There would come a kind of terrible flowering of evil, when the moral foundations seemed to be shaken. To take pains and to endure are requisite even in what pertains to this life. The scriptures we are to know are the holy scriptures; they come from the holy God, were delivered by holy men, contain holy precepts, treat of holy things, and were designed to make us holy and to lead us in the way of holiness to happiness; being called the holy scriptures, they are by this distinguished from profane writings of all sorts, and from those that only treat morality, and common justice and honesty, but do not meddle with holiness. 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 Timothy had been schooled in the Scriptures from his early youth by his mother and grandmother, and so as Paul began to, with the Scriptures, prove that Jesus was the Messiah, with Timothy's background, he could see the truth of it. (2) They who are persecuted for their opinions, should consider that this may be one evidence that they have the spirit of Christ, and are his true friends. The result would often be either that the woman broke off married relationships with her husband in order to live the ascetic life, or that she gave the lower instincts full play and abandoned herself to promiscuous relationships. Didn't you know that's just a myth? Their falsity would be demonstrated and they would receive their appropriate reward. The peculiar task confided to the latter was care of doctrine much more than of outward order. 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. But no man ought to separate himself from the children of God, unless it be a dire necessity for the Lord; it is clearly not according to Christ. They will be inflated with a sense of their own importance. The essence of persecution consists in subjecting a person to injury or disadvantage on account of his opinions. It is something more than meeting his opinions by argument, which is always right and proper; it is inflicting some injury on him; depriving him of some privilege, or right; subjecting him to some disadvantage, or placing him in less favorable circumstances, on account of his sentiments. (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. repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. Trench, Richard Chenevix, D.D. "Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions." "Much the greatest rogue of all is the man who has gulled his city into the belief that he is fit to direct it.". I'm just saying, Hey, I am stupid and I lack an understanding. 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. 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. Turning to the SECOND EPISTLE, we find that, although there is the same grand truth of the Saviour God maintained, the state of things had become sensibly worse, and the hour for the apostle's departure from the world was drawing near. 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. Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man" ( Luke 17:26 ). Paul kept back nothing from his hearers, but declared to them the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), so that if it were not their own fault they might fully know it. "Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.". 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. So from his earliest childhood Timothy had known the sacred writings. Verse 1. There is just a certain natural love that would keep people from doing a lot of the things they are doing today. 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. In 2 Timothy 3:9 he meant that the teaching of evil does not necessarily become more extensive and capture a wider audience as evil becomes worse. It is interesting, when Jesus in the Sermon on the mount described the Christian in the Beatitudes, after having described the traits of the Christian in the Beatitudes; you'd say, My, a man like that who is a peacemaker, who is merciful, who is hungering and thirsting after righteousness, who is meek, who is poor in spirit, surely you know the world would respect such a man. You've made a covenant and there are so many broken covenants. His mind was caught; he took it back. Only Luke is with me." This is a very striking word. Even if we look at Him so, He was raised from the dead. But the apostle remembered it all, felt deeply for if not with him, and greatly desiring to see him once more. The Kingdom had its price. He went home and found the fire was out. She had waded through book after book and laboured with philosophy after philosophy in an attempt to find satisfaction. But we must exclude that which is contrary to His name; and the very same desire to prove one's love, one's faith, one's appreciation of Christ, will make one anxious not to be dragged into that which is not for His glory. The word we have translated to be a disciple includes so much that is beyond translation in any single English word. It is a divine revelation, which we may depend upon as infallibly true. There is a type of person who is eager to discuss every new theory, who is always to be found deeply involved in the latest fashionable religious movement, but who is quite unwilling to accept the day-to-day discipline--even drudgery--of living the Christian life. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL God is right. And there's such a complete, total absence of love. Our God is much too small. Thus it was that God had made him: there was no use denying it. And for this reason we should continue in the things we have learned from the holy scriptures; not that we ought to continue in any errors and mistakes which we may have been led into, in the time of our childhood and youth (for these, upon an impartial enquiry and full conviction, we should forsake); but this makes nothing against our continuing in those things which the holy scriptures plainly assert, and which he that runs may read. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived ( 2 Timothy 3:13 ). In 2 Timothy 3:13 he meant that evil becomes more intensive as time goes on. 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. It is our duty to use our minds and set them adventuring; but the test must ever be agreement with the teaching of Jesus Christ as the Scriptures present it to us. 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 is no accident that the first of these qualities will be a life that is centred in self. (3) if we are persecuted, we should carefully inquire, before we avail ourselves of this consolation, whether we are persecuted because we "live godly in Christ Jesus," or for some other reason. In contrast, the sins of "evil people and impostors" can be expected to get worse and worse. Nowadays we have to restate these old pictures in modern terms. (i) He says that the Scriptures give the wisdom which will bring salvation. 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. Noah escaped? 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. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come ( 2 Timothy 3:1 ). More and more the Christian is a marked person because the more corrupt the world becomes, the more the Christian stands out. Rather than a verse-by-verse approach, the authors have crafted chapters that explain and apply key passages in their assigned Bible books. It would not be accordant with the mind of God. Still the man has become crude, blasphemous, ranting and raving, a disgrace to Jesus Christ who said, "By this sign shall men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another" ( John 13:34 ). 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. A man has sunk far when he finds even the presence of good people something which he would only wish to avoid. 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 is training. If they had been more faithful, and more like their Master, would they have always escaped? Of course it was infinitely higher, it is needless to say, in the Master; but the servant was as closely as possible following in His steps. Assuredly he would rejoice to scare Timothy from the field of serving Christ, and would shrink from no means to secure it. Men will be ungovernable in their desires (akrates, G193) . 12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And I filed many scriptures in that file. We must remember that they were Gnostics and that the basic principle of Gnosticism was that spirit was altogether good and matter altogether evil. 2 Timothy 3:12, CSB: In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But then another thing. He speaks of "all God-inspired scripture." He tells such women that by his spells and incantations he can enable them to prophesy. The final condemnation of these people is that they retain the outward form of religion but deny its power. 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. And leaving guilelessness, will draw near to malice; And forsaking the commandments of the Lord. With this prospect he comforts Timothy no less than his own spirit; but at the same time he speaks as to joining him, with a glance at one that had forsaken him. Vincent, Marvin R., D.D. It is the word alazon ( G213) and was derived from the ale, which means a wandering about. In the Old Testament they are not named, but they are referred to in Exodus 7:11; Exodus 8:7; Exodus 9:11. Here is the essential conclusion. And they were able to imitate the workings of God up to a point and then they came to the place where they were backed down by Moses, but "men of corrupt minds, they are reprobate concerning the faith. But we have also been supplied with many precious promises which reassure us that His grace is sufficient, His strength is perfected in our weakness, that suffering for Christ's sake is a privilege for the child of God, and that no amount of trials, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword, is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.May we grasp this truth in His strength, and remember that in this world we will have tribulation but that if we fellowship in the suffering of Christ, we will also be glorified with Him Who loved us so much that He died for us, that we might live for Him forever. Christianity changed all that and a new set of problems arose. Activity of service was no longer before him. 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." (ii) The Scriptures are of use in teaching. It is said that, after hearing an evangelical sermon, Lord Melbourne once remarked: "Things have come to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade the sphere of private life." It answers all the ends of divine revelation. It is used by ancient writers on astrology to describe what we would call a threatening conjunction of the heavenly bodies. And he was probably in the company of those that were standing around, sort of crying, as they saw Paul's limp body on the ground. "To Timothy, my dearly-beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3:10-13 But you have been my disciple in my teaching, my training, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance, my persecutions, my sufferings, in what happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, in the persecutions which I underwent; and the Lord rescued me from them all. Observe, (1.) She had been finding life, as she herself said, futile and meaningless. Blasphemia is the word which is transliterated into English as blasphemy. Next he comes to a more personal need. 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. 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. Verse 4. 