The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.

Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.

Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

2 Timothy 2:22-26

²² So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, Love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. ²³ Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. ²⁴ And the Lord’s servant^[a] must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵ correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

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Last week’s post discussed Paul’s comparison of a useful servant to that of a prized vessel or utensil in a household, one which is brought out often, not hidden away.

In today’s verses, Paul explains to Timothy how to be that useful vessel. A lot of this was in 1 Timothy, but it appears that he occasionally lost his way or was about to do so. We don’t know how Paul knew this; perhaps he had heard it from Onesimus, who had visited him in prison in Rome. Alternatively, as they had been together for at least 15 years, he knew Timothy’s weaknesses.

Timothy was in his mid-30s at this point. Paul was 30 years older.

Paul tells his protégé to flee youthful passions and instead pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart (verse 22).

Paul and Jesus were able to pack a lot into one sentence. Rereading that verse shows how much there is to analyse.

Matthew Henry’s commentary devotes a full paragraph to it (emphases mine):

Though he was a holy good man, very much mortified to the world, yet Paul thought it necessary to caution him against youthful lusts: “Flee them, take all possible care and pains to keep thyself pure from them.” The lusts of the flesh are youthful lusts, which young people must carefully watch against, and the best must not be secure. He prescribes an excellent remedy against youthful lusts: Follow righteousness, faith, charity peace, etc. Observe, 1. Youthful lusts are very dangerous, for which reason even hopeful young people should be warned of them, for they war against the soul, 1 Pet 2 11. 2. The exciting of our graces will be the extinguishing of our corruptions; the more we follow that which is good the faster and the further we shall flee from that which is evil. Righteousness, and faith, and love, will be excellent antidotes against youthful lusts. Holy love will cure impure lust.— Follow peace with those that call on the Lord. The keeping up of the communion of saints will take us off from all fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness. See the character of Christians: they are such as call on the Lord Jesus Christ, out of a pure heart. Observe, Christ is to be prayed to. It is the character of all Christians that they call upon him; but our prayers to God and Christ are not acceptable nor successful except they come out of a pure heart.

John MacArthur has much more:

Now, the command here, in verse 22, is really one command with two sides: shun youthful passion, that’s the negative side; aim at righteousness, that’s the positive side. Let’s look at it a little more closely. Now, the word now is there, which transitions us into these things which are going to make us a noble, useful, honorable vessel.

First verb, flee. That’s an imperative. It’s the Greek verb pheuge in the imperative mode. It’s the word from which we get fugitive. Be a fugitive – be on the run, keep on continuously fleeing from youthful lusts. The word lust or desire – epithymia is used many, many places in the Scripture. It’s a general term; it can be and is sometimes used for a good desire. The intent of the desire is dictated by the context, and here, the fact that he says, “flee from this unto righteousness,” puts it in contrast with that which is right, so he’s talking about an evil desire, or a desire for evil things.

And this is typical of young people. It’s not that old people don’t have evil desire; it’s just that young people have evil desire of a certain kind, and Timothy was young, and he was identifying with Timothy. Timothy was somewhere between 36 and 42 years of age at this time, probably on the younger end. He was 30 years younger than the apostle Paul, had a long way to go in the maturing process. And Timothy is told here to “flee from youthful lusts.” Now, we might think of that purely in the sexual area, but it’s not just that.

It can also include an inordinate craving for money; a tremendous, compelling desire for power, which leads to jealousy, envy, fighting; an argumentative spirit, a quarreling spirit, self-assertiveness, self-promotion, ambition, pride. All those things that are part of the virility of youth, as it moves toward finding itself and identifying its place in the sun. And he says, “You’ve got to run from it – all of it.” Running from youthful passion may be a physical thing sometimes, like in Genesis 39:12, when Joseph ran from the hands of Potiphar’s wife, and literally physically fled.

