Grace Points: Responsibility and Discipline- or -2 TIMOTHY 2:15 IN CONTEXT

How precious has 2 Timothy 2:15 become to sincere students of the Word of God! What joy they have found in practicing it!

This important passage of Scripture shows us how teachers of the Word may be "approved unto God," workmen not needing to be ashamed. To be thus approved, says the apostle, will require "Study," with a view to "rightly dividing the Word of truth." May God help us always to cherish this priceless passage as a motto in our service for Christ.

But while 11 Timothy 2:15 has become so precious to those who truly desire to understand and obey God's will, its context has been so sadly neglected that most believers, indeed many pastors and teachers, would hardly know off-hand what the preceeding and succeeding verses of this chapter are about.

In general the context, along with the verse itself, declares that the proclamation of God's Word is serious business, that the Bible is not to be diluted or weakened by shallow, foolish interpretations or conclusions. Thus the preceding context emphasizes the responsibilities of those who would serve Christ, while the succeeding context emphasizes the need for discipline in our lives. Where there is responsibility there must always be discipline-mostly self-discipline.

In Vers. 1-14 the apostle emphasizes the grave responsibilities associated with service for Christ:

Ver. 1: The man of God (This entire chapter offers special help to younger men of God Note: "my son" [Ver. 1; cf. 1 Tim. 4:12]).must be strong. Weaklings are no match for the world, the flesh and the devil. Yet he must not be strong in himself, flexing his muscles, as it were, in defiance of his enemies. Rather he must be "Strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Strengthened thus by grace there will be no reason to quail before the adversary, for "if God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31).

Ver. 2: He must "commit" the truths he has learned to "faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." To stand alone is noble when necessary, but it is better for the man of God to prepare others to fight the battle with him and, possibly, to carry on the contest when he is gone.

Vers. 3,4: He must "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Soldiers in this world's armies are often taught to be hard, but the good soldier of Jesus Christ must be willing to "endure hardness," as did our Lord and His Apostle Paul. Indeed, it has been well said that the measure of true greatness in a soldier is not how much he can "give" of injury and pain, but how much he can "take," how much he can endure, how much it will take to make him give up.

Nor will a good soldier of Jesus Christ "entangle himself with the affairs of this life." Rather, he will sacrifice himself and all he has to "please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."(See the writer's commentary on the Pastoral Epistles for an explanation of the words, "Him who hath chosen him.")

Ver. 5: He must follow the directions and rules laid down by God-and he will certainly not be "approved unto God" if he fails to rightly divide the Word of truth (Ver. 15), any more than the athlete will be "crowned" if he does not strive "lawfully," i.e., according to the rules of the contest.

Ver. 6: He must be willing to work if he would reap fruit from his labors. It is the "husbandman," or farmer who labors who gets to be the "first partaker of the fruits."

Becoming more specific in Vers. 7-10, particularly with respect to our responsibilities under Ver. 15, the apostle declares that we should clearly understand and proclaim the revelation committed to him, Paul, as distinguished from that which the twelve had been sent to preach, and that they must preach this no matter what the cost. Hear him exhort young Timothy:

" Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David (This is how Peter and twelve had preached Christ [See Acts 2:29-31]), was raised from the dead according to my gospel [cf., Rom. 16:25]:

" Wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds, but the Word of God is not bound" (Vers. 7-9).

How glorious is the message committed to Paul with regard to the resurrection of Christ! Christ raised from the dead to confirm our justification (Rom. 4:25); we raised with Him (Eph. 2:5, 6; Col. 3:1-3), to experience "the exceeding greatness of [God's] power to usward who believe'' (Eph. 1:19). And this power is nothing less than the power. . .

" Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places,

" Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come" (Eph. 2:20, 2 1).

" Consider" it well, Christian friend, and "remember" it carefully: this is the message committed to the Apostle Paul, and the message he enjoins us to proclaim faithfully whatever the cost. To him personally this great message was worth proclaiming from the housetops, be the cost ever so great (Ver. 10).

Finally, in Vers. 11-14, he admonishes young Timothy-and us: Only if we "be dead" with Christ (i.e., recognizing His death as our death, and thus having died with Him-Rom. 6:3), can we share in His resurrection life and His "eternal glory"; only if we suffer with Him will we reign with Him -and lest this be taken lightly, he adds: "if we deny Him, He also will deny us, i.e., deny us the privilege of reigning with Him. Yet He always "abideth faithful"; no one will ever suffer loss in that day because He failed to keep His word" (Vers. 11-13).

" Of these things," says Paul, "put them in remembrance," lest they neglect their responsibility to fulfil their commission and descend to "strife about words," and experience the inevitable results (Ver. 14). Also, he would have them accept these exhortations without petty quibbling.

