligations which they lie under to them both in duty and gratitude, and frequently in interest, having their dependence upon them and their expectation from them, they make the times perilous; for what wickedness will those stick at who will be abusive to their own parents and He speaks of "all God-inspired scripture." In the last days This often means the days of the Messiah, and is sometimes extended in its signification to the destruction of Jerusalem, as this was properly the last days of the Jewish state. Braggart has an interesting derivation. Salem Media Group. He did not pull down by his living what he built up by his preaching. The woman protests that she has never done so and cannot do so. Seeking the Gospel in Malachi, the Last Book of the Old Testament. And may not their freedom from it prove that they have surrendered the principles of their religion, where they should have stood firm, though the world were arrayed against them? At "that day" will be the display of whatever has been endured, as well as done, for the Lord's sake. When the Lord was entering on His ministry He says, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" So you have to be careful when you start chipping it away at one side because the whole thing will come down on you. "He kicked the world about," said one, "as if it had been a football." he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me." For "all scripture is given by inspiration of God. That which finishes a man of God in this world is the scripture. So you see, I'm not inerrant in all, but the scriptures are. But you see, if you start whacking away at the story of Jonah, and say, oh, I can't really buy that. He knew that he had suffered ill for doing well (2 Timothy 3:11; 2 Timothy 3:11): "Thou hast fully known the persecutions and afflictions that came unto me" (he mentions those only which happened to him while Timothy was with him, at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra); "and therefore let it be no surprise to thee if thou suffer hard things, it is no more than I have endured before." We've just experienced a tremendous demonstration of that in the Los Angeles basin in the last couple of weeks. At the same time he shows also his sense of the kindness of a particular individual and his family. Let me remark, that there are comparatively few indeed that receive truth without help of others directly from God. Why cannot a man be as simple now as in apostolic times? The true leader gives training in living. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL "That thou hast had good teachers. No one can possibly mistake him. He opened out the pages to make it burn more easily. I refer to this just to remark that such links as these, which are connected with nature, all come before the apostle's mind, at the very moment when a spurious feeling would have judged it precisely the time to banish and forget them. Now though it is infallible, inerrant and inspired, I did make a mistake in my message this morning on the speed of Arcturus; it's twelve thousand miles a second, I think I said twelve million. In either case the word describes a certain harshness of mind which separates a man from his fellow-men in unrelenting bitterness. What am I to believe about God? Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel." Again he said, "Lo, I have come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God" ( Hebrews 10:7 ). The more fully we know the doctrine of Christ and the apostles, the more closely we shall cleave to it; the reason why many sit loose to it is because they do not fully know it. Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands: Many men and women, who would never dream of stealing, think nothing--even find pleasure--in passing on a story which ruins someone else's good name, without even trying to find out whether or not it is true. The whole idea is that of thoroughly fitting you as an instrument that God can use. I watch very little, but with horror and dismay, the deterioration of a man who probably at one time had a legitimate ministry, but I've seen the gradual erosion of this person on television just right before my eyes. (4.) Irenaeus draws a vivid picture of the methods of just such a teacher in his day. The world is full of these braggarts to this day; the clever know-all's who deceive people into thinking that they are wise, the politicians who claim that their parties have a program which will bring in the Utopia and that they alone are born to be leaders of men, the people who crowd the advertisement columns with claims to give beauty, knowledge or health by their system, the people in the Church who have a kind of ostentatious goodness. Boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy ( 2 Timothy 3:2 ). The Christian life does not consist only in knowing something; it consists even more in being something. There were false teachers who were quick to take advantage of that. The age of children is the age to learn; and those who would get true learning, must get it out of the Scriptures. For it is not dogma pure and simple, it is not mere instruction; and we may thank God for it. Compare the catalogue, Ro 1:29, &c., where much the same sins are attributed to heathen men; it shall be a relapse into virtual heathendom, with all its beast-like propensities, whence the symbol of it is "a beast" (Re 13:1, 11, 12, &c.; 17:3, 8, 11). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1930. The adjective used is philautos ( G5367) , which means self-loving. Paul cites three instances when he had to suffer for Christ. It will be getting better a little further down the road, but evil days are going to wax worse and worse, until the Lord takes His church out and then God judges the world for its unrighteousness and ungodliness. This of itself indicates that the epistle provides for a time when it is no longer simply a question of recognising persons coming out of the world. The kind of guys that went around selling snake oil or cure-alls, deceiving, defrauding people. As members of the Church, we should sometimes ask ourselves, what are we trying to do in it? 2 Timothy 3 He preached in the same church as C. H. Spurgeon over one hundred years earlier. And, let every one that nameth the name" not of "Christ," but "of the Lord depart from iniquity." They were never meant to be anything else but visions; we do violence to Jewish and to early Christian thought if we take them with a crude literalness. The word here is makrothumia ( G3115) ; and makrothumia, as the Greeks used it, usually meant patience with people. "And God prepared a great fish and it swallowed Jonah" ( Jonah 1:17 ). The most amazing things may happen if he does, for there is a saving wisdom here that is in no other book. Thus the apostle comes to the close of his ministry, and touches upon the line of St. John. And may not their freedom from it prove that they have surrendered the principles of their religion, where they should have stood firm, though the world were arrayed against them? And the word of God comes and it brings a balance, it brings a correction, it brings a correct perspective.It's profitable. 2 Timothy 3:12 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. Observe, (1.) Once Agesilaus, the Sparta king, was asked, "What shall we teach our boys?" It is true that these things happened before the young Timothy had definitely entered on the Christian way, but they all happened in the district of which he was a native; and he may well have been an eyewitness of them. Only here and Titus 2:12. The defeat of error depends not on skill in controversy but in the demonstration in life of the more excellent way. Now here observe. Now many people have a legitimate and proper desire to be used of God. They were said to be the two servants who accompanied Balaam when he was disobedient to God ( Numbers 22:22); they were said to have been part of the great mixed multitude who accompanied the children of Israel out of Egypt ( Exodus 12:38); some said that they perished at the crossing of the Red Sea; other stories said that it was Jannes and Jambres who were behind the making of the golden calf and that they perished among those who were killed for that sin ( Exodus 32:28); still other stories said that in the end they became proselytes to Judaism. Sets before him his own example, which Timothy had been an eye-witness of, having long attended Paul (2 Timothy 3:10; 2 Timothy 3:10): Thou hast fully known my doctrine. Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Persons sometimes say it does not matter who taught; but God does not treat the matter so lightly. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics, 7: 2) defined the alazon ( G213) as "the man who pretends to creditable qualities that he does not possess, or possesses in a lesser degree than he makes out." There was a state of things coming when it would be impossible to have local charges chosen according to the full sanction which they had in apostolic days. Paul "the aged," as he says, was just about to leave this world. In a measure, no doubt, the truth is in Christendom, and only there; for one cannot look for the truth in Judaism or heathenism now. A. Characteristics of the last days 3:1-13. There is no part of John's doctrine more strikingly characteristic than life in Christ. (8) Using the boldness God gives, don't be ashamed of the imprisoned apostle. Christianity changed all that and a new set of problems arose. For all scripture is given by inspiration of God ( 2 Timothy 3:16 ), Not as some would lead you to believe, some scriptures are given by inspiration of God. After considering his own life, Paul speaks of others desiring to live godly lives as he has done, a life of piety toward God that will always be opposed by the world. Observe, The scriptures will make us wise to salvation, if they be mixed with faith, and not otherwise, Hebrews 4:2. In other words, it's not going to get better for awhile. In this picture which Paul draws he is thinking in terms familiar to the Jews. The best way to overcome and to banish the false is to live in such a way that the loveliness and the graciousness of the truth is plain for all to see. With his or her commitment to follow Christ faithfully the Christian sets the course of his or her life directly opposite to the course of the world system. It's instructing you on the right kind of life. 3:14-17 But as for you, remain loyal to the things which you have learned, and in which your belief has been confirmed, for you know from whom you learned them, and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that will bring you salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. The thing that amazes me is that he can attract people who will support him. This I cannot but consider as a proof of want of faith. The Greek word literally is fully matured or of full age, fully matured, that the man of God might be fully matured. (1) To exhort Timothy in his ministry at Ephesus; (2) To warn Timothy of trouble both inside and outside the church; (3) To request Timothy to come to Rome to visit him in prison and bring certain personal effects to him (4:5-13; 21); and (4) To instruct all the churches in Timothy's territory. So from his earliest childhood Timothy had known the sacred writings. The emphasis of so many people is just on being beautiful, lovers of themselves. It was not merely now that they had made their consciences bad and slipped away from faith. At first these magicians were able to match the wonders which Moses and Aaron did, but in the end they were defeated and discredited. "Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.". The man who is huperephanos ( G5244) , said Theophrastus, has a kind of contempt for everyone except himself. Here the apostle, to confirm Timothy in that way wherein he walked. The doctrine of the necessity of persecution was no new thing to Paul. And yet, it is becoming in this hedonistic society commonplace, all too commonplace, tragically commonplace. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived ( 2 Timothy 3:13 ). Men will be lovers of their own selves ( 2 Timothy 3:2 ). There were those who would revenge themselves on an enemy by informing against him. There is the idea of menace and of danger in this word. True, he is telling of something which happened later than this, but the wretched story would be the same (Irenaeus: Against Heresies, 1, 13, 3). "Much the greatest rogue of all is the man who has gulled his city into the belief that he is fit to direct it.". You have no authority.So if I tell you that some scriptures are not really inspired of God, then I become the authority, not the Bible anymore, because you can't just read the whole Bible and trust it because not all of it is inspired. Paul goes on to list the things in which Timothy has been his disciple; and the interest of that list is that it consists of the strands out of which the life and work of an apostle are woven. A. M. Chirgwin in The Bible in World Evangelism tells the story of a ward sister in a children's hospital in England. (iii) The Scriptures are valuable for reproof. It was only to be expected that certain women would not know how to use their new liberty. All that live according to the will of God revealed in his word; and to the glory of God, as the end of all their actions; and which the grace of God in the Gospel, and in their own hearts, teaches them; and who have the principles of a godly life from Christ, and derive the fresh supplies of grace and life from him, to maintain it; in whom their B. Moreover, as soon as zeal for God is manifested by a believer, it kindles the rage of all ungodly men; and, although they have not a drawn sword, yet they vomit out their venom, either by murmuring, or by slander, or by raising a disturbance, or by other methods. and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ( 2 Timothy 3:12 ). It means to follow a person physically, to stick by him through thick and thin. Two men were talking of a great satirist who had been filled with moral earnestness. 1. It is the whole spiritual experience, so to speak, of the apostle. Proud member (186) Et tous ceux aussi qui veulent vivre en la crainte de Dieu. And all those also who wish to live in the fear of God., (187) Que rien ne luy est advenu que tous fideles ne doyvent aussi attendre. That nothing has happened to him which all believers must not also look for.. Or life, or death, or life after death? It is not the question of discipline dealing With evil ways; but here we are in a state of things where we are in danger of being mixed up with vessels unto the Lord's dishonour. It describes the man who is swept on by passion and impulse to such an extent that he is totally unable to think sensibly. shall suffer persecution; it is the will of God, and the appointment of heaven; Christ has foretold it, that so it shall be; and he the head has suffered it himself, and it is necessary that his members should, that they may be conformed unto him; it is the way Christ himself went to glory, and through many tribulations his people must enter the kingdom; and this is the common lot and certain case of all the saints, in one shape or another; for though all do not suffer confiscation of goods, beating, scourging, imprisonment, or a violent death; yet all are more or less afflicted and distressed by wicked men, and are subject to their reproaches and revilings, which are a branch of persecution; and that for professing Christ, and living a godly life in him and under his influence: and since such suffer as Christians, and not as evildoers; and this is the common condition of the people of God, in this world, it should not be thought strange, but be cheerfully endured; to encourage to which is the apostle's view in this passage. There is no occasion for the writings of the philosopher, nor for rabbinical fables, nor popish legends, nor unwritten traditions, to make us perfect men of God, since the scripture answers all these ends and purposes. He forbad his going on in association with those that dishonour the Lord with vessels to dishonour; but he tells him to follow these things "with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." Many and many a time we would be saved from hurting ourselves and from wounding other people, if we would only stop to think. We should not be any more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive,Ephesians 4:14. It can never cease to be a Christian's duty to maintain the unity of the Spirit; but it is not maintaining the unity of the Spirit to couple with the name of the Lord that which is fleshly and sinful. In the Testament of Issachar, one of the books written between the Old and the New Testaments, we get a picture like this: "Know ye, therefore, my children, that in the last times. If the Lord doesn't come soon, we're going to destroy ourselves as we just sink in the filth. All rights reserved. It is the sign of a supremely decadent civilization when youth loses all respect for age and fails to recognize the unpayable debt and the basic duty it owes to those who gave it life. It begets a contempt of men which can issue in hurting actions and in wounding words. In these terrible days men would be braggarts and arrogant. Men will be disobedient to their parents. Look at the lack, lackness. Includes questions, verse by verse commentary, and applications on 2 Timothy 1 for life transformation. The ancient world set duty to parents very high. He was driven from Antioch in Pisidia ( Acts 13:50); he had to flee from Iconium to avoid lynching ( Acts 14:5-6); in Lystra he was stoned and left for dead ( Acts 14:19).

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