But it’s not really that which the writer has in mind here. In 1 Peter, chapter 2 and verse 11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” He’s talking about running from the things that war in your soul. Sometimes the running can be physical, but mostly, the running is spiritual, mental. Now, I want to say at this point that I believe this deals with an issue in Timothy’s life. I alluded to it earlier, and I just point it up again: I think Timothy was in a very precarious position personally.

I don’t think he had sinned some gross kind of sin, or he would have been disqualified and replaced by Paul, who had already shown that he had replaced men who were unqualified. So, I don’t want to conclude that Timothy was at this point living in sin. I just think he was in a time of great weakness. As we saw from the first epistle, he was timid by nature. We also saw that he was a bit ashamed of being identified with the apostle Paul, because of the price you had to pay to be identified with him.

He also seemed to be a bit chagrined about being identified with the Lord, who was mocked so frequently in his society. He was concerned about being persecuted. He was concerned about being young, and some were no doubt condemning him for his youth, because he was trying to step in and set in order a church that no doubt had older men. And, in the midst of all this intimidation, Timothy was battling with his own desires, as any individual Christian does – his own wrong desires, wrong ambitions.

The tendency was to be quarreling, and argumentative, and fighting, and striving, rather than to be godly and virtuous. He was battling in his own life, his own integrity and credibility spiritually, as well as the issues of the ministry in which he had been thrust. And I think he was in a time of great weakness, a time, in chapter 1 of the first epistle, where Paul has to say to him, “Stay away from all these errors and all these false things. Hold on to what you know to be true.” And he reiterates that to him again, in the first chapter of the second epistle.

In other words, “Don’t jettison your doctrine.” But he was in a very precarious situation, struggling greatly; and so, he says to him, “Look, Timothy: run continuously and run fast from youthful lusts.” And the flip side of that, “Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace.” You can’t run from unless you run to – is that not so? You can’t run no place. When you left here, you went somewhere. And when you ran from, you ran to, and you run from youthful lust to these virtues.

MacArthur elaborates on the positive in Paul’s advice:

How do you do that? May I share with you what I believe to be the key? It’s found in one lovely statement, in Psalm 119, verse 9? “How can a young man keep his way pure?” How can he? How can he flee youthful lusts? “By keeping it according to Thy Word.” How do you keep your way pure? By regulating it according to the Word of God. Nothing mystical about that. That’s submitting to God’s Word. That’s “overcoming evil with good,” as Paul says in Romans 12:21. The positive pursuit of what is right, the positive commitment to the Word of God, is what keeps the way pure.

And so, we run from sin toward virtue, and you do that by knowing the Word, and by ordering your way according to the Word – Psalm 119:9. Now, as you move along, what are you pursuing? Let’s look, four things. First of all, you are – present imperative – keep on continually following after, number one, righteousness. I know that word is a theological word, but it’s so simple; I need only to say, it means doing what’s right; doing right. By whose standards? God’s. Living in harmony with God’s law, living in harmony with God’s Word, living in obedience to God’s Word.

Just what Psalm 119:9 said: by ordering your way according to His Word, constantly pursuing what is right in God’s eyes, as He’s revealed it in His Word. You can’t just stand around and run from evil, unless you know where you’re going, and where you’re going is toward that which is right, as revealed in God’s Word. Set it in your mind, beloved, to pursue what is right; to pursue what is right; righteousness. Secondly – and we could say a lot more about righteousness, but for the sake of the grasp of the text, we go on to the second one – faith.

It’s translated faith; a better way to understand it would be to translate it faithfulness. He’s not so much talking about faith as the essence of believing, as he’s talking about faithfulness: loyalty and trustworthiness. Pursue, if you will, integrity, consistency, loyalty to the Word of God, faithfulness to God Himself. What a lovely word is faithfulness. Run after doing what is right, run after being loyal to God, loyal to His Word, loyal to His church. Be a faithful, trustworthy person.

