It is not meant that the Scriptures are valuable for finding fault; what is meant is that they are valuable for convincing a man of the error of his ways and for pointing him on the right path. for instruction in righteousness ( 2 Timothy 3:16 ): And righteousness is just actually the act of being right or doing right or living right. Men will be without human affection (astorgos, G794) . It can mean that a man is so bitter in his hatred that he will never come to terms with the man with whom he has quarrelled. Even an unbeliever is acting unfairly unless he tries to read it. I don't know exactly yet what He said but when I find out I know He's going to be right. If the Lord doesn't come soon, we're going to destroy ourselves as we just sink in the filth. As I read the things that are happening in our modern-cultured Orange County, as I read the reports from the social department on the child abuse, I just shake my head in disbelief because a person could not possibly do these things unless they were without natural affection. If anyone proposes to accept a set of standards quite different from the world's, he is bound to encounter trouble. That's proper and you should have that desire. 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. And you will find as God's word becomes a very part of your life and you begin to be guided by the word of God, that God will begin to use you in very exciting ways. (2.) In short, let us know that we are Christians on this condition, that we shall be liable to many tribulations and various contests. The first is the moral character of the source or channel whence Timothy had derived what he knew. Each of the chapters are done individually. [Note: Knight, p. Commentary on 2 Timothy 3:14-17. Therefore, isolation is never desirable, though it may be sometimes necessary. 10 million Ukrainians without power because of Russia. repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.". A word altogether unbecoming in one mouth might be most proper in another. "Beloved, consider it not strange concerning the fiery trials which are to try you, as though some strange thing has happened to you" ( 1 Peter 4:12 ). Plutarch uses the word to describe a quack doctor. Real teaching is always born of real experience. If your God is big enough to create the heavens and the earth, no problem, but you see, we stumble on the very first verse. Paul was a prisoner again and awaited death. In these terrible days men will be slanderers. (4) Let those who have never been persecuted in any way, inquire whether it is not an evidence that they have no religion. From , before, and , to deliver up.Those who deliver up to an enemy the person who has put his life in their hands; such as the Scots of 1648, who delivered up into the hands of his enemies their unfortunate countryman and king, Charles the First; a stain which no lapse of ages can wipe out. Verse of the Day , 2 Timothy 3:12 Treasury of Scripture Knowing, God, My Praise (Study In God - All I Need-19). This was to reverse the lesson of a risen Christ, and to open the way for all laxity. The word here is makrothumia ( G3115) ; and makrothumia, as the Greeks used it, usually meant patience with people. And for a person to take advantage of a child is unthinkable. In the second chapter he turns to another theme, he instructs and exhorts Timothy as to communicating (not authority, or status, or gift, but) truth to others. He returned after the first missionary journey to visit the Churches he had founded, "strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" ( Acts 14:22). 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. His mental palate loses its taste. That is where you become thoroughly equipped to do the work that God has designed and ordained for you. 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. 4. A whole collection of stories gathered round their names. (2.) In 2Baruch we get an even more vivid picture of the moral chaos of these last times: And envy shall rise in those who had not thought ought of. Perilous Times 2 Timothy 3:1. And so Paul said to Timothy, "You have fully known". 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're going to drown in our own corruption. 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. Any conversion which makes a man think of nothing but the fact that he has been saved is no true conversion. The most amazing things may happen if he does, for there is a saving wisdom here that is in no other book. Abandoned by virtually all of those close to him for fear of persecution (cf. He blames the Jews who searched them, because they failed to learn the lesson which they were intended to convey. Xenophon in the Memorabilia tells how Socrates utterly condemned such impostors. As teachers we should sometimes ask ourselves: what am I trying to do with these people whom I teach? The moment a man makes his own will the centre of life, divine and human relationships are destroyed, obedience to God and charity to men both become impossible. Whether Timothy made it to Rome before Paul's execution is not known. "She then makes the effort to reward Marcus, not only by the gift of her possessions (in which way he has collected a very large fortune), but also by yielding up to him her person, desiring in every way to be united to him, that she may become altogether one with him." There was a certain heretic called Marcus who dealt in magic. Look at the magazines that were once really under the counter kind of stuff and sold illegally. Copyright Statement These files are public domain. 