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THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY
Introduction
This is the last Epistle the Apostle Paul wrote. He was once more
imprisoned in Rome, and shortly before his martyrdom he wrote this second
letter to Timothy. His movements between his first and second imprisonment
may be traced as follows: After having written his first Epistle to Timothy
he returned to Ephesus, as he intended, by way of Troas. Then he left the
books he mentions (4:13) with Carpus. From Ephesus he went to Crete, and
after his return wrote the Epistle to Titus. Next he went by Miletus to
Corinth (4:20), and from there to Nicopolis (Titus 3:12) and then on to
Rome. If he visited Spain, as tradition claims, it must have been
immediately after his release.
Timothy was evidently still in Ephesus, obedient to the charge of the
Apostle delivered to him in the first Epistle. That Timothy must have been
in Ephesus when he received this second letter may be learned from the
persons mentioned in this Epistle. Onesiphorus is mentioned in chapter 1:
16-18 as having sought out the apostle in Rome, and also having ministered
to him at Ephesus. In chapter 4:19 Paul sends greetings to the household of
Onesiphorus, and they lived in Ephesus. Priscilla and Aquila are also
saluted, and they lived generally in that city. Hymenaeus is stigmatized as
a teacher of false doctrine (2:17). There can be no doubt that he is the
same person mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:20. And so is Alexander the
coppersmith another evil teacher whose residence was also in that city.
The Object of the Epistle
The Apostle knew that the martyr's death was soon to be his lot. He
has a great and deep desire to see his beloved Timothy once more. He
therefore wrote him to that effect, "greatly desiring to see thee, being
mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy" (1:4). "Do thy
diligence and come before winter" (4:9, 11, 21). Being uncertain how it
might be with himself, whether he should live or be offered up before his
arrival, he wrote this letter with his final warnings, exhortations and
instructions.
The Contrast
There is a marked difference between this second Epistle and the
first. In the first Epistle the house of God, the Church, is seen in order,
and the fullest instructions are given how this order in all godliness is
to be maintained. The house as such is no longer mentioned in the second
Epistle, though we read of "a great house" in which are vessels to honor
and some to dishonor; the believer is urged to purge himself from the
vessels of dishonor. The professing church is foreshadowed as becoming now
a great house; as the little mustard seed became a big tree, sheltering in
its branches the fowls under heaven. And this great house no longer
manifests the order as laid down in the first Epistle. It has become
dilapidated and is in disorder. What has happened in the history of the
Church is foreseen in this Epistle, in fact the beginning of it was even
then noticeable when Paul wrote this last Epistle. Paul had to see before
his departure the beginning of the ruin of that which as a master workman
he had been used to build, and over which he watched so faithfully. He had
labored more than all the other apostles, and now he had to be a witness of
the decline of that which he had loved so much; departure from the faith he
had preached, and with it corruption set in. The power of God had been at
work and he was the channel of that power, but man fails in it.
Because the professing church, the house of God, is anticipated in its
failure and disorder, not a word is said of elders and deacons. Nor is
there a promise made, nor instruction given, about a recovery from these
conditions. They continue to the end of the age. It is true revivals,
partial recoveries there have been, but only to show that man fails again
after each renewed action of the Holy Spirit. It goes from bad to worse in
the professing church, till the hour strikes when the Lord takes His
faithful remnant, the true Church, out of the great house (1 Thess.
4:13-18). What happens then to the great Babylon-house is written in
Revelation 18:2. The house completely abandoned by the restraining Spirit
becomes "the habitation of demons and the hold of every foul spirit, and a
cage of every unclean and hateful bird."
Paul before his departure is alone. It is a mournful record--"all they
in Asia are turned away from me"; "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this
present age"; "only Luke is with me." It also foreshadows the position of
the individual believer in the midst of disorder and confusion. The sure
foundation of the Lord abides forever, and as we shall learn from our brief
annotations, the individual believer under these conditions is to be
faithful and maintain the true testimony for the Lord.
The Division of Second Timothy
The opening chapter contains the loving greeting of the apostle, and
exhortations to faithfulness, especially to hold fast the form of sound
words which Timothy had heard from Paul. Then follow other exhortations to
be strong, to endure hardness, to strive lawfully, to labor, to consider
and to remember. It is the conflict which the true servant has in the
world, in which he is to be as a good soldier of Jesus. This is followed by
a description of the departure from the faith, and the path the believer is
to follow. In the third chapter the last days are prominently brought into
view by the Spirit of God, and all that these days mean in the
manifestation of evil. The fourth chapter contains the final words of the
apostle; faithful to the end, and the Lord's faithfulness to him.