The third word is love – agapēn. There are several words in the Greek that refer to love, but this one is the noblest of all, because it is the love of choice. It is the love of the will, not the love of the emotion, not the love of affection in a family, not the love even of the impulse and the desires that we know as sexual love. It’s not that. It’s not that love which is compelled by sexual feelings. It’s not that love which is compelled by emotions. It’s not that love which is compelled by attraction. It’s not that love which is compelled by family affection.

It is that love which is authored in the mind. It is the will to love. It is the love of choice, the noblest of all love, because it loves whether there is feeling or not. It loves whether there is emotion or not. It loves because it is right to love. It loves because it loves like God loves, who loved those who were His enemies, and who loved those who were unlovely. Who loved those who were unlovable, because it was His nature to love. It’s the love of choice, and the love of choice that results in sacrificial, selfless service, and self-giving on behalf of all those in need.

We are to pursue that. We are to pursue doing right. We are to pursue being faithful, loyal, trustworthy people. We are to pursue love, so that we are known as those who love God and love men. And our love is not conditioned by any human impulse, but our love is built on a will to love, a will controlled by God. And, then, peace – the beautiful word eirēnē, from which we get the lovely name Irene – undisturbed harmony, tranquility. He’s saying, “Timothy, you’re in the midst of a volatile situation.”

Get this picture. The leaders at the church at Ephesus who, having had the best teaching – Paul himself having been their pastor for a number of years and poured his life into them, taught them the whole counsel of God; they were used of God to found the other churches of Asia Minor – tremendous, tremendous church. That church at Ephesus, with all of that potential, had fallen down so tragically. Its leaders were corrupt – Paul himself removed two of them, and others had to be removed by Timothy.

When Paul gives the standards for an elder, in chapter 3 of 1 Timothy, it’s polemic. In other words, he says, “Use these against the men that are in leadership there, and get them out and the right ones in.” He had a tremendous job to do. He was confronting ungodly leadership. He was confronting ungodly living. That’s why the word eusebeia – or godliness – is used so frequently in these epistles. And in that conflict of bringing righteousness into unrighteousness, and holiness against unholiness, and godliness against ungodliness, he is reminded that he is to pursue that with an attitude that makes peace, that brings tranquility, that generates harmony.

MacArthur says much the same as Henry about the mark of a true Christian is calling on the Lord:

And then, he adds this, “With those who call on the Lord.” Now, let me just take that phrase. “With those who call on the Lord.” What does it mean to call on the Lord? That’s another way of expressing salvation. That’s the definition of a Christian. We are those who call on the Lord. We call on the Lord for grace. We call on the Lord for mercy.

We call on the Lord for forgiveness. We call on the Lord for pardon. We call on the Lord for power, and strength, and wisdom. We call on the Lord for our needs to be met. We call on the Lord for the hope of heaven. We call on the Lord for life after death, for strength in trials. We are those who call on the Lord. In fact, back in Romans, salvation is so defined, as calling on the name of the Lord. Romans, chapter 10: “There is no distinction between Jew and Greek” – verse 12 – “the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for” – verse 13 says – “‘whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Verse 14 – “How then shall they call upon Him on whom they have not believed?” and so forth. So, calling upon the name of the Lord is the equivalent of placing saving faith in Him. We, then, are those who call on the Lord. So, he is saying, “Look, along with everybody else who calls on the Lord, you need to pursue these things; and particularly you, since you set the standard – you set the pattern.”

MacArthur then discusses ‘a pure heart’:

A Christian is somebody who calls on the name of the Lord. But not everybody who calls on the name of the Lord, not everybody who is a believer, is doing so from a pure heart.

Christians can sin and become defiled. And what he is saying is, again, reminiscent of the first point: make sure that you’re doing this pursuing, along with those who name His name and have a pure heart. That pure heart has to do with sincerity, genuineness, godliness. Clean hearts pursue righteousness. Clean hearts pursue loyalty. Clean hearts pursue love. Clean hearts pursue harmony. “Those are the ones,” he says, “for you to associate with.” You want to be an honorable vessel? Is your sole desire to be used of God to build His Kingdom? Do you want to be one who is useful, zealous?

