The coming of the Lord will in no way manifest the faithfulness of the servant; His appearing will. (4) Let those who have never been persecuted in any way, inquire whether it is not an evidence that they have no religion. It follows from this: (1) That they who make a profession of religion, should come prepared to be persecuted. "That thou hast had good teachers. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Now many people have a legitimate and proper desire to be used of God. Look at our attitudes towards morality. Paul's life: one of faith. Men will be ungovernable in their desires (akrates, G193) . 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. And leaving guilelessness, will draw near to malice; And forsaking the commandments of the Lord. for reproof, for correction ( 2 Timothy 3:16 ), And how often the word of God has brought correction to my course of life. The adjective used is philautos ( G5367) , which means self-loving. We must remember that they were Gnostics and that the basic principle of Gnosticism was that spirit was altogether good and matter altogether evil. Matthew 10:22-23; Luke 21:12; John 15:20; Acts 14:22; 1 Thessalonians 3:4). Get out your pen and take out the red, put the blue one. 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. 2 Timothy 3: Bible Study, Commentary and Summary thoroughly furnished unto all good works ( 2 Timothy 3:17 ). As teachers we should sometimes ask ourselves: what am I trying to do with these people whom I teach? 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). "Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry." At the end of each reading, the brigand said: "That's a good book; we won't burn that one; give it to me." 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. for it is evident that there have been many godly persons who have never suffered banishment, or imprisonment, or flight, or any kind of persecution. Thus it was that God had made him: there was no use denying it. It is the sign of a man of honour that he pays his debts; and for every man there is a debt to God and there are debts to his fellow-men, which he must remember and repay. We have already seen how secluded the life of the respectable Greek woman was, how she was brought up under the strictest supervision, how she was not allowed "to see anything, to hear anything, or to ask any questions," how she never appeared, even on a shopping expedition, alone on the streets, how she was never allowed even to appear at a public meeting. He is sure that God will rescue the man who puts his faith in him. 2 Timothy 3:12, NLT: Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 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. In these terrible days men would be braggarts and arrogant. More and more the Christian is a marked person because the more corrupt the world becomes, the more the Christian stands out. Now it is interesting that as Paul is referring to the Scriptures here, he is, of course, referring to the Old Testament Scriptures. Christ's apostles had no enemies but those who did not know them, or not know them fully; those who knew them best loved and honoured them the most. What is a man well taught in the truth for, if not to communicate his knowledge to others that are faithful, but not equally instructed in the word of God? Vincent, Marvin R., D.D. 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. In Greek writings these two words often went together; and they are both picturesque. (8) Using the boldness God gives, don't be ashamed of the imprisoned apostle. I think the next major event, Revelation 4:1 . "To Timothy, my dearly-beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Consider of whom thou hast learned them; not of evil men and seducers, but good men, who had themselves experienced the power of the truths they taught thee, and been ready to suffer for them, and thereby would give the fullest evidence of their belief of these truths." There is no part of John's doctrine more strikingly characteristic than life in Christ. Persecution and hardships will come, but of two things Paul is sure. 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. The woman, thrilled to the heart, does so and is deluded into thinking that she can prophesy. 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. ", The Bible tells about God giving people over to reprobate minds, men who resist God and the truth of God. But after giving the characteristics and traits of the godly man, Jesus then in the final Beatitudes said, "Blessed are ye, when men shall persecute you, and revile you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake" ( Matthew 5:11 ). How comes it so? In the end not a book was burned; the brigand left the colporteur and went off into the darkness with the books. Barnes' Notes. The way of sin is down-hill; for such proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Thayer, Joseph H. Thayers Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. And a hundred and fifty men can board it and they can submerge and go under the North Pole under the arctic ice. From childhood he has been guided by the Scriptures, and his faith in those Scriptures gives him assurance in his salvation (14-15). It is undoubtedly true at all times, and will ever be, that they who are devoted Christians - who live as the Saviour did - and who carry out his principles always, will experience some form of persecution. THE VALUE OF SCRIPTURE ( 2 Timothy 3:14-17 ). And man has prepared a great fish and they powered it with atomic engines. Love of self is the basic sin, from with all others flow. "Reprobate concerning the faith.". 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. They will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Here we come back to where we started; such men place their own wishes in the centre of life. In Brazil Signor Antonio of Minas bought a New Testament which he took home to burn. 3:1 You must realize this--that in the last days difficult times will set in. The word here is makrothumia ( G3115) ; and makrothumia, as the Greeks used it, usually meant patience with people. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975. The closing chapter (2 Timothy 4:1-22) then gives his solemn charge, and at the same time his own expression of what was before him. 1. Be assured, that if you do not bring the Spirit of God into these matters, perhaps your cloak, perhaps a book, will become a snare to you. A word altogether unbecoming in one mouth might be most proper in another. "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.". It is not "the commandment," as of authority, but "according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus." The age of children is the age to learn; and those who would get true learning, must get it out of the Scriptures. And they shall be dispersed among the Gentiles. Observe, As good men, by the grace of God, grow better and better, so bad men, through the subtlety of Satan and the power of their own corruptions, grow worse and worse. Pride always begets insult. He tells him further to "hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. It is no accident that the first of these qualities will be a life that is centred in self. "Because ye are not of the world therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19; Matthew 10:22,38,39). 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." When the Lord was entering on His ministry He says, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" Christianity was cradled in Judaism and very naturally thought largely in Jewish terms and pictures. We must remember that the scripture of which Paul is writing is the Old Testament; as yet the New Testament had not come into being. It is the Greek parakolouthein ( G3877) and literally means to follow alongside; but it is used with a magnificent width of meaning. 