I. PAUL'S PERSONAL WORD TO TIMOTHY (1)
II. FAITH'S CONFLICT AND THE BELIEVER'S PATH (2)
III. THE LAST DAYS AND THEIR PERILS (3)
IV. THE LAST WORDS OF THE APOSTLE (4)
Analysis and Annotations
I. PAUL'S PERSONAL WORD To TIMOTHY
CHAPTER 1
1. Paul's affectionate words and confidence (1:1-5)
2. Difficulties and assurance (1:6-12)
3. Holding the form of sound words (1:13-14)
4. Turning away and faithfulness in contrast (1:15-18)
Verses 1-5. Paul speaks in this last Epistle as an apostle of Christ
Jesus, by the will of God "according to the promise of life which is in
Christ Jesus." It is a blessed word and shows how the prisoner in Rome,
facing now the martyr's death, had full assurance that all was well. He
knew that he was in the hands of God. The promise of life in Christ Jesus
was his portion; he possessed that life in Him who ever liveth. Again he
addressed Timothy as his beloved son (1 Tim. 1:2) with the greeting of
grace, from which all blessings flow, mercy, so constantly needed by all
His own, and peace, which his people know and enjoy, who look to Him alone
for grace and mercy. The apostle speaks of the past; he had served God, so
had his forefathers, with a pure conscience (Acts 23:1); they had been
pious, God-fearing Jews.
This also had been the case with Timothy. There was unfeigned faith in
him, which dwelt first in his grandmother, Lois, and in his mother, Eunice.
Both Lois, the grandmother, and his own mother, who had a Greek for a
husband (Acts 16:1) had trained the child Timothy in the Holy Scriptures
(the Old Testament) and he had known them from the earliest childhood
(3:15). Therefore when the gospel of Christ was presented to them this
unfeigned faith laid hold upon it at once. It was good ground which had
been prepared to receive the gospel-seed. Thus it should be in the
Christian household. The promise is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved and thy house." (Acts 16:31). Unfeigned faith will be
produced in the young by instructing them out of the Word of God, for
"faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17).
Without ceasing Paul remembered Timothy in his prayers night and day. He
remembered his tears, occasioned no doubt by the second imprisonment. How
he desired to see his beloved son to be filled with joy!
Verses 6-12. "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up
(stir up in a "flame" or "rekindle") the gift of God, which is in thee by
the laying on of my hands." God had used Paul as the instrument in
bestowing a gift upon Timothy. This gift needed rekindling. The danger of
decline, which began even then to be manifested, is evident by this
exhortation. The rekindling of a gift needs constant use of the Word of God
and fellowship with the Lord, as well as a prayerful exercise of the gift
itself. And the Spirit given of God to minister is not a spirit of fear, or
cowardice, fearing men and conditions, but a spirit of power, and of love,
and of a sound mind. Therefore he was not to be ashamed of the testimony of
our Lord, which men began to reject, nor of him, who was now the prisoner
of the Lord. It was Timothy's blessed calling and privilege to be a
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. He
was not to shrink from the reproach and difficulties which then set in, but
to endure it all, enabled by His gracious power.
The gospel may be rejected and despised, so that the enemy seemingly
is victorious, but finally the Lord and His truth will have the complete
victory. The believer knows this amidst all present difficulties and
discouragements, for God "hath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began." (This
refers to the first promise in Genesis 3:15, the promise of life, salvation
and final victory.) "Before the world began" does not mean eternity, but
the time before the dispensations, "the age-times," began. And all is now
made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath
abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel. The full accomplishment and victory comes when He who abolished
death by His death on the cross, and triumphant resurrection, comes again.
Paul was the herald of this gospel to all men, to Jews and Gentiles. It was
for this he suffered, and he was not ashamed. He knew all he passed
through, all reproach, all afflictions, would not leave him ashamed. He
knew the Lord and His power. "For I know whom I believed, and am persuaded
that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that
day."