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. e Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.. Guard the Deposit Entrusted to You. And a less confession than this God never permitted the church to accept; nor in fact in Jerusalem itself was less ever accepted than the naming the name of the Lord. 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. 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. Nothing can sanction this. For that very reason it is unanswerable that, whatever a man might argue about the rest of the Bible, it is impossible for the Church ever to do without the Gospels. All you can say is that they are "without natural affection".God has put in our heart a certain natural love as a parent for a child. So we find that God knows how to temper the bitter with the sweet, always doing the right thing in the right place and time. And a servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle toward all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness correcting those that oppose, if perhaps God may give them repentance for acknowledgment of the truth, and they may for his will wake up out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him." 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. The scripture is a perfect rule of faith and practice, and was designed for the man of God, the minister as well as the Christian who is devoted to God, for it is profitable for doctrine, &c. "Blessed is he who will come in the name of the Lord" ( Psalms 118:26 ). 3:1 You must realize this--that in the last days difficult times will set in. She doesn't have the time to prepare the meal on Friday evening and we'll go out on Friday night. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. Storge is the word used especially of family love, the love of child for parent and parent for child. 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) And indeed the world easily wears that mask of religion which depends on itself; but the piety which flourishes directly from, is very hateful, as it was to the old Jews, so to the modern Christians, who are without any token of good, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers. "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.". The Jehovah Witnesses seeking to develop their doctrine concerning hell and that it is a place of oblivion, no consciousness, no awareness. "Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. We don't have the time to devote to it this evening but I would suggest that you get a good Greek lexicon and do a word study on these particular Greek words that Paul uses to describe the attitudes and the actions of people in the last days. Product Information. "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 ). That Day of the Lord was to be preceded by a time of terror, when evil would gather itself for its final assault and the world would be shaken to its moral and physical foundations. 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 ). And, let every one that nameth the name" not of "Christ," but "of the Lord depart from iniquity." THE DUTIES AND THE QUALITIES OF AN APOSTLE ( 2 Timothy 3:10-13 ). My wife and I eat out quite a bit. The New Testament had not yet been canonized. 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 Greek for slanderer is diabolos ( G1228) which is precisely the English word devil. The Christian leader will never lack his opponents. In either case the word describes a certain harshness of mind which separates a man from his fellow-men in unrelenting bitterness. 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 whole concept of redemption is wrapped up in the Old Testament. 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. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Thou hast fully known my afflictions. If there is no human affection, the family cannot exist. It is well to be exclusive of sin, but of nothing else. The prophets and apostles did not speak from themselves, but what they received of the Lord that they delivered unto us. It opened at the Sermon on the Mount. "Reprobate concerning the faith.". "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise." 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. And as we go down the list, it's like reading the afternoon newspaper. For "all scripture is given by inspiration of God. [2.] "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day." (See notes Matthew 5:10, 11, 12) It is one thing to start an evil and untrue report on its malicious way; it is entirely another thing to stop it. Proud member 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. Robertson, Archibald Thomas. Then he points out the two principal guards for the faithful, in such a perilous state. Theophylact called this kind of pride akropolis (compare G206 and G4172) kakon ( G2556) , the citadel of evils. Now I'm not about to say God was wrong. Paul goes on to other qualities of an apostle. If, in any manner, or in any way, he is subjected to disadvantage on account of his religious opinions, and deprived of any immunities and rights to which he would be otherwise entitled, this is persecution. Death and resurrection, then, are thus put before this servant of God; the more remarkably, because the point here is a practical and not a doctrinal question. There are persons who think that the approach of death is intended to blot out everything here. One day they said to Jesus, Show us a sign. This I cannot but consider as a proof of want of faith. [3.] They will maintain the outward form of religion, but they will deny its power. When God came on the scene and entered the conversation with his friends? One only meets Satan when traveling in an opposite direction! And this, I apprehend, is the reason. This present age was altogether evil; and the age to come would be the golden age of God. "Trucebreakers". Socrates skid that they were to be found in every walk of life but were worst of all in politics. The age of children is the learning age; and those who would get true learning must get it out of the scriptures. 