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. "He read on, forgetful of time, through the hours of the night, and just as the dawn was breaking, he stood up and declared, 'I believe'.". "Blessed is he who will come in the name of the Lord" ( Psalms 118:26 ). "Trucebreakers". As we know, there may be over it all a certain form of godliness, but underneath it is really wickedness. These things may be expected in the best times, and under the most favorable circumstances; and it is known that a large part of the history of the world, in its relation to the church, is nothing more than a history of persecution. By it we are thoroughly furnished for every good work. It is needful to exercise judgment now. Everything today is, you know, for the body beautiful. In contrast, the sins of "evil people and impostors" can be expected to get worse and worse. The sister was persuaded to read a copy of St. John. We must remember that Timothy's work lay in Ephesus, perhaps the greatest market in the ancient world. At the same time there is not the smallest slight of the only and abiding standard. Easy it seems to get sort of distracted and off course. Word Studies in the New Testament. "The foundation of God standeth sure [or, the firm foundation of God standeth], having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. In the light of this warning from the Saviour, no Christian should be surprised at persecution. 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. Now you'd think that the world would treat a person like that very cordially. 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. "And God prepared a great fish and it swallowed Jonah" ( Jonah 1:17 ). That's just fable. A man may embrace some absurd opinion, and call it religion; he may adopt some mode of dress irresistibly ludicrous, from the mere love of singularity, and may call it conscience; or he may be boorish in his manners, and uncivil in his deportment, outraging all the laws of social life, and may call this deadness to the world; and for these, and similar things, he may be contemned, ridiculed, and despised. The task of the apostle is not only to tell men the truth; it is also to help them do it. There was no despising natural links or spiritual here, far from it. The world really doesn't admire true Christian traits. 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. The doctrine of the necessity of persecution was no new thing to Paul. Now here observe. II. The coming of the Lord will in no way manifest the faithfulness of the servant; His appearing will. It is a duty in the present state of confusion to use scriptural means; and here we have our warrant, as in the epistles we find more. They were violent and dangerous. He read the twenty-third psalm from one; the story of the Good Samaritan from another; from another the Sermon on the Mount; from another 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. I've never found that in one of those little Bible promise books, I mean, promise things yet. Otherwise this might have seemed to be (what unbelief taunts and stigmatizes it, spite of His sanction) pride of heart and presumption. 12And all who wish to live a godly life (186) Having mentioned his own persecutions, he likewise adds now, that nothing has happened to him which does not await all the godly. It's twelve thousand miles a second, but that's pretty fast, too. God wants us each to take His power, His love, and His calm thinking and overcome fear, to be used of Him with all the gifts He gives. And there came that place where, hey, Moses performed a miracle of God and they backed away. THE DUTIES AND THE QUALITIES OF AN APOSTLE ( 2 Timothy 3:10-13 ). The woman protests that she has never done so and cannot do so. (v) Paul makes a final point. Paul's life contrasted with the world. Parakolouthein ( G3877) is indeed the word for the disciple, for it includes the unwavering loyalty of the true comrade, the full understanding of the true scholar and the complete obedience of the dedicated servant. THE QUALITIES OF GODLESSNESS ( 2 Timothy 3:2-5 continued). "Put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers. More and more the Christian is a marked person because the more corrupt the world becomes, the more the Christian stands out. Paul goes on to other qualities of an apostle. It was a kindred error, though in an opposite direction, to that which false teachers sought to infuse among the Thessalonians: there that the day of the Lord was come, producing panic; here that the resurrection was past, leading, to ease. Things are very much taking this direction of late, and at the present moment. The age of children is the learning age; and those who would get true learning must get it out of the scriptures. The Greek verb kratein ( G2902) means to control. Oh I know it costs more but . He brings out the infinite value of the Scriptures, that is of what was written, the one transcendent resource for perilous times when we have not the presence and personal help of apostles. "That thou hast had good teachers. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. At that time Timothy was just a very young boy, probably in his mid-teens and yet he was attracted to Paul the apostle because of the message that Paul bore. It is well to be exclusive of sin, but of nothing else. Anosios does not so much mean that men will break the written laws; it means that they will offend against the unwritten laws which are part and parcel of the essence of life. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus 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 life is hid, and who live by faith upon him; all such that live, and that will live so, are desirous of living after this manner; in whom God has wrought in them both to will and to do, and are concerned when it is otherwise with them: these. Perverse Men 2 Timothy 3:2-4 . Don't start messing with it. [3.] Comp. By this general statement, therefore, Paul classes himself with the children of God, and, at the same time, exhorts all the children of God to prepare for enduring persecutions; for, if this condition is laid down for all who wish to live a godly life in Christ, they who wish to be exempt from persecutions must necessarily renounce Christ. And when you lose authority you have anarchy. It may well be a proof of Timothy's courage and consecration that he had seen very clearly what could happen to an apostle and had yet not hesitated to cast in his lot with