"The apostle does not say 'in what I have believed,' but 'whom,'an
important difference, which pleases us (as to our confidence) in connection
with the person of Christ Himself The apostle had spoken of the truth, but
truth is allied to the person of Christ. He is the truth; and in Him truth
has life, has power, is linked with the love which applies it, which
maintains it in the heart and the heart by it. 'I know,' says the apostle,
'whom I have believed,' He had committed his happiness to Christ. In Him
was that life in which the apostle participated; in Him, the power that
sustained it, and that preserved in heaven the inheritance of glory which
was his portion where this life was developed" (J.N. Darby).
Verses 13-14. Next he exhorts Timothy to hold fast the form of sound
words. "Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in
faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was
committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us." This is
one of the most important exhortations of this Epistle, and of special
meaning for all believers who, in these days of departure from the truth,
contend earnestly for the faith delivered once for all unto the saints. The
expression "the form of sound words" is a strong argument for verbal
inspiration. The truth of God is conveyed in the very words of God, and
therefore the form in which the truth of God is made known is to be
maintained. It is all to be held fast in faith and love, which are in
Christ Jesus. It does not mean a certain creed constructed by man, but the
whole truth of God as revealed by Him. And whatever good thing is committed
unto the believer, in the form of a gift as a member of the body of Christ,
must be kept by the energy and power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the
believer. What we have received, the knowledge of the form of sound words
and the gift imparted, must be used. "in proportion as we do not care to
communicate to others the 'sound words' which we have received, we shall
find their power over our own souls diminish and their sweetness for us
also."
Apostasy starts with the giving up of the form of sound words. Critics
and other deniers of inspiration speak of the spiritual meaning of the
words of the Bible, and, that the Bible contains the Word of God, instead
of is the Word of God. And that is the starting point of the ever
increasing departure from the truth of God in our days, which will soon
culminate in the predicted complete apostasy.
Verses 15-18. All in Asia (the province) had heard the Gospel in years
gone by from the lips of the apostle. And now the great man of God had to
write mournfully: "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be
turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes." It would be
wrong to conclude from this that they had turned their backs completely
upon Christianity and abandoned the profession of it. Such was not the
case. Their faith had become weak and they had withdrawn from the apostle
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because he had become a despised prisoner, and
with this act they showed likewise that they were departing from the great
and blessed doctrines the Apostle had preached unto them. Perhaps some of
those in Asia had visited Rome and had repudiated Paul the prisoner. It was
an evidence of the spiritual decline which was setting in.
But there was a notable exception. Onesiphorus had also visited Rome
and had diligently sought him and found him finally. There were many
thousands of prisoners in Roman dungeons, and we may well imagine how day
after day Onesiphorus sought for his beloved brother, going from dungeon to
dungeon till he had located Paul. What a meeting that must have been! He
had ministered to Paul in Ephesus, which was well known to Timothy, and now
he was not ashamed to minister unto the prisoner of the Lord. He prays
therefore for his house and that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.
The reward for his faithfulness to Paul will be mercy, as everything else
is mercy in the believer's life.
(Strange it is that the prayer of the Apostle for the house of
Onesiphorus is used as an authority to pray for the dead. The assumption
that Onesiphorus had died is incorrect.)
II. FAITH'S CONFLICT AND THE BELIEVER'S PATH
CHAPTER 2
1. The apostle's charge (2:1-2)
2. As soldier and husbandman (2:3-7)
3. Identification with Christ (2:8-13)
4. Exhortation and warning (2:14-18)
5. The great House (2:19-22)
6. The believer's path (verses 23-26)
Verses 1-2. First we find a charge of the apostle to his spiritual son
Timothy. The blessed servant of the Lord knew that he was soon to depart,
and therefore he charges Timothy to commit the great truths concerning the
Gospel, which he had heard from the lips of the apostle in the presence of
many witnesses, to faithful men, who are able to teach others. To the
apostle it had been given to complete the Word of God (Col. 1:25). No new
revelation is promised through Timothy, but he is charged to communicate
the revealed truth to others, who would be chosen by the Lord, as His gifts
to the Church, to propagate His truth. This is the only true apostolic
succession, not through the church as an organization, nor through certain
men who claim ecclesiastical authority, but through those who hold the form
of sound words and who minister it to others in the energy of the Spirit of
God. Timothy needed for this the strength of the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. And so does every servant of Christ.