Then there are some things that have to happen. You must maintain a pure fellowship, and you must maintain a clean heart. You must pursue what is right, and run from what is wrong. You see, your usefulness to God has much more to do with who you are than what you know. It has everything to do with your purity, your holiness, your virtue.

… In the moment of quietness, you look in your own heart, and ask the question, do I want to be an honorable vessel, a useful tool? And if the question doesn’t even interest you, God help you. If the answer is yes, God bless you. If it’s yes, then you know what the first two steps are, and they’re comprehensive enough to make the whole difference. Make a commitment to be a part of a pure fellowship, even if that means I have to say to some of my friends, “I know you’re Christians, but your influence is not good in my life,” and bring upon them the shame that should be brought.

And secondly, say, “I want to have a clean heart” – that is to say, “I want to pursue with all my might in the power of God doing what is right, being loyal to God, loving God and others, and everywhere I go, creating peace and harmony.” Are you a peacemaker? A lover of God? Loyal and trustworthy? Committed to doing what’s right at all costs? If you are, you’re going to be an honorable vessel. Take a moment to just talk to the Lord, and let His Spirit speak with you.

Paul advises Timothy to have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies because they breed quarrels (verse 23).

In Greek society, debating was considered important, but Paul did not debate the Word. He proclaimed it.

Henry explains why Paul did not engage in debates, ‘ignorant controversies’:

Those who advanced them, and doted upon them, thought themselves wise and learned; but Paul calls them foolish and unlearned. The mischief of these is that they gender strifes, that they breed debates and quarrels among Christians and ministers. It is very remarkable how often, and with what seriousness, the apostle cautions Timothy against disputes in religion, which surely was not without some such design as this, to show that religion consists more in believing and practising what God requires than in subtle disputes.

MacArthur says that Timothy must have been falling into the trap of debates and the quarrels they engender. Two millennia on and things have not changed:

Pursue some things, he says in verse 22 – “righteousness, faithfulness, love and peace” – but refuse some other things – “refuse foolish and ignorant speculations.” The word refuse means that; avoid, reject, having nothing to do with. And this is not a new message. He has been giving this message to Timothy all through 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. And it lets me know that Timothy was really, really in a dangerous point in his life.

The fact that the apostle repeats this issue about staying away from false teaching so many times, indicates that Timothy must have been flirting with that. That the temptation was to get involved in listening to the philosophers and religionists of the day, and get your mind all filled with all of that unbiblical, anti-biblical stuff. And he’s saying to him, “Keep your mind pure. Stay away from that stuff. Guard your mind. Have a discerning mind.”

I see so many people who start out affirming the Word of God, expose themselves to the garbage, and the trash, and the lies, and the speculations, of so-called theologians, who, in the name of academia, attack the Word of God. And as a result of all of that, it undermines their confidence, undermines the strength of their faith, undermines their convictions, creates all kinds of doubts. The tragedy of over-exposure to the kind of thing that robs conviction, and produces nothing but fights, and arguments, and quarrels; the mind is to be guarded.

There is no premium ever in the Bible placed on letting your mind be occupied with error. You must have a discerning mind. Your mind is a treasure house, not a dump. Now, if you go back into 1 and 2 Timothy, and just sort of – let me just pick out everything he has told Timothy to avoid.

The list is very long, because he’s given this same kind of instruction repeatedly. Going all the way back to the first chapter of 1 Timothy, and just hopping through as far as we’ve gone, specifically, Paul has told Timothy and the rest of us to avoid strange doctrines, myths, endless genealogies, fruitless discussions on biblical assertions, worldly fables fit only for old women, different doctrine not agreeing with sound words and doctrine conforming to godliness, controversial questions, disputes about words, worldly and empty chatter, opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, battles over words, useless talk which spreads like gangrene.