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." ". It describes the man who is swept on by passion and impulse to such an extent that he is totally unable to think sensibly. Right out of the gate, Second Timothy presents itself as a conservative letter, understanding "conservative" in the most literal sense of the word. What Does 2 Timothy 3:12 Mean? - Verse of the day 2 Timothy 3 - NIV Bible - But mark this: There will be terrible times Let us then see what Paul says of the usefulness of scripture. false accusers, incontinent ( 2 Timothy 3:3 ). A great many certainly flatter themselves that they are thus favoured; but the cases are uncommon where it is more than pretence. Now, there's nothing wrong with enjoying life. How is it that you could be deceived, Jesus? To love men is to forgive them and care for them as God forgave and cares--and it is only he who can enable us to do that. In the former epistle, Timothy was told how to behave in the house of God, as yet in order; but now we are told how to behave in such a state of things as the present disorder. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary. This the apostle guards Timothy against, and indeed ourselves, he warns him how seduction would go on more and more, but "from such turn away." Paul's life: one of longsuffering, one of love and one of patience. There are persons who think that the approach of death is intended to blot out everything here. 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 . The same tone of mercy is equally promised in this #epistle as in the last. Acts 13:50; Acts 14:5-6,Acts 14:19; Acts 16:1-2). 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. VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. Assuredly he would rejoice to scare Timothy from the field of serving Christ, and would shrink from no means to secure it. He is sure that in the long run it is better to suffer with God and the right than to prosper with men and the wrong. And Paul said, You've known the Holy Scriptures, able to bring you to a faith in Jesus Christ, salvation through the faith in Jesus Christ. It is given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Timothy 3:16), and therefore is his word. It is the ability to accept the folly, the perversity, the blindness, the ingratitude of men and still to remain gracious, and still to toil on. Timothy, again, winced under trials, too sensitive to slights, disappointments, and the manifold griefs that came upon him. 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. 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. "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. 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. It means to follow a person spiritually, not only to understand what he says, but also to carry out his ideas and be the kind of person he wishes us to be. Edited by David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, and Tony Merida, this new commentary series, projected to be 48 volumes, takes a Christ-centered approach to expositing each book of the Bible. Men will be savage. 2 Timothy 3 Commentary - Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible She had never tried the Bible, for a friend had convinced her by subtle arguments that it could not be true. live godly in Christ(Ga 2:20; Php 1:21). It is not simply now to follow these, as urged in the first epistle (1 Timothy 6:11); but he adds a most characteristic word in the second epistle. . Verse 4. (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.. 2. "Evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." The Jehovah Witnesses seeking to develop their doctrine concerning hell and that it is a place of oblivion, no consciousness, no awareness. Well, Jesus has and He told us what to, what it's about in Luke, the sixteenth chapter. The whole concept of redemption is wrapped up in the Old Testament. How are we to walk so as to please the Lord when disorder reigns, claiming to be the only true order? The most amazing things may happen if he does, for there is a saving wisdom here that is in no other book. 6. So if you want God to use your life, then thoroughly equip yourself in the Word of God, the study, the understanding.That's why we're here tonight. All that will live godly So opposite to the spirit and practice of the world is the whole of Christianity, that he who gives himself entirely up to God, making the Holy Scriptures the rule of his words and actions, will be less or more reviled and persecuted. And this, I believe, is much to be considered. They're profitable for doctrine. There is the idea of menace and of danger in this word. At the same time he shows also his sense of the kindness of a particular individual and his family. The woman protests that she has never done so and cannot do so. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, and led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth ( 2 Timothy 3:5-7 ). This sort of atmosphere will mark the last days . Not so the apostle Paul. The numbers of people who flocked to the various athletic contests, loving pleasure. The Christian leader will never lack his opponents. Now this is not given to us in the Scriptures but there are other, what are known as apocryphal books, in which these two fellows are named. It denotes a savagery which has neither sensitiveness nor sympathy. And Jesus himself had said: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake" ( Matthew 5:10). The deterioration, rapid deterioration so that a mother has to worry when she sends her little child to school because she doesn't know what some kinky character might do, exposing themselves to that beautiful little child or even worse. Word Studies in the New Testament. Why then yield to the enemy? They choose to lay, again and again, the early foundations of their Christian faith i.e. 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. 2 Timothy 3:12-17 - Bible Gateway Seeking the Gospel in Malachi, the Last Book of the Old Testament. Proud member It imagines "the faith" as something to be guarded (see 2 Timothy 1:14), lest it become corrupted or . Then in 2 Timothy 3:1-17 he proceeds to show us not merely a picture of the condition that Christianity will fall into, but, besides, a state of things that would be produced by this confusion. If what be claims for scripture is true of the Old Testament, how much truer it is of the still more precious words of the New. Paul met him on his first missionary journey. Enduring Word Bible Commentary 2 Timothy Chapter 3 So don't expect the world to speak well of you or to applaud you for your living a godly life and taking a righteous stand. Paul concludes this section with an appeal to Timothy to remain loyal to all the teaching he had received. "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. 3:6-7 For from among these there come those who enter into houses, and take captive foolish women, laden with sins and driven by varied desires, ready to listen to any teacher but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. It is to be remembered that a man may lose his soul far more easily in prosperity than in adversity; and he is on the way to losing his soul when he assesses the value of life by the number of things which he possesses. It instructs us in that which is true, reproves us for that which is amiss, directs us in that which is good. At this particular time in the ordinary matters of politics one of the curses of Rome was the existence of informers (delatores, compare G1213) . To take pains and to endure are requisite even in what pertains to this life. Men can be savage in rebuke and savage in pitiless action. How appropriate that "trucebreakers" is for this day. Each of the chapters are done individually. Wow, watch out now because Jesus bought it.