Verses 3-7. Here the qualities that Timothy ought to possess in order
to carry on the work are given by the apostle. As a good soldier of Jesus
Christ, warring a spiritual warfare, he must suffer hardships and many
privations. He must beware not to be entangled with the affairs of this
life. The soldier's calling is to please him who has called him, and all
else, comforts and self-indulgence must be sacrificed. The soldier does
this to obtain a corruptible crown, how much more then should the soldier
of Jesus Christ do this to gain an incorruptible crown!
The Christian is also a laborer, a husbandman. He must labor first in
order to enjoy fully the fruit of his labor. And that requires patience. He
urges Timothy to consider what he tells him, with the assurance that the
Lord would give him understanding in all things. These are the practical
conditions for all who are engaging in service--enduring hardship,
self-denial, unentangled, separated from the world and its ways, fighting
lawfully and laboring first to be partaker of the fruits.
Verses 8-13. In connection with this he was to remember "that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David was raised from among the dead" according to
the gospel, which he calls "my gospel"--"wherein I suffer as an evildoer,
even unto bonds; but the Word of God is not bound." Christ suffered, and
though He is of the seed of David and has the promises of David's throne,
yet it is not yet His; He waits patiently for it upon the Father's throne.
In the meantime He, raised from among the dead (the seal upon His blessed
work), has given His gospel of grace and glory to be preached. And
suffering is connected with this (Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24).
"The afflictions found in the path of service in the gospel assume
here a high and peculiar character in the mind of the suffering and blessed
apostle. It is participation in the sufferings of Christ, and, in the case
of Paul, to a very remarkable degree. The expressions he uses are such as
might be employed in speaking of Christ Himself as regards His love. As to
the propitiation, naturally no other could take part in that: but in
devotedness, and in suffering for love and for righteousness, we have the
privilege of suffering with Him. And here what part had the apostle with
these sufferings? 'I endure,' He says, 'all things for the elect's sake.'
This is truly what the Lord did. The apostle trod closely on His footsteps,
and with the same purpose of love--'that they might obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory,' Here of course the apostle
has to add, 'which is in Christ Jesus'; still, the language is marvellous
in the lips of any other person than the Lord Himself For it is what Christ
did."
The servant is identified with his Lord and called upon to go in the
same path. "It is a faithful saying, for if we died with Him, we shall also
live with Him." While this is true positionally of all believers, all have
died in Christ and live in Him, the meaning here is the practical
manifestation of it in self-denial and suffering with Him. If we suffer and
endure we shall also reign with Him. And if any deny Him He will also deny
them before His judgment seat (Matt. 10:33). These are solemn words little
heeded in our days of laxity and declension. "If we are unfaithful, yet He
abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself," that is, His own nature. "The
One we serve must of necessity be served according to the reality of what
He is. The Righteous One must be served in righteousness; the Holy One, in
holiness; the One who is not of the world, by those who seek no place in
the world. We cannot make Christ other than He is, and we cannot make the
world other than it is" (Numerical Bible).
Verses 14-18. These things he was to remember. And if they are
remembered they will bring deliverance from the strife about words, vain
and unessential disputations in which there is no profit, which only
subvert the hearers. It is through disputes about words, and speculations,
that Satan brings in his most subtle deceptions. The true way is to strive
diligently to show oneself approved of God, a workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, "rightly dividing the Word of truth." What a havoc has been
wrought by a wrong dividing of the Word of truth! Law and grace have been
jumbled together, Israel robbed of her promises, and the church
impoverished on account of it. The Word of God and the truth of God have
suffered most from the hands of such unskilled workmen, who, not dividing
the Word of truth rightly, have produced confusion worse confounded. The
sad division of Christendom, a carnally minded, professing church, is the
fruit of it, and much else. The whole truth of God has been obscured, and
unbelief fostered by it. To insist upon "rightly dividing the Word of
truth" and to practice it both in teaching and living is a most essential
requirement of the true workman.
Profane and vain babblings are to be avoided, for they only produce
ungodliness. Hymenaeus and Philetus, who held that the resurrection had
taken place already and thereby overthrew the faith of some, were examples
of it. How true it is that error is like a gangrene, spreading vileness and
corruption everywhere.
Verses 19-22. But in the midst of the declension and perversion of the
truth of God, as it began in apostolic days, and is now more fully
developed in our own times, there is the foundation of God, which stands
firm and unmovable. Christ is the foundation of faith, and of His church.