Paul. It is used in Matthew 8:28 to describe the two Gergesene demoniacs who met Jesus among the tombs. C. Description of His Present Resource 2 Timothy 3:13-17. The one was suited to upset the young, the other to beguile the old. What Does It Really Mean That Your Body Is a Temple? Timothy had a great advantage in being trained up under such a tutor, and being apprised of the doctrine he preached. The reason is obvious. Though his life was a life of great usefulness, yet it was a life of great sufferings; and none, I believe, came nearer to their great Master for eminent services and great sufferings than Paul: he suffered almost in every place; the Holy Ghost witnessed that bonds and afflictions did abide him, Acts 20:23. The same tone of mercy is equally promised in this #epistle as in the last. When we know the afflictions of believers only in part, they tempt us to decline the cause for which they suffer. 2 Timothy 3:12. The New Testament had not yet been canonized. 2 Timothy 3 Commentary; 2 Timothy 4 Commentary; HENRY ALFORD 2 TIMOTHY COMMENTARY The Greek Testament. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines; for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,Hebrews 13:9. This is the right thing to do. This time he was a Christian minister, and it was to the reading of the books that he attributed his change. 2 Timothy 3:12, NASB: Indeed, all who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. On account of his opinions, he may be held up to ridicule, or treated with neglect, or excluded from society to which his attainments and manners would otherwise introduce him, or shunned by those who might otherwise value his friendship. It was not then an indifferent matter to God. Vincent, Marvin R., D.D. "Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. When the Lord was entering on His ministry He says, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" Even a dog may be sorry when he has hurt his master, but there are people who, in their treatment of others, can be lost to human sympathy and feeling. The technique would be the same in the days of Timothy as it was in the later days of Irenaeus. Fear and timidity will keep us from using the gifts God gives. 2 Timothy 3:12, "Yes, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution.". Things will get worse as people turn away from those who teach the Scriptures, and listen to those who teach their own theories. Here the apostle, to confirm Timothy in that way wherein he walked. For him the light of eternity already shone strongly on present things, instead of taking him completely out of them. Resurrection is the form and character of the lowest blessings of which Jesus is the dispenser; much more is He risen to exalt God in the highest. Heavenly Father, thank You for the privilege of being one with Christ, positioned in Him, and clothed in His righteousness. They just are irritated by your love and by your patience and by your goodness because they feel guilty. Because the true child of God brings the worldly person under conviction. And man has prepared a great fish and they powered it with atomic engines. It was thus Paul treated the proud reasonings and speculations of man; withal briefly touching on those that had gone entirely astray Hymenaeus and Philetus. So you have to be careful when you start chipping it away at one side because the whole thing will come down on you. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers," what singular language this from Paul! The alazon ( G213) was a mountebank who wandered the country with medicines and spells and methods of exorcism which, he claimed, were panaceas for all diseases. Socrates skid that they were to be found in every walk of life but were worst of all in politics. Here we have him recurring to that which was entirely outside nature, and before its very platform existed. That the man of God may be perfect ( 2 Timothy 3:17 ). Right out of the gate, Second Timothy presents itself as a conservative letter, understanding "conservative" in the most literal sense of the word. This is a very striking word. There was the great trade route from the Euphrates valley which came by way of Colosse and Laodicea and poured the wealth of the east into the lap of Ephesus. Whatever therefore may be right in certain cases, the assembly of God ought never to be forced to put every case on the same dead level ought never to be bound by any special process, as if it were unalterable. Men will be disobedient to their parents. He warns Timothy of the fatal end of seducers, as a reason why he should stick closely to the truth as it is in Jesus: But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, c., 2 Timothy 3:13; 2 Timothy 3:13. One must try disorders and prove profession. E. F. Brown has pointed out the danger of what he calls "intellectual curiosity without moral earnestness." The true leader gives training in living. Verse 2 Timothy 3:4. And then again "the husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits." "Because ye are not of the world therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19; Matthew 10:22,38,39). 