And now he adds foolish and ignorant speculations. The word speculations – zētēsis – means disputings, debates, questionings, and arguments. The word foolish is the word mōros, from which we get moron; dull, stupid, sluggish, is its intent. The word ignorant – apaideutos – means untrained, uninstructed, undisciplined, uneducated; senseless. Stay away from moronic, senseless arguments, debates that attack the veracity of Scripture. In Titus, he will say the same thing …

Arguments with fools are foolish. Proverbs 18 says it so well; it’s just so direct. Proverbs 18:2: “A fool does not delight in understanding, but only revealing his own mind.” Boy, is that true. A fool does not want understanding, he just wants to shoot off his own mind. And verse 6: “A fool’s lips bring strife, and his mouth calls for blows.” You don’t want to waste your time with a fool. Now, I’m not disagreeing with what Peter said, in 1 Peter 3:15, when he said to be ready to give to any man who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.

If a man comes to ask you, give him a reason for the hope that is in you. But if a man comes to debate you, after one and two admonitions against that man’s heresy, don’t waste your time. We’re not called to debate; we’re called to proclaim. We’re not called to expose our minds to the lies of Satan; we’re called to keep our minds set on the things of God. False teachers pursue debate. Those who are true servants of the Lord pursue harmony and peace. So, keep your mind from such things. Guard your thoughts. Have a discerning mind.

Be expert in God’s Word. Master God’s revelation. Proclaim it, don’t debate it, and don’t expose yourself to the lies. It’s so sad to see how many people, who start out in the Word of God, and become influenced by all the anti-biblical stuff that they hear from the philosophies of men – religious liberalism, and all the rest – literally lose their conviction. They have doubts in their minds. Tragic. Stay away from it. The Bible could not be more clear.

Paul says that the Lord’s servant — bondservant, in some translations — must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach and patiently endure evil (verse 24).

This was our Lord’s example on earth. The only time He was violent was when he overturned the moneychangers’ tables at the temple, which He did twice: once at the beginning of His ministry and the second time at the end, just days before He died on the cross. That was because those people were defiling His Father’s house.

MacArthur continues with his list of pleasing Christian attributes:

You want to be an honorable vessel? Maintain a discerning mind; keep that mind pure, along with your clean heart, and your pure fellowship. Fourthly, there is another factor here that he brings up, and that is a gentle manner; a gentle manner. This certainly follows right along. Verse 24: “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged; patient when wronged.”

Notice, please, the Lord’s bond-servant – doulos. As I mentioned to you last time, that is a technical term used here with reference to someone in Timothy’s position; a leader, a pastor, an elder, an overseer in the church. And this little statement, “must not be quarrelsome but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,” is really a list of qualifications for one who is a pastor. It’s very much like the qualifications in 1 Timothy, chapter 3. In fact, it’s almost identical. First Timothy, chapter 3, and verse 3: “Not pugnacious but gentle, uncontentious” …

Yes, we must fight against principalities and powers, the rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies, as Ephesians 6 says. Yes, we must fight the forces of hell, with the spiritual weapons mentioned in 2 Corinthians 10:1 to 4. But not quarreling with opponents. There is to be a gentleness in our manner. We fight for the truth. We fight against Satan and his forces. But we do so with a gentle manner, speaking boldly the truth, but kind to all – I love that – “be kind to all,” he says. And that’s what it means, to all.

There’s a gentleness in demeanor. There’s a softness in authority. Paul says, to the Thessalonians, “We were like a nursing mother among you.” Nothing more tender in the world than that. Never harsh, never abusive, never overbearing, never unkind, never ungracious, easy to approach, easy to speak to, easy to please, very sensitive. That’s to be the demeanor of the true bond-servant of Christ – a gentle manner, gracious spirit, being kind to all, treating people with kindness – so simple. Then he says, “Able to teach.”

What does he mean here? It’s didaktikos; it’s only used one other time, and that’s in chapter 3 of 1 Timothy, where, again, it has reference to the pastor or elder or overseer. It says he is to be able to teach, at the end of verse 2, 1 Timothy 3. It means skilled in teaching. But notice this: the implication here is not so much how good he is at collecting the data, or how good he is at organizing the data, but how good he is at communicating it. It has to do with the skill with which he communicates.