There is a double seal. "The Lord knoweth them that are His"--this is the
divine side. This statement is given for the comfort of His own, and it is
a most precious comfort, "the Lord knoweth them that are His." But this
comforting assurance must lead us into communion with Himself. If He
knoweth us as His own, we also know Him and delight ourselves in His
fellowship. And so we also know in the days of decline and departure from
the truth, that the Lord knows and keeps those who belong to Him. But there
is also another side, "Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord
depart from iniquity." This is the solemn responsibility of every one who
nameth that blessed Name, which is above every name. This is the true
evidence that we walk in real fellowship with Him, that He knows us and we
know Him.
The great house of which Paul speaks is Christendom. It contains
vessels of gold and silver, and vessels of wood and earth, some to honor
and some to dishonor. Here we have the two classes found in the professing
church, those who are really the Lord's, known of Him, who know Him, who
walk in His fellowship and witness to it by departing from iniquity; and
the other class, which merely profess His name, who have the outward form
of godliness, but deny the power thereof; more fully described in chapter
3:1-5. If the true believer is to be a vessel fit for the Master's use he
must purge himself individually from such. This is demanded again by the
apostle when in the above passage, describing the moral character of these
vessels to dishonor, vessels of wood and earth, he writes, "from such turn
away." This is the solemn responsibility of every true believer; he is not
to be in fellowship with such, and when obedient to this call the believer
becomes a sanctified vessel, a vessel set apart, separated, and then as
such a fit vessel for the Master's use and prepared unto every good work.
The whole of that which calls itself "Christian" is looked at here as
a great house. The Christian is of it outwardly, in spite of himself, for
he calls himself a Christian, and the great house is all that calls itself
Christian. But he cleanses himself personally from every vessel which is
not to the Lord's honor. This is the rule of Christian faithfulness; and
thus personally cleansed from fellowship with evil, he shall be a vessel
unto honor fit for the Master's use. Whatsoever is contrary to the honor of
Christ, in those who bear His Name, is that from which he is to separate
himself.
By purging himself from all those who are unto dishonor, the servant
of God shall be unto honor, sanctified and prepared for every good work.
For this separation from evil is not merely negative; it is the effect of
the realization of the word of God in the heart. I then understand what the
holiness of God is, His rights over my heart, the incompatibility of His
nature with evil. I feel that I dwell in Him and He in me; that Christ must
be honored at all costs; that that which is like Him alone honors Him; that
His nature and His rights over me are the only rule of my life. That which
thus separates me unto Him, and according to what He is, separates me
thereby from evil. One cannot walk with those who dishonor Him, and, at the
same time, honor Him in one's own walk (Synopsis Of the Bible).
Verses 22-26. Exhortations follow pointing out the way the servant of
Christ is to walk and serve as a vessel unto honor, and fit for the
Master's use. He is to flee youthful lusts and follow righteousness, faith,
love and peace, in true fellowship with all who call on the Lord out of a
pure heart. His service, under the direction of the Lord, must be among
those who are destitute of the truth and who are ensnared by the devil,
though they profess to be religious. The servant of the Lord has a solemn
responsibility towards such. How he is to act in this service is given in
verses 24-26. And blessed are those servants who, walking in true
separation, reach out for the unsaved masses of professing Christendom and
labor in love in the great house.
III. THE LAST DAYS AND THEIR PERILS
CHAPTER 3
1. The characteristics of the last days (3:1-7)
2. What the last days mean for the true believer (3:8-13)
3. The need of the Word of God (3:14-17)
Verses 1-7. Little comment is needed on these words. They are a
prophecy. The apostle by the Spirit of God reveals what shall come in the
last days. It is a description of the moral qualities in the vast number of
professing Christians of the last days, "who have the form of godliness,"
that is, go "to church," profess a creed of some sect, and are outwardly
religious, "but deny the power thereof." Three times they are shown to be
lovers. "Lovers of themselves"--they live for themselves and know nothing
of self-denial, they live and walk in the flesh. "Lovers of money"--this is
what the word covetous means. Greed controls their activities so that they
can enjoy themselves and live luxuriantly and in pleasure. And therefore
"they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God."