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. But now before his heart just as in principle before the dying Lord Himself, wonderful to say two things come together: a deeper sense of what is in God, as revealed in Christ Himself, before there was any creation at all; and on the other hand so much the deeper sense also of what could be owned in nature. We must remember that they were Gnostics and that the basic principle of Gnosticism was that spirit was altogether good and matter altogether evil. And that's what creates the problem all the way through. godly, Godfearingly. The persecutions today may not be the same Paul had to withstand, but persecutions of some type will confront us from time to time. For "all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1977. Besides that, persecutions today are manifested much more indirectly. He tells such women that by his spells and incantations he can enable them to prophesy. "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life" (he must be unencumbered, and undivided in his object); "that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. She doesn't have the time to prepare the meal on Friday evening and we'll go out on Friday night. But continue thou in the things which you have learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus ( 2 Timothy 3:14-15 ). Those who would acquaint themselves with the things of God, and be assured of them, must know the holy scriptures, for these are the summary of divine revelation. Men will refuse to recognize even the ultimate decencies of life. (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. At the same time He will have them undividedly for Himself; and He is also jealous of the way in which they seek even the ends of God. But I can't believe what I see in some of these restaurants over here in the Irvine industrial business center. It imagines "the faith" as something to be guarded (see 2 Timothy 1:14), lest it become corrupted or . It is often a very great safeguard for the saint of God; for, after all, it makes no small difference who says this or that. And so Paul is warning Timothy of certain things that will be transpiring in the last days. There is instinctively, I think, within persons that love of a parent for a child or an adult for the child because we realize the helplessness of a child, the dependency that they have. Now, it is doubtless as true as it ever was, that a man who will live as the Saviour did, will, like him, be subjected to some such injury or disadvantage. This chapter has a vivid description of the great apostasy (2 Timothy 3:1-9), signs of which were already present, an appeal to Paul's own inspiring and inspired example (2 Timothy 3:10-15), and one of the most impressive paragraphs in all the Bible with reference to the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16,17).For more extensive discussion of the apostasy, the man of . How appropriate that "trucebreakers" is for this day. Here we find the perilous times fairly brought before us. Second, there are the qualities of the apostle. THE EXPERIENCES OF AN APOSTLE ( 2 Timothy 3:10-13 continued). Ephesus was the town of a prosperous, materialistic civilization; it was the kind of town where a man could so easily lose his soul. If there is no human affection, the family cannot exist. And this, I apprehend, is the reason. The man who is mastered by his lower passions will gratify them in the most shameless way, as the streets of any great city will show when the night is late. How many people who have stood before God and have pledged for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part; and yet again, the high divorce rate. Titus, we know, did so; but God took care that it should never be positively stated about Timothy. 1. He flung the New Testament on it. 4. There are persons who think that the approach of death is intended to blot out everything here. 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. And there's such a complete, total absence of love. Timothy's job, for the sake of the future, involves more preservation than innovation. That is why the church which has no Bible Class is a church in whose work an essential element is missing. (iv) The Scriptures are of use for correction. 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. [2.] In between there was The Day of the Lord, a day when God would personally intervene and shatter the world in order to remake it. 9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. We are not meant to titillate our minds with the latest intellectual crazes; we are meant to purify and strengthen ourselves in the moral battle to live the Christian life. It is not enough to be satisfied when a church is humming like a dynamo and every night in the week has its own crowded organization. They worship self instead of God. The apostle's life was very exemplary for three things: for his doctrine, which was according to the will of God; for his life, which was agreeable to his doctrine; and for his persecutions and sufferings. Indeed, all who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Possibly he did appoint them; but there is no scriptural proof of it. His own desire after going to the Lord did not prevent this, but the reverse: "that I may be filled with joy: 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." But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. At the same time there is the carrying on his full notice of everything found here below that would be a source of comfort to one who anticipated the ruin of Christendom. It should be considered as one of the proper qualifications for membership in the church, to be willing to bear persecution, and to resolve not to shrink from any duty in order to avoid it. "Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." Help us purchase electrical generators for churches. It was only to be expected that certain women would not know how to use their new liberty. Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Second Timothy chapter three? 2 Timothy 3:12 New International Version 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, Read full chapter 2 Timothy 3:12 in all English translations 2 Timothy 2 2 Timothy 4 New International Version (NIV) Nor do I at all see that any Christians should be above learning, if others can teach. [3.] What am I to believe about man? He directs him to keep close to a good education, and particularly to what he had learned out of the holy scriptures (2 Timothy 3:14; 2 Timothy 3:15): Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned. Men will be lovers of their own selves ( 2 Timothy 3:2 ). Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution - Paul takes occasion from the reference to his own persecutions, to say that his case was not unique. 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.

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