And here, the idea has reference to his kindness, gentleness, graciousness. He is not abusive, he is not overbearing, he’s not dominating, he’s not ungracious, unkind. The one who would truly teach the church of Jesus Christ must have kindness and tenderness, and must be skilled at communicating truth in a gracious, gentle way. You say, “Man, if you do that, you’re going to get stepped on.” That’s why he adds the last point: “Patient when wronged; patient when wronged.” That’s one word in the Greek: forbearing.

It means ready to put up with evil, literally; ready to endure mistreatment, without retaliating. It’s almost like he expected that, isn’t it? And he did expect it. I understand why he expected it. It happens; it happens all the time. Here is a faithful bond-servant of the Lord, who doesn’t want to engage in fights, who doesn’t want to engage in debates, who’s not argumentative in spirit, but gentle. He is kind to all. He is skilled at graciously instructing, and, believe me, he’ll be wronged, he’ll be offended.

He’ll be – as the text of 1 Peter uses it – reviled. He’ll be persecuted. But he is to be patient, he is to be ready to put up with evil, he is never to retaliate, he is never to become bitter. That’s so basic. And the model, as I said, in 1 Peter, chapter 2, is our Lord Himself, who, “when He was reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” – just committed Himself to the Lord. That’s been so helpful to me.

A good servant of the Lord, Paul says, corrects his opponents with gentleness, because God might grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (verse 25).

Henry says that repentance is God’s prerogative, not ours:

Observe, (1.) Repentance is God’s gift. (2.) It is a gift with a peradventure in the case of those who oppose themselves; and therefore, though we are not to despair of the grace of God, yet we must take heed of presuming upon it. To the acknowledging of the truth. (3.) The same God who gives us the discovery of the truth does by his grace bring us to the acknowledging of it, otherwise our hearts would continue in rebellion against it, for we are to confess with our mouths as well as to believe with our hearts, Rom 10 9, 10. And thus sinners recover themselves out of the snare of the devil …

MacArthur comes to the fifth point in his list:

So, a vessel unto honor is marked; marked by a pure fellowship, clean heart, discerning mind, a gentle manner. These are things which, in my own heart, I pursue. I haven’t arrived at all of them at all times, but these are the goals which you must pursue, if you want to be the Lord’s servant, useful for every good purpose. Fifthly, a humble spirit – and this ties right in, and I just kind of pull this out of the first two words of verse 25 – “with gentleness; with gentleness.”

It’s the word prautēs, and it really would have been perhaps better to translate it humility, or meekness. It’s really the word for meekness. It’s talking about a meek spirit or a humble spirit. It’s certainly a sister to gentleness – “with gentleness” – with meekness. The word means mild, gentle, soft, meek, humble. And there is to be a humble spirit. A humble spirit basically says, “I’m not the issue.” Can you get that thought? A humble spirit basically says, “I’m not the issue; you can attack me, you can do whatever you want to me; I’m not the issue.

“So, I’m not going to defend myself, and I’m not going to take out vengeance on my own behalf.” That’s not humility. Humility acknowledges unworthiness. Humility acknowledges sinfulness. Humility acknowledges that I have no defense for myself, because if the truth were known, I’m unworthy, utterly. But humility, at the same time – prautēs, meekness – is not cowardice; it’s not impotence. For example, the Greeks’ use of the word prautēs is interesting. They used it to speak of a colt that had been broken.

It was power under control; as opposed to an unbroken colt, power out of control. Power under control. The meek person is a powerful person; a person with convictions, a person with strength, a person with direction and goals in life, a person who longs to serve God with all his heart. But he is a person whose power and resources are under control, and they are not spent for his own defense. It doesn’t mean he’s wishy-washy, or flabby, or cowardly, or lacks conviction. It simply means he doesn’t use his energies to defend himself.

… It defends God, it doesn’t defend self.