The same class is mentioned in Phil. 3, they are the enemies of the
cross of Christ, minding earthly things. Their end is destruction. Compare
verses 1-4 with the last verses of the first chapter in Romans. There the
characteristics, morally, of heathendom are given, and here the
characteristics of the professing masses of nominal Christendom. There is
no difference between the two, only the condemnation of the profession, the
unsaved, religious element in Christendom is greater. There is no need to
point out how this prophecy given by the aged apostle has come true. We
live in the midst of these conditions, and are surrounded by them on all
sides. Evil teachers began in apostolic days to creep into houses, winding
about silently like a serpent, and captured silly women laden with sins,
led away with divers lusts. How much more true this is today.
Verses 8-13. What true believers may expect in the closing days of
this age, if they walk in separation and are faithful in their testimony,
is the theme of these verses. Jannes and Jambres were the Egyptian
sorcerers who withstood Moses. Jewish tradition gives the information that
the magicians of Ex. 7:11-22 bore these names. The Spirit of God assures us
here that this is correct. Another Jewish tradition claims that they were
the sons of Balaam. They worked by imitations. They produced by Satanic
powers certain miracles which were imitations of God's power. Such is the
case in our own days. Christian Science, Spiritism and other systems are
the sphere where Satan's power of imitation is manifested. Satan also
imitates in a still more subtle way the work of the Holy Spirit. All this
will work on till finally (after the Church has been called away) the times
are reached as prophetically described in 2 Thess. 2:3-12. And like the
folly and wickedness of Jannes and Jambres were manifest, so will these
deceivers and perverters of the truth be uncovered. This will be when the
Lord comes.
How happy in the Lord Paul must have been that he could point to
himself as an example. The grace of God had enabled him to be all he writes
to his beloved son Timothy. "But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner
of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, charity, patience, persecutions,
afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what
persecutions I endured; but out of them all the Lord delivered me." Paul
endured persecutions because he was a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus
Christ and did not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. "Yea, and all
that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." If the
believer is true to the Lord, if he lives in separation, the world, and
especially that which is called "the religious world," with its
unscriptural aims and endeavors, will not applaud him, but he will have to
bear the reproach of Christ and suffer persecution. Why do so few
Christians suffer persecutions? Because they have not purged themselves
from the vessels unto dishonor, and are consequently yoked with
unbelievers.
"But evil men and seducers (juggling impostors) shall wax worse,
deceiving, and being deceived." Things morally and religiously are
therefore not getting better in this age. There is no hope apart from the
coming of our Lord.
Verses 14-17. The inspired Scriptures of God are the need, the supreme
need of the believer in the last days. Timothy had known the sacred
Scriptures (the Old Testament) from a child, and of these Scriptures Paul
writes, "they are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith that
is in Christ Jesus." He exhorts him therefore, "Abide thou in the things
which thou hast learned, and of which thou hast been assured, knowing of
whom thou hast learned them." Then the assuring statement of the Holy
Spirit, the author of the Scriptures, that all Scripture is inspired of
God. It is well known that the revised version has dropped the "is," so
that it reads "every Scripture given by inspiration of God." We do not
accept this, for it opens the way to deny that parts of the Scriptures are
given by inspiration of God.
"We are told we have to read as, 'Every Scripture inspired of God,' as
if it distinguished such from other Scriptures side by side with them, and
therefore we had to distinguish in like manner. At once the human mind is
set in supremacy over the Scripture, and we become judges of it instead of
its judging us. But the apostle has been already pointing out the sacred
Scriptures of which he is speaking when he says 'all Scripture.' Nothing is
Scripture in the sense he uses the word except that which is in the sacred
Scriptures, and nothing that is in them is without that inspiration of God
which makes it 'profitable for doctrine, for conviction, or instruction in
righteousness'" (Numerical Bible).
How important it is to hold fast the great truth that the Bible is the
Word of God, and therefore "God-breathed." All apostasy starts with the
denial of this fact. The Scriptures are the permanent expression of the
mind and will of God. It is not merely that the truth is given in them by
inspiration, but they are inspired. They are the expression of His own
thoughts. They are our only authority. Upon the constant use of them
depends everything. Without adhering to the Scriptures and being obedient
to them, we also would be swept along by the current of apostasy. They are
the one thing profitable. Note the order: Profitable for doctrine, which we
get alone from the Word of God, and which is the foundation of everything.
Then follows "reproof" or conviction, and that is followed by correction
and instruction for righteousness. It starts with the doctrine and leads,
after conviction and correction, to righteousness. And then the man of God,
obedient to the Scriptures in all things, is perfect, thoroughly finished
unto every good work.