In acceptable service for Christ there is also a negative side. This is introduced, actually, in Ver. 14 where, instructing Timothy to "put them in remembrance" of the foregoing positive requirements, he adds the words: "charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words, to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers."

One cannot successfully erect a building without an awareness of wrong procedures to be avoided. Thus, as the preceding context to 2 Tim. 2:15 is positive in character, the succeeding is negative in character with Ver. 14 being the link between the two. Ver.14, then, introduces us to 2 Tim. 2:15 and the verses that follow to the end of the chapter. In these verses we find such negative phrases as: "Strive not about words," "Shun profane and vain babblings," "depart from iniquity," "flee youthful lusts," and "foolish and unlearned questions avoid." And note, the majority of these have to do with irresponsible discussion.

It is quite natural to find the apostle urging his "son in the faith" to "flee (as the hare from the hounds)youthful lusts" (Ver. 22), and to eschew "Iniquity" (Ver. 19), but it should be noted that the apostle's most urgent warnings are against what we might designate, generally, as loose talk: "Strive not about words," he says; "shun profane for "unhallowed"] and vain babblings"; "foolish and unlearned questions avoid" (Vers. 14, 16,23).

One current example of this "strife about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers" is unquestionably strife over the King James Version of the Bible, stemming largely from a misinterpretation of Psa. 12:6,7. "There it is!" they say, "God has said He would 'preserve' the very W-O-R-D-S of Scripture 'from this generation (This would have to be David's generation) forever."' And from this they go on to argue that God has preserved the very words of the original manuscripts for us in the King James Version of the Bible. When the folly of this is exposed they further strive about words, arguing that while the King James Version is not inspired or inerrant, it is such an exact translation of the original MSS that God has thus preserved His Word for us after all in the King James Version-only in the King James Version, of course, which has no "mistakes." And thus they logically cut off all the study of the original languages, through which our understanding and enjoyment of the Scriptures has been so greatly enriched.

Here we hasten to say that we too believe that God has preserved His Word for us in a wonderful way, but not in one book alone, let alone one translation into one language, and that not until 1611 A.D., and before that only in "a vast multiplicity of copies"! To promote such "foolish and unlearned questions" does indeed "gender strifes"

(Ver. 23). This is why we are told to "avoid" them (ibid). We, at Berean Bible Society are in a position to know something of the arguments and debates over this subject, all so profitless, and drawing away interest and attention from "the Preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery," which establishes God's saints in the truth and which we have been commanded to proclaim faithfully (See Rom. 16:25; and 2 Tim. 2:7-9 above).

Paul himself gives us an illustration of the results of hindering the proclamation of the Word by such diversions, and failure to study them carefully in the light of the whole Word, rightly divided.

Hymenaeus and Philetus were preaching "that the resurrection is past already" (Vers. 17,18). Which resurrection? Surely not our Lord's resurrection, for this was past, a well-known matter of history. Did they refer, then, to the resurrection of the lost? Hardly, for that was still as obviously future as the resurrection of Christ was obviously past. What they evidently taught, then, was that the resurrection of believers in Christ was past already. Oh, it was wonderful! Paul had already written to the Ephesians (Eph. 2:5,6) and to the Colossians (Col. 3:1-3) that believers in Christ have been raised with Him and made to sit with Him in the heavenlies, "blessed with all spiritual blessings."

What these brethren had done was to confuse the believer's position in Christ with his present condition; his standing with his state. They did not deny the resurrection; they simply misplaced it, failing to "rightly divide the Word of truth," both as to time and as to the distinction between the believer's standing and his state.

The result: there naturally followed arguments and strife between the believers, and the faith of some was-shaken? No, Paul says, "they overthrow the faith of some" (Ver. 18). This is a serious consequence (Which we have witnessed) of what the apostle calls "profane and vain babbling" Wer. 16). Elsewhere he states that Hymanaeus himself had already made "shipwreck" concerning the faith (It should be noted that Hymanaeus had also "put away a good conscience" in introducing his false teaching [1 Tim. 1:19,20]. How often, in the record of Scripture unsound teaching is brought in surreptitiously [cf., Gal. 2:4 with Eph. 4:14]) and had to be "given up," as it were, to Satan to learn his lesson (1 Tim. 1:19,20) ' Surely the apostle does not mean that either Hymanaeus or his followers were now lost, but rather that they had made shipwreck of "the faith," and now their faith had been overthrown as far as their Christian experience was concerned. Their testimony had been destroyed.

May God in His grace convict us all of the importance of these negatives, these warnings, so closely associated in Scripture with 2 Tim. 2:15, lest we make shipwreck concerning the (The Greek contains the definite article) faith rather than finally being able to say with Paul, "I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7). Meantime:

" if a man therefore purge himself from these, (both moral sins and illegitimate uses of Scriptures [see verses 14-19]) he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE, AND PREPARED UNTO EVERY GOOD WORK" (Ver. 21).