MacArthur discusses correction:

The opponents of the truth are always spouting useless speculations, always showing off their ignorance. And they get some people caught up in what they’re saying, either in theological error, or wicked sinful talk. So, Paul tells Timothy to be humble, but be confrontive, be humble, but be instructive. In a corrective way, you go after the uninstructed, uneducated, untaught in truth.

Be gracious, be gentle, be loving, be kind, but speak what has to be spoken. The word correcting – paideuō – is a word from which the noun form paideia comes, which means child. It’s like taking a child, and correcting them. It’s a major part of the ministry. I wish it weren’t so, but it is. And anybody in the ministry of Christ who doesn’t think you do a lot of time correcting is wrong. The motive for that correction is the issue here, and I want you to see it.

You have to be correcting people. That’s part of discipline, going to those that sin and calling them away from their sinfulness. It’s required that we do that. So, he says, “Correcting those who are in opposition” – and that doesn’t mean in personal opposition to you over some non-issue, over some personality thing – but those who oppose the truth, who oppose the Word of God, who oppose what is right and righteous.

The hope is that God grants those in opposition the gift of repentance that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will (verse 26).

Henry says:

When sinners repent, those who before were led captive by the devil at his will come to be led into the glorious liberty of the children of God, and have their wills melted into the will of the Lord Jesus. The good Lord recover us all out of the snare.

All of us are potential prey for the devil. I know of several theology majors who ended up as atheists because of their professors’ false teaching, which no doubt involved endless controversies. Atheists love this sort of thing. As Paul says in 1 Timothy, they are human agents of the evil one.

MacArthur explains:

The compassionate heart wants to teach skillfully and bring people to repentance, so that they can come to the knowledge of the truth and be delivered – verse 26 – from the devil. Would you notice verse 26?

“And they” – they referring to those who by God’s grace are given repentance – “may come to their senses” – not to salvation; this is believers – “may come to their senses” – ananēphō – may return from their drunkenness. It’s like they were here; they went into a stupor; I want them to come back – return from their drunkenness. By the way, it’s only used in that verse; the only time in the New Testament. They’re in a stupor, they’re in a state of drunkenness, they’re senseless.

The deceit of false teaching, the deceit of sin, and bitterness, and whatever is going on in their life, has numbed their conscience, confused their mind, paralyzed their will. And he says, “I want them to come out of that stupor.” Why? “Because they are in it by virtue of the trap of the devil.” They’ve fallen prey to Satan. You say, “You mean a Christian could be caught in the snare of the devil?” You better believe it. First Timothy 3:7 says even an elder could, an overseer.

It says, “When you’re choosing men to be pastors and overseers, make sure that they have a good reputation with those outside the church, so they don’t fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” Yes, the warning there is that even an elder could fall into the snare of the devil. And I see right here believers who have listened to vain speculations, who have gotten involved in useless words, and arguments, and debates, and have bought in to the lies of Satan, have fallen into his trap, have gone into a spiritual stupor.

And they need to get out of it, because, he says at the end of verse 26, “They are held captive by him to do his will.” They are literally in a captive state, captive to Satan. Christians – imagine that – becoming captive to Satan, becoming the pawns to do Satan’s duty in the church, because of their sin. But he’s not vengeful, he’s compassionate. The compassionate heart calls the ignorant to truth, those who are in a stupor to sense, those in slavery to freedom. So, you’re correcting, all the time, those who oppose the truth, those who oppose righteousness …

“And coming to their senses, be removed from the one to whose will they have been held captive for so long. Free them from that bondage.” That’s the kind of attitude. “Free them, Lord, from that bondage.” That’s compassion. Do you want to be a useful vessel? A pure fellowship, a clean heart, a discerning mind, a gentle manner, a humble spirit, and a compassionate attitude, create a useful, noble vessel. I hope it’s your prayer that you can be that vessel, fit for the master’s use.

Having finished this section of advice, Paul has a sombre message for Timothy about godlessness. More on that next week.

Next time — 2 Timothy 3:1-5