IV. THE LAST WORDS OF THE APOSTLE
CHAPTER 4
1. The last charge (4:1-5)
2. His last testimony (4:6-8)
3. The last personal messages (4:9-22)
Verses 1-5. This last chapter is a most impressive one. It is the
farewell of this great man of God. joy and sorrow, confidence and love
breathe in his final charge and message. "The sorrow that he might have in
his soul was only for those he was leaving, and even that is almost
swallowed up in the joyful consciousness of the thought with whom he was
leaving them." And so he delivers one more charge, and that solemnly before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is about to judge the living and the
dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom. He is as a servant to keep the
coming of the Lord, His appearing and His kingdom before his heart.
"The apostle urges this upon Timothy as what would, amid all the
difficulties of the way, be his strength and assurance. It is always
according to Scripture, 'yet, but a little while, and He that will come
shall come, and shall not tarry.' We look back and see how long it has
been, and we take this to make the distance behind us put distance into
that which is before us. The apostle's way for us would be rather that we
should say, 'The night is far spent, and the day is at hand.' We may, after
all, go to the Lord before He comes to us, but we shall not have missed the
good of having been in the meanwhile 'like unto men that wait for their
Lord.' The whole character of our Christianity will be affected by our
'holding fast,' or practically losing sight of His coming, as our constant
expectation" (Numerical Bible).
With the thought of the coming of the Lord before his soul, Timothy is
charged to preach the Word at all times. The blessed hope gives energy to
continue in the ministry of the Word. Preach the Word! The Word, all the
Word of God, the gospel and dispensational truth, is needed in the days
when sound doctrine is no longer endured. And how all has come to pass! As
the Apostle testified even so it is today. Sound doctrine no longer
endured, "after their own lusts they heap to themselves teachers, having an
itching ear." They care nothing for the message of God, but have man's
person in admiration (Jude). They admire the teacher, his great swelling
words (Jude). And the teachers and preachers are men-pleasers. And as a
result of this their ears are turned away from the truth and are turned to
fables, such as evolution, higher criticism, Christian Science and other
delusions. In the midst of all this departure from the truth of God, the
Lord still maintains His testimony through those who keep His Word and who
do not deny His Name (Rev. 3:8).
Verses 6-8. The martyr's death now looms up, and he pens the
never-to-be-forgotten words of faithfulness and assurance of the crown of
righteousness. "For I am already being offered, and the time of my
departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown
of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that
day; and not only to me, but also to all that love His appearing." Upon the
incorrect translation of the Authorized Version "I am now ready to be
offered" has been founded that strange theory that the apostle was now
ready to die, and had at last the assurance that he was worthy of being a
participant in the first resurrection. (See annotations on Philemon 3.) The
apostle from the moment he had trusted in Christ had the fullest assurance
that he belonged to Christ and was His co-heir; and so every believer knows
that he is fitted for glory, not by what he does, or what he has suffered,
but through grace alone. To teach that the Apostle Paul received his
assurance that he would share the glory of Christ in resurrection, after,
and as the result, of, his prolonged suffering, is pernicious, inasmuch as
it denies all the great revelations in his Epistles concerning the standing
of the believer in Christ. But he did not say he was ready; his words are,
"For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come."
Knowing the time of his departure, in which he would have fellowship with
His sufferings and be made conformable unto His death (Phil. 3:10), his
heart contemplated in joyful expectation the moment when he would depart to
be with Christ. In this sense he was being already offered, having his
heart set upon the early departure to be with His Lord. He had fought the
good fight, finished the course and kept the faith. He had been faithful in
all things and resisted the attacks of the enemy.
And now he looks forward to the reward. He knew that there is laid up
for him the crown of righteousness. He does not say that this crown would
be bestowed upon him immediately after he left the earthly tabernacle. He
will receive it from the righteous judge in that day, and that day has not
yet come. At the same time "all that love His appearing" will receive the
rewards. The Lord will come for His saints, as it is promised in the Word
of God, and take them to Himself, and the kingdom which follows the rewards
for faithful service will be enjoyed. To be in that glory with the Lord, in
the Father's house is the blessed destiny of all who have accepted the Lord
Jesus Christ, and who are accepted in the Beloved. No service can secure
that destiny. The grace of God puts it on our side. Faithful service will
be rewarded in the kingdom. How great the reward that awaits the Apostle
Paul in that day! May it be an incentive to all His people to labor on, to
spend and be spent.