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. Confirmed that Noah was a real person and it was a real event. Thank You that Your grace is sufficient for any attack that the evil enemy of my soul can throw at me, and that nothing can ever separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. I think we've gone just about as far as we can. 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. This was to reverse the lesson of a risen Christ, and to open the way for all laxity. In either case home and family life were destroyed. It has been pointed out that the writer of Revelation may well have been thinking of Ephesus when he wrote that haunting passage which describes the merchandise of men: "The cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls" ( Revelation 18:12-13). So I become the authority if I make such an affirmation to you. We have already seen that that teaching issued in one of two things. Paul concludes this section with an appeal to Timothy to remain loyal to all the teaching he had received. 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. On the other hand, it is unholy to tamper with evil. Questions are before him more serious than a maintenance of order. ( 2 Timothy 3:1) Perilous times in the last days . Instead of hiding either from Timothy, he points all out to him. I. To the Greek it was anosios ( G462) to refuse burial to the dead; it was anosios ( G462) for a brother to marry a sister, or a son a mother. Real teaching is always born of real experience. That persecution which will properly furnish any evidence that we are the friends of Christ, must be only that which is "for righteousness sake" Matthew 5:10, and must be brought upon us in an honest effort to obey the commands of God. And yet, it is becoming in this hedonistic society commonplace, all too commonplace, tragically commonplace. 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. Well soon your Bible will be so messed up you wouldn't be able to read it. Those who would learn the things of God, and be assured of them, must know the Holy Scriptures, for they are the Divine revelation. human nature began to show itself out in indifference. Christian life is a life of purpose. A book with a record such as it has cannot be disregarded. And suddenly, of course, their tears were changed because Paul began to breathe and move and he stood up and he said, Let's go back in and preach some more. Paul completes the story of the things in which Timothy has shared, and must share, with him, by speaking of the experiences of an apostle; and he prefaces that list of experiences by setting down the quality of endurance. The early Church lived in an age when the time was waxing late; they expected the Second Coming at any moment. As far as appointment went, Titus had a commission to establish elders in each city of Crete; but not so Timothy, as far as the inspired records speak. Even an unbeliever is acting unfairly unless he tries to read it. But the apostle at the same time owns, and loves to own, that which another might perhaps despise. And so Paul, you know, how I've lived; my faith, my longsuffering, my love, my patience, and the persecutions and afflictions that came to me. 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. The Christian emancipation of women inevitably brought its problems. godly, Godfearingly. And then again "the husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits." The great thing is to do the will of God, let others say what they please; and so the apostle Paul exhorts Timothy. At this particular time in the ordinary matters of politics one of the curses of Rome was the existence of informers (delatores, compare G1213) . Without natural affection ( 2 Timothy 3:3 ). They had been long accustomed to the truth, and alas! a) Subject and Purpose of Epistle This second epistle which was written several years after the first draws a totally different picture before our eyes. The word is propetes ( G4312) , precipitate. It was the glory of the Jews that their children from their earliest days were trained in the law. 10 million Ukrainians without power because of Russia. The Greek moralists wrote much about this word. "In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. Ephesus was the town of a prosperous, materialistic civilization; it was the kind of town where a man could so easily lose his soul. Possibly he did appoint them; but there is no scriptural proof of it. It is well to maintain the largest heart for everything that is really of Christ. But they do enshrine the permanent truth that some time there must come the consummation when evil meets God in head-on collision and there comes the final triumph of God. There is no part of John's doctrine more strikingly characteristic than life in Christ. The woman, thrilled to the heart, does so and is deluded into thinking that she can prophesy. This might deter a sensitive saint from his duty. It is easy for a professed Christian to avoid persecution, if he yields every point in which religion is opposed to the world. If a man's goods are stolen, he can set to and build up his fortunes again; but if his good name is taken away, irreparable damage has been done. Surely if it is an urgent call to convey what we know of Christ and the truth to those that know nothing, it is a great privilege to help to contribute a greater knowledge of the truth to those that know little.
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