Bible Commentaries
2 Timothy 3

Verses 1-11

8 The literal resurrection of Christ as the Seed of David seems to be the apostle's answer to the theory of a spiritual resurrection. The Seed of David can be nothing less than a literal Man.

10 'The salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eonian glory" is a most apt description of the grace shown to us.

11 This faithful saying shows that our life and all that comes to us by His grace is immutable-it depends on His faithfulness. Service ,

however, has two sides, reward and loss. Endurance will be recognized by a place of authority in His celestial realm. If we disown Him we cannot expect Him to give us a public place of power in the future. This does not infringe in the least degree on our salvation or life or anything which is ours by His grace.

15 Translators have found great difficulty in rendering the phrase "correctly cutting." While desiring to improve on the common rendering "rightly dividing", the Revisers have translated it very loosely "handling aright". This is very vague. The meaning is clear from the illustration which follows. Hymeneus and Philetus did not deny the resurrection, like the Corinthians ( 1Co_15:12 ), but they misplaced it. They made it past , when it was future . So all truth has its appropriate place, out of which truth itself becomes the most insidious error, because it seems to have the support of Scripture. We must not transfer the truth of one eon into another, nor of one economy into another. We should leave truth concerning Israel to them and that for us should not be mixed with it. In no other way can we really have the truth.

19 God's solid foundation still stands. The "pillar of the truth" ( 1Ti_3:15 ) has fallen under the flood of false teaching, which is found in the Bible, but through misplacement has become distorted into error. But the foundation is fixed. The Lord Himself is never at a loss to recognize His own. We, on our part, may demand that those who take His name upon them should act accordingly.

21 The figure of a "great house" is most appropriate in the present day. The struggling, persecuted, unrecognized ecclesia of the early days has become great, but with its greatness it has lost its primitive purity and power. Like the utensils needed in the service of a mansion, it harbors two classes. Some, like gold and silver plate. are fit for honorable uses: others, like the pots and buckets of the scullery, are for degraded service. The method of transforming ourselves into holy and desirable utensils, fit for honorable uses, is very simple. We are to purge ourselves from the unclean utensils. It is personal individual heart cleansing that is needed rather than outward reforms.

22 On the positive side, we are to confine our fellowship to those who call upon the Lord out of a clean heart. This is the true basis of fellowship in the midst of the failure in which we find ourselves. It is not doctrine, however desirable it is that we should agree. It is not church government. It is not the knowledge of the truth, but the motive which underlies it. We should not exclude from our fellowship anyone who calls on the Lord out of a clean heart, however much his person or his doctrine may repel us. Every creed, man-made, is crude and full of error. No one should subscribe to aught but the Word of God.

24 The Lord's slave must not fight, for his object is not destruction, but salvation. He does not aim to wound or disable, but to capture his antagonists alive and subject them to God's will.

1 We who are living in these last days will bear witness to the truth of the Scriptures, for no one today could give a more accurate indictment of the times than is given in this passage. The whole list from selfishness to self-gratification is characteristic, yet nothing more so than the form of devoutness which is devoid of its vital power. We are not asked to correct this condition, but to shun those who are involved in it.

6 The diminutive, "little women", expresses contempt.

Verses 12-17

12 This is a crucial test of our true state. Are we suffering persecution? If not, are we in earnest in our will to live devoutly in Christ Jesus? All who tread this path will be persecuted. Paul himself delighted in persecutions for Christ's sake ( 2Co_12:10 ). His bold stand for the evangel invited them at every turn. At Lystra they stoned him and left him for dead ( Act_14:19 ). Nor are we to look for any improvement in the course of time, for wicked men and swindlers will wax worse and worse, not only deceiving others but being themselves deceived.

14 Again and again the apostle returns to the Sacred Scriptures as the only sufficient recourse; what Timothy had heard from Paul has since been incorporated in them, being recorded in the epistles he has penned, both in his personal letters and in his epistles to the seven ecclesias,

16 The inspired Scriptures are the sole and sufficient equipment for the man of God in these trying times. All else has failed and fallen into ruin. It has become an imperative and absolute necessity that the sacred writings should be recovered in something like their pristine purity, for they alone are the last resort of the saints. Their inspiration is confined to the original text. Whatever promises the closest contact with the inspired records, and the safest index of their contents is the best equipment possible for the man of God. The Concordant Version the consistent sublinear of the Greek Text and its concordance, will, we trust, be used by God to meet the one prime necessity of the times.

3 Proclaim the word ! This is the greatest need in the last days. There is no lack of preaching or of proclaiming, but the word of God has entirely too little place in them. The next need is to stand by it, whether it seems opportune or not.

6 The pathos of this passage appears when we recall the many plans of the apostle which it repeals. He intended to go into Spain ( Rom_15:24 ), he wished to winter in Nicopolis ( Tit_3:12 ) and he hoped to be granted to the Colossians ( Phm_1:22 ). There is no record that any of these wishes were fulfilled. Now he faces death with an exultant cry of triumph. His contest is over; his career is ended, the faith is kept, the reward remains. Hitherto the advent filled his heart and his horizon. Now that he realizes the imminence of his dissolution; he passes on that blessed expectation. The wreath of righteousness is promised to all who love His advent. This alone should be a sufficient incentive for us not only to love but to proclaim that blessed expectation. There is no evidence in the Scriptures that Paul was released and later imprisoned a second time. Even if it was a fact, the truth demands the entire removal of everything physical from the scene.

9 "Loving the present eon" is in direct contrast to loving His advent. If the present evil eon appeals to us, and engages our affections, we will have no desire for the glorious grace which His advent will reveal.

11 How touching is this commendation of Mark! He had proven unfaithful ( Act_13:13 ) and Paul had refused his services, notwithstanding it cost him the companionship of Barnabas ( Act_15:38 ). Yet God's grace operates in him so as to win this commendation from Paul and he is inspired to write the account of the Faithful Servant, for that is the character of our Lord in Mark's evangel.

16 There was a custom in Rome that, when a man was tried for any crime; his friends attended him in court to countenance and assist him. Roman law recognized the legality of such assistance and even the emperors did not shun their friends under such circumstances. The early believers were derided because they availed themselves of this privilege. How majestic stands the solitary figure of the apostle! His friends in Asia: had abandoned him ( 2Ti_1:15 ). Demas abandoned him ( 2Ti_4:10 ). And now all abandoned him to his fate. He stands before his accusers unfriended and alone, except for his faithful Lord. Nor did this embitter him. Like his Lord, he prays, "May it not be reckoned against them!" This is our last glimpse of the apostle of the nations. To the last he stands as God's herald, welcoming death itself if it only gives him an opportunity to proclaim the evangel to all the nations.