Verses 9-22. And now the last message of the apostle. How he would
have loved to have his beloved Timothy at his side and look into his face
once more! "Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me." And once more at the
close of the letter he writes, "Do thy diligence to come before winter." It
was the cry of deepest affection of one who was deserted by others and yet
not a lonely man, for the Lord was with him. Demas, a fellow worker and
with Paul in his first imprisonment (Philemon 24; Col. 4:14), perhaps a
Thessalonian, had forsaken the prisoner of the Lord. It is a mournful
record, "having loved the present age, and is departed unto Thessalonica."
It is wrong to conclude from this that Demas ceased to be a Christian and
had renounced the name of the Lord. He, with love for the present age in
his soul, would avoid the cross and its shame, and therefore abandoned
Paul. What became of Demas? What was his after-history? The Lord alone
knows this.
And Crescens had also gone away to Galatia. We know nothing else of
him. Titus went to Dalmatia. It is supposed that Titus joined Paul at
Nicopolis (Tit. 3:12) and accompanied him to Rome, and then went to
Dalmatia to preach the gospel there. Only Luke, the beloved physician,
remained with him, and no doubt he ministered in every way to the comfort
of Paul. Then Mark is mentioned. It is the same John Mark mentioned in Acts
13:5 and 15:36-41. For a time after his failure in service Mark was
unprofitable. His restoration had taken place, accomplished by the grace of
God, and therefore the apostle desires to have him again at his side, "for
he is profitable to me for the ministry." And this John Mark became the
chosen instrument to write the gospel record which bears his name, in which
the Spirit of God describes so blessedly the Servant of all, who never
failed.
Tychicus he had sent to Ephesus. Winter approaching he feels the need
of the cloak which he had left with Carpus in Troas. We see that he paid
attention even to so small a matter, and that as to his earthly possessions
he was poor. He also wants the books, but especially the parchments. He had
opportunity as a prisoner to read and study. We do not know what these
books and parchments were.
And then the sad record of Alexander the coppersmith. He warns Timothy
against him, for he had done him much evil. It must be the same Alexander
mentioned in 1 Tim. 1:20. It may be possible that this man became incited
against Paul on account of having mentioned his name in the first Epistle,
and that he persecuted him for it. "The Lord will reward him according to
his works." This is according to God's righteousness. At the time of the
apostle's first defence no one took his part, by standing by him; all
forsook him. They left him alone and had not the courage to defend him.
Beautiful is his prayer, "that it may not be laid to their charge."
But while all men had forsaken him, one had not forsaken His faithful
servant. True to His promise, "I will not leave nor forsake thee," He had
stood with Paul and strengthened him. And when he stood before the Roman
authorities the Lord had given him another opportunity to proclaim the
Gospel he loved so well, "that through me the preaching might be fully
known, and all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the
mouth of the lion."
And then in simple confidence he counted on the help of the Lord to
the end. "And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will
preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen."
He sends his last greetings to his dearest friends and old companions,
Prisca and Aquila and to the house of Onesiphorus. Erastus had remained in
Corinth, where he was treasurer (Rom. 16:23). The Ephesian brother
Trophimus (Acts 20:4; 21:29) he had left sick in Miletus. Then the final
greetings and the last works of his inspired pen, "The Lord Jesus Christ be
with thy spirit. Grace be with you."
"It is evident that this Epistle was written when the apostle thought
his departure near at hand, and when the faith of Christians had grievously
declined, which was proved by their having forsaken the apostle. His faith
was sustained by grace. He did not hide from himself that all was going
wrong: his heart felt it--was broken by it; he saw that it would grow worse
and worse. But his own testimony stood firm; he was strong for the Lord
through grace. The strength of the Lord was with him to confess Christ, and
to exhort Timothy to so much the more diligent and devoted an exercise of
his ministry, because the days were evil.
"This is very important. If we love the Lord, if we feel what He is to
the assembly, we feel that in the latter all is in ruin. Personal courage
is not weakened, for the Lord remains ever the same, faithful, and using
His power for us: if not in the assembly which rejects it, it is in those
who stand fast that He will exercise His power according to the individual
need created by this state of things" (Synopsis of the Bible).